SalesHQ

The Premier Community For Sales Pros

Sales Tips >> Browse Articles >> Sales Stories

Rate

Beware, Salespeople

134 Views

Salespeople are a misunderstood bunch. Quiet, reserved and unfalteringly modest, most just want to ‘touch base and kick a few ideas around’ before rolling out some ‘bespoke 360-degree solutions’ to help you ‘maximise your ROI’. Cliches aside, creativity, strategic thinking and business acumen are becoming the key characteristics of a decent salesperson. When it comes to digital, these attributes are even more highly prized, as all too often online media owners lack the skilled sales teams to help brands create compelling and memorable campaigns.

With budgets remaining tight, marketers need to spend their money more wisely than ever before. To offer a helping hand, we’ve scoured the land to find the UK’s six best digital salespeople.

Spanning media owners Bebo, Facebook, AOL, Microsoft, Google and Sky, our A- listers have grown operations from scratch, generated healthy revenues, expanded their businesses internationally and built long-term relationships with agencies and their clients. Most importantly, they are best placed to help you make your marketing budgets go further.

As any good salesperson knows, however, success is not all down to hard work. As well as asking their peers and colleagues to rate our top six digital salespeople according to their professionalism, we have also factored in the other essential attributes such as charm, dress sense, popularity and the all-important boozing ability.

Perhaps because of its relative immaturity, the digital sector has bred very little homegrown sales talent. Those featured here have gained their experience and expertise in traditional media such as TV, print, radio and outdoor. In today’s world of integrated marketing, this can only be a good thing, and is proof that talented salespeople are capable of ‘thinking outside the box’ to help you get ‘more bang for your buck’.

Stephen Haines

Company: Facebook
Job title: UK commercial director
Age:37

Over the past 18 months, Haines has expanded the UK sales force for Facebook, growing the team from two to an impressive 50 people. He is focused on developing long-term relationships with the top 25 agencies in the UK and their FTSE 100 clients. Known as the ‘ubiquitous Hainesey ’ among colleagues, his digital sales career kicked off just five years ago in 2004, when he joined Yahoo! as agency sales manager, rising to head of agency strategy in 2007. Prior to this he worked as an agency sales manager at outdoor media owner Viacom (now CBS Outdoor), co-founded contract sales company CHA Media Sales, and did a stint in senior sales at Future Publishing. A cricket and tennis enthusiast, Hainesey’s charm, personality and industry knowledge are highly rated among those in the industry.

Simon Podd

Company: Bebo
Job title: Head of sales, UK and Ireland
Age: 39

Podd took on his current role in October last year, and is responsible for managing Bebo’s sales personnel and revenue generation across the UK and Ireland. He works with core clients and advertising agencies on marketing propositions, as well as sponsorship opportunities for Bebo Originals, the site’s equivalent of a broadcaster’s commission. Podd joined Bebo as a UK sales manager, and during his first year at the company has secured large sponsorships with multinational brands including Disney, Cadbury and Toyota. He was also involved in the birth of Bebo’s first serialised drama, KateModern. Prior to Bebo, Podd worked on News International’s launch of thelondonpaper, shaping its commercial proposition. He cut his teeth as a manager at London’s Evening Standard as head of agency sales, fostering and managing client relationships while overseeing agency sales. Peers rate his sock collection as second to none.

Kate Burns

Company: AOL
Job title: Head of European sales
Age: 36

In July, Burns took on a newly created role as head of European sales for AOL, where she is tasked with expanding ad sales on the site’s owned and operated properties in Europe and growing its Advertising.com third-party network. Most recently Burns was vice- president and managing director, Europe, of AOL’s social media company, Bebo, where she was responsible for revenue and its Continental operations. She has more than a decade’s experience launching and leading several businesses in Europe. Burns was previously managing director of Dailymotion UK, where she increased authence numbers, built an advertising sales operation and created commercial partnerships with brands and ad agencies. In 2001, she was Google’s first employee outside the US, taking on the role of director, UK, Ireland and Benelux. In short, Burns is a woman who makes things happen in digital.

Chris Maples

Company: Microsoft
Job title: Advertising, UK APS sales director
Age: 38

TV, radio, outdoor and digital – Maples has worked in sales across all these mediums in the past 20 years, having begun his career at ITV and Channel 4- At Microsoft Advertising, Maples, a larger-than-life character, heads up a 180-strong sales team and is part of the Advertiser and Publisher Solutions (APS) Group, responsible for increasing business revenue across the company’s ad platforms, including display, network, search, ad serving and analytics. He was previously managing director of DrivePM, where he oversaw one of the UK’s leading performance and behavioural targeting networks. He also led the integration of DrivePM into the business following Microsoft’s acquisition of aQuantive. Prior to this, Maples was head of Unique at Maiden Outdoor (now Titan), where he managed the Transvision big screens at national rail stations and other locations. Maples is an all-round salesman, who knows the on- and offline worlds inside out.

Bruce Daisley

Company: Google
Job title: Agency leader
Age: 38

Daisley, originally from Birmingham, started his media career in the early 1900s working at Capital Radio. He went on to spend several years building radio and online sales teams, rising to digital sales director at Bauer Media. He joined Google in September 2008 as agency leader, where he is responsible for helping to transform its reputation with media agencies. Along the way, he’s picked up a clutch of sales-team awards and says he has a reputation for being obsessed with service. He has come to terms with personal failings – for example, his sitcom was rejected by the BBC for ‘lacking comic flair and originality’. Other than that, he says, it was brilliant. Daisley has branded YouTube’one of the seven wonders of the web’, although he admits that he doesn’t quite know what the other six are. When it comes to charm, he turns to old-school communication, sending out individual letters and postcards on a regular basis.

Giles Ivey

Company: Sky Digital Media
Job title: Director of sales
Age: 41

As part of Sky’s online business unit, Ivey works closely with both senior management and Sky’s technical, marketing and content teams, building an integrated approach to online across the business. This involves understanding how traditional display advertising works in the online space, a key part of which, says Ivey, is great content, not just on the internet but across TV, mobile and online. Prior to Sky, Ivey held senior roles at AOL, as director of sales and interactive marketing, and most recently at Times Media, as its first digital commercial director, responsible for all digital revenue at Times Online. He also counts BBC Magazines, Capital and Virgin Radio among previous employees. And the secret of his success? “If you make sure you’re honest with people and deliver good and bad news with equal speed and transparency, then you’ll be ahead of many of the people you’re up against,”he says. Colleagues praise his ability to bring traditional media strengths to online.

Copyright Haymarket Business Publications Ltd. Oct 2009

A service of YellowBrix, Inc.