Most Powerful Salespeople 2019: BluSky's Kaci Franklin

Along with networking locally, Franklin partners with salespeople across the country to drive sales nationally for the company

Mike Taylor //June 24, 2019//

Most Powerful Salespeople 2019: BluSky's Kaci Franklin

Along with networking locally, Franklin partners with salespeople across the country to drive sales nationally for the company

Mike Taylor //June 24, 2019//

The Most Powerful Salespeople is an annual list from ColoradoBiz highlighting the outstanding performance of nine salespeople around Colorado. The 2019 sales standouts were selected by our editorial board from nominations submitted over several months on Coloradobiz.com, based on sales performance, persistence demonstrated in achieving or surpassing sales goals, and factors such as challenges surmounted or indications of exceptional effort to get deals done.

Kaci Franklin, 33

Business Development Manager, BluSky Restoration Contractors

Last year Franklin and her team amassed sales of more than $14 million for BluSky, a Centennial-based provider of building restoration, renovation, environmental and roofing solutions. Along with networking locally, she partners with other salespeople across the country to drive sales nationally for the company.

Franklin says the vast access to information that prospective customers have not only makes them better informed in choosing service providers; it makes maintaining a stellar reputation more important than ever.  

“Although I feel we are ahead of the game as a company when it comes to customer service and experience, one bad review from seven years ago on the internet or social media can have a very large impact on why you didn’t land that big job,” she says. “Everyone having access to social media and internet impacts the sales profession in many more ways than customer service, but I feel that it has impacted me the most in holding our team and myself accountable to deliver the best customer experience we can.”

What do you like most about sales?

“How lucky am I to get paid to grow my network of friends? Not only that, I love that the sales profession constantly gives you the motivation to do better. A true salesperson isn’t satisfied with less, or even the same. We are always striving for more. When we achieve that — whether it’s a big sale, a new client or a successful event — there is no greater feeling.”

Biggest misconception about your work:

 “A lot of my friends, family, etc., only see the ‘fun things’ we get to do as salespeople. There are fun events, trips and traveling, and many happy hours. What they don’t see is all of the work we do to develop that relationship, to land that client, to earn that trust, and even repair a relationship or job that went bad. So much of ourselves goes into our job. It’s so much more than a job. It’s personal, and we give a lot of our time and energy to make sure our clients we worked so hard to gain, remain clients.”

 Are salespeople born or made?

“Both. I feel there are different types of sales roles. Sales cycles for some products or services are very long, and relationships are often ongoing, as opposed to a few calls and a closing. I’ve been in roles in which there was specific training to teach you how to close a quick sale for a product in one phone call. In any sales role, I believe to be successful you have to be likeable. In my role as a business development manager and in an industry where sales cycles can be much more than a 30-minute phone call, I believe salespeople are born. Not born with a certain skill, per say, but born with a desire to sell, to spend the majority of your time around people. Sometimes that can’t be made.”