Michelle Bove didn't start in enterprise software – she started as a soccer referee in seventh grade, hustling for an extra $10 per game, then moved into door-to-door sales at a three-person startup where she learned rejection quickly and loved it even more. That hunger never left. Today, as an AVP of East Sales at Wiz, she's built her career at some of the sharpest sales cultures in software history (PTC, AppDynamics, Zscaler), closed deals nobody else could get into, and turned around entire teams by replacing broken managers instead of blaming reps. In this conversation, she breaks down the real mechanics of winning: why likability is underrated, how to hire people better than you, why skip levels work when done transparently, and what it actually costs to prove yourself as a young female leader in cybersecurity. Her philosophy is simple: science plus art. Discipline and processes without human connection will only get you halfway there.
Michelle Bove is an AVP of East Sales at Wiz and has built her career at PTC, AppDynamics, and Zscaler – some of the sharpest sales cultures in enterprise software. She's known for closing deals nobody else could get into and turning underperforming teams into world-class organizations.
00:00 – Introduction and Michelle's origin story from soccer referee to enterprise sales leader
06:44 – Why likability is the most underrated sales competency and directly impacts your ability to build champions and close deals
20:00 – Why tailored coaching based on individual strengths and weaknesses beats cookie-cutter management
36:30 – How to run skip levels the right way: prep, conduct, document, share back with managers, and follow up without alienating people
47:50 – Operating rhythms in practice: daily prospecting, 15-question deal reviews, and deep customer research that actually moves deals
51:00 – Why in-person customer engagement beats remote-only selling for strategic accounts and mega-deals, even in the AI era
59:45 – The hardest part of her job: being a young female leader in a male-dominated space and proving herself every room she walks into
Hosted by five-time CRO John McMahon and Force Management Co-Founder John Kaplan, the Revenue Builders podcast goes behind the scenes with the sales leaders who have been there, done that, and seen the results.
This show is brought to you by Force Management. We help companies improve sales performance, executing their growth strategy at the point of sale.
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