Gabby D., Copywriter

Paint the town (Toast) orange. That’s District Manager Jordan K.’s goal. With his territory spanning from San Mateo, California to Santa Barbara, California, it’s no surprise that Jordan is staying busy, so we wanted to learn a little bit more about a day in his life. From pitching a Michelin-starred restaurant, to helping a prospect see how Toast can help them be more efficient, to preventing (metaphorical) potholes, and more, join us as we spend a Tuesday with Jordan. 

7:30 a.m.: I try to be an inbox zero guy—it’s not always easy, but I operate the best that way so I started by going through Slacks and emails from the previous day. I have seven people reporting to me on my team, and I ask that my team put all their demos on my calendar for visibility. I spend some time seeing what’s on tap for the week, and either throw on 15-30 minute syncs prior, call them to walk through objections they may encounter, or talk about their gameplan. 

8:30 a.m.: I hopped on a call with one of my reps. He has a few deals in his pipeline that we are excited about and that are on his “Most Wanted List,” so we went through some role play. There’s this concept in sales called “give-get”—so we chatted through how he’ll respond when the customer asks for something. 

9:00 a.m.: I had our Pothole Prevention meeting with the other district managers in the region and my boss, the senior regional vice president. It’s a time dedicated to helping us proactively get ahead of any potholes and run through our pipelines. This week, we dug deep into how we’re pacing through the month, what’s coming down the funnel, if we’re meeting our team and the company’s metrics, and how we’re gonna push things along the rest of the week. 

10:00 a.m.: My manager and I connected for our 1:1 where we did a deep dive into my team's business, how we are pacing, coaching, and reviewed my year-to-date numbers. Right now we have a pretty cool opportunity in the pipeline, so we mapped out next steps; triaging with our solutions engineer, how we can leverage our integration partners, and when we can—hopefully—close the deal. Just like I challenge my team ahead of demos, Will challenges me to think through how I can best position Toast to win. 

11:00 a.m.: I hopped on a demo call for a two-unit coffee shop with one of my reps. One of the phrases I use with my team is “if you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready.” The more discovery you do, the better positioned you are to win the deal. You gotta know the pain or challenge they’re facing so you can sell based on the value. 

12:30 p.m.: Around 12:30, I headed out to a prospect in San Francisco with one of my territory account executives. This prospect has multiple concepts in one location, including a restaurant, bakery, and bar. We met with the Director of Operations who walked us through the restaurant. We wanted to see it in person and talk to the team about the functionalities they’re looking for, how the space is laid out, and how things need to flow. We stopped by the kitchen to talk to the chefs too—they’re looking for a kitchen display screen for tickets, which we obviously have. 

2:00 p.m.: We grabbed a quick lunch while we were there. Sales can definitely feel like a work hard, play hard environment, but one of my favorite parts is getting to eat at our prospects’ restaurants. So much of the time, you come for a demo and your prospect is constantly bringing out dishes for you to taste. We chatted through what went well, and what could have gone smoother. Always gotta think ahead! Obviously before I left I had to pick up some pastries.

2:45 p.m.: After wrapping there, the territory account executive sent a quick email to our senior solutions engineer recapping the workflow we saw. It’s important to get the prospect on a call with the solutions engineer to walk them through our capabilities and what implementation would look like. We got that squared away for later in the week. 

3:00 p.m.: I had a quick sync with a senior territory account executive on my team. Of course, we talked through what his pipeline looks like and how to get and stay ahead of the curve as the end of the month fast approaches. One of my favorite parts of my job is learning my team’s career aspirations and coaching them to help them get there. We talked about how he can continue to grow his career at Toast, and are both excited with the progress he’s making. 

3:30 p.m.: I spent time listening to calls from the team for demos that I wasn’t able to make it to live. This helps me be a great resource for my team as they work through next steps. I’ll note what went well, and what could have gone better, and then when I meet with my team, we can role play different scenarios. Typically, I’ll play the prospect and we’ll go through how they can respond to a number of questions that a prospect could hit their way.

4:30 p.m.: I wrapped the day with a quick call with my onboarding manager to see what projects are in the backlog and how I can help the team move things towards go-live. Going live takes time and preparation.

5:30 p.m.: I always end my day with some admin. I pre-scheduled some Slack messages to my talent acquisition partner about a role we’re filling, connected with a business development rep, caught up on emails, and messaged my team a bit. My team’s book of business is my book of business, so I’m always thinking about how we can grow the business, how I can help make my team become better sales people, and how I can be better for them.