Plexus Team Spotlight: Meet Ella

Ella Grieve began her Plexus career as a Sales Development Representative before being promoted to Account Manager. She plays a key role in helping connect in-house teams with the technology and legal talent required to execute faster and focus on higher value work.

How did you find out about Plexus?

“I found out about the Plexus and the Sales Development Representative role through my cousin who is in the legal industry. She sent me the job ad for Plexus saying “I think this would be a perfect role for you. It’s a great opportunity, and the legal tech industry is up and coming - this role sounds like it will push your skills.”

I did my own research into the company and the role and thought it sounded interesting. I emailed Plexus’ Talent Manager, and she scheduled my first interview.”

Have you worked in Sales before?

“I hadn’t worked in Sales before! I had done a law degree before coming to Australia, but since then I've been in hospitality. This role with Plexus sounded like a great re-entry into the Legal industry for me.”

How has your time in hospitality helped prepare you for your current role?

“Plexus is the best kind of hybrid role for my skills, where I’ve come from and what I want to grow towards. Being in hospitality, it’s really people orientated, really customer focused and you learn a lot of skills without even realising it. But I’d been in that industry for too long and hit a point where I wasn’t growing my skills the way I wanted to anymore, and I needed a new challenge.”

What is your day-to-day like as an SDR?

“Some days are completely different to other days. As an SDR you are really given a lot of confidence in being in control of your own time and your own success. So in a week you can spend some days focusing more on prospecting and learning about prospects and clients and their needs, and other days you are slamming the phones full of energy and are really empowered to get those meetings with our future customers. It also depends on how you outreach to people and it really comes down to the success that you want.”

How has the team supported you in your transition and starting your role?

“The team of Commercial Directors and sales leaders have definitely empowered us SDRs in our role. They’ve been really patient, especially when I first started where I must have been ringing them five times a day asking questions. But it is definitely down to their patience and their empowerment that I’ve succeeded in this role. They were really really comforting when I first started the role, and still are now.”

What do you like most about being an SDR?

“I had no idea how confident I was talking to people!

When you’re working behind a bar you’re talking to people all day, ‘how was your day’, ‘what would you like?’ but I wasn’t sure how I would go when I was put in a position where I am speaking with people who are in a different kind of professional setting that aren’t the kind of people that I’d meet in my day-to-day life. It’s empowering to talk to them with confidence. And how they respond gives me the confidence to talk to them too.

It sounds a little bit corny but I love that I really know what I’m talking about and that I can easily fit in and help people find a solution to their problem. Something that would make their life a lot easier."

Has being an SDR helped shape how you see your career going?

“Yes! I’ve felt empowered to speak with my director and other senior people in the business that I work with about what my interests are and where I want to take my career. Working at Plexus has also tied in really nicely with my interest in the legal and learning about the legal industry, while allowing me to really thrive in using so many soft skills I’ve developed in previous jobs.

After a couple of conversations with my manager I was really given the confidence that I could grow my role within the business, and have access to the training, time and support that I’d need to do it.

I feel that I’ve really been supported and shown how the team values me and my work. They’ve also been really supportive of me dipping my toe into more areas of the business. I’m especially excited to take the next steps in my Plexus Sales career as a product expert and explore different growth pathways.

I know Plexus will also support me if I decide I want to return my focus on my Legal interests and doing my Practical Legal Training with Plexus.

I definitely have ownership over my decisions and I can choose which pathway I want to take with my career, but the team is really supportive. I’ve never worked with a team this supportive before!”

Do you have any advice for someone looking to step into a new role or industry like you have?

“Get ready to step out of your comfort zone. Stepping out of your comfort zone will definitely push you to so much growth and so much learning, and won’t look back. I remember being really scared about coming back into the legal industry, and coming to tech for the first time. Especially because being in hospitality was my comfort zone.

But as soon as you leave your comfort zone you start to smash it!”

Finish this sentence: You would make a great SDR if you are…?

“A really friendly person who is really willing to have a conversation!

Even though you are not always face-to-face with the client or prospect, they can definitely hear your attitude to life through the phone. So if you’re smiling and if you’re in a good mood it comes through in your work and your conversations.

Most of the time you do form a connection with the people when you start speaking about their pain points and the problems you can solve for them. And these solutions are really important to them so the more you talk to them the larger and the more personal these conversations get. It’s a real eye-opener of the people you are talking to and your attitude can drive the conversation.”