Canada

President’s Club @ MiQ: Tarah McEwen

“I’ve learnt to take disappointments in stride and focus on the long game… sometimes the best bonds are built under pressure” - Tarah McEwen, Sales Director

President’s Club is the pioneer employee recognition program for sales superstars in the MiQ Canadian market. We are excited to recognize and celebrate those who have gone above and beyond to achieve great results.

 

You have been working in sales for quite a while. What inspired this career decision and why sales at MiQ?

Earlier in my career, I worked in an account management role and I got to collaborate with some great sellers. Seeing them in their element made me want to emulate them. I loved that they always got to leave the office. They were always off to meetings or taking clients to lunch and fun events. Another cool thing was that they got to ring the office gong when a contract was signed, which was a lot of fun. Whenever a sale came in, they got that moment of recognition and attention, and I wanted that!

When I think about why sales at MiQ, I would say it stemmed from my time working in digital for several years. I watched from the sidelines as digital evolved from direct sales to programmatic, and as real-time bidding sort of took off. I believe that programmatic and data-driven buying is the future of digital media, so I wanted to align myself with a company that had similar views. After doing some research, I learnt that MiQ had an excellent reputation in the Canadian marketplace as a leader in the programmatic space, so it seemed to be a natural fit.

President’s Club celebrates those who went above and beyond in sales. What key moments were defining points of success for you?

2022 was a great year, so there were many highlights.

I was able to lean on industry relationships, turning them into opportunities and eventually revenue, which was my goal as a new sales director. It’s incredibly rewarding to be able to bring past clients back onto your roster at a new company.

There was also some big personal growth for me last year. After two years of working from home, getting back into the office and speaking in front of a room again seemed foreign. To help get back into the swing of “in person”, I volunteered to host a company-wide session during Canada’s UNITE week and to moderate a panel at a direct-to-consumer event in November. These experiences have helped me to feel more comfortable when speaking to larger groups.

We know that success comes from a series of highs and lows. Tell us about one of those low sales moments and what you learnt from the experience.

Early last year, we won a yearlong campaign with a beverage brand. It was a new brand and a sizable budget, needless to say, we were excited. Just days after it launched, we received a note from the client asking us to cancel everything. It was quite frustrating. We had done our jobs, recommended a great strategy, won the campaign, and even went live.

However, what I learnt was really to take these disappointments in stride and focus on the long game. Continued client education and relationship building are always an important part of our jobs and sometimes the best bonds are built under pressure.

By focusing on the long-game and white-glove client servicing, we got another opportunity to continue working with this client and scaling their business. This is why it’s important not to get discouraged at the bumps in the road.

What three principles would you say guide you and your work?

I love this question because I often fall back on these three key work values. I call them the three T’s – trust, transparency and tactics.

Trust is such an important building block for client relationships, which is the backbone of success in most sales roles. As a B2B business, we work with a lot of the same clients over and over again, so getting to know them and building that trust over time is paramount.

Transparency is big, too. You must be transparent with your clients at all stages of the sales cycle, especially the results.

And then at the end is tactics, because even if someone has run a successful campaign with you in the past, things are constantly changing. We have to be prepared with tactical solutions that solve our client’s ever-evolving business challenges.

On a final note, when you’re not busy breaking sales records, what do you do for fun?

I spend a lot of time with my family. I have a daughter who’s almost four, so she keeps me quite busy and we spend a lot of time together at our cottage in the summer. In the winter, we hunker down or hit up the toboggan hill that’s not too far from us.

When I do get some time to myself, I like going out in the city. I love trying new restaurants and getting together with my girlfriends. If I’m not doing that, I’m usually just at home watching reality TV shows like the Real Housewives, Summer/Winter House, Below Deck, and my new favorite, Made in Chelsea.

 

We are always looking for great talent to join our team. To find out more about MiQ:

– Check out our open positions

– Learn more about life at MiQ

– Discover our ever-evolving culture and passion for inclusion and diversity