Innovation in a Reinvented World: 10 Essential Elements to Succeed in the New World of Business

Zuvo Water: Joseph Taylor, Regional Sales Manager, Betty Kinney, Regional Sales Manager

The sales team provides so much of the backbone for a company. It is no different for Zuvo Water, even though the backbone today is made up of just two sales professionals.

Joe Taylor and Betty Kinney joined the Zuvo team just two months apart in 2009—Betty based in Georgia and Joe in New England—both taking a leap of faith with the new start-up.

“The biggest leap of faith for me in my professional life was leaving a full-time job with benefits!” Taylor says. “Here I am joining a start-up company with a new product that few people know about and deciding to take this risk anyway—even in this difficult economic time—what do I have to lose? I just decided to go with it, something for the long-haul opportunity.”

Kinney says that her biggest leap is the job she has now. “The majority of my experience is with Fortune 500 companies. This is a different environment with a new company and new technology; it's about 90 percent different from what I've done in the past,” she says. “I'm dealing with consumers and customers on a different level. I have so much ownership, but I'm also part of a team that will make a difference in the long run.”

Sales professionals exude a different energy when they get excited about the product or service they represent—something that sustains them throughout the times when they hear the word no (although for most sales professionals this is when the fun begins).

For Kinney, ...