John Youngblood
Leesburg, Virginia, United States
MEET JOHN:
John Youngblood is a seasoned sales management executive with a record of team turnaround successes and a total of more than $350M in revenue gains throughout his career. He is recognized by peers as “the most intelligent, enlightened, and effective Sales Manager I have worked with” who possesses “executive presence second to none” and takes great pride in creating sales teams known for “openness, collaboration, and entrepreneurship.” In short, he is a revenue rainmaker and sales dynamo with penchant for leadership.
SPEED TECHNOLOGIES:
With a deep technical services and software solutions sales background and a passion for the business value of IT, John thrives in high-demand environments. In his current role as Managing Partner of Speed Technologies he co-founded this transitional IT services firm from the ground up to deliver high-touch, best- in-class XaaS cloud computing services.
He not only conceived the business niche, he also built out the sales team and forged a multimillion-dollar pipeline of qualified leads in a mere 6 months. With an exceptional gift for demand generation, he quickly penetrated target markets while cultivating a 42% close rate on qualified leads.
EARLY SALES CAREER:
Recruited to Gartner in 2001 as Senior Strategic Account Manager to help build out a new business unit, he guided the most successful service product launch in the company’s history while achieving more than 30% YOY growth and more than 150% in sales gains.
CISCO SYSTEMS & ALCATEL-LUCENT:
In 2005, he joined Cisco as a Senior Territory Manager. John turned around a territory with lackluster performance, achieving record sales in Year 1 and 201% channel growth.
Recruited to Alcatel-Lucent in 2009 as Regional Director of Sales, he reignited sales for a region with a flat 5-year growth pattern and catalyzed 150% revenue gains. By leveraging his sales coaching and development expertise to rebuild his cross-functional, 18-state team from scratch, John earned Region of the Year twice.
Another key proficiency of his is channel partner growth. At Alcatel-Lucent John boosted channel adoption and partner ecosystem growth by 110% or more through VAR strategy design that enabled him to shift 90% of the business from direct to value-added reseller sales.
John earned his BA in Business Management from the University of South Florida.