By John Ingoldsby
Engagement Insider
ASHBURN, VA – The art of communication has been a constant in Troy Drake’s life, and elevated him from the NFL playing fields into a supervisory sales career in the communications field.
He immediately recognized upon arriving in the Philadelphia Eagles locker room as an undrafted free agent in 1995 that a career in the NFL could be short.
Just as importantly, the articulate alumnus of Indiana University also saw the exposure that this high-profile NFL platform provided him.
“When I realized in Philadelphia how short an NFL player’s time could be, while also recognizing the access I was given to key people such as business leaders, I began to build those outside relationships and also took courses offered by the League at a local university in areas such as financial services, insurance, and investment,” he recalled.
When he left the Eagles to join the Washington Redskins in 1998, he continued to build his network, which served him well when he retired a year later.
“I reached out to my contacts, and a friend of mine made an introduction, which led to an interview with an executive from Cable & Wireless USA (now Savvis Communications), a British telecommunications company,” Drake remembered.
It immediately became apparent that armed with his Business Marketing Degree from IU, he was in the exact right place at the exact right time as the Internet Bubble was peaking and Northern Virginia was a high-tech hotbed, a Silicon Valley East so to speak.
“I already had tried some sales in various industries, which I liked, and during my interviews it became apparent that they liked my skill set and traits from the NFL, such as teamwork, leadership, and work ethic,” stated the former offensive lineman.
But most importantly, they liked that he was coachable and had no bad sales habits, and they could mold him the exactly the way they wanted him to be.
In October 2000, this became the Birth of a Salesman when just six months after officially retiring from the NFL he was offered a Marketing Manager position, and given a six-month training period to build a sales plan.
Then as now, when he began to implement his sales strategy, his NFL background proved beneficial.
“I quickly found that discussing my days in the League led to making comfortable connections with clients, and I could also elevate these relationships by taking them to Redskins games and camps,” said the Illinois native.
After four years of climbing the corporate ladder with his first company, he was recruited to Global Crossing Telecommunications, which would allow him to participate in the growing Enterprise segment of this burgeoning market.
During his seven years there, he rose from Senior Account Manager to General Manager, and then opportunity came knocking again.
“In late 2011, I was recruited by Tata Communications to become their East Coast Sales Manager in the Americas, where I rebuilt their sales team while also serving the India and Asia-Pacific markets,” he said.
Then just last year he joined Telstra Inc., an Australian company, as Vice President of Sales & Business Development, where he manages a 10-person sales team serving the Americas, which primarily focuses on the United States and Canada, but additionally serves Central and South America, while the company overall also services Asia.
“In retrospect, my timing has been good as I got in at the peak of the telecom bubble, and as things evolved with Mergers & Acquisitions as well as consolidation, I have always been successful through those times,” he stated.
And once again, the football background still carries weight.
“It’s a lot like the NFL, since as people moved around in my industry, we kept in touch when we were at other companies, and much like the League where coaches stayed connected to players from their past, I have done the same thing to keep my network intact,” Drake beamed.