Here at QuickPivot we work tirelessly on our top-notch Customer Data Platform that helps marketers better understand their customers. We’d be nowhere without our smart and hardworking team, so we wanted to introduce our readers to the people who roll up their sleeves each day to ensure we’re making a difference for each of our customers.
Today I had the privilege of sitting down with Mike Curtin, the Chief Revenue Officer and CEO of QuickPivot. During our conversation, I learned that Mike is a natural born sales person with an entrepreneurial spirit – dating back to the age of 12 when he started his own paper route. Mike founded SmartSource, a Tier 1 email service provider (ESP), in 1994. In 2012, Smart Source was acquired by a company called Extraprise and the QuickPivot we know today was born.
Q: What’s the weirdest job you’ve ever had? Early in my career, in the late 1980s, I worked as a salesman for a technology company that used underwater sound to deter fish from the intakes of power plants. It was in a time when there was a lot of emphasis on the Endangered Species Act, so it became important that fish (and other underwater creatures) not go into the intakes and become chum. I’d have to say, this was the strangest product I’ve ever sold.
Q: What’s your favorite aspect of your job? My favorite part of my job is building teams within our organization that help set up success for our customers. Seeing how impactful we are to our customers is a huge driving force that keeps me excited about the work that I’m doing for our organization.
Q: Why is right now an exciting time to join our team? The way brands and consumers are communicating with each other has changed dramatically in a very short period. Historically, people bought based on price or product – now it’s very much about the relationship of the consumer to the brand and the expectations of the consumer. Consumers want brands to communicate at the right time, about the right things. Whether or not brands are able to communicate in this way will determine if a consumer will remain a long and loyal customer. QuickPivot has a state-of-the-art Customer Data Platform that enables brands to communicate effectively with customers. The space is taking off and we’re on the cusp of something huge, so I feel it’s a fantastic time to come on board at QuickPivot.
Q: What do you think is the most important quality needed for success? Passion! Passion leads to a number of things. It determines how quickly people learn, how effective they are, and how innovative they become. You have to believe in what you’re doing and you have to believe that what you’re doing is meaningful. When I meet people, I’m looking for a sense of passion and an urgency of which they want to explore that passion.
Q: What advice would you give a marketer who is considering purchasing and implementing a customer data platform? In a meeting this morning with a prospect, who is late stage in their search for a Customer Data Platform, they asked me that same question and my answer was this: look past the platform and understand the team behind the platform. Typically, in a buy cycle the prospect has gone through our tool a hundred times and have a very thorough understanding of the tool’s capabilities. I urge companies to explore what exists beyond the platform itself, to the team who will be helping the customer succeed. We have a cutting-edge team of people who are skilled and ready to help our customers succeed. Our goal is for all our customers to be references to other customers and in order to do so, they need to be successful. We’re here to ensure they achieve that success.
Stay tuned for our next Employee Spotlight coming in the next couple of weeks.
