Knowing where the cheese is

Jeanette Diergaardt With bright pink hair and a bright personality, (only when you get to know her) Carmen Stenger has brought the life back into the marketing and sales department of Namibia Media Holdings. Born in Pretoria and raised in Namibia, Stenger says she is a Namibian. After finishing high school at Delta Secondary School, Stenger returned to South Africa to study at Varsity College in Rondebosch, Cape Town. She then continued her studies at Unisa and came back to Namibia, while continuing her studies in English and marketing through distance learning and eventually obtaining her BA degree.Being an inherently shy person, Stenger started her job at Namibia Media Holdings in 2006. Starting with booking classifieds advertisements, she was promoted to service client executive. With a small clientele Stenger grew her repertoire with a lot of ups and downs. Working with the clients at sales further imbued Stenger with newfound confidence. In 2016 Stenger became the project coordinator of the first ‘Die Boer’ focus edition, which Stenger headed with confidence. In October 2019 Stenger applied for the position of NMH client executive and project coordinator, a role which she fulfilled for a few months after which she applied for the position of NMH marketing and sales team leader.Since then, Stenger has led several successful sales campaigns. In 2021 Stenger became the NMH sales manager.Stenger holds the record of the highest number of monthly advertising sales at NMH. Another proud moment was when the CEO said she gave the best feedback any sales manager had ever given in the weekly line managers’ meeting. Looking back at where she started as a rookie, she says she made a mistake in her fist few days at NMH. Her then manager, Cyril Lowe, reprimanded her and taught her a valuable lesson at the same time, and she walked out of his office with confidence. Persistence is key as a marketer, says Stenger, a trait which she has proven countless time will take you far in your career as a marketer. One of the challenges that Stenger has experienced as a marketer was “to know where the cheese is, and making sure you get your piece of the cheese, if not the whole cheese.”One of the many valuable lessons that Stenger has learned throughout her career is to “never give up, a no will eventually become a yes,” and that patience and understanding will go a long way in leading a team. “If you do not know, how will your employees know,” says Carmen.Concluding with some advice for everyone in any department, she says: “Always have career aspirations.”

Knowing where the cheese is

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-24

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Knowing where the cheese is

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Namibian Sun 2025-04-24

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