Although he didn’t know it at the time, Henry has always been preparing for a Sales career. In this Pulse People interview, he talks about his background and how he built a career out of his early petty trading vocation, and how he came to lead the Sales team at Pulse Ghana.

Tell me about your background, and how you came to be involved with Sales.

So to start with my background, I am a young man with good hopes of growing up to become a lawyer, a dream I hold in high esteem and am sure all hopes are not lost yet. But selling has always been part of my life as a result of my mother being a petty trader. Right during national service I found myself in an FMCG space where I started as a Salesperson and moved up the ranks to Territory Sales Manager, Category Manager and then to Head of Sales & Marketing before joining Pulse Ghana. During these periods Marketing and Brand awareness were part of my JD so I was always showcasing my brand through print media and radio. Still, I fell in love with the Digital Marketing space, and boom here I am selling  Digital.

Tell me about how you got into Pulse.

I suggest becoming a major shareholder at Linkedin due to my addiction to that social channel, where I used to connect with a lot of “Generational Thinkers“.  During my normal routine on this channel, I saw a job posting From Pulse Ghana wanting a Senior Digital Strategist. I applied and was scheduled for an interview. During the process, the Director of Sales & Strategy (Sena Quashie) told me there was another vacant position for Head of Sales and would like to interview me for that role as well. Fast forward, and I was given that role instead, and the learnings have been so amazing; my short time with Sena was literally already an MSc in Digital Strategy, and the rest is history.

Tell me about your current role at Pulse Ghana.

As the Head of Sales for Pulse Ghana and with Nigeria especially being my benchmark, I needed to achieve my monthly sales targets, and work with the account management team to ensure services sold are delivered to clients with the goal of maximising client retention. I’m also responsible for the sales team members growing and realising their full potential per assigned target. I assist inbound inquiries to the team members, represent Pulse Ghana at events and build relationships with potential clients and partners. I ensure that defined sales processes are followed at all times, review proposals developed by members of the team, identify prospective clients and develop connections with decision-makers.

What does a typical day look like for you?

My typical day starts with jumping on my Daily Sales & Strategy calls at 8:00 am every day, short calls with my Director of Sales & Strategy for realigned topics and key action points, responding to internal and external calls and most importantly prospecting. 

How do you draw inspiration?

I draw most of my aspirations from my lovely kids as they remind me every day to work like a superman.

How do you relax and unwind?

My fun time is playing tennis with old school friends, and colleagues from the industry, time with my small family and some drink-up sessions which are very necessary to me. As the saying goes: “You work hard, you chill hard“.

This article is part of Pulse Insights, our newsletter about marketing insights in Africa, bringing you strategy, insights, industry news and announcements to help you market better and sell more. 

The World Cup will kick off in Qatar in November. If you’re a football fan, you’re already excited about this now. The 2022 World Cup hosted by Qatar is expected to be watched by 5 billion people around the world, according to FIFA president Gianni Infantino. Qatar itself predicts that over 1 million people will travel to the country to watch the games live. 

No other sporting event has the international viewership the World Cup commands. A tournament of this magnitude, attracting more than 5 billion passionate pairs of eyeballs, is usually extremely attractive to brands. For most brands, even minimal exposure at the World Cup could bring in a significant increase in awareness and a flood of new leads. But achieving brand awareness and visibility at the World Cup is, quite understandably, out of reach for almost every brand and marketing department. 

Unless you’re a global brand with a marketing war chest (this World Cup is forecast to have a $2bn ad spend, according to Bizcommunity), you’re not going to be able to showcase your brand during the much-coveted ad slots. So, how can your brand leverage the world cup to connect better with the audience you serve? 

We’ve put together some actionable insights here. Regardless of what industry you’re in, you will find at least one of these tips valuable in the coming weeks, as the tournament approaches. 

Insight 1

Find the intersection between footy lovers in your domain and your target audience.

Everyone watches football. That’s a good place to start. No matter how obscure your target market is, there’s a very high chance that at least 40% of that market will be football fans. This is where it would be useful to have a documented and hypersegmented view of your current audience. Depending on the size of the campaign you’re planning, it may help to also do a quick survey. 

Knowing how much of your current and potential target audience is interested in football can help you determine how much of an investment you should make in a marketing campaign riding on the World Cup. 

Insight 2

Create or join a passionate world cup-related initiative

It could be adopting a team at the world cup and creating content around the tournament from that perspective. Or sharing updates on the world cup on your social channels and giving detailed commentary, live shows on social, or a cheeky video of the CEO watching a game. The point of this would be to open your brand and show a human, passionate side. It’s amazing what these initiatives can do for brand perception in your audience’s heads, and these changes in how your brand is perceived could be seeds that you reap further down the road.

Insight 3

Prediction giveaways, either for only clients or for everyone in your digital community.

Everybody loves giveaways. People never forget about the time when they won something. They share that story for years and years. This insight can be further energised if the items you give away can stay with the winners for a long period and are not easily disposable, so instead of airtime for mobile phones, you can try branded items like mini bluetooth speakers, earpods, water bottles, and so on.

Insight 4

Get influencers involved.

Influencer marketing is word-of-mouth on steroids. Subject to brand positioning, brands can identify influencers within their market, people with a strong following, who are passionate about football, and get them to engage their digital communities at the World Cup. Brand messages can be communicated subliminally, or through (again) giveaways or engagement content. This method assures that the campaign is reaching an overall audience that is already engaged and committed to the influencer, meaning that there’s a much higher chance for your brand to benefit from that goodwill, and record new warm leads, more awareness and more conversion. 

Conclusion

The World Cup is as clear an opportunity as any, for brands to excite, engage and connect with their audiences, no matter the size of the brand or the audience. Excitement and passion are great backgrounds on which to create lasting memories and impressions. Part of the ROI on these insights is new leads and maybe even some conversion, but the bigger return on investment would be the long-term relationships you build with footy fans, which you can always tap into for other campaigns.