Tech Tidbits 2.4: Jim Martin

Season 2 Tidbit 4

What sets Creed apart?

 

In this segment of Tech Tidbits, Jim Martin (Creed’s Head of Growth) discusses with Chris Teigen:

• how he got his start
• what sets Creed apart
• Creed’s process

Runtime: <4 mins

Chris: All right. Hello, Mr. Jim Martin, thank you for taking the time to share your wisdom with us today.

Jim: Of course, Chris, anytime. Are you ready for this? Are you sure you’re ready for this? ‘Cause this is like a black hole. Once you go into it, you can’t get out.

Chris: I mean, if we’re starting, let’s just dive in. Let’s just do this.

Chris: All right. First question. Tell me about your history and how you ended up as the head of growth here at Creed Interactive.

Jim: Ooh. So I’ve got a winding road, uh, history. You know, I started right outta college, actually in commercial finance. And so, you know, that’s light years away from digital technology, as old and as stagnant as sometimes banking can be.

I found my way into technology and into the world of digital and advertising when I actually had a failed business. I learned a lot. And one thing that led me to more direct sales was just the fact that how much I learned really led me to understand people a lot better.

And it really kind of opened up my eyes from a sales perspective. I got my first job at a large digital consulting company, and I just kind of fell in love. I’ve always been kind of a nerd at heart, and I’ve always really been interested in technology and wanting to dive a little deeper, taking things apart, putting ’em back together, and wanting to understand.

And so it led me down a path in technology, and it’s just been a great ride ever since.

Chris: Excellent. All right. What is your sales philosophy and how do you approach new opportunities?

Jim: Yeah, so from a sales philosophy, I take a pretty laid-back approach. I definitely don’t subscribe to some of the high-pressure things that are out there. I am definitely a lot more relationship-based because as much as I think sales is about an emotional decision versus sometimes a more mental decision.

And so by really establishing a relationship with people, you can really get to understand them, who they are, what their problems are, you know, what they’re trying to solve.

At the end of the day, we all just wanna work with people that we like. By establishing a good rapport and relationship, hopefully, I can say that a lot of the people that we enter into relationships with and our projects with at the end of the day really appreciate what Creed brings to the table.

And I think a lot of that starts at the front line of just really trying to understand people a lot better and understand their problems versus trying to tell them how great we are as a company. They already know we’re great, but let’s understand what they’re dealing with and how they want to react to it to really push through that relationship.

Chris: What can you tell me about the expertise here at Creed Interactive?

Jim: Oh, wow. You know, we’re very, very blessed to have a lot of senior-level talent at Creed. Everything from our portal team to open source to enterprise. I mean, we are very, very experienced.

The thing that I love about Creed is the people and just how amazing they are. The open amount of communication we all have, not only as a company but within individual teams, is incredible.

Everybody’s supporting one another. Everybody’s looking downfield, to use a sports analogy, looking in the same direction and really trying to push the ball forward.

The expertise we have here, aside from being senior level, is just that everybody really cares about the projects they’re on.

That care gets shown through how we handle everything from project management down to development, down to delivery and launch. It’s done with a sense of care, ownership, and a lot of collaboration.

The team works so well together. That blew me away, seeing how much collaboration takes place. I’ve always been impressed with Creed, even as an outsider, looking at the kind of quality people that we have.

Chris: All right, Jim, thanks for your time today.

Jim: Thank you, Chris. I appreciate it, my friend. All right. I’ll talk to you later. See ya.