Kelly Kohlleffel
Head of Partner Sales Engineering, Fivetran
Kelly was our lead account manager in Houston for Oracle accounts such as Schlumberger, MW Kellogg, and Halliburton. It was Halliburton that I worked most closely with Kelly and developed the respect and admiration for him that continues to this day.
Kelly invests significant time and effort in approaching his accounts as if he were an employee or, in many cases, an influential shareholder. He is a tireless worker with a deep conviction for meeting his objectives and bringing value to his customers.
Kelly is excellent at developing executive-level relationships. He embraced the team-selling concept and was the ultimate professional as he mapped me with individuals within his accounts and gave me a role to execute.
When I think of Kelly, I think of a role model for character and professionalism. Kelly would be one of a few that would be your first pick in a draft - the kind of person to build a team around.
Jeff asked for us to answer three questions as a helpful guide to revealing him to you through our eyes:
1) How do I know Jeff?
2) If I were you (the personas who would read this are salesperson, sales leader, or business owner) I’d want to know this about Jeff:
3) One thing I learned from Jeff that made me better:
How do I know Jeff?
I got to know Jeff from my time spent on his sales team at Oracle between 2003 and 2013. He was my sales leader for ~ 5 years during my time as a Key Account Director.
If I were you (the personas who would read this are salesperson, sales leader, or business owner) I’d want to know this about Jeff:
Jeff is a highly effective leader who cares deeply about his team, his customers, and the company that he represents. From my first interaction with him, I felt that all-important “trust factor” take hold and it just kept growing and building the more we worked together.
He is committed to always delivering value to customers and ensuring that they understand the “why” of what is being proposed as a solution and approach. Jeff always establishes a clear vision for the entire team and helps everyone understand their objectives, why they are important to the overall strategy, and where he can offer support, guidance, and assistance.
Importantly to me, Jeff is not an overbearing or micro-managing leader, and he treats his team members with fairness and respect. He is a skilled mentor and coach who understands the complexities and nuances of working with large, complex enterprises. Jeff's leadership style is focused on collaboration, communication, and empowering his team to achieve their goals.
If you work with Jeff, you can expect to be part of a supportive and high-performing team that values collaboration, innovation, and customer satisfaction. Jeff's approach to leadership is centered on creating a positive work culture, where his team feels valued and motivated to succeed. Overall, Jeff's leadership style is an asset to any organization, and he has a proven track record of driving success and delivering value to customers.
One thing I learned from Jeff that made me better:
It’s difficult to pick out just one thing that I learned from Jeff because just being around him and listening to him in any setting (with customers, with management, with peers, at a dinner, at a QBR, etc.) you could learn a tremendous amount about how to work most effectively with people. If I have to choose one aspect of working with Jeff that stands out though, it would be the importance of ensuring that all of the critical details (even the seemingly small, insignificant ones) in an enterprise sales process are accounted for and every box is checked - Jeff is highly skilled in helping his team to move a “quarter-critical” or “year-end-critical” enterprise deal from inception to close with every party believing in the value of the overall outcome.