Nellie Scott
Working in the IT services industry for 17 years, Nellie Scott has relied on her personal philosophy of "Nothing happens in an organization until somebody sells something to somebody."
In her role as channel services business manager at Lenovo, Scott is responsible for driving revenue by supporting business partners in the United States and Canada through sales and marketing campaigns. Lenovo is a $21 billion personal technology company and the world's second largest PC vendor.
Scott's path to success began after completing a two-year business management program at the University of Southern California. She started as a technology software trainer at CompUSA in California for enterprise customers such as Boeing and Blue Cross Blue Shield.
From there, Scott was promoted to training manager, where she broke sales records in her first quarter. She moved to CompUSA corporate headquarters in Dallas and became the national accounts manager, tasked with launching a new accounts program. Again, Scott was promoted, this time to director of sales, where in a single year she had a 100% closing ratio in her sales region.
Scott completed her career at CompUSA as senior director of sales, having built her business to over $120 million in annual revenue. In 2001, Scott was hired as senior manager by Dell where she launched a new business unit. Over a span of five years, she built the business unit from $50K to $60M in revenue.
Find a point of entry even though it may not be the ideal job you want. This is a fast-paced industry where the only thing that is constant is change. Therefore, the job you have today may not be the one you'll have tomorrow.
Q. What do you do day-to-day in your job?
In my current role, Lenovo services can't be sold until my team enables our offerings. My team manages our service offerings and enables them in SAP and other systems that feed channel partner tools for North America and international markets such as Australia and Western Europe. My team also maintains monthly services catalogues for these regions.
In addition, I am an experienced sales trainer and conduct ongoing sales training for internal and channel sales representatives nationwide with a focus on "how to sell" solutions. As a 17-year sales professional, I'm called upon to meet with customers to design solutions to solve real-time business challenges.
Q. How did you get started in IT?
Out of necessity. I am extremely resourceful and anticipated the demand for Microsoft applications, so I landed a weekend job at my local CompUSA store where I could get the software training for free. Armed with these technology skills, I became a valuable resource to CompUSA as a Microsoft trainer. After three months of working the weekend trainer position, I was offered an opportunity to run my own training center. That's when I discovered that selling technology was not only natural to me, but even more lucrative than teaching it.
Q. How do you keep current with the latest trends in your segment of the IT industry?
I read a lot. Computerworld, books on solution selling strategies, CompTIA SmartBrief, IDC and Gartner trends are my go to resources. I also attend at least two industry webinars per month. Social media such as LinkedIn discussions with my alumni groups from Dell and CompUSA also keep me informed. When I want to gain in-depth knowledge on a particular subject, I leverage my network and schedule time with subject matter experts. I find that people are always willing to educate and share their knowledge especially when the favor is reciprocated.
Q. What advice do you have for people who want to get an IT industry job?
Find a point of entry even though it may not be the ideal job you want. This is a fast-paced industry where the only thing that is constant is change. Therefore, the job you have today may not be the one you'll have tomorrow. For any job, embrace new challenges and assignments with enthusiasm and a can-do attitude even if they are outside of your comfort zone. Demonstrate positivity even in adversity and network outside of your team early in your career. Remember that you are always being interviewed.
Q. What do you like to do when you are not working?
I recently celebrated 23 years of marriage to the most wonderful man. I enjoy spending time with him traveling, hiking, biking and swimming (anything outdoors). Music concerts, yoga and coffee dates are our favorite past-times. I also enjoy traveling and sharing new places like the White House, Martha's Vineyard, Cape Cod and Fenway Park with my mom and sister.
Q. Describe your experience as a woman in IT. What advice do you have for women pursuing a career in the IT industry?
From my personal experience, the IT industry has been very good to me, but you have to like a fast pace, constant change, and often leading or managing without all the information or details. So you should be comfortable with ambiguity and be ready to catch up fast when strategies are finally released.
There is a lot of discussion about mentors, but I don't believe that just one person can help you through every event or circumstance. Therefore, I prefer enlisting a "board of advisors," several people with different perspectives. The plus factor is that each of your advisors will have a broader network that you can tap in to versus relying on just one person. Make sure that your "board of advisors" includes high-ranking officers because these relationships carry a lot of influential power. Finally, resilience is key. How you navigate, react and handle change is critical.
