Chantel George is a dynamic leader and the founder of Sistas in Sales (SIS), the largest global network dedicated to empowering women of color in professional sales. A seasoned tech sales executive herself, Chantel has held prominent roles at industry giants like Twitter, LinkedIn, Dataminr, and Yelp. Throughout her career, she has been a passionate advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Her experiences and observations inspired her to create SIS, an organization designed to address the unique challenges and opportunities faced by women of color in the sales field.
Sistas in Sales has quickly become a global force, redefining the landscape of sales leadership for women of color. Founded in 2018, SIS has cultivated a thriving community of over 12,000 members across diverse industries. The organization provides invaluable resources, mentorship, and networking opportunities, fostering a supportive environment where women can connect, learn, and grow.
SIS partners with Fortune 500 companies, tech startups, and consulting businesses to drive systemic change, helping them attract, hire, and retain women of color in sales roles. Through its annual summit, workshops, and online platforms, Sistas in Sales is empowering the next generation of women sales leaders, creating a more inclusive and equitable industry for all.
Her Agenda: What inspired you to create Sistas in Sales?
Chantel George: So I get this question asked a lot, and it makes total sense because it’s an organization that’s grown so much over the years, but I think I can answer this in two folds. As an entrepreneur, it’s always best to solve for something that you have a personal connection with because you’ll have the intuition required to make the right and the best decisions, at least from a vision perspective. You know the problem, like the inside and the back of your hand, and so that was my story. I was in sales. I didn’t have a lot of support, I didn’t have a lot of navigation, a lot of mentorship. I didn’t understand the business. I didn’t understand the industry, and I was tired of feeling like I was just in the passenger seat in my life because so much of your career affects your life, your livelihood, and your lifestyle. And what I ended up doing was interviewing women of color who were in sales I found on LinkedIn, and I would write their stories down, and from there, I would publish it on a website because I wanted other people to learn that you could make $500,000 as a base salary in some very senior career positions. You could have access to a private jet and fly around with the CEO to close deals. You could be flown to San Francisco for a business lunch from your company and flown back the same day. Not ideal. But the point is, when you’re bringing in money into the business, it’s like an unspoken, unpublished, or publicized world. But all I knew as an entry-level sales professional was that I needed to be cold calling and cold emailing, that was all the information I had access to. And after doing those interviews, I was like, wait, being good at sales can mean this. I didn’t know that, and I wanted everyone who worked in sales and liked it to know, especially if you are the first corporate professional in your family, you need to know what awaits you.
Her Agenda: Were there any obstacles that almost deterred you from creating the platform?
Chantel George: I’m completely self-funded. Bootstrapped from zero to multi-millions over the years, and each partnership means a lot to me. Even in the DEI shifts, we’ve done our best to remain a beacon of light for our community. I mean, there’s a roller coaster we have all been on as organizations that support the community due to political and political policies and corporate policies that have been fluctuating over the past five years. But I think a happy moment has come out of my community, standing 10 toes down for me, like I didn’t expect that type of support coming in the opposite direction. My mission was to make their lives easier. I didn’t think they would make or try to make my life, in my life easier, and so that was a surprise. But a lot of the women now, they’re advocating for us to keep our programs in their in their institutions, to make sure that our conferences are being funded. They are going to bat for us, and it’s amazing. It’s really beautiful to see so much advocacy.
Her Agenda: You talked about how you felt when you first entered the sales industry. Are there things that you would like to tell women of color to become aware of when they enter sales?
Chantel George: It’s a really great skill set to have as a life skill. So there’s no such thing as entering in the sales industry, because the industries are really vertical, based upon what the company is solving for. So, for example, there’s the automotive industry, there is the retail industry, there is the manufacturing industry, and the technology industry, and all those industries, there needs to be someone responsible to bring in revenue in the company. And I think that it’s better for you to align yourself with an industry in a vertical way, as I mentioned, that you are passionate about. Because working in sales, in said industry will be easier for you because you already like what you do. So if you already like fashion, work in a sales career in a fashion company, or if you like media, or if you like tech, because your job and your life really revolved around telling the story of the company and the industry that you are working in. The storytelling is what’s going to get people to buy from you.
