Tiffany Arcaris: taking on the tech world.

• Author: Roberts, Julie
• Position: Around Utah

In her role as vice president of worldwide sales for Xi3 Corporation, Tiffany Arcaris is helping the Salt Lake City-based computer company to thrive in an industry that's dominated by big players such as Dell, HP and Lenovo. But Arcaris hasn't always been a techie--in fact, she originally planned on joining the FBI. But she discovered her talent for sales, marketing and administration while working at Broadview University as its youngest-ever campus director, and then expanded her experiences by working at Robert Half International as a staffing manager.

Her professional background served her well when Arcaris started working at Xi3, where she and the other executive team members established the company's sales architecture and strategy, training programs, commissions and incentives plans, benchmarks, quotas and goals. Under her direction, Xi3 has expanded its business portfolio and achieved significant quarter-over-quarter sales increases. Arcaris explains how she's able to use her sales skills effectively in the ever-changing world of computer technology.

This job is your first experience in the tech world. How did you learn everything that you needed to know to succeed in this position?

I had to jump in with both feet. Now I'm happy to say that I'm a bit of a tech nerd. Quite honestly, I learn something every day. It was scary at first, but I like a challenge.

All of my experience has been sales oriented, but with services--not products. I had to switch from selling intangibles to selling tangibles, and there are a lot of different challenges.

What was the biggest challenge you encountered when you first started at Xi3?

Our biggest challenge was brand awareness. What we did initially was to conduct an awareness campaign. We asked ourselves--where have we seen...