Q&A with Adikteev’s EMEA Sales Manager, Mikheil Pagava
From sales intern to sales superstar: join us as we interview our EMEA Sales manager, Mikheil Pagava. Follow his inspiring journey on how he searches for clients, his approach to inevitable setbacks, and — synonymous with today’s mobile marketing and retargeting industry — his thriving life and career at Adikteev.
Watch the full video here:
How long have you been working at Adikteev and what is your job title? How did you end up here?
My story with Adikteev started almost 3 years ago when I joined the company for my end-of-study internship. Overall, it was supposed to be just 6 months. At that time, I had to learn everything about mobile marketing and retargeting from scratch because it was my first experience in the advertising industry and in France itself. But thanks to our great results that we managed to achieve as a team, I was offered to stay in the company for a full-time position and, of course, I accepted. Right now, I’m the sales manager responsible for the EMEA market and I’m working with the rest of the team from the Paris office.
How do you look for clients? Tell us about your work process.
Frankly speaking, the search process is one of the interesting parts for me in sales because you meet a lot of new folks from all over the world and it’s really amazing. At Adikteev, we have different internal and external tools in order to find and identify the right company and the right contact within the company. Today, there are millions of different applications. Most of them are not ready for the retargeting campaign or it’s not their priority. For us, it’s very important and it’s key to check different types of metrics, such as daily active users, monthly active users, and how applications are monetized. Is there enough purchases, ad revenue? And based on that, we come up with the right retargeting strategies. During our first call with the prospect, we already have a small picture of what’s happening in their application, so we can come up with the right solution for the client. And sometimes, they’re really excited and impressed by this. Luckily, after the lockdown, we are able to travel. Of course, we are participating in different conferences and events and it helps us meet our clients, our partners, new people and new contacts. It’s really amazing because you can speak with them face-to-face.
How do you explain retargeting to potential clients? How do you make it easy?
It really depends on the company size. For small companies, it’s a bit different because we need to educate them and to showcase what retargeting is because they’ve never tried any retargeting campaign so they’re not experienced. Sometimes, we need to tell them what is the value they might lose if they don’t run the retargeting campaign. And for industry leaders, it’s slightly different because they’ve already tried retargeting. They’re way more mature compared to small companies. They have dedicated teams responsible for the retargeting campaigns. They know all the advantages and benefits of retargeting campaigns. We only need to negotiate about the terms and conditions and, sometimes, the different types of KPIs in order to reach a given target. Also, for Adikteev, it’s been more than ten years in this industry. During these times, we managed to gain the trust of our clients and on the market. Those companies are happy to work with us.
How do you deal with tough clients? How do you approach setbacks in sales?
I will not call them tough clients. Right now, we have hundreds of applications live worldwide. And of course, our AM team, they’re doing an amazing job in order to approach those clients the best way possible. Each client is unique with particular needs and problems. Our job is to provide unique, customized solutions for them. Clients, they care about performance. Everything in retargeting campaigns is measured by different KPIs — and it makes sense. Our job is to make sure that we have the right set up, right campaign set up, and that we are on target.
What have you learned so far in your almost 3 years in sales that has contributed to your growth?
I believe that the most important action in sales, doesn’t matter in which company or in which industry you’re working, is to believe in the product or service you’re selling. Personally, I believe that at Adikteev, what we create and what we provide for our customers is unique and has a significant impact on the app retargeting industry today. Also, confidence helps a lot because if you’re not confident enough in what you’re selling, it means you have a lack of chance at succeeding. Last but not the least, you should believe in yourself and be persistent because, unfortunately or fortunately, you will see a lot of disappointments. No-gos from clients doesn’t mean the end of the story. You should just take it as a challenge.
What makes you happy about your job at Adikteev?
Everything! Can we say ‘everything’? At Adikteev, we can meet more than 20 nationalities/talents from all over the world. Different cultural backgrounds. And despite all this diversity, you feel at home here. That’s amazing. Also, it’s very important to have a healthy work-life balance in a company. As an example, at Adikteev, we switched to 4.5 working days. So, that’s really amazing as well. For me, Adikteev is a great example because I joined the company as an intern and in two years I managed to move later as a BDR/business development representative. And right now, I’m a sales manager.