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Director of Sales: David Zelken

May 7, 2009 by ShareASale Author 4 Comments

Today I was able to sit down with David Zelken of ShareASale. David and I discussed his role at ShareASale, valet parking and potatoes (twice)…. Check out the full interview below!

David Zelken ShareASale Sales Director affiliate management

J: What is your role/function here at ShareASale?
D: As Sales Director, I work with prospective merchants that are exploring affiliate marketing and ShareASale – explaining our services, cost structure, and benefits.  I’m also responsible for identifying and recruiting new merchants that would fit in well on the network.

J: How long have you been with ShareASale?
D: 5 years that seemingly went by in about 2.

J: What is the most enjoyable and rewarding part of your job?
D: Being around the people I work with.  Everyone here has a great attitude and I think that’s due to the fact that we’re all welcome to share our ideas – and as a smaller company each one of us can have a real impact on helping the company grow and succeed.

Also, I speak with a lot of company owners that are very passionate about their product or website.  I like hearing their enthusiasm when they believe they have something of great value on their hands that they want to get in front of affiliates.

J: Have you ever had a really unusual job before ShareASale?
D: In high school I worked as a valet at one of the local country clubs.  I once got yelled at by one of the members for locking his keys in the car while it was still running…whoops.  No tip from that guy.

I also worked with my Dad in the family business. The company was called United Potato Co.  As wholesalers and brokers of fresh produce, we had to be at work around 3:30 am everyday so that the foodservice people we sold to could get their produce to the restaurants on time.  I think waking up at that hour every day for years might have stunted my growth and that’s why I’m only 5’ 9”.

J: If you weren’t at ShareASale, what would your dream job be?
D: Well, maybe a race car driver.  I just found out I received 4 speeding tickets in one week while I was on vacation in Arizona so maybe I’d be good at that.

This is probably more of a dream side gig, but I would love to be the guy that creates the soundtracks for movies.  Choose songs that go with the scenes, etc.  Most of my favorite movies have great soundtracks and it would be fun to have that kind of creative impact on a movie.

J: Where are you originally from?
D: Deerfield, Illinois.  It’s a suburb north of Chicago.

J: Where did you go to school? What kind of degree do you have?
D: B.A. from the University of Kansas with a major in Psychology.  I also transferred to the University of Iowa for one day and then decided to go back to Kansas.  After college I enrolled in some pre-med courses because I thought I wanted to become a dentist.  Thankfully, that dream didn’t last long (3 days).  Nothing against all of you dentists out there.  I’m sure there will be a lot of dentists reading this.

J: Describe yourself in 3 words
D: I don’t know
J: Well, I guess that is 3 words?
D: HAHAHAHAHA…. It’s difficult to describe oneself!

J: Favorite sport/team?
D: That’s a tie, the Chicago Bulls and Bears.  The Blackhawks are creeping back up though now that they’re on the map again and Bill Wirtz is gone.  My favorite sport to play is probably basketball.

J: If you could only eat one kind of food for the rest of your life what would it be?
D: King Crab Legs with a steak, baked potato, and Sierra Nevada on the side.

*Not sure if anyone is counting but that’s two mentions of “potato” on here…kinda interesting.

Filed Under: bios, client services

ShareASale Author

ShareASale Author

Comments

  1. Carolyn Tang says

    May 7, 2009 at 2:36 pm

    Man…we’re going to rank high for the term “affiliate potato.” And for the record, David asked us to describe him in three words, but was too chikun to pass along our choices!!

    Reply
  2. Linda Boyer says

    November 18, 2010 at 2:31 pm

    I like him already and he hasn’t even had a chance to return my phone call. I’ve been told “he’s the man to talk to”, being new to all this, can’t wait till he calls me back. Should I mention potatoe’s, couldn’t hurt? Sounds like he enjoys talking about them!

    Reply
  3. fritz Graf SSB LLC says

    May 14, 2012 at 2:55 am

    Being new to the Affiliate Marketing Industry it can be a little bit overwhelming at first but David Zelken and his entire team for that Matter have been amazing at getting us set up for success. We have all ready had 22 Affiliates sign up for our first campaign on the first day. You guys are amazing and we look forward to a long working relationship.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. ShareASale Blog » Blog Archive » Our very own corn shucker… says:
    May 14, 2009 at 8:32 am

    […] JR: What is your role/function here at ShareASale? JS: I work as an Account Manager in the Sales Department.  I spend 90% of my time answering questions about our network and the other 10% of my time making fun of Grandpa…I mean David. […]

    Reply

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