She had no fraud prevention knowledge and no tech background, yet she competed against five male candidates for the VP of Sales role. Her sales thesis was simple: technology sells when it solves a business problem the customer already knows. This career pivot shows that becoming a non-technical sales leader is possible if you focus on the right inquiry.
H2: The Core Question That Unlocked Every Deal
So what exactly was that inquiry Karina refined? It was disarmingly simple: “What business problem do you already know you need to solve?” That’s the key to asking the right question. Instead of leading with a product demo or a feature list, she flipped the conversation. She put the customer’s existing pain front and center. This is a classic consultative selling move — you stop pitching and start diagnosing. The question forces the buyer to articulate their own need, which makes the solution feel like a natural fit rather than a forced sale. It transforms technology from a shiny novelty into a practical tool for a known issue.
This approach isn’t just theory. Karina used it across deals on four continents: South America, Europe, Asia, and North America. For example, she flew to Poland, spent three weeks learning the product inside out, and then used her signature question with a Latin American retailer. The result? A proof of concept that hit its target metrics and converted into a signed contract in under a year. The speed wasn’t luck — it was problem identification done right. By pinpointing a pre-existing business problem, she made the sale feel inevitable to the buyer.
H3: Why the Customer’s Known Problem Matters
You might wonder why it has to be a problem the customer already knows. The answer lies in sales questioning techniques. If you try to invent a problem for them, you waste time educating and convincing. But when you ask about a known pain point, you tap into urgency they already feel. That’s the secret to asking the right question: you’re not selling a gadget; you’re offering a fix for a headache they’ve been living with. For banks, that might be slow transaction processing. For retailers, maybe it’s inventory waste. Karina’s core question cut straight to that truth, making every subsequent conversation faster and more focused.
From Cannes Lions to Fraud Prevention — Translating a Creative Background
That ability to ask the right question didn’t appear out of thin air. It was forged in Karina’s early career in advertising, where she learned to read audiences and uncover what they really cared about. Ten years ago, she attended festivals like Cannes Lions, surrounded by campaigns designed to grab attention and build trust. Today, she’s having the same kinds of conversations — but now the audience is risk managers at large banks in Brazil, Europe, and the US, and the product is fraud prevention. The shift from creative to tech sales might seem like a leap, but the core skill is the same: understanding the emotional and financial stakes of the person you’re talking to.
Her advertising background gave her a natural instinct for storytelling in sales. Instead of pitching fraud prevention as a list of technical features, she framed it as a story of lost revenue and reputational risk — the kind of narrative that resonates with a bank’s bottom line. That’s a classic transferable skill: taking a creative approach to problem-solving and applying it to a completely different industry. She didn’t just learn the product; she learned what the buyer was afraid of losing.
Why She Said No (and Later Yes) to the Portuguese Startup
When a Portuguese fraud-prevention startup first reached out on LinkedIn, Karina’s reaction was a firm no. She was in the middle of critical negotiations and couldn’t afford to pivot. But a year later, the timing was right — and she said yes. That patience paid off. In her new role, she worked with ten of Brazil’s largest banks, helping them rethink how they handle trust in transactions. The lesson? Even when you’re good at asking the right question, the answer sometimes takes a while to arrive.
Building from Zero — The Singapore Operation
That lesson about patience paid off sooner than expected. While she was still working with those Brazilian banks, a Singapore-based anti-money-laundering startup reached out with an unusual offer. The role had no existing infrastructure — no processes, no team, no playbook. Just a blank slate and a mandate to build from scratch.
For many, that blank slate would feel overwhelming. Karina saw it differently. She treated it as a canvas, and her first move was the same one she had practiced for years: asking the right question to decide what to build first. Should she focus on hiring? On product training? On customer outreach? Each question led to another, and she let the answers guide her priorities rather than forcing a pre-packaged plan onto a new market.
Being a Woman in a Male-Dominated Interview Process
Before she could build anything, she had to earn the role. She competed against five male candidates for the VP of Sales position. The odds were stacked, but that imbalance sharpened her focus. Instead of trying to match their pedigrees or technical credentials, she concentrated on outcomes. What could she deliver? How would she measure success? That shift from defending her background to defining her results became her market entry strategy — and it worked.
