1. How do you drink your coffee?
Black. I'm an espresso drinker. I like a double espresso in the morning to wake me up. I usually have one at lunchtime after lunch too. But that's it. I prefer intense and not too much.
2. You've worked at jambit for a long time. What motivated you to stay for such a long time?
I've been working at jambit for almost 15 years. I really enjoy my work and the tasks have always been exciting. I specialized in the media industry early on. Although as a car nerd and country kid I originally wanted to start in the automotive industry, but I’m now very happy where I am. There are many reasons for this: I work on incredibly exciting projects, have pleasant clients and a great team.
3. What is your role at jambit and what do you like most about it?
In sales, I'm mainly responsible for the publishing houses, with my colleague Oliver taking some of these as the business became too big to manage it alone. Our role changed a lot over time. When I started, we had less than fifty employees. Today we’re around 500. An important part of this growth took place in the media industry. In the beginning, we first had to acquire clients who placed their trust in us as newcomers and chose us. Today, we are like heart surgeons who perform open-heart surgery, and the market trusts us to do so. jambit is now a strong brand.
One particularly exciting development was the collaboration with FAZ, which was the first client to entrust us with its entire website and editorial processes. This is now in its ninth year. This daily collaboration with clients and the trust they placed in us makes me proud and happy.
4. Which trends are currently shaping the media industry?
This question fits well, as I just came from the beBETA 2024 media conference. The omnipresent topic there was artificial intelligence. Media companies are working intensively with AI to find out what benefits and profits they can derive from it and are experimenting a lot with it. This helps us because this is exactly where we can provide support, advice and also suggest projects.
For the media, however, it has a completely different relevance. Their content is under threat from all the AI tools. These tools crawl their pages and earn money with the expensively produced content without the media companies benefiting from it. The discussions about this at the conferences are very exciting.
In addition, there are many ongoing tasks that I call homework. To our advantage, this never stops. We help clients to solve these tasks. Always making new apps and websites, developing them further or keeping their content management up to date.
5. Which advice would you give to future applicants?
You can get a lot of freedom at jambit to shape your own success. It's an incredibly fun environment because there is a lot of openness. People don't talk behind closed doors or play to hidden agendas, everything is always discussed very openly. Check with every potential employer to see if they offer you similar freedom and openness - that's a great asset.
Our employee-centric corporate culture offers many advantages that go beyond traditional evaluation factors such as vacation days and salary. Such factors are important, but they are self-evident. I also see parallels when talking to clients: “I buy standard goods at the best possible price per kilo or per gigabyte.” But it's the unique aspects that really bind us to a company and make our work fun.
6. What should a sales manager bring to the table?
An appetite for the industry and the content you will be dealing with. What our clients really appreciate is that we’re incredibly knowledgeable about their subject matter and not only give the impression, but also regularly prove that we're interested in it. A client once told me at a conference with a wink: “That's actually a cheek. Your employees seem to think it's their company." That's exactly how it is. We look at it as if it were our company.
We make decisions as if it were directly our own success or our own company. You should bring this spirit with you. You should do something that you’re passionate about.
7. Where can people find you when you're not working?
With my family. Unless I'm really just doing something for myself, then I'm either in the cockpit of a glider or on my bike or I'm out in the mountains. But gliding is my biggest hobby, I've been doing it for 45 years.
