Why sell for Adyen? Get insider tips from those in the know

Cara Connors Issuing Sales Team Lead in New York

I started at Adyen 4 years ago in San Francisco. After two years, I was offered an opportunity to lead a sales team at another company in NYC that I couldn't refuse, but I have since found my way back. Many have asked me what it's like being back and what attracted me back to Adyen. Like any other major decision, I thought about what was important to me: the opportunity to grow, work with great people, sell a strong product, etc. When I was evaluating career opportunities, I found there were ten or so dimensions that are important to me; Adyen ticks 8 of those boxes. You'll never get all 10, so it was an easy decision to return.

A few months ago, I worked with a strategic customer requiring a complex financial services setup. We engaged a variety of teams to get them on board on a tight timeline. We had people with extensive Adyen knowledge, others with fresh external experience, and a mix of people from global. I was so impressed by everyone's willingness to jump on a call and talk through problems on the spot. It saved us days, if not weeks, of time. Working with such talented and supportive people further cemented that I made the right decision to return.

Jake West Adyen for Platforms Sales in San Francisco

The Adyen sales team is the first sales "team" I've actually been a part of. As a commercial organization, we are highly encouraged to work in pairs, across time zones, and even different offices. This helps ramp up new employees, allows us to sharpen ideas, and support our customers faster because we aren’t operating in silos. In the past two years, I've built deep relationships with many sales managers worldwide.

At the global Sales Event in Amsterdam, the team gathers to connect and share knowledge.

Our leaders don’t just tell us to work together and wait for the results. Instead, we all work together to create a culture of “care”—taking care of ourselves and our teammates. We get to know one another and speak openly. We don’t sugarcoat our findings because it doesn't serve our growth. As our industry evolves and constantly changes, we have to be open.

I recently had a deal with a large US-based company interested in exploring Adyen's international capabilities. This wasn’t an unusual request, but I wanted to make sure I was offering the best advice, so I brought in a colleague from an EU office with local expertise on our international offerings. Throughout the process, we learned a lot from each other, including important local payment methods, cultural nuances in customer interactions, and different sales techniques. Because of the experts we had in the region who knew how to compete and demonstrate our global strengths, we ended up winning the deal. 

Mariam Alajajyan Unified Commerce Sales in San Francisco

It feels like yesterday when I was selling bulky yet innovative Hypercom T7 devices for one of North America's most prominent payment providers. Fast-forward 18 years, and the payments industry has evolved dramatically, but my dedication to helping my customers grow and delivering the best-in-class solutions remains unchanged. 

I recently joined Adyen, but I've worked in payments most of my career. In the last couple of years, I heard more and more of my customers mentioning Adyen positively. Adyen was the competition, so I started investigating and learning more about their payments approach. Through my research and conversations, I realized they (now we!) had a better product. Our global tech stack sets us apart because we own a single global platform connecting every transaction step. This provides a seamless experience for enterprises, eliminating the need to work with different payment providers for online and in-store transactions. It's a first-class offering, and I love selling products that are ahead of the curve.

Joe Rodriguez Issuing Sales in New York

Working across multiple product teams is tough, and working across multiple product teams spread across multiple countries is significantly harder. But at Adyen it works because of our culture of direct communication and collaboration. Everyone is willing to help regardless of the time zone or the effort required. Our sales organization embodies a unified mentality and understands that it will take everyone’s help to move forward. 

I have seen the flip side of this at former companies, and it drains momentum. As sales managers, we need to provide timely responses to customers, and our global organization's willingness to show up at a moment's notice keeps the sales cycle moving forward. In specific markets, our local colleague’s presence can be crucial in a customer’s decision to buy our product or walk away. 

The global team at the Sales Event in Amsterdam.

Our global presence, more often than not, gives us an upper hand and conveys our understanding of local customs and their specific payment needs. Being able to call a teammate from Amsterdam or São Paulo to partner on a deal and help drive an opportunity forward is huge.

Johanna Prinz Issuing Sales in New York

I’ve worked in banking and payments for most of my career, but joining sales was new to me when I began at Adyen. In my early days here, I was most surprised by how the company values are actualized. We operate by them. Down to our commission structure, we are incentivized to work as a global team.

Sometimes, this means you must come out of your comfort zone to reach out to people with the needed expertise. I recently had a deal where I started alone and brought on a partner midway through. I can say now that the deal would not have been as successful if he hadn’t joined when he did. I did well getting this customer to where I did, but then I had to be honest with myself and my ego to see that I needed that extra knowledge.  

Adyen's sales team is the most collaborative and driven sales org you can join. Everybody truly puts winning before their own personal gain.