Sergio Renteria, Sales Director
How long have you been at Appear and what’s your role at the company?
I’m Sales Director for the LATAM and Iberia regions and have been at Appear for nearly a decade…my 10-year anniversary is fast approaching in August 2021!
What does a typical day look like for you?
Every day is fast-paced and full of learning opportunities. Most of my time is dedicated to building and maintaining customer relationships. I stay on top of how our customers businesses are developing, which new technologies or strategic initiatives they may be interested in, and deem how Appear can help them achieve their objectives. I regularly stay in touch with customers to discuss our updated portfolio and present solutions that we have designed for specific projects that may be relevant to them. I’m also responsible for identifying new business opportunities.
I also closely monitor industry news, attend presentations, and work closely with the R&D team on a daily basis to recruit new talent for our sales teams. Pre-COVID, I travelled a lot to LATAM and Spain to visit customers and loved to start my day off with a run. My favorite running spots were either the El Retiro Park in Madrid or Puerto Madero in Buenos Aries.
What’s been the most exciting project you’ve worked on while at Appear and why?
I’ve really enjoyed developing and pioneering our business in a completely new territory, and building our operations in LATAM from scratch. Being thrown into the unknown and being able to represent Appear in a new place was such a thrill. From this experience, I gained a lot of valuable technical knowledge in the video and streaming industry, as well as also developing my strategic selling and negotiation skills, and learning a lot from my customers and partners along the way.
It’s an amazing feeling to help our customers, create value, build new relationships and looking back, I’m delighted with what myself and the team has achieved in the LATAM region for both customers and Appear alike.
What’s been a career highlight for you during your time at Appear?
I developed Appear’s presence in more than 15 countries across LATAM, creating the largest market for Appear outside of Europe. The highlight hasn’t just been the result, but the journey to get there. I would also say delivering solutions that service millions of people worldwide, such as during the football World Cup, has been a major career highlight.
More generally, I love working with such a talented engineering team, all of whom are highly motivated. Every trip and exhibition I’ve attended with my colleagues has been an amazing experience that I’ve had the honour to share with such great people, many of whom are now life-long friends.
What kind of colleague are you?
I would consider myself helpful. I like to help others succeed, whether that’s through sharing my own experiences or knowledge. I feel a lot more satisfaction from this than closing a big contract.
Where would you like to see Appear five years from now?
To deliver our video compression and contribution solutions to every major event globally, whether that’s sports events or music concerts.
If you had to choose three words to describe yourself, what would they be?
Team-player, resourceful and curious.