We want to start by giving our warmest thanks to our CobbleStone® team! CobbleStone Software employees are committed to offering clients and business professionals our industry-leading contract management software, vendor management, eProcurement, and eSourcing solutions with unparalleled service. Award recipients receive company-wide recognition, personalized plaques, additional paid time off, and extended lunchtime. Read the following mini-interviews with each CobbleStone Software Employee Excellence Award recipient to understand what set them apart as an integral asset to our corporate success in 2023.
What, in your experience, does it take to be successful in your role as an Account Manager?
In my experience some important factors in being successful as an Account Manager include building / forming connections, identifying / understanding client and prospective client needs, and staying organized. In a highly competitive market, it is extremely important to build and form connections which can in return also lead to you better identifying and understanding lead and client needs. This skill also allows Account Managers to make the best recommendation to clients and leads to best optimize the solution. Disorganization can lead to setbacks including falling behind on routine follow ups, not answering leads and clients in timely manner, and not being able to find relevant client documentation.
What skills and practices helped you earn an Employee of the Year award?
I believe building and forming connections, understanding lead and client needs, and staying organized helped me earn an Employee of the Year award.
What has been your proudest moment while working at CobbleStone?
My proudest moment thus far at CobbleStone was not only meeting my first-year goals that I had set, but surpassing it by quite a lot.
What is your goal for 2024 and how do you plan on achieving it?
My goal for 2024 is to meet or exceed all sales goals set forth for my second year as an Account Manager. I plan to do this by continuing to build and form connections, identify and understand lead and client needs, and staying organized. I also think continuing to build upon my product and industry knowledge is another factor that will lead to success.
What, in your experience, does it take to be successful in your role as a Sales and Marketing Intern?
In order to be successful in my role as an intern, I learned to be efficient with the variety of tasks I am given, and to always be open to assist other interns or even other employees in the office. I believe being “that” intern who others can come to for help or to help others has helped me enjoy being a part of the team even more.
What skills and practices helped you earn an Employee of the Year award?
The skill of quick learning and being able to communicate what I have learned to newer interns in an easy manner has helped me earn my award. Having the mindset of being a teacher or mentor has helped me grow into the intern that I am today. Seeing my employees as my friends to make them feel seen and appreciated, as well as being able to handle multiple projects given to me has also helped me earn my award.
What has been your proudest moment while working at CobbleStone?
My proudest moment has been whenever my managers share their trust in me and my diligence. Getting the verbal feedback has further encouraged me to continue doing my best with my work.
What is your goal for 2024 and how do you plan on achieving it?
My goal for 2024 is to continue making small changes to help CobbleStone grow and to make work more efficient for my fellow interns.
What, in your experience, does it take to be successful in your role as a Customer Support Representative?
Dedication to supporting clients to ensure that they are able to manage, configure, and understand how CobbleStone Contract Insight® works to best service their vendor clients.
What skills and practices helped you earn an Employee of the Year award?
Reviewing configuration processes on the Wiki, studying Lunch and Learns, and testing CobbleStone modules in my demo system and in QA to ensure that I understand all functionalities of the software.
What has been your proudest moment while working at CobbleStone?
Winning the IT Employee of the Year award.
What is your goal for 2024 and how do you plan on achieving it?
Assisting our new IT support representatives with gaining a greater understanding of how CobbleStone Contract Insight works so they can better service our client base.
What, in your experience, does it take to be successful in your role as a Senior Account Manager?
Since I started with CobbleStone full-time in 2016, I have learned that clients are much more receptive to receiving guidance from Account Managers that act as “problem solvers” instead of “salespeople”. It is very important to establish yourself as an advisor when working with clients and potential clients, as this develops trust in the relationship and leads to more sales production.
What skills and practices helped you earn an Employee of the Year award?
Personally, I feel that improvements to my time-management skills were key in receiving the Salesperson of the Year award for 2023. I also feel that my experience with CobbleStone drove me to improve my methods for gathering requirements from clients during the sales process, allowing me to identify potential solutions through the features of our software and the services that our team can provide.
What has been your proudest moment while working at CobbleStone?
Winning the CobbleStone Salesperson of the Year Award in 2019, 2022, and 2023.
What is your goal for 2024 and how do you plan on achieving it?
