As in every customer-centric business, our sales department plays a pivotal role in the growth of our company and the success of our clients. Here at Planned that entails bridging the gap between the needs of today’s imaginative Event Planners and what our product offers. As a result, our sales team plays an instrumental role in empowering our clients to create incredible events.
One of the key members of our sales team is Account Manager Sofia Benhmida. Joining the team in January of last year, Sofia has unfailingly exceeded expectations in contributing to our success and serving her clients. Her eagerness to help and overall enthusiasm has played a crucial role in helping Planned navigate from a concierge service platform to a self-service platform.
Sofia’s talent and dedication have made a positive impact on user adoption of the Planned platform and retention. She says that while every client interaction is special she recalls one of her favorite events:
“I would say my first client and the first event that I’ve coordinated was particularly memorable. It was a blast helping develop holiday themed gift boxes for AdGear Technologies. I loved seeing everyone at AdGear Technologies receive their boxes, especially during the holiday season! I was glad to be part of it and bring a little joy in their lives after a long year of work!”
Sofia grew up in Casablanca, Morocco and moved to Canada after high school. Her professional journey began after she graduated from Concordia University with a major in Political Science. As she embarked on a new chapter, she began an internship at International Air Transport Association (IATA). After her time at IATA, she joined Planned as a Junior Events Coordinator which turned into Partnerships Specialist and now is an Account Manager.
Her progression at Planned reflects her dedication and passion for our product and devotion to our clients. Her knowledge of Planned and our North Star is reflected in her ability to establish strong and trusting relationships with our clients, make herself readily available to any client request, and maintain strong relationships with our partners.
When Sofia isn’t collaborating with clients on exciting events, she is enjoying the sunshine in Montreal, exploring new cities or eating some of her favorite Asian and Middle Eastern foods.
She shared that what she enjoys about Planned is, “the respect, the encouragement, the friendliness! Working at Planned makes you feel safe in an environment where employees are empowered, heard and encouraged which helps a lot with personal and professional growth.”
She added, “I also really like the fact that we’re all SO different, we all came from diverse backgrounds but our common goal is striving to make one product the best it can be and that’s just awesome!”
Currently, Planned is pivoting from a concierge service platform to an entirely self-service platform. The goal is to empower our users to discover and book everything for their event seamlessly. Our focus shifted in 2020 to product development and Sofia’s talent has played a role in allowing us to make that shift as smoothly as possible through assisting our clients through a new onboarding process, creating walk-through video tutorials, and hosting training sessions to ensure every user feels comfortable using our product. Our product is currently in Beta and Sofia’s clients are some of the first ones to be using it. Her excitement for the product radiates and she expressed that “Seeing the platform becoming the tool we’ve always dreamed and talked about is definitely exciting! We’ve been talking about automation for the longest time and there were moments where it was hard to visualize but we all believed in the vision and strived to bring it to life. Our patience and perseverance is clearly paying off now that we have our first clients using it — and it’s only the beginning!”
Sofia’s strong work ethic, knowledge and desire to continue to learn every day, are just a few characteristics about her that make her a high performance manager at Planned. She has continued to support the Planned team and our clients and goes above and beyond to ensure that all of our clients’ needs are met.
As Sofia puts it, “It’s rewarding to see clients happy with the Planned experience and coming back for more!”
