Career Path: Neil Forbes, Vice President of Enterprise Sales at Quick Base

What do the career path and the day-in-a-life look like for the Vice President of Enterprise Sales at Quick Base?

We connected with Neil Forbes to find out!

Also, Quick Base is hiring! Click here to see all of the company’s openings!

Where did you grow up?  What did your parents do for work?  

I grew up in North Kingstown, RI. My father was a middle school history teacher and later a high school guidance counselor. My mother was a middle school home economics teacher and later a high school art teacher.

Where did you go to college?  What did you study and what were some of your initial jobs out of school?

I majored in Art, Philosophy & Literature with a minor in Systems Engineering at the United States Military Academy at West Point. I later studied Film Directing and Production in UCLA’s Graduate Film Program. My first jobs after West Point were as a rifle platoon leader and mortar platoon leader with the 101st Airborne Division in Iraq during Operation Iraqi Freedom I. While I was in grad school I did everything from assistant editing gigs for reality television shows to teaching film to working as a bouncer at night clubs and hotels.

What has attributed to your success thus far and has helped propel you to the position you have now?

The leadership training I received at West Point, in Ranger School and through leading platoons in combat was second to none and greatly contributed to my success so far.

Can you share the high-level responsibilities of your current position as Vice President of Enterprise Sales at Quick Base?

• Collaborate with customer base to align our platform with their business needs

• Identify and share new ways that our customer base can leverage our platform

• Build, drive and report on my team’s pipeline

• Partner cross functionally with sales enablement, customer success, product, marketing, legal, finance, and ops to continue to drive efficiency in our sales team and sales process

• Hire, coach, mentor and retain exceptional sales talent

Any tips for someone considering a career in Sales?

I think there will always be a place in Sales for highly curious, technically savvy people with strong oral and written communication skills.

Day in the Life

Coffee, tea, or nothing?

Coffee

What time do you get into the office?

Between 7:30 and 8:30 most mornings. 

What are three things that motivate you in your role?

1. Helping people grow professionally

2. Collaborating with customers that are energized by our platform

3. Working in a market that is largely undefined with a platform that is the leader in that emerging space.

Every day is different, but can you outline what a typical day looks like for you?

• Supporting account executives and managers on customer calls or face to face engagements

• Working with account executives and managers to build effective account plans

• Inspecting and building a rolling 90-day forecast/pipeline

• 1:1s with managers and account executives

• Interviewing or phone screen prospective candidates for our team

What time do you head out of the office?

Between 5 and 6:30 most nights.

Do you log back in at night or do you shut it down completely?  

I log back in at night.

Any productivity hacks?

Meditation. Sometimes you only need 10 minutes of silence to look at a problem in a different way.

What are the 3 apps that you can’t live without?

1. Quick Base

2. Spotify

3. Audm

What professional accomplishment are you proudest of?

Seeing members of my team get promoted to run teams of their own here at QB.

Who do you admire?

I admire all members of my veteran extended family, but particularly those that are working day in and day out to overcome physical and/or psychological challenges that they developed overseas as a part of their service to our country.

Colin Barry is the Content Manager on VentureFizz. Follow him on Twitter @ColinKrash

Images courtesy of Neil Forbes