Meet Manami Chiba, Senior Sales Manager, Mid-Market
Senior Sales Manager Manami Chiba shares how five years of growth at Abnormal — and the unexpected lessons of new parenthood — shaped her into the leader she is today.
May 27, 2026
Five years ago, Manami Chiba joined Abnormal as an individual contributor when the company had fewer than 100 employees. Today, she leads a Northwest mid-market sales team she built herself — every rep hired, onboarded, and developed by her. That arc, from seller to builder of sellers, is the through-line of her story. But so is something harder to put on a resume: learning how to lead with both conviction and grace, especially when life gets complicated.
From Rep to the Person Reps Call
Manami's transition into leadership didn't happen overnight. She spent time as a team lead before stepping into an official manager role — a deliberate progression that shaped how she thinks about what leadership actually means.
"What surprised me most about the shift was how much I really liked the smaller moments," she said. "Working through a tough deal with my reps, helping my reps connect the dots on a strategy that suddenly clicks."
Those moments still drive her. Development, in her view, is the heartbeat of leadership. She describes the high of watching a rep try a new tactic and nail it, see their name announced for President's Club, or earn a promotion they've been working toward for months. "There's nothing more rewarding than seeing my team win and seeing my team shining," she said.
Every rep on her current team is someone she personally interviewed and onboarded — a fact she mentions with visible pride. That ownership, and the accountability that comes with it, defines how she approaches the role.
The Deal That Didn't Move
One of Manami's clearest illustrations of her leadership philosophy involves a stalled deal — the kind where everything looks right on paper but nothing is moving.
Her team had covered the fundamentals: product fit, pricing, stakeholders. Still nothing. Then, on LinkedIn, she noticed that a colleague had previously worked with the prospect's CEO. They made the connection, reached out, and within days the conversation had turned around.
"It was a really great reminder for me that deals aren't just about strategy or process. They're really about the people. Relationships and trust can really move mountains."
That creative approach — looking beyond the obvious levers — is something she actively coaches. In a competitive market, she says, it's often the human connection that tips the scale.
What Changes When You Become a Parent
Manami is candid about the challenge that has pushed her most: becoming a working mom.
Sales leadership carries an unspoken expectation of constant availability — the kind of presence that doesn't account for a one-year-old at home. She quickly realized that standard wasn't sustainable.
An analogy she heard recently has stayed with her: we're all juggling a bunch of balls, some glass and some rubber. "The real skill that you need to learn and acquire is learning which ones are rubber and which ones can bounce and which ones can't," she said.
"That mindset has really helped me become more intentional and more empathetic to others as well, and more focused on what matters," she said.
A lesson from a colleague reinforced this further: how you do anything is how you do everything. In a company that's grown from under 100 to nearly 1,500 employees, that principle became an anchor. "Holding myself to a certain standard has helped me stay steady throughout those changes and really lead with consistency," she said. It's the behavior she now works to model for her team.
Empathy as a Strategy
Ask Manami what kind of leader she is and the word she reaches for is empathy. But she's careful about what she means.
"It's not about being soft," she said. "It's about being accurate and understanding."
When people feel understood — when their motivations and pressures are seen, not just managed — she argues you can coach them more effectively, build stronger trust, and ultimately drive better results. Empathy, in her framework, is precision: knowing where someone actually is so you can meet them there.
What the Product Makes Possible
Manami has been at Abnormal long enough to watch the product earn its reputation. About 10 months ago, a customer on her team's book posted an unsolicited message on LinkedIn describing how Abnormal had transformed their approach to email security. They wrote about their frustration with legacy tools, how attackers were getting smarter, and how Abnormal's AI-driven approach worked to block sophisticated threats and save their team hours of manual effort.
"That post stuck with me. Behind every deal, every demo, and every internal milestone, there's a customer who's sleeping better at night because their organization is more secure."
She hears it directly in customer conversations too. "We're stopping attacks that traditional tools simply can't," she said. "We are helping them sleep better at night."
On the internal side, the connection between what they sell and how they operate makes the work feel especially meaningful. Her team uses AI to identify the right prospects faster, personalize outreach, and spot patterns in deals that help them adjust strategy in real time. "I love that we're utilizing AI to work smarter without losing the human element," she said. "It's given us better insights, sharper execution, more time to focus on conversations and decisions that actually matter."
What Keeps Her Here
Five years in, Manami is clear-eyed about why she's stayed. It comes down to the people, the momentum, and a genuine belief in what the company is building.
"Being able to see so much success out of your reps and have folks excited to be here is one of the reasons why I continue to be here after five years," she said.
For a new sales manager thinking about joining, her message is simple: the technology is unmatched, and the collaborative spirit — reps who compete hard and still celebrate each other's wins as their own — isn't accidental. Every win, she says, is a team win. That's what makes them stick.
