Who are you?
My name is Jelle Mulders, and I’m twenty-seven years old. I come from the southern part of the Netherlands, but my work in the customs industry has pulled me closer to the Rotterdam Port. I recently moved to Tilburg.
After finishing my business study, I took a year of law in Belgium and then started my professional career. I joined the Van Tienen Group in a sales role and after the take-over by CS I started in a new role as business development manager. Since that time I am developing new business for our consultancy and safety division.
What does a business development manager do?
As a business development manager, I am responsible for acquiring new business for both the customs consultancy as the safety division. But I have a much broader set of responsibilities than my job title covers. I also do account management for some of our larger clients, and I recently joined the Customs Support Safety management team. I’m working on the strategy and the growth plans for Customs Support Safety with my fellow management team members. Within our consultancy team I, together with our operational manager, lead a consultancy team with 25 consultants.
What does a typical working day look like?
Customers fill almost every minute of my day, both new and existing ones. Before Covid, I drove a lot of kilometres and visited two or three customers every day. Now that everything is done remote, I meet five or six customers a day, but online. Video conferencing is very efficient, but I do miss the personal touch of meeting people face to face.
The remainder of my day I spend on operational matters with our consultants working on various projects for our customers.
What do you like most about your job?
I love the balance between my commercial role and my operational role. I like sharing my passion for our business with potential customers, but I also love working with our consultants on our customers’ operational issues. I learn so much from their in-depth knowledge of our business. We make a great team and get more business from new and existing customers and solve their challenges.
What is one of the biggest challenges?
My biggest challenge is constant change. It takes focus and good planning to stay on top of things. There are so many new developments in our industry. I learn a lot every day from our consultants. Staying on top of things is both challenging and something that I love about my job.
And what if you are not at work?
I’m very much into sports. I play field hockey, and I train and coach a team of youngsters at my club. I also love running and playing golf. All my sports activities are balanced out by my love for good food, whether I make it in my kitchen or whether a chef in a restaurant makes it. Oh, and going out for a beer with my friends!
Why Customs Support?
Customs Support is a very ambitious company, and so am I. That combination gives many opportunities for growth, both on a personal and on a professional level. As I said before, I learn so much from the people that I work with. Not only that, but we also have a good time. Work hard and laugh hard. I am part of a great team.
