Emblaze Atlanta Chapter

Connect with your local sales community

Connect and create a community for inside, digital, and hybrid sales professionals who live in the same area. Chapters provide an opportunity to expand one’s professional circle and meet in-person to discuss ideas and/or challenges that inevitably come up in your career. Each chapter is led by Chairs, who serve as local ambassadors of the Emblaze community and a trusted partner with the Emblaze leadership team.

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William Elrod

William Elrod | Chapter Chair

SalesHood
Strategic Sales Director
Contact William

With a depth of experience in leading B2B organizations to drive strategic sales pipeline growth across multiple continents, industry segments and market verticals, Brad is currently responsible for strategic sales and partnerships with FRONTLINE Selling.
Having successfully developed and executed go-to-market strategies leading to $MM revenue gains, Brad continues to leverage his passion in sales strategy, pipeline development, personal growth, team development and retention, market penetration, and technology enablement to help organizations and business professionals advance to the next level.
As an advocate of community engagement and active learning, Brad has recently been involved serving in Youth Program leadership at 12Stone Church, actively reading educational material (including a long resisted conversion to enjoyment of Audible books), and running in Spartan series races with the J-Men Sugarloaf team.
Brad currently resides in Cumming, GA with his wife Heather and three lovely daughters.


Anastasia Ifill

Anastasia Ifill | Chapter Chair

Georgia-Pacific
Sr. Manager, Virtual Sales Capability Development
Contact Anastasia

Anastasia began her sales journey in 2012 as an SDR and quickly discovered her passion for sales. After some time as an account executive she made the decision to transition into training and enablement. Anastasia has helped to grow and develop sales teams for the last 10 years through both training and frontline leadership roles. Anastasia’s goal is to develop, support, and make a positive impact on frontline sellers and her peers in sales leadership.
Anastasia currently serves as Sr. Manager, Virtual Sales Capability Development for Georgia Pacific Pro and Retail organization where she drives sales strategy, capability advancement, and virtual enablement needs.


Hannah Pencek

Hannah Pencek | Chapter Chair

Vonage
Commercial Sales Manager
Contact Hannah

Like many in our profession, I did not grow up aspiring to be in sales. It's a career I fell into but quickly fell in love with. For many reasons but mainly because of the freedom we as sellers have to be creative and find unique ways to connect with people and problem solve. Sales is an art.

It's my mission to continuously study sales and leadership. Personal and professional development is in my DNA. My findings, own experiences, successes and failures inspire the content for Stuff About Sales, a Podcast found on Apple, Spotify and Google.

I am currently a sales leader at Vonage, the most flexible cloud communications platform in the world. My team of Commercial Account Executives specialize in Channel Sales, which is one of the fastest growing pockets of our entire business.


Ben Simms

Ben Simms | Chapter Chair

MarketSource, Inc.
VP of Commercial Client Services
Contact Ben

As the leader of delivery for commercial client services at MarketSource, Ben is responsible for deploying and executing a wide range of B2B sales and marketing solutions for Fortune 500 and enterprise clients across several verticals and industries. Ben’s client engagement programs manage inside sales, account development, brand advocacy, and channel sales teams for some of the most iconic brands in the B2B space. He has an insatiable thirst for learning how different industries can most efficiently grow revenue and share knowledge management principles to instigate strategic thinking. The #1 motivating factor throughout Ben’s profession has been growing careers. Prior to MarketSource he spent 15 years as a leader in admissions, marketing, and operations for higher education institutions to launch careers for graduates and now enjoys growing careers at MarketSource on behalf of his clients. Combining his experience in education and passion for rock music Ben has a “side hustle” as the owner of School of Rock - Johns Creek, inspiring people to rock on stage and in life, which was voted “best music lessons in North Atlanta” by Appen Media. Ben has lived in 13 states calling Georgia home since 2013. He holds a BBA from Western Michigan University and an MBA from the University of Colorado. Ben lives in Johns Creek with his wife, Christina, and two rock star sons. You can follow him on Twitter @ebsimms or LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/bensimms/ or contact him at esimms@marketsource.com.


Erich Starrett

Erich Starrett | Chapter Chair

Corporate Visions
Consultant
Contact Erich

Erich is on a mission to elevate the Enablement profession. A firm believer that an effective Sales / Revenue Enablement function *begins* with the critical baseline of developing and executing skills/training/knowledge transfer but goes well beyond. Enablement built as a fully cross-functional business-within-a-business strategic partnership with the CSO / C-Suite can cross the chasm from "cost center" to irreplaceable revenue engine.

A Sales Enablement History Nerd, Erich is also a podcast personality for OS.C's Inside Sales Enablement Season 3: Enablement History, and concurrently serves as President of the Atlanta Revenue Enablement Society.

A self-proclaimed "AI Curious Human Enthusiast" Erich is closely following the evolution of the digital economy. He is keeping a keen eye on the promise of AI to increase productivity. Greatly reducing "administrivia" specifically. Freeing up time to focus on developing our "superpowers" - our gifting - and enhance each person's capacity to shine as "the unique humans we were made to be."

Erich sees the back of any napkin (literally or digitally) as a whiteboard for innovation and endless possibilities ...and has more than a few stories! If you see him "at the bar" with napkin and pen, we encourage you to join in!

His enthusiasm for community extends beyond the corporate environment. He serves as a leader in singles ministry and has been on the North Point Community Church production team for over a decade. He also runs production for the Atlanta Chapter of Souly Business' quarterly men's retreats. Most importantly, he is the proud daddy of a community of three - Ewan (17), Emma (11) and Audrey (15.)


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