XBIZ captures the thoughts of digital media luminaries in business development as we sought their take of the year 2017.
New business is the lifeblood of any business. And the front-line business development executives who foster growth for their enterprises are priceless members of the team, second to none.
Mobius Payments is built on a foundation of customer service and commitment to our clients and our reputation has grown to reflect those values. -Matthew Mund, Mobius Payments
The following question about the year in review was asked to those running for the XBIZ Exec Award for Business Development Executive of the Year:
Which efforts created the most business for you this year?
Chris Gentile
Evil Angel
“2017 was a major year of change for Evil Angel. We continue to grow our television business, and still sell a huge amount of DVDs, but our focus has shifted to making EvilAngel.com the best paysite product it can be. We’ve also been producing more content in-house and have launched a new imprint, Evil Angel Films, for high-end passion projects. These changes, paired with an increased focus on marketing strategy, created lots of new business for us in 2017!”
Joey Gabra
New Media Services
“The efforts that got me the most business this year has been a combination of two things really. The first one has been leveraging my connections in the business. I have been lucky enough to meet and become friendly with some fairly influential people in our industry and I’ve finally decided to take advantage of that by asking for intros to people/companies that I may not already know. An introduction from the right people at the right time can go a long way. The second effort has been good old fashion ‘door to door’ sales. I’ve just been getting out there and asking for meetings and trying to learn about the needs of so many different companies, then once I have a better idea of where I fit into the mix I go in for the close. Sometimes we forget that this is a numbers game and that as long as we know our product and we believe in what we are doing enough, then traditional sales techniques can always work.”
John Mauser
Too Much Media
“We had a few priority efforts as 2016 ended and we leaped into 2017. One of which is the completion of the next version of our NATS platform. The team here has listened to feedback from various peers, clients, and partners, while also performing their own research to provide a more efficient and intuitive experience. The next version, I believe, is going to change the user experience in a positive and welcomed way. We can’t forget about our NATS for Networks platform either. Many people weren’t really educated on what the new platform offered, so expanding the conversation and providing information has been warmly received and we will continue our efforts powering forward. Additionally, expanding our brand awareness in the E.U. market has been incredibly well received as demonstrated by the consistent growth we see and we look to expand on our efforts in 2018.”
Chris Youngs
Paxum
“Being present and available to all of our clients at all the industry events around the globe.”
Jesse Garza
Kink
“Working to reestablish relationships with other paysite programs and partner with them to promote both Kink and their products on our new platform.”
Karll Cloutier
Bang.com
“Efforts in innovation were key drivers to our success this year. We really paved the way to new revenue streams in that perspective. This is setting the stage for us to have a stellar 2018. Look out for our new products and opportunities! On a more individual level, efforts in building deals that promote winning outcomes for everyone involved have been essential ingredients for a very productive year.”
Olivier Bourque
CrakMedia
“At Crak, a more than significant part of our biz dev is based on partnerships. The best deals often come from existing contacts, opening doors for us. We don’t want to compete with anyone; we want to partner up with everyone!”
Matthew Mund
Mobius Payments
“Mobius Payments is built on a foundation of customer service and commitment to our clients and our reputation has grown to reflect those values. Our word-of-mouth referrals and personal recommendations are the most invaluable marketing assets we have; the trust and endorsement of our clients have created more new business for us than any marketing campaign ever could. The Mobius Payments Anti-Fraud program launched late last year has also been a huge success in helping our clients significantly reduce the number of chargebacks received each month. I believe the success of this program has contributed to the growth we’ve experienced this year.”
Stinger
Traffic Partner
“With the tremendous growth and new partnerships Traffic Partner has done in 2016-2017, we can say it was not a boring year to work for someone in my position. Making sure the new and existing partners are working in full synergies, and with all those new assets to monetize, there is plenty to choose from. I would say that Grand Slam Media is the one that overnight created the most business. Their large portfolio of publishers and advertisers, combined with their deep knowledge of the monetization of all traffic sources was simply a ‘home run’ out of the park for us. We were able to overnight monetize and highly increase our revenues on all the traffic sources we buy and already have — on top of maximizing our revenues in all our members’ areas. I am looking forward to an even greater 2018 year for the entire Traffic Partner family and all our partners.”