From multiple childhood stories that involve singing performances, to working on a farm, to growing up as a twin, Steve Kinslow is always dropping bits of lore in team meetings that leave us trying to put the pieces of his life together.
Steve is (the only) Senior Account Executive here at Kapoq. So if you’ve reached out to learn more about us in the past 3 years, you’ve likely talked to him!
When Steve describes what he does to his grandparents, he tells them, “I sell software to folks who manage a brand on Amazon.” But for Steve, sales is so much more than just selling. He loves relationship building, negotiating flexible pricing structures, and doing something different every day.
Despite his prowess in sales, Steve didn’t dream of becoming an Account Executive as a child—instead, he wanted to be an ESPN analyst. To work towards that dream, he majored in TV/Radio Communications in college, and after graduating, he worked as a Production Assistant. He even met Reese Witherspoon!
But even with his love for the field and the brushes with celebrity, the money wasn’t there. When we originally asked Steve how he ended up in sales, he said “Student loans… being a PA wasn’t cutting it.”
He ended up finding an entry-level sales position on Indeed, where he was making 200 cold calls a day not taking no for an answer.
Even though he had no formal background in sales, Steve put everything he learned from his communications degree to good use—he knew how to put on his best first impression, when to hesitate, and how to think on his feet.
At a sales job like that, you face lots of rejection, despite your insistence. But Steve didn’t let it affect him, mostly because of sports. Steve is both a Mets and a Jets fan, which according to him is “the worst combo of sports fandom you could be. They have losing seasons constantly, which I think builds integrity.”
He’s brought that mindset into his sales career. “Sales is very much like baseball,” he says. “You have to expect you’re going to fail more often than you succeed. But if you hit three out of ten in baseball, you’re going to the hall of fame.”
This mindset likely comes from the best sales advice he’s ever received: “Always celebrate the little victories, because the big victories don’t happen enough!”
Perhaps unsurprisingly, his favorite Kapoq feature also focuses on both the little and big victories. Steve has a soft spot for the Comparison tool in the Accounting module: “All of the efforts and incremental changes you’ve made to your advertising, content, inventory, and reviews all go to the bottom line, and you need to know how those changes affect your business.”
It’s easy to see why our team and clients love working with Steve. He cares about people and baseball, Amazon businesses and his beagle, Adam Sandler movies and Kapoq. And it’s easy to see how he went from Farmer Steve to PA Steve to Sales Steve, when this is the advice he’d give his younger self:
“It’ll all work out in the end.”
Reach out to your new best friend Steve using the form below:
