The power of community is in its conversation. We know that the best ideas begin amid laughter and grow into success stories through coffee-fueled days and nights among friends. With the “Tell Me a Story” series, we want to know how you got there, wherever that may be; after all, your journey could help another take their first step.
Today, we bring you a story from Joey Maller, VP of sales and alliances at UpCurve Cloud, on how to lead a winning team of Google Cloud experts in supporting cutting-edge companies.
The answer is there in Maller’s title, “alliances.” Years of sales experience and fostering friendships with forward-thinking tech leaders landed Maller a sales representative position in a tech startup in 2013.
A family friend of Maller’s started a technology consulting business in 2012. He left a high-paying position at Oracle to create a startup centered around Google’s business tools. At that time, it was Google Apps for Enterprise.
“I’ve been in sales most of my career, and he asked if I would be interested in joining. Since I was a big fan of Google, I said yes,” Maller recounted. “I started as a sales rep in 2013 selling Google Apps for business when Google Drive wasn’t even a part of the SKU yet.”
Maller has been operating as a regular Ash Williams, of Evil Dead fame, saving businesses from the Deadites of the tech industry ever since.
Google-specific certifications in sales, cloud deployment, Chrome, SMB security, and more have armed Maller with an impressive knowledge of why a transfer to Google Workspace is in the best interest of any business. However, a natural talent for identifying opportunities as they arise and a passion for technology and lifelong learning truly make him a standout leader in his field. The fact that he has perfected the art of “The Challenger Sale” and negotiating hasn’t hurt him either.
Maller’s perfection of “The Challenger Sale” and his expertise with Google Cloud Platform products proved to be the financial Boomstick one company needed to continue growing their business.
“We helped a medical company save more than $1 million per year by bringing them to Google Workspace, deploying Chromebooks, and developing a custom app to help their call center employees access data. This was an 18-month project that had many bumps, but the result was a thing of beauty.”
While Maller’s favorite project touted the virtues of the overall Google Workspace, Chromebooks, and a custom app, his favorite product is one most of us use every single day.
“Gmail. I have my Gmail set up very specific to how I like to work.”
Networking and learning from other Google Cloud Platform experts are ultimately what brought Maller to C2C.
“I want to be a part of a community that shares the same passion as I do for what we are working toward,” Maller said, “I am a sponge for [learning] how others are working within this space.”
We expect that his talent for forging alliances will be what makes him stay.
C2C is all about bringing people together. How can the community best get in touch with you?
Joey is best reached through email and on GChat.