Welcome Maria Pergolino – Girly Geek of the Week!
Meet Maria! A super polished, passionate Marketing Executive absolutely kicking ass in the Salesforce world! I met Maria during a monthly mentoring call for women thought leaders in the Salesforce ecosystem led by (the amazing!) Geraldine Gray. This call is meant to highlight all the awesome things women are doing with Salesforce so we can support each other and to suggest ideas that can help make their presence stronger. Maria is very unique – as she is a marketing executive who is also a very capable Salesforce admin. She has a passion for both, and uses this passion to educate others. #SalesforceVet #RockStar Follow her on the Success Community as well as the Partner Community!
Me: How & when did you start working with Salesforce?
Maria: I started working with Salesforce in 2006, when I became the administrator to 110 Salesforce users. I had been hired to a three person marketing team that reported in to Sales, and the leader of the team (the SVP of Sales) purchased Salesforce. Since I had worked with software before, they asked me to do admin training, and the rest is history. The next year I was speaking for Salesforce at one of their customer events, and soon after became heavily involved with the Philadelphia Salesforce user group. #PHL We must talk about the Philly area since that is where I am from – well technically DE but DE is basically a suburb of Philly and South Jersey! 😀
Me: What is your current role working with Salesforce?
Maria: In 2009 I switched sides and went from being a Salesforce user and administrator to a marketer working for a Salesforce partner (Marketo). Fast forward to 2015, I now work for another Salesforce partner, Apttus, which is built entirely on the Salesforce platform. Even though my career has evolved, and I am now in a leadership position, I still stay up-to-date on all things Salesforce. What’s unique, is that my view is from the marketing side. This doesn’t mean I only stick to the Marketing Cloud. Marketing is doing really cool things throughout our entire Salesforce instance to align with Sales, Services and Support, as well as tricking out our system to automate our marketing programs. Yesss! Love a tricked out instance of Salesforce lol!
Me: What is your favorite thing to do in Salesforce and why?
Maria: I love to find unique ways to automate marketing process using the platform.
Marketing is involved in optimization of the entire revenue process. This includes making sure Salesforce can track and report on everything we do. Our process for lead and deal flow is below and works really well for us.
We also have a pretty cool marketing stack that is all integrated into our marketing automation system (Marketo) and Salesforce. We use Salesforce partners like Everstring, InsideSales, Influitive, LeandData, BoulderLogic, and Gainsight (all of which integrate with or are built on the Salesforce platform).
Amazing!! I wish I worked in an instance with all those cool Apps!! So much fun! Looking at this is like looking at a mini Dreamforce Expo floor lol
Me: Are you currently certified? And if so what certifications do you hold?
Maria: I am a certified admin. I was one of the first 500 certified and still have kept this current. Staying up-to-date on Salesforce by having to take the recertification exams has helped me tremendously in my work. WOW! congrats on being in the #First500!!!
Me: What are some of your aspirations and/or goals when it comes to Salesforce?
Maria: I am excited about the new certifications for the Marketing Cloud, and plan to get one of these new certs in 2015. I’ve recently started a group in community to list tips for Marketing Cloud Certification – join me here.
I am pretty active in the Salesforce and Partner community, and our local user groups, but need to get my blog back up and running. In the meantime, I’ve been posting on Apttus’ blog.
Kind of fun, I manage the group in community that highlights all the parties happening at Dreamforce. Check it out here – Dreamforce Parties! Check this out ASAP before the party lists get full! This is the single BEST party list to manage the parties you sign up for at Dreamforce! #Legit
Me: Do you have any advice for women working with Salesforce?
Maria: This may sound harsh, but at the end of the day the reason we all go to work is for compensation. Work is awesome because it’s the only thing in our lives that we do that we get paid for (no one pays me for going grocery shopping 🙂 ), but we need to make sure that we are getting the most for what we are doing. Understand what you’re value is, not just using stats from different websites, but from talking to other employers and interviewing a few times a year (even if you’re not looking to move jobs)! And, if your employer is not trying to move you’re pay in the right direction, go find some place that will. #Truth! Seriously, just do it! I speak from this experience as well.
Me: What kinds of things are you involved in, and/or do you like to do outside of the Salesforce world?
Maria: I love marketing, and spend way to many hours a week working, but I really try to limit my working hours on the weekend. My boyfriend (Hi, Ryan!) and I love exploring the west coast since we’ve only been here since moving for Marketo. We love wine, and have started a really amazing wine collection. I love the West Coast ❤ !! and wine too 🙂
Me: Are you part of a Girly Geeks Chapter?
Maria: I am, as well as a number of other groups that help support women both inside and outside of the Salesforce community.
It was a pleasure getting to know you Maria and thank you very much for sharing!
You are definitely an inspiration!
For those of you that want to follow Maria, here are her links:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariapergolino
Twitter handle: @InboundMarketer
Success Community: https://success.salesforce.com/profile?u=00530000008ABF6AAO
SaaSyForce.com 