CHRIS JENSEN
Toronto • Ontario • Canada • Tel. 905 . 466 . 0440 (Mobile)
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Professional Profile: Sales executive with over 15 years' experience building businesses. Proven ability to develop sales channels and penetrate difficult markets, domestically and internationally. Achieved exponential growth with limited resources. Engendered trust by understanding and addressing people's passions. Cut across cultural barriers. Has well-developed managerial skills. Demonstrated and verifiable capacity to exercise leadership, work harmoniously as team member, and take direction from superiors. Willing to travel extensively. B.Comm., University of Toronto.
Sales and Related Employment
( See chronology )
Sonic Frontiers International, Inc. (electronics mfr.), Mississauga, Greater Toronto
Vice-President, Sales and Marketing, & Managing Partner, 11 yrs.
- Grew business from scratch to become largest manufacturer of specialty, high-end consumer electronics worldwide in six years. Built home-audio and home-theatre electronics, both tube and solid state.
- Achieved $10 million per annum in gross revenue.
- Increased sales 5250% with limited resources:
- Ranked as Canada's 8th fastest-growing company in 1995 and ranked 21st in 1996, by Profit magazine.
- One of four finalists (among 880 nominees) for Entrepreneur of the Year award, sponsored by Ernst & Young.
- Negotiated effectively with suppliers and customers, enabling $4.5 million in sales on $100,000 worth of credit.
- Quickly overcame challenge of working with distributors who already had products they were selling successfully. Persuaded them our value proposition was superior to that of competitors with established, 20-year relationships. Induced distributors to drop competitors' products in favour of ours.
- Instead of talking abstractly, I gave them an experience they could not forget. Distributors want to make sales. They also enjoy using electronic systems. I showed them I could deliver equipment that would make customers feel as though an artist were performing in front of them, live.
- Took time and made effort to get to know people as persons. Demonstrated that I valued them, independently of what I could gain from them. Offered suggestions from which they would benefit regardless of whether they did business with me. Drew them out, not merely by listening to them, but acknowledging their thoughts, feelings and aspirations.
- Established rapport and trust, inspired confidence and commitment.
- Proven ability to:
- Break through ethnic barriers.
- Capitalized on fluency in spoken French and facility in blending with diverse cultures in foreign markets.
- Relate harmoniously with (a) management and staff of VARs, distributors and retailers, (b) sales agents, media personnel and customers — in over 40 countries.
- Managed 86 employees, including 8 direct reports, 58 sales agents and 48 foreign distributors.
- Demonstrated managerial skill, along with courage to delegate, by maintaining high morale and productivity despite travelling internationally 65% of the time.
- Realized, early on, that travelling was essential to expansion and development.
- Empowered staff to make bold decisions in my absence to allow the business to run itself while I was on the road building it. I also established lines of communication so that I knew what was going on at all times.
- Conceived, developed and implemented marketing and product development strategies that anticipated and effectively countered those of competitors.
- Accomplished, in part, by conducting market research, networking with peers, and interacting directly with the marketplace:
- Managed product launches, public relations, media relations, and Internet development.
- Co-developed all branding strategies.
- Planned, arranged and scripted brochures and other key marketing documents.
- Organized more than 90 successful trade shows (globally), capitalizing on opportunity to talk directly with customers, acquiring valuable feedback executives frequently miss.
Corporate Accounts Executive, 2 yrs.
- Commended by GM for ability to:
- Work harmoniously as member of team.
- Take direction from and liaise cooperatively with senior management.
- Develop and deliver presentations that were instrumental in closing sales with prospective clientele.
- Penetrate difficult markets — e.g., submitted tender resulting in acquisition of highly coveted and profitable Ontario Ministry of Health account.
- Achieved this sale and others by liaising effectively with governmental bodies to develop technical specifications. This gave us the edge we needed to prepare submissions that most closely matched governmental requirements.
- Established and maintained sales at 120% of quota.
- Managed corporate (40%) and government (60%) accounts.
Senior Corporate Accounts Executive, 1½ yrs.
- Consistently exceeded sales quotas, winning many awards.
- Cited by superior for competence in developing C-level relationships, guiding clients' enterprise-wide solutions.
- Significantly expanded business and closed sales to Fortune 500 and key governmental accounts.
- E.g., pioneered the development and sale, to Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, of a lucrative, corporate-systems evaluation program, formerly used by employer in-house as a training and assessment tool.
- Commended by management for demonstrated initiative and creative thinking.
Project Manager, 1½ yrs., FT/PT
- Exceeded annual sales target and earned bonus, raising more than $250,000 for this highly reputed charity. Introduced and developed Porsche car raffle; project-managed all facets of event.
- Successfully negotiated contracts with such corporations as Olympia and York, TD Canada Trust and TSX.
- Worked part time during academic year while successfully handling 120% of normal B.Comm. course load at University of Toronto. Averaged more than 60 hours per week at other times.
Director of Sales, 6 mos.
- Directly negotiated with and sold services to high-end manufacturers and retailers, including Bloomingdale's, Macy's, Hugo Boss, and Lagos (even with US Airways having recently declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy).
- Achieved, in part, through extensive research into prospects' promotional, advertising and data-mining activities.
- Provided vision and direction instrumental in developing Bank of America / US Airways partnership. This agreement boosted sales and built customer satisfaction.
- Demonstrated coordination skills by liaising with all internal departments to ensure accurate and effective communication.
- Held jobs in food, construction and IT industries. For example:
- Worked for Courtyard Café, Toronto's premier, elite dining establishment. From this job I obtained valuable experience cultivating relationships with persons of financial means. It was this demographic that became my target market as I made the transition towards high-end sales.
- Served as Assistant to Head of Programming, Scarborough College, University of Toronto, and acquired proficiency with computers — which proved increasingly valuable in my career as this technology evolved. Demonstrated initiative and attentiveness to bottom line by teaching self "C" programming language to complete assigned project. In so doing, saved thousands of dollars by avoiding the necessity of hiring a trained programmer.
Bachelor of Commerce, Victoria College, University of Toronto.
- Double Major: marketing and finance. Double Minor: East-Asian studies and French.
- Solely financed own education: over 80% of funds earned through employment while enrolled in B.Comm. program.
Other Skills and Interests
Fluency: English and oral French (able to work in both languages).
Computer: Proficient in wide range of business-related applications, using
both PC and Macintosh platforms.
Sports: Advanced scuba diving. Mountain biking. Volunteer youth coach.
Chronology
2002-2003 Advantex Marketing Intl.
1991-2002 Sonic Frontiers Intl., Inc.
1989-1991 Businessland, Inc.
1988-1989 Epson Canada, Inc.
1987-1988 Big Brothers of Canada
1984-1988 Bachelor of Commerce
1980-1984 Prior Employment
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