Professional rugby gave Greg Goosen the skills he needed to be successful in the business world

Greg Goosen is senior director: EVP of Ignition CX, bringing a professional sporting background to the rigours of the corporate world.

Goosen has been tasked with building a business development team for the company, and to grow our business in our international markets such as the USA and UK. We had a chat with Goosen to get to know him better, and to understand why he is such a major part of Ignition’s plan for future growth:

"Much of my corporate experience was gained at a marketing retail expert company, where we helped brands to promote themselves in-store and got on board with stores too, to make sure that they converted shoppers to buyers.

"While at first glance it may appear to be a very different business to Ignition, there is actually a lot of synergy between my earlier experience and my role at Ignition. After all, what we do at Ignition is help partners to increase their customer acquisition and, most importantly, increase the lifetime value of that customer for our partners.

"While my corporate experience has been focused on business development and so is very pertinent to my current role, my previous work life also played a role, albeit a less obvious one. It’s not something I speak of often, but for eight years I was privileged enough to play professional rugby in Europe, and it contributed to putting me in the position that I am now where I can contribute to the growth of Ignition. Even from the age of 22, I was planning for life after rugby and working towards building a second career.

"One of the privileges of playing professional rugby was that it put me in contact with supporters and patrons of the club, so from the age of 22 I was exposed to CEOs and prominent business people on a personal level. That helped me to build a wealth of interpersonal experience that someone starting in corporate needs to build up before they are comfortable talking to a CEO.

"That gave me a platform, but so did the pressures of actually playing rugby – of people watching me and having to perform week in and week out under the scrutiny of the public eye. There are, for me anyway, so many synergies between that and the business world.

"What I love about Ignition is that it gives you the opportunity to think with an entrepreneurial mind, to really knit in with our partners and clients, to come up with a solution together that is going to get more customers, at scale. Ignition has been an incredible business opportunity, to sit under Sean and Don and to get to know not just the South African market but also the international market at such depth, and to craft strategies with our partners to exponentially grow their businesses.

"Essentially, it’s all about understanding customers, what they want, what they need, where they are in the buying process, and how a brand can retain them. This is what Ignition does for its partners, although how Ignition does this is very different.

"Ignition uses data to to make sure we’re bringing customers the most relevant messages, at the most relevant time. By only connecting with people when they’re receptive to what’s being said, sales and marketing activity becomes exponentially more efficient – and customers stay for longer. Our predictive modeling capabilities crunch historical customer behavior and purchase data to help sales experts anticipate inbound customer tendencies and expectations, as well as current customer support needs.

"Ignition is absolutely at the front of the technology space and the CX space, but is always looking for more opportunities for expansion. If you take a look at how Ignition has extended its influence into the financial services sphere with SPOT money as well as our billing and payment services, into the MVNO business with MVN-X and uConnect, as well as with our recent acquisition of Gumtree, you can see how positive Ignition is about the future in South Africa, and what opportunities we see here."

Ignition Group partners with some of the most forward-thinking organisations today to enhance their customer acquisition and retention strategies with innovative approaches and pivotal data-driven insights. Ignition’s forward-thinking approach helps them connect with consumers in more personalised and efficient ways, growing their partners’ customer base, and helping them adapt and stay relevant as the world changes.