Life in the Swimlane with Senior SDR, Matthew Bilsland

Welcome to the “Day in the Life” blog series. Here we will feature interviews with Swimlaners to learn more about their experience. This series will give you a preview of Swimlane, our culture, and the people who keep us going.

Hi there, I’m Matthew. I was born in South West London in September ’96. Growing up, sports were central to everything that I did. If I had a birthday party, the theme would be athletics or football – and almost every weekend you would find me outdoors doing something active. Aged 8(ish), we got our first family dog which was an Irish Terrier named Bessie. 

How long have you been with Swimlane?

I have been with Swimlane for 1 year and 5 months, which has absolutely flown by. Looking forward to many more!

What does your job entail?

In my role as a Sr. SDR, my primary responsibility is to find new businesses to nurture and qualify for our sales team to then close. This role requires a lot of creativity in reaching out to prospects but also resilience because most of the time people don’t reply! I work closely with my Sales Director on territory plans, target accounts and tailored campaigns, all in a bid to get the Swimlane name out there and to pass through qualified opportunities. I am responsible for the training and onboarding of new SDRs within Europe and META. Finally, I am the self-nominated social sec. of Europe, organising our quarterly team socials.

What do you enjoy most about working at Swimlane?

I enjoy the culture and the journey. Everyone wants the best for the people around them – this is something I can relate to even with the majority of my team based in other countries. I consider the journey to be how the company aims to achieve the goals that it sets out. This ranges from how we adjust our marketing strategy to how we update our platform to be more in line with market predictions and current trends. The fast-paced environment keeps me on my toes.

What excites you most about your work? 

We have all the right people in place for the company to do great things over the next few years, how can I not get excited about this? I love looking around and knowing we can go toe to toe with any company given the people that we have at Swimlane.

What do you like to do when you aren’t working?

Outside-of-work life is important to me. As you have gathered, I love sports and I have settled on playing field hockey which takes over my weekends during the season. I have a great group of friends who I drag to the pub when there are sports on or when I fancy a wind-down drink.

What’s a fun fact about you many people may not know?

I was briefly in a band, I played a game for England Mixed Hockey and I lived in Buenos Aires for 4 months.

Your motto or personal mantra:

“Hit the phones” 📞

Three words that best describe you:

“Driven, Brilliant and Helpful.” – The Swimlane Marketing team.

What Swimlane core value resonates with you the most?

“Always be leveling up”

What type of impact do you want to leave on our industry?

Hopefully, I won’t be leaving any time soon. But I want to come away with a career where I progressed and developed both professionally and personally in everything that I have done.