I sat down with one of BlueWave’s Account Executives, Joey Brodsky, to learn more about his process, the clients he works with, and his strategies for building strong relationships.
Q: Tell our readers a little bit about yourself, how you got to where you are, and where you see yourself going.
A: I grew up here in Orlando; I went to the University of Florida and graduated with a degree in Business Administration and Management. Working with high-growth technology companies has been a passion of mine since senior year of college when I got to work as a Corporate Account Executive at a high-growth company called Framebridge. They’re an e-commerce platform for custom picture framing solutions. This was my first taste of working in a start-up and working in technology. Being in this environment and culture was really motivating and exciting! I knew this was something I wanted to do long-term.
I moved back to Orlando and looked for something like that. I found an incredible opportunity with BlueWave, where I get to recruit, consult, and work with Private Equity & Venture Capital backed start-ups. I’m able to work with people who are really passionate about the companies they’re building and just need a little bit of help from us.
I want to continue to work with those types of companies, work as a consultant for scaling human capital, finding resources and helping clients fulfill those dreams and goals they’re trying to reach!
Q: How do you identify a client that you want to work with? What are you specifically looking for?
A: The ideal client for me is a cool company – a company that we can tell is motivated and excited about what they’re doing. One as passionate about what they do as we are. It’s great when companies are scaling quickly because we can come in and help them. I like working with companies that are hiring and developing teams at a rapid pace; these are the fun clients to work with and even more fun to put candidates in front of. When we can prove our process works and help them reach that next level with new hires, clients always see the return on investment!
Q: How do you maintain relationships with your clients to ensure a successful partnership?
A: It’s all a relationship game – being friends, being a consultant, being a Subject Matter Expert in what we do and genuinely providing strong value. It’s great to be friends with someone, but the true value comes from us delivering on our services and finding them the resources. We’re super hands-on and collaborative. We’re very focused on being empathetic and understanding of the actual problems that are going on within the organization and finding the right person to be the solution. This comes with a level on intimacy, learning about each other’s environments, and understanding how we’re going to be the best match.
Q: What is it about Private Equity/Venture Capital backed companies that excites you?
A: I like working with high-growth tech companies. They’re given money and tasked to grow their company. I like the nature of that business. They are proving their success to a lot of people, whether it’s their product or entrepreneurial spirit. They’re fun to work with and they’re fun people, which is what we are. It’s great working with teams that are scaling rapidly, because it gives us the motivation to be super hands-on and focus on them incredibly independently. Helping them scale is really satisfying.
Q: What do you attribute to your success to growing your top client?
A: Maintaining those relationships consistently. Constantly adding value even when they’re not hiring – it’s all about timing. These high growth companies need to make decisions at the right time. We’ve built a relationship and convinced them we can do the job when the time is right – it comes down to real fulfillment, organization, our process, and finding key people they want to bring into their company who will help them grow.
Q: What are the most common roles you’re seeing in the Private Equity/Venture Capital space?
A: We work on a lot of SaaS sales positions; people have developed really creative and valuable products, so they need channels to distribute that! We see a lot of digital marketing (especially demand generation) and customer success roles as well.
Q: What can companies expect when working with you?
A: Companies can expect a high degree of attention, organization, and a true value-add in terms of the resources we present to them. We sit down and take the time to get to know people and get to know the job from a technology, social, and cultural level. All three are super key to fitting someone into a growing company. We make sure they’re a good fit for the growth, which comes from trust building and fulfillment of needs.
Q: What advice would you share with others in the industry who are looking to become a sales leader in their organization?
A: I keep saying empathy – but I think that’s incredibly important from a number of directions. From a client side, internal side, and relationship side. Being able to understand how people are feeling and being able to present solutions for their pain-points. Be as impactful as you can with all of your conversations to set yourself apart to be successful in sales and other aspects of life.
And of course, hard work – putting in the time and effort, staying organized, on top of things, and filling in when and where you need to.
Q: Finally, how can clients reach you if they want to work with you?
A: Please reach out on LinkedIn, email me at joey@bluewaverp.com, or you can even give me a call or text @ 407-310-7475
