CAREERS
How Jordan Knope solves sales and marketing puzzles
For Jordan Knope – an advertising account executive early in his career at Cox – putting the pieces together for clients is all in a day’s work. Keep reading to learn how.
First job, first pandemic
It’s natural to be a bit nervous about your first job after college. And starting your career during a pandemic adds another layer of apprehension to the process.
Jordan Knope experienced this firsthand.
He started working at Cox Media – a Cox Communications company – in the summer of 2020. This is his first full-time job since receiving his undergraduate degree in marketing from the University of Arizona.
“It’s been a little bit weird because I’ve only set foot in the office twice now,” said Jordan, who lives and works in his hometown of Tucson, AZ. “It’s been a double learning curve.”
But Jordan has navigated the learning curve well, receiving a promotion from sales associate to advertising account executive within six months of his employment at Cox.
“The opportunities to grow and advance have been really solid,” said Jordan. “I’ve received a lot of training around perfecting my sales process. I had some familiarity with B2B sales before this, but actually implementing it and seeing it in the real world as opposed to the classroom has been great.”
Jordan has also been surprised by the amount of flexibility his sales job provides.
“One thing that I really like about this role, especially in the past eight months, is that I really do set my own schedule,” Jordan said. “My manager and my team are there to set expectations, but I don’t ever feel like I have to be at a certain place at a certain time. I feel like there’s a lot of flexibility and that’s been nice to have this year.”
The marketing puzzle
Jordan is passionate about piecing together solutions to support clients. His job is all about building bespoke advertising campaigns for regional businesses. This kind of problem-solving is appealing to Jordan, who likened his work environment to the agile, fun environment of an agency.
“To me, marketing is a big puzzle,” he said. “There’s sales and there’s psychology and there’s technology and it all wraps together into accomplishing a specific goal.”
One of his favorite puzzles to solve came in the form of a local motorcycle gear shop. Jordan himself is an avid motorcyclist and recognized an opportunity to help this business. He recommended a geofencing marketing strategy to identify devices in the area. Essentially, every time a customer would walk into a local motorcycle dealership, they would be pinged with an ad for the gear shop.
This kind of real-world experience has been rewarding for Jordan, whose love for marketing shines in his creative solutions for clients.
“I really like working in media,” Jordan said. “That’s where my passion lies.”
Driven to win…and to work together
Like any good salesperson, Jordan has a competitive streak.
“I really like to win,” he said. “I like to be the best at my job. Anywhere I go, that’s the goal.”
And while Cox’s culture is sales-friendly, it’s anything but cutthroat. Rather, it’s collaborative. Jordan enjoys partnering with colleagues in similar client-facing roles, as well as people in creative, production, editing and more.
“The people that I interact with are friendly,” Jordan said. “Even the people who have very busy schedules and have a lot of clients are always willing to answer questions and help me out with things.”
Interested in exploring a sales career at Cox? We’re hiring! Explore here: Sales Jobs at Cox Media