Alkan Alden
London,United Kingdom
Summary
Accomplished professional with expertise in salesmanship mastery, client relationships management, and remote team leadership. Demonstrates a proven track record in B2B client management, business development, and successfully driving new market entry initiatives. Skilled at influencing senior stakeholders to achieve strategic objectives while fostering long-term partnerships. Committed to leveraging core competencies to deliver impactful results and drive organisational growth.
Results-driven Senior Business Development Manager with knack for identifying growth opportunities and driving revenue. Spearheaded initiatives that boosted market share and forged strategic partnerships, enhancing competitiveness. Renowned for delivering client-centric solutions that elevate business performance.
Overview
19
19
years of professional experience
Work History
Senior Business Development Manager
Evolution
London
08.2023 - 03.2025
- Well connected senior manager within the Europe region with igaming stakeholders, responsible for driving the growth of all brands within the group by identifying and pursuing new business opportunities with big/medium-sized partners in the Europe region
- Develop and fortify strategic relationships with top-tier partners in the iGaming sector to build, manage, improve, and maintain sales pipeline
- Identify and capitalise new business opportunities to fuel growth
- Identify and develop new opportunities for the product, such as new markets, features or product supply packages
- Liaise with cross-functional teams to develop tailored solutions and negotiate contracts that align with each brand's objectives
- Work in collaboration with the product team to assess partners or products in the pipeline and to provide commercial feedback to partners
- Working closely with the C levels on a business growth strategy and devising the action plan with goals and objectives
- Act as the face of the group's brands at major industry events, conferences, and exhibitions
- Manage a team of 3 employees, responsible for overseeing and evaluating employee contribution, performance and development within the context of the operations for which they are accountable
Territory Manager
Evolution Gaming
London
09.2022 - 07.2023
- Responsible for building and developing relationship of Ezugi portfolio under Evolution Group with existing customers by supporting and offering additional solutions, expanding the customer base and maximising revenues
- Ownership of the product making sure all existing games/products are up to industry standard and that games portfolio is up to date and competitive in the European and Emerging markets
- Overall responsibility for the efficient delivery of content releases to clients
- Work closely with the Product Manager and key clients/operators to plan product/game roadmaps, constantly looking for ways to improve the current processes and exceed customers' expectations
- Continue optimizing and maximizing existing partners
- Expand sales within existing clients, identify prospects, qualify opportunities, and follow up on leads
- Monitor data regarding product features and draw insights to guide strategy to improve users' experience
Senior Account Manager
Ezugi
London
10.2017 - 08.2022
- Develop collateral and communications with customers at scale to ensure customers are consistently extracting value out of their business with Ezugi Live Casino games
- Ownership of the live casino product making sure all existing games/products are up to industry standard and that games portfolio is up to date and competitive in the key accounts markets
- Owning and overseeing the day-to-day live casino product management according to guidelines; liaising with the relevant teams (web development, IT, project teams, compliance etc) to ensure that the process is followed and developed as required and that final products/services are up to industry standard
- Continue optimizing and maximizing existing partners
- Expand sales within existing clients, identify prospects, qualify opportunities, and follow up on leads
- Engagement around pricing, negotiation, deal structure and contracting for relationships with new and existing partners
- Collaborate with internal teams and customers to gather and assess existing product delivery and enhancement opportunities as well as new product concepts and ideas
- Collaborate with Sales, Business Development, Integration, Marketing and Product Delivery to develop go-to-market strategy and competitive positioning
- Monitor data regarding product features and draw insights to guide strategy to improve users' experience
- Identify and manage risks and set realistic expectations for the customer; strong preventative skills, with a pro-active approach
- Ongoing account management after deal is closed through entire life cycle
- Consistently looking for revenue growth opportunities for each of the partners and support partners with operational/technical challenges
- Collation of reporting and analyses from the Analytics team to support the planning and strategy decision making process
Marketing Account Manager
138.com
London
03.2017 - 10.2017
- Work alongside the agency`s iGaming client portfolio (incl
- 138.com, Jenningsbet, beteast) based in Isle of Man, driving forward the gaming marketing strategy in Europe and Emerging Markets
- Developing & maintaining key relationships in markets including UK, upselling, cross-selling and promotional activity within the customer with regards to company products
- Responsible for the entire customer experience
- In order to perform effectively, work closely with customers to identify and manage a customer's expectations, working in partnership with other internal departments, including the Product and Delivery teams
- Interpret and use customer insight, research and performance data for our promotional and campaign activities
- Be responsible for understanding the Gaming market and our competitors, continuously looking at market trends and competitor activity and feed learnings and opportunities into the strategy
- Establishing retention, customer development and re-activation KPI's setting challenging targets for improvements throughout the year
- Develop and execute against a comprehensive account/territory plan
Product Marketing Manager
Smart Live Gaming
London
06.2013 - 10.2016
