Meet Tina: Eleyo Prospect Guide

Team Member Interview

Name: Tina Bennett

Role: Business Development Manager, Eleyo

Time spent at Persolvent: 3 years.

What do you do at Persolvent? What would I come to you for?

 I do business development for our Eleyo product, a software for K-12 and community education programs. I find the prospects to sell the product to and uncover how the product is going to help them and solve some of the issues they are having. I manage the sales process from initial outreach all the way through pricing. Once I get the signed contracts, I pass our new clients to the implementation and then support team. And they run with it fantastically from there.

As a salesperson, to be able to say that we’ve never lost a customer in twelve years with hundreds of districts is unbelievable. From a product, service and implementation standpoint, that speaks volumes.

What were you doing before Persolvent? What inspired you to join this team?

I was a product manager for almost fifteen years.  The product was MyPaymentsPlus, a solution to help school districts manage meals, fees, activities and more.  We picked Persolvent as the payment processor and partnered with Jay and Vince. Once I left Horizon, Jay mentioned an opportunity with Persolvent and knowing the values and what they stand for, it was a no brainer. I was excited to be a part of this environment, team and people.

What is your favorite part of the team culture?

I love everything. It sounds very cliché to say, but honestly it is a big family. You know that everybody has your back no matter what, there’s trust here and everyone is supporting each other. I feel that everyone wants each other to grow. There’s realness here; we are willing to have hard conversations when needed.

What is your go-to productivity trick?

I’m a list person. If there are things that I know I have to get done and others that I just want to get done, I do the things I hate first and make it a bonus to do the fun stuff. That makes your whole day so much more productive when you get it out of the way.

As someone working remotely for a long time, a couple tips I have:

1.       Have a space but don’t be afraid to go outside that space and change your environment.

2.       Using video is an advantage. When you see people and customers face-to-face, you can connect more effectively. Plus mentioning that your video partner might hear your dog bark can humanize the whole experience, and it make everyone comfortable.

How do prefer to start and end your day?

An essential start to my morning is coffee. After that, I’m a list person and start with my tasks. As a salesperson, I heavily rely my tools like the CRM. I review my task list and ensure everything is up-to-date with the information of what I need to do next with that account and when. When I end my day, I get everything ready for the next morning so I can just open it and start down my list. As much as updating the CRM is a pain, using your tools does make it easier to manage your day.

What is your go-to karaoke song?

My go-to Pat Benatar We Belong and my end would be a Donna Sommer hit. I go from one extreme to another.

A favorite memory from the past year?

This past year has been crazy. My family and I moved from Georgia to Pennsylvania. The whole area is so different. We moved into a historic house and historic town. It’s been stressful, but fun.

How do you like to spend your spare time?

I spend time with family. I’m learning gardening a little because our house is part of Longwood Gardens. I also have fishponds with goldfish and koi, that I’ve trained so they come and I feed them. We’re big animal people so we’ve created a zoo here.

I love to cook. That’s probably my number one thing I do. My go-to recipe for a special occasion is a rib roast with scalloped potatoes. I am big on family meals; we eat together every night. We’ve been trying everything, lots of Asian cooking, Chinese food - my son bought me a rice cooker for Christmas.

Pineapple on pizza – Yay or nay? Favorite toppings?

I am a pineapple on pizza fan. I’m a fan of the standard true margarita pizza with fresh basil and mozz. I eat anything, but I’d lay off the anchovies. I love mushrooms and we are in Kennett Square, which is actually the mushroom capital of the world. My neighbor is a mushroom farmer, and I can get fresh mushrooms from their farm anytime I want.

Tip for keeping mushrooms fresh: Store them in a brown paper bag in the fridge. They’ll last tons longer.