Abbe Cherkaoui
International Sales Strategy Group
Founder and President of the International Sales Strategy Group, Abbe Cherkaoui is a 20-year veteran of the radio industry. Ms. Cherkaoui started ISSG in Europe in April 2004 and has since then worked with a variety of international clients including NRJ, Emmis International, Publicis and Media Vision. Her company focuses on the sales, branding and marketing within an organization and she has worked with a wide variety of sales departments, management teams, market and sizes and clusters both in the US and in Europe.
Prior to moving to Paris in February 2004, Abbe Cherkaoui was Director of Sales with Univision Broadcasting in San Antonio, where her responsibilities included overseeing 6 radio stations including the national, event and retail marketing and internet sales departments. During her time with Univision, the stations receive a 21.1% increase in market growth while the market only grew by 1.1%. Before joining Univision Broadcasting in December 2001, Ms. Cherkaoui was Executive Vice President at BREAKTROUGH marketing, a new business development and sales training consulting firm in Seattle, Washington, where she spent 6 years and set industry standards for successful Sales Programs, Strategies, New Business Development and Event Divisions for broadcast companies across the United States.
Abbe’s career in the radio industry began in 1986 as account executive with WLAC AM/FM in Nashville, Tennessee. She was named Sales Person of the Year for all of Fairmont Communications in 1990 and promoted to National Sales Manager the same year. In 1991 she joined South Central Communications where she started their first New Business Development Department. Within one year, the Department was billing one million dollars and Abbe was promoted to a newly created position, Corporate Retail Marketing Director – overseeing 9 radio stations.
Abbe has spoken at various industry conferences including the RAB, NAB and Inside Radio. She has had many articles published in Radio World, Radio Ink and Inside Radio, on topics ranging from retail marketing subjects like Selling Events and Cause Marketing to sales articles focusing on Maximizing Cluster Sales for Revenue.
In 2003, Abbe was named one of the top 10 Directors of Sales in the USA by Radio Ink, which quotes: “Ms. Cherkaoui’s experience and dedication is a tremendous asset to the stations she works with, bringing a wealth of information, product knowledge and proven strategies for increased revenue”.
