Sunshine Burkett
Pronouns: She/Her
Role/Title: M&A Sales Strategy and Enablement Leader
Office Location: Central, Dallas, TX
Home Location: Fort Worth, TX
Describe your work as a M&A Sales Strategy and Enablement Leader in one or two words: Creative challenge
What does a Technical Sales Director actually do?
Pairs with Demand and other Technical Sales Directors on sales pursuits, representing decades of experience in Product, Project and Technical delivery, to influence and shape new and exciting work for Thoughworkers.
What does your typical day look like?
Everyday for me is different but if you happen to be a fly on my wall for a day, you could be a part of…Me talking to potential new clients about challenges they have or giving a pitch to an executive team. I could be sitting at my desk working on a proposal, running numbers for teams or recording training videos. I may be up early talking to my Thoughtworks friends all over the world about offerings and solutions or products that we have delivered in the past. I may be chatting with staffing about Arch types or with market leadership about success criteria for new programs. You could possibly catch me having tea with prior team members or a happy hour with current team members, or just a good old status call as things progress through the sales cycle. Every day is completely different and every morning my calendar is in a different shape than it was when I went to bed.
What’s the most challenging part of your job?
Context switching, on average a Technical Sales Director is on 10-20 active pursuits, and most pursuits have some down time and some super active time, ideally they equal out, but that is almost never the case, so if I have to talk to four different clients in one day while working on one or two other proposals the context switching becomes overwhelming especially when clients in the same industry, have similar problems, and similar names but completely different approaches.
What’s your favorite part of your role?
Helping to close a new deal. I really enjoy the team calls we have just after the Statements of Work are signed and when I get to talk to Thoughtworkers about the new opportunity they get to join.
What makes a good Technical Sales Director?
A person with significant experience delivering custom software from either a product, delivery or technical background. Someone that is confident and willing to learn and grow, who can learn on the fly to quickly get up to speed on new things and situations. Able to read the room, navigate political waters and passionately be customer focused and commercially minded.
I love being a Technical Sales Director at Thoughtworks because…
I have an amazing team to work with, everyday is different, and I have the opportunity to make a difference.