Kym Harrington is the CEO and president of SalesEdge – an Upland Software partner and provider of Qvidian RFP and proposal automation and Intelligent Capture software solutions. Described as a highly opportunistic, business savvy leader, Kym has a history of growing businesses and creating customer trust and loyalty. Despite the massive changes driven by technology and automation that have occurred over the past two decades, Kym and her team deeply understand that their clients‘ primary needs remain the same: having a faster, more compliant way to successfully respond to RFPs, sales proposals, due diligence questionnaires and other customer facing documents.
“Each year, billions of dollars for projects and services are awarded through RFP processes. Although a well-written RFP or sales proposal won’t necessarily win you the business, a poorly written one will definitely lose you the business,” Kym said. “Leveraging intelligent automation, you can quickly and efficiently create persuasive selling documents.”
Beyond the capabilities of the enterprise ready Qvidian solution, and the SalesEdge experience and expertise, what sets SalesEdge apart from other RFP automation software platforms is its philosophy.
“Customer Success is at the core of our culture.”
Kym elaborates on the critical role customer service and support plays at SalesEdge: “We are your guide through unseen territory and stay with you throughout the entire process to help you achieve your specific business objectives.”
Kym is a results-driven leader with decades of experience in sales, marketing, finance and strategy. She earned a BA from Southern New Hampshire University and an MBA from Boston University. Before founding SalesEdge in 2007, She held senior-level positions in sales at Pragmatech Software, Kadient and PC Connection (now Connection).
EARLY CAREER
Kym’s passion and dedication to hard work and discovering new opportunities set her apart early in her career. After graduating from college, she began working at Connection. In a group of more than 30 new hires, she promised herself that she would work her way into a higher-level position at the company within the year.
Often the first one in the office and the last one out, she fulfilled this promise to herself within six months and moved into the first group dedicated to corporate sales. Without a tech background (and without the Internet as we know it today), she read voraciously to understand the product lines and technology, which allowed her team to outperform other teams. While doing her research, Kym realized that universities were a huge, untapped opportunity for Connection. “We dug into what the school’s needs were when buying computers for their incoming classes. Duke University was our first sale. It was the biggest laptop order in the history of the company. That’s when we realized we had a niche.”
While exploring additional sales opportunities in a budding market, Kym asked the question, “What if we had educator pricing?” From there, the group drove the educator pricing initiative and launched a catalog for this very market. This success allowed Kym to launch a new dedicated team to focus on the education marketplace. As education sales became more sophisticated, so did RFP processes, which required finding and packaging the right mix of products, pricing and service. The success of the education group led to the creation of a government group. Both gained significant traction and quickly grew to more than 200 people. They were key components of the company’s growth, which led to an initial public offering in 1998.
Kym continued building new strategies and ways of doing business as she transitioned from a billion-dollar company to a small one when she joined Pragmatech Software – an automated RFP response software company — to oversee its sales organization. At Pragmatech, she managed the inside sales team as well as the UK team and focused on making changes to the sales process to improve the teams' performance.
EARLY DAYS OF SALESEDGE
Kym’s passion is clear in her tenacity to embrace opportunities and solve problems in the face of fear. At the beginning of 2007, Pragmatech planned to focus on a different business model and move away from the RFP software market. Kym saw opportunity in the evolution of Pragmatech and thought she might be able to create and run a spin-off company. She proposed the idea of starting a separate company, licensing the software, hiring the current RFP software employees and focusing exclusively on the RFP automation business.
“When the opportunity presented itself, things came together quickly and were based on many years of experience. It was perfect, but not without risk. We were all supporting our families and had to make this work and plow forward. You just have to push the self-doubt away.”
She created and launched SalesEdge in a week. Her team quickly started closing deals, and in its first quarter, the SalesEdge team became profitable.
Regardless of the success of SalesEdge – from storing office furniture in her home garage until the new company found an office location and instantly building a high-performing team – Kym doesn’t see herself as a typical entrepreneur but rather as a pragmatic business leader, which she exhibits throughout the highs and lows of the economy.
For example, SalesEdge felt the deep impact of the 2009 recession. “It was a daunting time in my life. We had limited incoming business and we spent two quarters in the red,” Kym said. “Fortunately, we had funds saved up to support staff and keep the lights on.” Kym also saw the importance of keeping her employees engaged and hopeful. “At the time, clients still needed help, but they didn’t have money either. So, we started offering free training to our client base. We told them, ‘Just remember us when the economy turns around.’ All those clients are still with us today.”
SALESEDGE TODAY
Today, SalesEdge leverages technology across the board to streamline its own processes and client communications. SalesEdge has continued to offer RFP and proposal automation software and serve as a key partner with Upland Software for Qvidian and Intelligent Capture. The company has thousands of customer accounts and hundreds of thousands of users across the country. Clients span all industries, including financial services, technology, healthcare and business services and client loyalty runs high.
Every member of the team that left Pragmatech in 2007 to join Kym and work to achieve her vision is still with the company today. Kym credits her team as playing a critical role in the long track record or success the business has had. For the past eight years, Business NH Magazine has tracked women leaders in New Hampshire showcasing their economic influence. SalesEdge has made the list of New Hampshire’s Top 20 Fastest Growing Women-Led Companies for the last seven years.
Kym attributes the growth of SalesEdge to the value customers experience by working with her team. Despite the success of the company, she remains actively involved on the client side to ensure she doesn't lose sight of clients' struggles, needs and – most importantly – opportunities for success.
