Product Owner
Product Owner
B2B Marketing
Works in Utrecht and from home
Lives in Amsterdam
At VodafoneZiggo since 2015
"This is where I want to work," thought Ella van Leeuwen when she first walked through the door at Vodafone's former central office in 2015. "The energy, the openness of the people!" She landed herself a traineeship, heralding the launch of a successful marketing career within our company.
In the early years, Ella worked in marketing for almost all of the various B2B branches of VodafoneZiggo, from the small-business to the corporate segment. But then it was time for a change. She wanted to do something in data, something more analytical. She found what she was looking for in the Channel Management Team. "I now fulfil a bridging role between Marketing and Sales to enhance the performance of our offline channels.”
Ella trains her focus on the sale of Vodafone mobile subscriptions and phones, primarily through the telesales channel. "We gather tremendous amounts of data from our sales channels. The length of conversations at Telesales, for instance, or the number of visitors to the website at certain times of day and the type of subscription taken. All those data can be compared with data from previous weeks or years, which provides a very good insight into the strengths of a channel, as well as its weaknesses. That in turn, forms the basis for making new marketing choices. Working in a data-driven manner like that is really great and precisely the challenge I sought. The position enables me to leverage my marketing experience and develop my analytical skills at once. I love puzzling around in large databases.
From a handful of clients to millions of potential buyers: for Ella, it's just a matter of throwing a switch. "In my previous position, I worked in the corporate market and focused my attention on just one, perhaps two potential clients. There were no quick wins; we were in for the long haul and our task was to persuade several directors who make joint decisions. Now, my audience are millions of Dutch consumers who are either already customer or potential customer. It's cool to be able to target such differing groups within one and the same company. But the exciting thing about the vast amounts of data from so many customers is that you start to notice patterns and trends. Those trends form the basis for regular pilots with specific selections of the target group. The results enable us to keep learning and innovating, and ultimately make a positive impact on future sales."
Ella’s team is diverse and young. "We're a mix of seasoned encyclopedias and fresh talent together in a single group. That makes for a good balance in all respects. In addition to our own portfolio, everyone in my team also works for a channel. It's a combination that means you work closely with a lot of different people. I spend a lot of time with my direct colleagues, for instance, but often seek people at Telesales and Marketing. And we regularly organise face-face-meetings at the office. It's always good fun to see each other and it's important, I think, because even small successes should be celebrated together. You need a colleague to high-five when there's a decent plan on the table, that kind of thing. There's a real positive vibe here."
Ella is perfectly happy at VodafoneZiggo for now. "The telecoms sector is undergoing all kinds of developments, which makes the work all the more interesting. And corona added a whole new dimension, of course. What will be the new normal after the lockdowns? We all started shopping online more during the pandemic. What does that mean for VodafoneZiggo's products and services? It's incredibly interesting to see at first hand how a large company like ours responds to changing customer behaviour, and to be a part of that response.
"On a final note, managers here actively encourage ideas and experimentation, which is very motivational. That, on top of the focus on output rather than hours worked, makes VodafoneZiggo an ideal employer."
