GeoPoll appoints head of Africa sales team

Arjun Dhillon

Dhillon comes to GeoPoll with over 15 years’ experience in the FMCG and Telecom sectors in Kenya and India; most recently, he was the head of sales and retention at Safaricom Kenya, Kenya’s largest telecom company.

He has experience in building and leading high-performing sales teams and will be based in GeoPoll’s Nairobi office, which has grown to over 30 staff since GeoPoll began its expansion on the continent in 2014.

Under his guidance the team will bring GeoPoll’s mobile survey capabilities to new clients and sectors that lack reliable, up-to-date consumer data.

The sales team will continue to grow in Kenya and other key countries in Africa including South Africa, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Ghana. By the end of 2016, GeoPoll expects to add over 20 sales representatives across the continent who will work with partners such as global media companies and brands to integrate mobile surveys into their data collection projects.

This diverse team of individuals will come from the market research, telecom, and media sectors and will assist GeoPoll in selling its core product, Kantar-GeoPoll Media Measurement, along with On Demand survey projects that measure brand health, track retail habits, and more.

“As demand for GeoPoll’s market research and media measurement solutions has picked up across Africa we’ve continually grown our team, and now we are excited to enter a new phase with Arjun leading a continent-wide expansion of our business development efforts.  Under his guidance the team will bring GeoPoll’s mobile survey capabilities to new clients and sectors that lack reliable, up-to-date consumer data,” said Steve Gutterman, president of GeoPoll and parent company Mobile Accord.

In 2015, GeoPoll conducted over 90 million mobile surveys, partnered with research companies TNS and Kantar Media, and expanded its service to 23 countries.  This year the company has launched GeoPoll On Demand, a self-service portal that allows anyone to tap into GeoPoll’s respondent database and mobile survey capabilities; introduced Pan-African OOH, a data product which measures reach and effectiveness of out of home media across Africa; and expanded its user database to 300 million people in Africa and Asia.

By the end of 2016, GeoPoll expects to expand coverage to an additional 10 countries and reach 500 million users.