Impact Media strives to bring you as much information as possible on your club. The players on the field are crucial, but the club is also about passionate women and men that take care of every aspect of the organization. In this space, we’ll introduce you to some of these people who play in the shadows.
These people do operate in the shadows, but you know them better than those we’ve already featured in this space. After all, they work directly with you.
The Ticket Sales & Customer Service team is the first line of contact between the club and its members. Whether you want to talk about your season tickets or some extra tickets that you need, get some questions answered or find seats for 40 of your friends, one of their specialists takes time to listen to you and provide you with the best possible solutions.
On match day, they walk around the stadium and have a chat with a client here and there – or, in the group & hospitality specialists’ case, run around from one group to the other, making sure that everything runs smoothly. It goes to show that a sale goes way beyond the moment when it’s completed.
After dealing with an impressive number of calls on the 2017 season tickets, the Sales team helped the club fill the Big O with over 60,000 soccer fans last November – and it's currently working on the home opener on Saturday, March 11, against Seattle Sounders FC. The time was right for Impact Media to do the rounds in the office, asking them a simple, yet complex, question: what do you like most about your job at the Montreal Impact?
Here are their tributes to their jobs.
---
“I love the personalities here – it’s not a cliché. Everyone here is interesting. Despite the fact that they all work in the same department, everyone has a different personality. It makes working in sales at the Montreal Impact a fun experience.”–Steve Smith, Vice-President, Ticket Sales & Customer Service
“It’s non-stop. It’s competitive. It’s exciting as hell, especially at times like this. It’s motivating to see our numbers and compare ourselves to last year. I’m thrilled to have been a part of this historic season, on the field and in the office. We’ve had our best numbers ever all over the board. It’s been pretty insane, and hopefully we can keep it up. The one word that I can use to describe our team is energy.” –Roberto Linhares, Senior Manager, Ticket Sales & Customer Service
“I love the team I work with! It’s true! We work as a group, for the groups. People may think that we salespeople are a bit like sharks, but we’re actually quite a nice family in the tank. And we convey that to our clients, with whom we build personal relationships – not just professional relationships.” –Caroline Charpentier, Group & Hospitality Specialist
“For me, it’s all about working directly with people. You’ve got to love people to do this job. The sale in itself is crucial, but it’s also secondary in as much as, to get to that point, you need to develop a rapport with people and speak their language. When that happens, magic happens.” –Gilles Paquin, Senior Corporate Account Executive, Member Sales & Service
“I like the fact that I can sell such a great show and that I can build true business relationships with all of my clients. That’s the key thing right here.” –Sébastien Fraser, Senior Consultant, Member Sales & Service
“I just started working here, but I love everything so far. The atmosphere within the team is great. We try to provide the best possible experience to the groups. I’ve seen what our staff does before. We get friends, families, communities on board with the Impact. There aren’t many places where they do what we do.” –Julian Alberici, Group & Hospitality Specialist
“Unpredictability drives me. There isn’t a single day that’s like the previous one. The task is never the same, although we never take our eye off the prize.” –Jérémie Lavoie, Coordinator, Retention & Loyalty
“It’s all about the relationship that you create with fans. I grew up with soccer, and I’m now around the sport constantly. I am part of this club now, and it’s fun when people identify you as ‘the Impact guy’ that they deal with for tickets and services and such.” –Massimo Bino, Member Sales & Service Consultant
“On match day, you see just how happy you make the people and families that put their trust into you. It’s a demanding job, but it’s a luxury job in the sense that not many people get to work for such a great club where legends play, all the while striving to get it to the next level.” –Jonathan Koncsik, Member Sales & Service Consultant
“Clients become friends. I love it when they call me back to tell me about their experience and say that this game or that game left such an impression on them. The objective is always to have the stadium full of supporters with a smile on their face – it gives you a sense of accomplishment.” –Hagop Hatchadourian, Group & Hospitality Specialist
“We make people happy, no matter the result, whether we’re at Stade Saputo or at the Olympic Stadium. We make sure that our groups want to either come back or give a chance to other people to live this experience.” –Mathieu Carrier, Group & Hospitality Specialist
“It was a dream of mine to work in football, so to be here now is rewarding. I wanted to become a pro player when I was a kid, but working in football and wearing this crest is the next best thing.” –Charles Viret, Member Sales & Service Consultant
“The world of sport is what drives me. Working here, I get to see what running a sports business is like. In all of my professional life, I have only worked in sports organizations, and this is where I will remain.” –Antoine Talbot, Member Sales & Service Consultant
“I like the way that working for this club makes me part of the rich history of the Montreal community, as I was not born in the city. I like this unquestionable loyalty that this job conveys. You become engulfed in the city.” –Adrian Mason, Member Sales & Service Consultant
“I’ve been following this club since the 1990s. I used to dream of working here. Now, I can combine work and leisure. I’m sharing my passion with family and friends. I bring everyone along for the ride. And we’re building a nice chemistry with our members. We’re like a big happy family.” –Gabriel Lamberti-Liberta, Member Sales & Service Consultant