My goal is to increase my sales production in 2024. I plan to achieve this by becoming more familiar with the requirements and key features associated with specific client market segments/industries.
What, in your experience, does it take to be successful in your role as an Implementation Specialist?
In my experience, effective communication is a crucial asset for success as an Implementer. Internally, it involves asking the important questions and utilizing the appropriate resources. Externally, it ensures a clear understanding of the client’s desires for their CobbleStone Contract Insight system.
What skills and practices helped you earn an Employee of the Year award?
Proactively engaging with clients and promptly completing configuration tasks to meet implementation deadlines.
What has been your proudest moment while working at CobbleStone?
Clients going out of their way to write positive reviews about the implementation, and expressing satisfaction with the services provided.
What is your goal for 2024 and how do you plan on achieving it?
Continuing to expand my understanding of CobbleStone Contract Insight, with the continued goal of consistently ensuring client happiness.
What, in your experience, does it take to be successful in your role as an IT Developer?
I believe much of my success as a Developer has stemmed from my ability to estimate projects, communicate effectively, and document necessary information. While software development primarily involves writing code and problem solving, these additional skills are incredibly important for me as a developer.
What skills and practices helped you earn an Employee of the Year award?
In my opinion, some practices I’ve taken part in involve rigorous research when taking on new projects. While not always perfect, this makes things such as estimations a bit easier to predict. This also allows me to take complicated projects and break them down into comprehendible parts, which improves my planning and development process.
Another practice involves coding outside of work on personal projects. This allows me to learn things I may not have had time to explore during work-related projects. I’ve recently been working on a Spotify integration as a personal project, which is set to release in the next few weeks. This project has taught me several processes that I can apply to several of my work-related projects, including improved UI, optimized performance, better code consistency, etc.
What has been your proudest moment while working at CobbleStone?
My proudest moment at CobbleStone is the release of the CobbleStone Add-In for Word. I had recently graduated from college in 2021 and this was my first individual project I had worked on. To be able to release this project after working on it for several months, and the positive feedback I received as a result, was very validating as a new developer.
What is your goal for 2024 and how do you plan on achieving it?
My goal for 2024 is my continued growth as a Developer. While there are many things I am proud of during my brief career so far, there is much that I can improve on. I believe CobbleStone has helped me tremendously in cultivating my career so far and I hope to continue challenging myself with new projects and new experiences.
What, in your experience, does it take to be successful in your role as a Marketing Event Coordinator?
I have to be logical and flexible; my role has a lot to do with logistics and people. I have to make sure that the correct items are ready for the CobbleStone representatives, get our representatives there on time, and equip them with all the information and supplies needed for conferences and events.
What skills and practices helped you earn an Employee of the Year award?
Coordination, organization, time management, and flexibility.
What has been your proudest moment while working at CobbleStone?
This year, CobbleStone was able to attend more conferences than ever before. It's very satisfying and motivating to know that I had a big hand in that. I started my career at CobbleStone at the end of 2022 and to be able to learn the role while simultaneously orchestrating all of our conference and event involvement - which resulted in a record year - is a great achievement and definitely my proudest moment.
What is your goal for 2024 and how do you plan on achieving it?
My major goal for 2024 is to have CobbleStone attend even more conferences than this year and to start to expand into the healthcare and pharmaceutical fields for event participation.
What, in your experience, does it take to be successful in your role as a Sales and Marketing Intern?
To be successful in the role of an intern at CobbleStone Software, I believe it takes an open-minded approach to learning. Knowing you always have room to improve and learn is a crucial step to take.
What skills and practices helped you earn an Employee of the Year award?
I believe the main contributor which helped me win an Employee of the Year award was a willingness to help whenever possible. By lending a hand to various tasks around the workplace frequently, the experience gained in doing so helps you become more well-rounded overall.
What has been your proudest moment while working at CobbleStone?
I would say my proudest moments primarily occur after lending a hand with various tasks around the workplace. I truthfully enjoy the feeling I get by helping others, with those moments being when I feel the proudest of what I was able to do.
What is your goal for 2024 and how do you plan on achieving it?
My goal for 2024 is to continue to look for opportunities to help when I can. If I see others that are in need of a hand, I’ll do what I can to be there.
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