- Planning gaming marketing and operation activities for the business in Europe and Emerging Markets, through the budget/forecast process and creating monthly reports for gaming products in order to deliver players across all brands and markets through social and other online channels
- Responsible for the overall revenue generation, proposition and P&L on Live Casino and RNG
- Strategically managing multiple key relationships end-to-end, negotiating contracts and managing internal and external stakeholders
- Tracking, analysing, and optimising conversion points across all acquisition channels (Social, Email, PPC etc) against a monthly and quarterly target of qualified leads
- Collaborate with Product and Product Marketing on projects to improve users' content experience
- Liaise with VIP team to identify and retain VIP players to maximise revenues
- Responsible for continuous involvement in improvements and documentation of the game deployment process by suggesting & implementing measures and working across various teams
- Work with the Gaming Products team to define and prioritize the development of a new product suite to automate and improve Gaming Operations
- Create advanced offer and customer segmentation plans to drive ROI
- Establishing reward systems to encourage behaviours that help maximise the value delivered to and received from the customer
- Manage, lead and KPI settings for a team of 3 Executives (Acquisition and Retention Marketing Execs)
Account Manager
Offside Gaming
London
04.2011 - 05.2013
- Responsible for strategically growing and developing assigned accounts in Europe and Emerging Markets, by providing online marketing solutions and assistance in order to achieve revenue goals and targeted objectives
- Maximise revenue generation opportunities within the nominated client base, in particular the launch, promotion and cross selling of products and services
- Analyse and optimize performance and recommend/implement improvements to meet key accounts online marketing objectives
- Identify new sales opportunities within existing accounts and retain a client-account manager relationship by up-selling and cross-selling of Gaming product
- Establishing and maintaining strong client relationships through regular contact which will include face to face meetings, telephone and email communication
- Maintain detailed information on the competition in the online market for regular feedback into the key accounts
- Collect and use data to inform new campaigns and the evaluation of existing campaigns and suggest improvements for the clients promotional tools
- Interact and coordinate with the Marketing and CRM teams on developing new campaigns to key accounts are maximising the use of company solutions and grow the account revenue
- Manage the flow of tasks via project management tools incl
- Atlassian JIRA
Brand Manager
Ciner Yayin Holding
Istanbul
06.2008 - 11.2010
- Setting up brand & communication strategies for the company`s magazine portfolio; FHM, Marie Claire, Marie Claire Maison, Arena, OK!, Empire, PC Magazine and EGM
- Prepare marketing budgets, sales reports and related management presentations of the magazines
- Devise B2C or B2B integrated marketing campaigns with the aim of acquiring and retaining customers
- Development and distribution of brand collateral and guidelines, creating brand briefing materials, including insights into target customer behaviors and trends worldwide
- Brief and oversee the work of internal and external agencies, such as designers, animators and printers, who will deliver much of the campaign activity
- Work closely with various outsourced merchandisers in order to determine promotion strategies
- Prepared the launch campaign of Empire and Food & Travel magazine; worked closely with the advertising & media buying agencies and handled third party communications
- Plan and coordinate event management and marketing activities of all magazines, to increase brand awareness with minimum and best possible marketing investment
- Take responsibility for the organization of any trade shows or business exhibitions
Account Manager
AC Nielsen
Istanbul
04.2006 - 05.2008
- Manage client services for the following global accounts; Philip Morris, L'oreal, Henkel, Kraft, Danone etc
- In-depth knowledge of best practices, e.g., account planning, account development, executive relationship development, present and influence key stakeholders at all levels of a Global organization
- Execute annual sales goal and meet targets for new client acquisition and account growth
- Converting warm inbound leads into new customers and building and maintaining relationships with a portfolio of existing customers while acting as the single point of contact for customer queries via phone and email
- Provide marketing strategies via market research tools, based on sales and revenue analyses and share these analyses via PowerPoint presentations and excel based reports on periodic basis
- Conduct industry and product analysis for clients, in order to assist them to develop marketing and sales strategies
- Analyse and optimize performance and recommend/implement improvements to meet key accounts online marketing objectives
- Continuously drive improved performance for the whole client portfolio by providing support, offering feedback and assistance on a regular basis and by following company procedures regarding development reviews or any other performance management tools
Education
Master of Business Administration - Market Research
Koc University
Istanbul, Turkiye /2003 - /2005
Master of Science - Information Technologies
Pace University
New York, USA /2002 - /2003
Skills
- Salesmanship mastery
- Client relationships management
- Remote team leadership
- Client Relationship Management
- B2B client management
- Business development
- New market entry
- Influencing senior stakeholders
Languages
English
Native
Turkish
Native
Timeline
Senior Business Development Manager
Evolution
08.2023 - 03.2025
Territory Manager
Evolution Gaming
09.2022 - 07.2023
Senior Account Manager
Ezugi
10.2017 - 08.2022
Marketing Account Manager
138.com
03.2017 - 10.2017
Product Marketing Manager
Smart Live Gaming
06.2013 - 10.2016
Account Manager
Offside Gaming
04.2011 - 05.2013
Brand Manager
Ciner Yayin Holding
06.2008 - 11.2010
Account Manager
AC Nielsen
04.2006 - 05.2008
Master of Business Administration - Market Research
Koc University
/2003 - /2005
Master of Science - Information Technologies
Pace University
/2002 - /2003
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