IvanValev — Senior Sales Leader

I had the pleasure of being mentored by Ivan during a period of intense GTM effort in ALVAO. Ivan is always practical and down to earth. He's not tied down to any single platform but always offers the best advice given the context. From GTM perspective, Ivan really knows the craft and his advice has been really valuable.

Ivan is a difficult person to work with. If you are looking for a leader with conforming, thus mediocre opinions, this is the wrong address. If you are looking for a head-nodding, easy-to-satisfy manager who does not challenge ideas, switch somewhere else. Ivan pushes boundaries. He challenges the status quo. He forces individuals to grow personally and professionally. I loved it all.

Ivan was my manager whilst scaling the new CEE and Baltics team at Deel. He coached me and gave the insights that helped me to excel my closing skills and bring the biggest deal at the time. The cheerfulness, empathy and how Ivan sees the bigger picture and long term goals really inspired me at the time.

Ivan Valev was a key contributor on my team for the Emerging market in his role as business development rep. He constantly achieved or over achieved on his KPI's and monthly quota, whilst cultivating relationships on both the customer and internal stakeholder level. A team player that shared his knowledge and helped to mentor some of the newer team members. Ivan was always accommodating and also a pleasure to work with.

I've dealt with Ivan when my company had initial thoughts of implementing Salesforce. He was our point of contact from day one. Unlike many other account managers, Ivan was extremely helpful and patient with us. I never felt like I was dealing with a sales man, but rather a consultant who is looking for our best interest. He helped us understand the value of Salesforce, showed us its capabilities and how it can solve our problems, negotiated pricing for us internally until we finally became clients. To this day Ivan and I are on very good terms. He truly knows how to build relationships.

I first met Ivan when we were looking to implement a customer-focused strategy in order to scale Foodics growth and expand our footprint outside of the GCC. As our main point of contact, Ivan laid out an engagement plan from the get-go which made our evaluation of the Salesforce platform structured and easy to follow. He surrounded us with resources and helped us evaluate real-life ROI, as well as tangible business outcomes. We trusted him to advise us on different implementation partners and help us secure a successful project delivery. Ivan made us feel confident that Salesforce is the technology partner we need to take the business to the next level. I look forward to working with Ivan again.

Ivan is essentially the main reason why I decided to join the professional services side of the Salesforce ecosystem. His way of leadership combined with hands-on approach had powerful impact on how I perceive business relationships & alliances as well as realizing which leadership style I need to perform the best. Ivan is the type of leader who provides a huge support, builds up your confidence and shows you the endless possibilities that can be achieved in the world of business. Throughout the years that we worked together, I observed his ability to build strong teams & networks that lasts while inspiring tons of people along the way.

I met Ivan when we both worked at Salesforce. Even back then, I found him to be extremely driven and knowledgeable. I remember how he would constantly listen to podcasts and look for ways to deepen his understanding of the region he was covering. He was always a north star when it came to performance, business acumen and professionalism. We later reconnected at Deel, and Ivan was one of the main reasons I decided to join the company. He is a fantastic leader who genuinely supports his people. His understanding of each person's role, how teams operate and how businesses work is exceptional. He gives you the impression that he always knows how to act, what to focus on and how to move things forward. Ivan also has a deep understanding of the region, different cultures and people in general. This makes him not only a strong business leader, but also someone who can navigate complex situations with maturity and clarity. On top of all that, Ivan is simply a very good person. He is someone you can trust, learn from and genuinely enjoy working with. He is one of the most impressive professionals I have met in my career, and he would be a valuable asset to any organisation that manages to convince him to join.