Her lack of technical background and fraud prevention knowledge might have seemed like a disadvantage. Instead, it became an unexpected strength. She asked questions the experienced engineers had stopped asking years ago. Why did the process work that way? Who was it really serving? Her fresh perspective forced the team to rethink assumptions, and those simple questions often uncovered gaps no one had noticed.
This is where female leadership in sales often shines — not by mimicking existing patterns, but by bringing a different lens. Karina proved that building startup operations from zero isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about knowing which ones to ask first.
Breaking Into the Mature US Market — Patience and Persistence
That same principle of asking the right question carried her into a new challenge: breaking into the mature US market. It wasn’t a quick move. Nearly a year of negotiation and six or seven interviews passed before she landed the role. Patience and persistence were essential, but so was her ability to keep probing — to understand what the market truly needed, not just what the job description asked for.
The US role added a new layer to her expertise: digital identity applied to AI agents. This isn’t just a buzzword combination. Digital identity is about verifying who someone is online — think secure logins, fraud detection, and privacy controls. When you apply that to AI agents (automated systems that act on your behalf), you get powerful tools for preventing fraud and ensuring trust in automated transactions. It’s cutting‑edge territory, and her background in building operations from scratch made her a natural fit for the complexity involved.
You can read more on this topic in Euristiq Native Software Firm Earns AWS DevOps Competency.
Her success in the US market is a strong signal that asking the right question works even in the most competitive environments. By the time she entered North America, her career already spanned clients across four continents: South America, Europe, Asia, and North America. That breadth gave her a unique perspective — one that helped her see gaps where others saw only established routines.
How Digital Identity and AI Agents Fit the Thesis
Her thesis — that the right questions matter more than ready answers — applies directly here. In fraud prevention, for example, the common approach is to build tighter rules. But by asking “What are we not seeing?” you open the door to identity‑based solutions that adapt as threats evolve. The specific results of her US work aren’t publicly detailed yet, but her presence in this space already signals a new chapter. It shows that the method she refined across continents translates well into the world’s most demanding tech market.
Why Poland Matters — The Data Science and AI Hub
While Karina’s US ambitions mark a new frontier, her European foundation was built in an unexpected place: Poland. You might not immediately think of it as a tech capital, but Poland is considered one of Europe’s most relevant hubs for data science and AI. It draws top talent and startups, making it a strategic launchpad for global tech careers. For Karina, this location was not just a stopover—it was where her method of asking the right question truly sharpened.
After her work in the US, she flew to Poland for a three-week immersion in the Polish office of the Portuguese startup she was representing. This wasn’t a quick sales visit. She spent that time deeply embedded with the product team, learning the software’s ins and outs. This product immersion allowed her to understand the technology’s real-world capabilities before ever pitching it to a client. By grounding herself in the technical details on the ground, she could ask better, more precise questions about what the AI could actually deliver—not just what the marketing materials claimed.
That hands-on knowledge paid off. Using her refined global sales strategy, she closed a proof of concept (POC) with a Latin American retailer. The POC hit its target metrics and converted into a signed contract in under a year. This success wasn’t just about selling a product; it was about using a deep understanding of the AI hub in Poland to fuel a cross-continental deal. It proves that asking the right question starts with knowing the product intimately, no matter where in the world you are.
Frequently Asked Questions
How did a non-technical candidate land a VP of Sales role in fraud prevention?
She focused on understanding the customer’s pain point rather than the product’s technical specs. By asking the right question about what truly mattered to buyers, she could speak their language and build trust. That skill often outweighs deep technical knowledge in a sales leadership role.
What is the ‘right question’ Karina Portugal learned to ask?
She learned to ask, “What does success look like for you?” instead of jumping straight into a product pitch. This shifts the conversation from features to outcomes and uncovers the real need behind the purchase. Asking the right question this way creates a consultative, not transactional, dynamic.
How did she break into the mature US market?
She did not try to compete on price or features against established players. Instead, she identified a specific underserved segment and tailored her message to that audience. Asking the right question about what that segment truly lacked allowed her to enter with a clear, differentiated value proposition.
