Phil Hansen's business succeeds by helping other businesses succeed.
Hansen is chief executive officer of Salt Lake-based CLEARLINK, one of the nation's leading providers of customer acquisition services. In simple terms, CLEARLINK finds customers for major home services brands, like DirecTV, ADT Home Security, AT&T and Verizon. CLEARLINK offers a pay-for-performance model focused on varied lead-targeting strategies, an in-house sales center and proprietary analytics that help sustain growth.
CLEARLINK boasts more than 20,000 websites and 9 million pages of content, but Hansen has had to work through plenty of obstacles on his road to success.
Shortly after undertaking his first business venture at a Web development firm, that company's two largest accounts pulled out as the dot-com bubble burst. Then one of its majority owners pulled out, as well. Hansen was left with six employees and rapidly dwindling bank accounts.
Out of necessity, he focused intently on creating new accounts to make up for the lost contracts. Within a year, the company had more than doubled the value of the lost business.
As the company continued to grow, Hansen negotiated a new performance-based payment model and merger with a Dish Network retailer. Given its current website assets, Hansen feels the company's future lies in developing destination websites and online communities, as well as continuing to create differentiated advertising products.
Hansen also plans to diversify CLEARLINK's services outside the home-services industry into areas like insurance, education and pest control.