Steele Bennett
I’m not trying to sell. I solve my customers’ problems by listening, focusing, using best-in-class technology, engaging with a team of pros, hitting deadlines, putting together the best GTM strategy … and never letting the ball drop.
My Experience
Contractor / Consultant — Sales Lead, Customer Lead
Federated Wireless — Vice President, Private Wireless Sales & Customer Lead
Charter Communications — Senior Director, Marketing and Sales
Time Warner Cable — Director, Portal
America Online — Programming Director, Marketing, Promotion, and Sales
Fox Television’s “America’s Most Wanted” — Writer and Producer
Professional Highlights
My background has always been in communications, technology, SaaS and Cloud, and my last few companies combined those worlds. Professionally, I have progressively moved up with my organizations by being focused, determined, fair, and thinking ahead. Below are details and lessons learned that stand out from my years of experience.
We Won Because We Worked Harder
It took a few months of daily work, constant back-and-forth with the customer (a lot of listening), coordination with our product group, internal negotiations with our engineering team and the finance group, but I finally cracked the code and won a key private wireless network contract with one of the most renowned, higher-education schools on the West coast. We were coming into the negotiations late. They already had an incumbent who thought for sure they were going to win the contract. They were not counting on a hungry startup, an outstanding team, and a relentless focus … we were the best partner for this customer, and we knew it. We listened. We worked collaboratively. We took creative chances with them. This was the contract to be proud of for both the customer and myself. We won that initial contract, and within 18 months, closed an additional four contracts with this customer worth +$1.6 million.
Adversity Turned Outstanding
As a team, we were working for months to win a contract with the largest manufacturer of a raw material (need to keep specific material quiet at this time) in the U.S. They had a vision to use autonomous vehicles to move 65,000 pounds of this material around their campus, but needed our wireless technology to connect the vehicles and literally drive everything. We had the solution, and we were working hard to meet all the requirements for the customer. It was then, at a key point in the negotiations, my company hit a financial pitfall that required the loss of 50% of the team. As I managed my small portion of the remaining staff, I was also shouldering the entire effort to close this deal. It was the focus, communication with every group within my company (finance, engineering, deployment, and the leadership), and not letting anything drop that brought this deal to a close. To date, this one hard-fought deal has grown into three different opportunities and a partnership that continues to pay off for both groups.
Leaning In on Something New
I had a lot of experience helping to design Web interfaces and create engaging content for the largest Web portal in the world, America Online. But when I got hired away by Time Warner Cable to run the entire portal for the second largest cable company in the U.S., I admittedly was biting off a lot. That’s because the new job required me to immediately jump head first into the planning, staffing, designing, and deploying of the new portal for the 9 million-monthly uniques audience. I had experience with all aspects of the job, individually, but to own every aspects of this business was new to me, and a lot to manage and figure out on the fly. It was sleepless nights, long days, working with specialists, and coordinating with my leadership to hit the deadlines, and actually bring in the portal under budget. I definitely had to rely on my individual experiences to make decisions, but I also didn’t think for a minute that I had all the answers. I asked for help, got the help, and made a great product, and helped to build a stronger team because of everyone’s involvement in the planning. In the end, unique visitors went up by 83%, visits per unique went up 110%, and ad revenue went up 130%.
A Mistake Made
I had managed John (not his real name) for just over five years. He was a solid employee, but was the kind of employee that just did enough to survive. He definitely did not strive for more. He was smart, but seemed uninspired. Personally, I liked him. He was a dad, a husband, and he was the only income earner in the home. That said, John started to really struggle at work. I was meeting with him on a daily basis trying to work through this time by refocusing on specific tasks, and trying to inspire him. But even the extra attention was not helping. He asked for time away from the office (using vacation and “mental health” days off). It took a lot of negotiations for me with my leadership, plus I had to pick up his slack, but I wanted to give him the chance to save his career. In the end, John was not able to do his daily work well enough, or be reliable. The time off did nothing for him, or his professional attitude. His lack of follow-through impacted everyone. I had to let him go. My failure was going as far as I did to save his career. My actions impacted my life, the team’s workflow, and I had to put my reputation on the line for John. It was a mistake, but I learned from it. I still feel for my employees, but I have to think of the company and team first.
Somebody Has to Do It
If you’ve ever worked at a start-up, you know that wearing different hats throughout the day is part of the job. Well, little did I know that one day the CTO of the company watched one of my presentations, looked into my early professional background as a TV and Web producer, and determined I was the right guy to create a new product for the company. I was being asked to create, from the ground up, an online certification program for engineers to allow them to install special transmitters that are tracked by the F.C.C. This certification is mandated by law for people working in our newly formed industry (CBRS, Shared Spectrum). Well, after doing some research and getting a game plan set, this turned out to be no quick-turnaround project. For the next 12 months, I worked with writers, LMS producers, engineers, executives, industry panels, and a lot of friendly folks that would give me their quick opinions. In the end, this product was the first to market (beating Google by three months), and has certified more than 50% of the specialized engineers across the U.S. The product is still a money maker for the company, and six years later, the design, workflow, and management has not changed.
Learned From the Best … and Worst
I’ve been a People Manager at my last four companies. I learned how to manage and be a leader by having both the best managers ever, and the worst. I’ve also had the amazing opportunity to work with great employees across the board (sales, creatives, engineers, executives, as well as contract/hourly/project workers), both remote and in-person. In the end, I like to put myself in the seat of my employees. I always want to understand their background and expectations, and what tools and training they will need, as well as determining how much managing they will need, to be successful. Also, I make sure they understand, completely, what the company’s and my expectations are. Clear communications are key. But most importantly, backing and supporting each employee with their customer engagements, helping them to manage the workflow inside their organization, and doing this while I help them balance their work and time outside the office. Fairness and empathy go a long way with employee happiness. I strive to emulate the best managers I’ve ever had (e.g., empathetic, understanding, great communicators, focused, fair). As for the worst managers I’ve ever had, they did me a great favor … teaching me how NOT to be a manager (e.g., self centered, impatient, thinking they knew everything, ungrateful, condescending).
