Curran Tryka is a relationship-driven IT sales professional focused on helping businesses strengthen their IT environments through smart, scalable solutions. With a consultative approach and a passion for simplifying technology, he partners with clients to improve security, efficiency, and long-term growth. Outside of work, Curran enjoys fitness, nutrition, and spending time with his dog, Artoro. He’s excited to grow with IT Insights as he takes on his new Account Executive role and supports customers through their evolving technology needs.
We sat down with Curran and asked him a few questions we thought our clients and partners would like to know:
Q: How did you break into sales? What drew you to this career path?
A: In college, I had a journalism teacher who asked the class what they were planning on doing with their communication degree. The students all had different ideas, but the teacher asked a general question, “Anyone want to go into sales?” Not a single person raised their hand but me. Since then, it’s all I’ve ever pursued.
Q: What type of clients or projects do you most enjoy working with?
A: I personally enjoy working with clients who have long-term vendor relationships in mind, getting deep into their technical roadmaps that we can help achieve together. In previous roles, I had customers for over five years, and it was always great helping them overcome business challenges and seeing how our solutions greatly benefited their growth over time.
Q: What’s the most challenging sale you’ve ever closed? How did you make it happen?
A: There was a cloud migration with a ton of complexities attached to it, from compliance and security needs to infrastructure dependencies. I was able to get the migration closed by listening to what the customer’s main concerns were and formulating a team of experts in those particular areas to design a scope of work aligned with their priorities. Through discovery calls and commercial meetings, we were able to close the deal. I was able to make this happen by taking a team approach instead of trying to do it all on my own. If you can identify the strengths of your team, you can quarterback a deal to win.
Q: What’s the biggest surprise you’ve encountered in your career?
A: Gaining the ability to adapt to change easily. I don’t fight change; I find a way to work with the change. It surprises me how change does not impact my performance.
Q: How do you stay sharp in the industry?
A: Remain a student of your craft. Change is imminent, and if you are not keeping up with how that change is impacting your role, it will impact your performance. So continue to study, learn, and implement new practices to stay ahead of the curve.
Q: What sales tool, technique, or trend has been a game-changer for you?
A: AI… I feel like that’s a given. If you are not researching how AI can be applied to your role in the business, you are doing yourself a disservice.
Q: What’s your go-to app or tool that makes your sales day run smoother?
A: Claude and ChatGPT are great AI tools I use for research, prospecting, and discovery when working in sales. These enablement tools reduce the time it takes to accomplish typical sales tasks, allowing you to focus on what is needed to tie up any loose ends to get the deal closed.
Q: What’s your approach when understanding a client’s needs and proposing solutions?
A: Understand the client’s “Why?” by asking open-ended questions and listening. This leads you to their business priorities that you can position a product or solution for.
Q: What advice would you give to businesses looking for the right technology partner?
A: Align your business partners with your business values. Long-term partnerships are built on trust and execution. If those values are not there from the start, you will cycle through IT partners, costing the business resources and revenue.
Q: What’s your best advice for someone just starting out in sales?
A: Speak less and listen more. Discovery is everything, and it’s nearly impossible to hear a client’s pain points or business priorities if you’re just pushing a product that doesn’t have a business justification attached to it. So listen, gather the facts, and then advise.
Q: If you weren’t in sales, what other career path would you have explored?
A:If I was not in sales, I would have considered a career in media/broadcasting or something to do with branding. It would’ve been cool to learn the TV business and produce things people enjoy or help grow brands people love to use.
Q: What do you do to unwind after a busy week of client meetings and calls?
A: I look forward to meeting up with my close guy friends on Friday nights for dinner. It allows me to spend time socializing in a way that’s not work-oriented and eat great food that naturally de-stresses a person.
