Meet Johan Hedquist

It helps to have a strong brand - like TV4 - to sell. "With such a strong brand behind me, I have to humbly say it opens doors for business," says Johan Hedquist, new business sales executive at the TV4 Group and finalist for Field Sales Representative of the Year in the Bonnier Sales Awards. "I'm of course also proud of our sales approach and how we maintain the strong confidence we've earned."

Hedquist, who has been at TV4 since 2000, works primarily with traditional spot campaigns - mainly national but also regional - for all of TV4 Group's channels, along with sponsorships, branded content, on-demand services, in short all of the group's commercial platforms and offerings.

"The best thing about my job is the freedom within my responsibilities that I have, that and the fact that every day is different from the next," says Hedquist. "TV4 has a dynamic work environment in every way, with engaged and fantastic co-workers. And after 11 years at TV4 and 25 years in advertising I'm still hungry for new challenges for myself, my customers and TV4."

For Hedquist, one of the biggest of these challenges is keeping an eagle eye on his customer's own industries. "One day you need to understand and be able to justify TV4's reach for over-the-counter medicine, and the next it could be the construction industry or fast-moving consumer goods," he says.

Obviously, as an awards finalist, Hedquist knows just how to keep up with all the industries his advertisers are in. But he says it is his single-minded pursuit of a goal that helped him make it as a finalist. "Of course I've had clear internal goals that I've met on the way and worked on developing myself, but I decided that I wanted to be a finalist and I've focused 100 percent on it for nearly three years," he says. "It feels incredible to be celebrating 25 years in the industry this way. I have the deepest respect for all my great sales colleagues within Bonnier, and naturally being a finalist is a special high point in my work life."