Her Agenda: You formerly worked at Twitter, Yelp, and LinkedIn. Can you describe how those experiences shaped you into the person who can run an international organization?
Chantel George: Without being too into the specifics of the companies themselves, I would say I worked for large businesses, and I got to see how large business operates, and you can’t really read about it; you actually be in it to experience it. So I run my company with some elements of that, where we have departments and KPIs and goals, and we run team meetings very effectively and efficiently. So, I would say that it has helped me bring structure to my company. That’s been the biggest thing. And then, you know, in some cases, like with LinkedIn. LinkedIn was one of our first customers, if you will, like they gave us space to produce an event. It was a breakfast event where we explored the importance of getting an MBA or not in your sales career. And so there are some instances where when you go to a company, you’d be surprised that sometimes that company will support your initiatives and your dreams. That was a very big surprise. Alternatively, the opposite can also happen. You just don’t know, but at the very least, you can walk away with a sense of corporate structure.
Her Agenda: Can you describe maybe one moment when you thought that failure was on the horizon, whether it was building Sistas in Sales or just trying to build your career, but you persevered?
Chantel George: Anybody that’s doing anything to support a particular demographic right now is going through a lot of stress. So we are all, as much as we can, rising above it. We are all stressed about the state of the world right now. But every day is like a new positive. I always say, one negative for every positive and three negatives is one positive. I keep score like that throughout the day, and because I remember that. The challenges are financial. Because, I mean, we’re in a state of disproportionate defunding. There are financial challenges, but I think, I think even outside of that, there are psychological changes that are happening, but people are really sitting with themselves, trying to figure out what side of the fence they are on. And that’s caused a lot of mental health issues for everyone.
When running a community organization, you feel that. I’m very close to it. I can feel my community aches. [But] there’s some good stuff happening. So we have a conference coming up in four weeks called Aspiring Sellers. It’s for new people who want to enter sales for the first time. And, of course, we have our major event for professional sales professionals in September in Midtown, New York. Sisterhood is the core of everything that we do.
Her Agenda: What advice do you have for someone trying to build a community similar to Sistas in Sales?
Chantel George: Community business is hard work, so I think you’ve got to determine if it’s something that you want to do professionally or if you can just do it as a part of your personal give back. I do this professionally, but it is not a requirement. I also did it as a side business for years, and I’ve been a professional community builder for about three years. And I would say that there are pros and cons to each, but I don’t believe that you need to. Not everyone is cut out to do this full-time. So my advice is to really think about whether this is something that you need to create into a livelihood for yourself or something that you can do occasionally. Some people just like to gather their friends or their alumni group or their sorority sisters or whatever it may be, and they’re just good gatherers. Don’t get caught up with all of these communities and events and flashy things that show up here or there. It’s very stressful to run a community, and it requires you to be very vulnerable and always exposing yourself in order to keep your connection going with your community. And so that can be difficult over time. But even outside of being a community leader full-time I’m also ensuring that our business is not only based upon qualitative information, but that we are collecting quantitative information about our network so that we can serve them better. For example, when people sign up to be a member where we’re asking them the questions, we’re looking at that data and we’re creating programs for them that serve them.
There’s also a technology side attached to community building and a way to really understand the data of your community so that you can make sure that you’re giving them what they need. In a lot of communities, especially those that were founded maybe in the 60s and 70s, collecting data about your community was not the most important thing. In this day and age, it’s critical because there are so many places to get community, and nowadays, you’re only going to go to the ones that are super-serving you. I don’t think people are spending money, time and energy at an event that’s generic. The only way to do that is to ask a really robust collection of questions at the onset of someone becoming a member of that community so that you can serve them.
[Editor’s note: This feature has been edited for length and clarity.]
