From VP to AE: Julia Howard's Secrets to Selling to the C-Suite

Julia Howard once closed a nearly $4 million deal.

That’s not just a big deal, it’s a BFD. 

How’d she do it?

Well, one, Julia is really good at her job — she loves solving problems, making connections, and forming relationships as an enterprise account executive at TraceLink, which delivers regulatory compliance solutions for the global pharmaceutical industry.

But this is just a by-product of the biggest secret she’s uncovered about selling:

Put people first and treat them well by being unashamedly, unabashedly who you are.

As a VP turned Account Executive, Julia’s sales journey reveals that success inevitably follows authenticity—and that sacrificing your ego can be one of the biggest things you do for yourself in your sales career.

These killer qualities and lots of others have helped make Julia one of the World’s Best Sellers.

Insider knowledge: How to sell to executives

Julia began her career as an office manager and worked her way up to account management. 

Her younger, greener self-assumed the next step, and all the steps following, would be leadership-oriented. More impressive titles, higher pay, the chance to helm a team. 

Julia eventually landed a role as VP of Client Growth at a Robotics company and then a VP of Growth Sales at another top Saas company. She realized through those roles that while she was born to lead, leadership comes in so many forms. Management is just another skill set.

Although she gained a better appreciation for what sales leaders need and want from their teams, she recognized she could allow her personality to shine more as an individual contributor.

“It was almost always ego-driven, looking for that next step,” she says. “I thought I wanted to lead people, to do more, get more, be more. When, in actuality, I never should have left sales.”

So, she came back.

Today, she’s at TraceLink, not as a sales leader buckled down in a suit and tie, but as an AE, back where she belongs: on the ground and in the fray.

But now she has first-hand knowledge of why and when execs make decisions—and how to get their ear as an IC.

Here’s what she’s learned about selling to the C-Suite:

1. Know that you are valuable and they'll see it too. When Julia was VP, the people who commanded her attention were those who exuded real value. “When they knew what they could bring to the table is when I saw the value in them,” she says. And it’s more than possible to use your ego to your advantage without coming across as egotistical. By confidently acknowledging your strengths, skills, and expertise, you can establish a powerful presence that leaves lasting impressions.

2. Target their personal motivations. If Julia learned anything as a VP, it’s that business is politics. In just the same way you want to top the leaderboard, the execs you’re selling to want to look good in front of their leadership. Do your research and craft your pitch around how your product can help them reach their success metrics and directly move the needle. A tailored solution that helps them shine in the eyes of their superiors is a proposition that’s hard to ignore.

3. Assume positive intent. Executives are more likely to share their concerns, priorities, and objectives when you remove yourself from the spotlight and recognize their decisions are made in the best interest of their business. “It’s important to always give people the benefit of the doubt and show that,” Julia says. Assuming their intentions are good and genuine, even if they express skepticism or seem hesitant is a surefire way to increase trust.

Julia’s direct experience in the C-Suite has quite literally made her the champion seller she is today. 

“I have never been happier or more successful personally and professionally than in the role I’m in now,” she says.

The $4M secret? Genuine and transactional relationships.

Julia’s job is to upsell existing TraceLink clients rather than bring in new business, which entails the nurturing of long-term relationships.

“I feel like you’re either born wanting to help solve problems or you’re not,” she says. “That relationship side of sales just comes naturally to me.”

This, my friends, was how she closed a $4M mega deal.

And she means that literally.

She took the client out to their favorite spots, honky tonk bars in Nashville, buying them beers, getting to know them as people, and having fun.

Because real experiences, experiences that people will remember, whether they are in person or not, are the foundation for genuine relationships.

With a couple of fun nights behind them, their relationship evolved into regular texts and calls.

If the client called while she was driving in a car filled with noisy kids, she’d just take the call and let them know she could talk later. And if they heard the kids caterwauling, so what? She was her, Mom, and they appreciated that.

“We laughed together over demos. I asked them a lot of questions. And I wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable with them, to be an actual human and not just a salesperson,” Julia says, “People want to buy things from people they trust. And trust, like relationships, takes time to build.”

While it’s true that sales is ultimately transactional, Julia realized early on that it’s possible to be genuine and transactional at the same time; they’re not mutually exclusive.

“It’s mutually beneficial; I want to provide value, too, [rather than] just asking for stuff. They’re not just my income, they’re a person I’m excited to get to know.”

Her bottom line is this: if you have a great relationship with someone and you understand them on a personal level, that’s what gets the deal across the finish line. 

“It’s about love for people as a business strategy.”

Fail fast and move on

Even if you have a solid relationship with a client, it won’t always be rainbows and butterflies.

In Julia’s experience, most deals die five times before they actually close.

“Just because a deal seems completely dead doesn’t mean it is…you have to feel the vibe,” she says.

When the vibes aren’t good, Julia schedules “learning conversations” with her customers. Think of it like a 1:1; it’s a time when the customer is encouraged to give feedback or criticism or detail anything that’s a current deal-blocker.

It’s a preventative approach that’s stopped dozens of her accounts from spiraling and eventually churning.

But there are always some relationships that are simply not meant to be.

Where some sellers may desperately hold on to a deal, trying every possible angle to make it work, Julia simply lets go when she feels the time is right and the relationship has run its course.

“If I don’t jive with someone and I believe that it’s never going to work in the long term, I fail fast so I can find another person who is interested.”

Otherwise, she tells us, you’re just wasting time and energy on something that will never come to fruition.

All of it — the C-suite knowledge, the relationship building, the refusal to be anything other than her most genuine self — makes Julia Howard a top-notch salesperson. 

Because it also makes her a better, more rounded human being.

“My biggest strength and my biggest weakness is that I care too much,” she says. “But I’m not willing to change myself. 

“I would rather get hurt and be myself, knowing there’s more good than bad than stop trying.”