Q: What do you do at Jumio and what is involved?
A: As Business Development Manager, I’m essentially responsible for identifying and bringing on new clients and partners within the EMEA region. It’s a combination of my own lead generation and campaigns alongside website and event traffic. It’s about building interest within the Identity Verification world and addressing prospects’ requirements.
Q: What was Jumio’s selling point for you – What made you say “I wanna work there!”?
A: Despite having previously worked for Simon (VP of Sales EMEA) I still wanted to join Jumio. I had great references from my contacts and first hand feedback from customers like Monzo and Coinbase. The idea of working for a company that was B2C focused held great appeal for me – my previous roles had been back-office applications for B2B. B2C is more tangible and more rewarding when you finalise an agreement. It’s nice to see the result of your work in action in the real world. Friends, family and contacts use our software.
Q: Before Jumio, did you have similar experiences at previous companies or was this fairly new to you when you started?
A: I’ve been in software sales for about 9 years now, across cyber-security and telephony software to ID verification. I felt like I had unfinished business in this sector, knowing the space was growing rapidly due to regulatory requirements and companies looking to embrace digital transformation. The world is shifting from ‘in branch’ to digital so it was an obvious choice for me to move into this space.
Q: How does your work environment differ from other companies you’ve worked for in the past?
A: We’re pretty lucky in London to have a close-knit, family feel to the office. Everyone is enthusiastic and driven which is a credit to the leadership.
It makes for a positive environment where we’re constantly challenged, driven and supported to succeed.
It’s a great culture and we’re lucky to have regular cake and donuts to keep morale and blood-sugar levels high – and given the location of the office socialising over a drink after work is easy too.
Q: What’s the best thing you’ve done since joining Jumio?
A: I think for me, despite a challenging start to my first year of sales, hitting target and being recognised at our SKO event in Miami was important and pleasing.
Q: What do most people get wrong about the role?
A: There’s a huge amount of work that goes into the initial conversations and lead generation. People might think you get a lot of leads handed to you on a plate – but whether it’s me or the marketing team updating our campaigns with powerful messaging to entice people in – or calling campaigns going on all over the world – finding a suitable / relevant contact and getting the timing right is very difficult and shouldn’t be underestimated.
It plays a huge part in the success of my role – getting the foot in the door with the relevant stakeholders is key. People often think sales is glamorous with lots of wining and dining customers – but as our customers’ businesses are becoming more digital – our conversations and deals are becoming increasingly virtual and digital too. We need to work with their time zones and timescales so there’s far less wining and dining than you might think.
Q: What didn’t you expect about the role?
The amount of autonomy and accountability you have as individuals at Jumio. It has an impact on your own development but also directly impacts the success of Jumio. I’ve seen more autonomy and accountability at Jumio than in any of my previous companies.
Q: What challenges did you face and what did you learn from that?
A: To try and have a break (albeit a short one) to celebrate small wins and victories – especially at the end of each quarter. The ruthless nature of sales and my own personality has meant I haven’t always given myself enough of a break and time for reflection which risks burn-out – so I’ve learnt to take a bit of time to switch off and celebrate progress before chasing the next deal.
Q: What would you say to potential employees wanting to work at Jumio? What qualities should they have?
A: To be as methodical and driven as possible. If you haven’t got the drive, deals aren’t going to land in your lap. It is very rewarding – financially and personally – but you have to put in the hard graft to maximise those rewards.
Q: Can you tell us something not a lot of people know about you or the job you do?
A: It’s not as much of a playboy lifestyle as the Social Media memes might suggest. You’ve got to earn success through hard work.