At VTEX, we take pride in our female leadership. That’s why we kicked off our Women in Leadership content series: to celebrate the powerful journeys of the women that inspire and push us to grow. This time, we are incredibly delighted to bring into the spotlight a key leader in our organization: Juliana Sánchez Gómez, the North LATAM Head of Sales here at VTEX.
About Juliana
Juliana is an International Business graduate from Colombia, with a Masters in Digital Marketing from Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid. She used to work with digital marketing for brands like Grupo Éxito and is constantly looking to improve her skills with courses and other educational initiatives.
After building an extensive career for herself in the ecommerce industry and being a leader for the last 10 years, Juliana arrived at VTEX as an account executive and quickly became Head of Sales for the North LATAM region.
She is a foodie who is always available for dinner with friends and family on the weekends and she is a crime-novel afficionada. Her love story with VTEX goes way back before she was even an employee. And her ecommerce passion runs deep! Let’s meet Juliana.
Hi Juliana! To get things started, please tell us more about your current area and responsibilities at VTEX and what brought you here.
Juliana: Of course! What I do right now is to lead a group of people that are mainly responsible for the ACV – the revenue – that our company receives for having new clients. It’s a great responsibility.
I have this incredible opportunity to lead a team of amazing people and high performers. Our focus right now is getting more new clients to VTEX. We have a great challenge since some countries in our region are are still struggling with the digital transformation process.
As a team of salespeople we not only have to let prospects know what VTEX is, and how we can empower the companies to achieve greater results. We also have to educate them in terms of ecommerce, digital marketing and other concepts such as omnichannel and conversational commerce.
You mentioned before that you used to work on the VTEX client side. Why ecommerce in the first place?
Juliana: That’s a great question. Being honest, for me, it was destiny.
My first job was very different from what I do right now. That’s when I understood that even though I studied international business, my passion was really more on the marketing and the commercial side. And you only get the chance to really know this once you start your career.
I really wanted to make a change in my life, so I went to another job that gave me the opportunity to start working with digital marketing, around nine years ago. For me, it was a challenge because at the time, in Colombia, there was nothing and we were just starting to know what digital was about. That’s when I got in touch with creating websites, and CRM campaigns as well as start selling to our clients in a digital platform and to start learning the process while doing it.
I wasn’t thinking about ecommerce or digital marketing at all when I made that change. But destiny found me when I had the chance of working in Grupo Éxito, where I really worked hands-on with ecommerce. I say it was my first school! I really found out that this was my passion, and it has been ever since.
About leadership
What was your biggest challenge since being a team leader here at VTEX?
Juliana: I became a leader during the pandemic, so it wasn’t easy, since you don’t know most of the people you are working with personally. And that’s very challenging because one of the things I always tried to do with my teams is to connect in this personal level, and I missed being able to share that energy that through a screen is not possible.
I had to gain their trust, during the pandemic, through a screen. I was also their teammate before and was suddenly in a leadership role. I needed to gain their trust as well about being in another role that was going to help them to get to conquer their goals.
What are the main highlights of being a leader here at VTEX?
Juliana: I love the team we are right now. We share the same passion for VTEX and ecommerce. We never talk about individual results, we always focus in team results. I was just bringing myself out there and being open and available for anything they needed. I wanted them to conquer their goals and shine by themselves.
I also liked that here at VTEX there was a training to know how to be a leader so that we could support our teams in a career-oriented way. Also, VTEX is very eager to invest in teams in terms of knowledge, with time and location flexibility. I think this is very valuable and has a good impact on work-life balance. I feel that’s something that has led us to become a very strong team.
Rapid-fire time
Favorite movie?
Juliana: That’s hard. I think “Eat, Pray, Love”.
Favorite TV show?
Juliana: “Friends”. Definitely.
Favorite book?
Juliana: “The Analyst”, by John Katzenbach. A great one!
Favorite meal?
Juliana: Everything with cheese. I love cheese.
Favorite city?
Juliana: I have so many but one of the cities that has marked my heart and where I had the chance to live and learn French was Paris. It’s beautiful.
Stay tuned for even more inspiring stories from our women in leadership.
