Six Months in for Business Development Exec Bea.

Catapult has grown exponentially month by month since we were first established seven years ago, with a game-changing approach to listening to what the customer needs and giving them what they want. With greater pressure on food producers and processors than ever before, we’re being proactive in taking the benefits of our agile approach to delivering shorter label lead times for less to new customer partners, and our business development team plays an important part in initiating and nurturing those relationships.

Bea Gicana joined us just six months ago and is already thriving as a key member of our business development team. So, we caught up with her to find out more about her role, her career journey so far and why she loves working at Catapult Print.

What’s does your role as Business Development Executive involve at Catapult?

The purpose of my role is to help drive business growth, but my remit is much wider and more strategic than traditional sales – I am responsible for researching potential prospects, understanding their marketplace and fully assessing whether they are a good fit for the services we offer and then starting to reach out to the potential clients on how we can add value to them. Our team is organized by sector, so my remit involves developing our customer base in the various sectors across the USA and Canada.

What’s the difference between the outreach you do and cold calling?

It’s all about putting the customer at the heart of the process – which reflects the whole culture of everything we do here at Catapult. Thorough strategic research means that I can tailor outreach for each prospect, and hyper-personalization makes that initial call warmer. It means I already have insight into what will help me connect with that person and how Catapult can help their company achieve its business goals or overcome commercial or operational challenges. In that way, I’m able to add value from the very beginning of the relationship, and, of course, I’m listening from the outset to help build on that value proposition and solution-driven approach.

What was your background before you joined Catapult?

I studied Business Administration at College and majored in management, then began my career in marketing for a healthcare company, before moving to a customer-facing role in the logistics sector. I found in that role that knowing the customer and understanding their needs had a big impact on service delivery and the CEO of that business must have seen some potential in me as a business development professional because he moved me into that department. I always say I fell into business development really and then fell in love with it!

How did you come to join the Catapult team?

I had only recently moved to the US from the Philippines when the opportunity came up at Catapult and was working remotely at the time, so I was keen to find a role where I could work collaboratively with colleagues as part of a team. I had no knowledge of the print sector and didn’t expect to land in the industry, but I have a learning mindset and I love that there is so much to know in my current role; not just about labels or from a technical point of view, but also about our customers and their operational and commercial needs. It’s definitely the most complex industry I’ve ever worked in, but also the most rewarding.

What have you learned since joining Catapult?

Obviously I’ve learned a whole heap of technical stuff about printing, but I’ve also learned a lot about the value of patience and the power of collaboration. Great things take time and building new relationships with potential clients is not a one phone call job; it often involves listening, adapting and being proactive so that I can maximize opportunities to connect and add value, even before the prospect becomes a customer. In my role, it’s natural to want instant results, so learning to trust the process, use the great tools available to me at Catapult, and leverage the knowledge within our business by collaborating with the team has been a discipline that has helped me really invest in building long-term, mutually beneficial relationships.

What do you love about your job?

I love connecting with people, that’s what steered me towards a career in business development in the first place, and what has driven me ever since. In this role, that connection not only comes from the outreach I’m doing with customers and prospects, but also from working with the team at Catapult across every department.

Everyone here is super easy to work with and supportive of each other. When you work in business development, it’s so rewarding to be selling a product and service that you really believe in. There is so much passion and drive across the team at Catapult because everyone in the business is confident that we’re delivering something truly extraordinary – that’s really rewarding and a great atmosphere to work in!