A Sales Director’s Take on the Rewards of Customer Success

As a regional sales director, driving meaningful impact by empowering customers is what drives Alejandro the most. Be it enabling customers with transformative solutions or learning about how they are using those solutions to address real-world challenges, his current role provides him with ample opportunity to drive innovation. 

Let’s learn more about Alejandro, why customer success is so rewarding, and how Confluent fosters a culture of continuous learning and growth.

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What motivates you to excel in your role and how does Confluent support your ambitions? 

Confluent is the market leader and at the forefront of the data streaming revolution. As part of my role, the opportunity I get to contribute to driving innovation across our customer's organizations is what drives me the most. Knowing that my work directly impacts our customers' success and helps solve complex challenges is incredibly rewarding.

Plus, I get the opportunity to partner with customers across various dynamic industries. 

Confluent provides ample opportunities for professional growth and development. There's a culture of continuous learning that encourages personal and professional development. I feel lucky to have had the chance to work under various great sales leaders, who have helped mentor and teach me not only what it means to lead by example but also what it means to be a good leader to others.

Even after working here for over six years, I can confidently say that I am still learning and growing, and have continued to feel challenged in different ways every single year.

What’s the best part about interacting with customers in your experience?

As a regional sales director, it’s my responsibility to make sure that customers in my region are being given the guidance and tools they need to succeed with their data streaming initiatives. In my experience, the best part about interacting with customers is the opportunity it presents to truly learn from their day-to-day experiences and insights. Every interaction is a chance to listen, grow, and partner with them in finding innovative solutions to critical business issues.

By engaging directly with customers, I gain invaluable insights into how our products and services are being used for mission-critical applications and services in the real world. This understanding not only helps me tailor our solutions to better meet their needs but also fosters a deeper sense of partnership and trust. Ultimately, seeing our customers succeed and knowing that I played a part in that success is incredibly rewarding.

How have you grown or changed since joining Confluent?

When I began my career at Confluent, I was responsible for qualifying potential prospects and moving them down the sales funnel, if appropriate. Today as an RSD, I’m responsible for leading the account teams that support our customers in Latin America, hiring, and helping formulate the vision and execute the plan to ensure the long-term growth of the territory.

I started off as an inbound sales development representative back in 2017. After a few years in that role—learning how to engage customers and understand their questions and needs—I was promoted and began supporting our commercial accounts across both North and South America. Less than a year and a half later, I was promoted again, this time becoming an account executive responsible for supporting digital-native customers in Latin America.

Over the last two years, I continued to progress and moved from being the regional sales director for the Digital Native & Emerging Markets segment, to now also leading our Enterprise account teams in Latin America. Throughout this journey, I’ve developed the leadership and customer engagement skills to keep my team ready to jump in and help both new and existing customers grow with Confluent.

How does your company encourage diversity, equity, and inclusion?

Our leadership team is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and actively promotes a culture of inclusion at all levels of the organization. They lead by example, championing diversity initiatives and holding themselves and others accountable for creating an inclusive workplace. It truly starts from the top down.

Seeing leaders with such diverse backgrounds and experience such as Erica Schultz (President of Field Ops), Rey Perez (CCO), and Hemanth Vedagarbha (SVP of Global Sales), shows me that Confluent actually walks the walk and truly values DEI. We offer training programs, resources, and employee-led groups to raise awareness and educate employees on unconscious bias, cultural competence, and inclusive leadership practices. This helps create a more inclusive environment where all employees feel valued and respected.

What's unique about Confluent's company culture? What’s one question you would tell people to ask about the culture during their interview?

I would say that Confluent's company culture is characterized by its commitment to innovation, collaboration, and execution. Across all the teams and projects I’ve worked on at this company, I’ve been continually impressed at how the smart, talented people who work here come together to get things done and deliver results. 

One aspect that sets our culture apart and makes this kind of environment possible is our emphasis on autonomy and ownership. Employees are encouraged to take ownership of their work, explore new ideas, and drive initiatives forward. I always tell my direct reports that they should act as the CEO of their own territory—this fosters a sense of entrepreneurship and accountability across the organization. 

I would encourage people to ask about our culture and how it encourages this entrepreneurial spirit during their interview.