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Michael Urlick
Vice President of Sales at Clearwater Paper Corporation
Professional Background
Michael Urlick is a seasoned sales executive with extensive experience in the paper and packaging industry. His journey started at the University of Minnesota, where he earned both his Bachelor's Degree in Economics and Business Management and an MBA in Strategy and Corporate Finance from the highly esteemed Carlson School of Management. Armed with a strong educational foundation, Michael embarked on a remarkable career, showcasing his strategic acumen and sales expertise across various roles and organizations.
Michael's career at Clearwater Paper Corporation stands out for its remarkable growth trajectory. He is currently serving as the Vice President of Sales, where he leads a dynamic team and drives significant sales initiatives. Before his promotion to this senior leadership role, Michael demonstrated his ability to excel in various sales management positions within the company. He started out as a Business Manager in CPD Sales, then progressed to become a Senior Manager for Business Development—a position that allowed him to sharpen his capabilities in identifying new market opportunities and driving strategic initiatives.
As the Director of Sales for Omni Channel and Away From Home, Michael played a pivotal role in expanding Clearwater Paper's market presence and enhancing customer relationships. His tenure as Senior Director of Sales solidified his reputation as a transformative leader capable of not only elevating sales performance but also mentoring a new generation of sales professionals. Michael's expertise in sales strategy, customer relationship management, and market development is evident from his accomplishments and the positive impact he has made within the organization.
Prior to his successful journey at Clearwater Paper Corporation, Michael gained valuable experience at Georgia-Pacific LLC. As the Manager of Customer Investment, he was responsible for developing customer-centric strategies that maximized profitability while enhancing customer satisfaction. His previous roles, including Customer Development Manager and Category Development Manager at Acosta Sales & Marketing, established a solid foundation in sales process optimization and strategic market engagement, further highlighting his commitment to growth and excellence.
Education and Achievements
Michael Urlick's academic journey reflects a strong commitment to personal and professional development. His foundational education in Economics and Business Management at the University of Minnesota equipped him with essential tools and insights to understand market dynamics and consumer behavior. This educational background laid the groundwork for his advanced studies in corporate finance and strategic management, culminating in an MBA from the Carlson School of Management. The combination of his degrees underscores his adeptness in both quantitative analysis and strategic planning, which serve as critical pillars in his successful approach to sales and leadership.
Beyond his formal education, Michael's professional achievements are both commendable and indicative of his dedication to advancing within the industry. His progression through various roles at Clearwater Paper Corporation illustrates a commendable track record of accomplishments, including leading initiatives that fostered revenue growth, market expansion, and enhanced client engagement. His leadership style is characterized by empowerment, collaboration, and a results-oriented mindset, enabling his teams to thrive and exceed their goals.
Achievements
Throughout his career, Michael Urlick has achieved numerous accolades that speak volumes about his capabilities as a sales leader and strategist. At Clearwater Paper Corporation, his leadership as Vice President of Sales has led to significant sales milestones and client contract renewals, underlining his effectiveness in driving the company's vision and long-term goals.
Michael's strategic foresight has also positioned Clearwater Paper as a frontrunner in adapting to market changes and establishing a robust customer-centric approach. He has successfully integrated omni-channel strategies that cater to diverse customer needs, ensuring that Clearwater Paper not only remains competitive but is regarded as a trusted partner in the industry.
In summary, Michael Urlick's comprehensive background, enhanced by his commitment to education and demonstrated leadership in sales management, marks him as a valuable asset to any organization. His strategic insights, coupled with his hands-on experience in developing effective sales strategies and fostering strong customer relationships, ensure that he will continue to drive innovation and revenue growth in the ever-evolving business landscape.
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Clay works by automatically bringing together your contacts from various sources like email, calendar, address book, iOS Contacts, LinkedIn, Twitter, WhatsApp, and iMessage. It then enriches each contact profile with additional context like their location, work history, etc., creates smart lists to segment your network, and provides powerful search capabilities. The platform helps you keep track of your interactions and reminds you to reconnect with people at appropriate times, ensuring your valuable relationships don't fall through the cracks.
Clay offers several powerful features including:
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- Reminders and Notes: Helps you remember important details about contacts
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- Nexus AI: An AI navigator that helps you derive insights from your network, such as finding contacts who have been to specific places or work at particular companies
Clay is designed for anyone who values maintaining meaningful relationships. The app is popular among a wide range of industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. It’s even used by half the Fortune 500! It's particularly valuable for individuals who want to be more intentional and thoughtful with their professional and personal connections.
Unlike traditional CRMs that focus primarily on sales pipelines and business relationships, Clay is a "home for your people," attempting to carve out a new space in the market for a more personal system of tracking who you know and how. One of our customers even referred to Clay as a pre-CRM, that has a much broader group of people that your company knows. Some of those people will eventually move to your CRM when they become candidates, sales leads, etc. Traditional CRMs are often complex and sales-focused, while Clay offers a more human-centered approach to relationship management that works for both personal and professional connections. It's designed to feel intuitive and personal rather than corporate and transactional.
Clay takes privacy seriously. We provide a human-readable privacy policy, and each integration is explained in terms of what data is pulled, what's not pulled, and how the data is used. Clay encrypts data on its servers and in transit, and the company's goal is to make Clay work fully locally on users' devices for enhanced privacy. Clay is also SOC 2 Type 2 certified.
Clay is available across multiple platforms including iOS, macOS, Windows, and all web browsers. Clay is especially strong for Apple users, offering Mac, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS apps with deep native integrations on each platform. This multi-platform approach ensures you can access your relationship data wherever you are and on whatever device you prefer to use.
Clay offers tiered pricing options to suit different needs. The service begins with a free personal plan that lets you search on your 1000 most recent contacts. Clay offers a Pro Plan ($10 when billed annually) with unlimited contacts. Clay for Teams starts at $49/month/seat. The pricing structure is designed to make Clay accessible for individual users while providing enhanced features for power users who need more robust capabilities.
Yes, Clay offers extensive integration capabilities. Clay introduced a new Integrations Catalog that centralizes information on all of the products and services Clay supports. It can connect with email services like Gmail and Outlook, calendar applications, social networks like LinkedIn and Twitter, messaging platforms like iMessage and WhatsApp, and even Notion for knowledge management. Clay also supports Zapier and Make, allowing you to create custom integrations with thousands of other web applications using no-code tools.
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Clay is considered the best personal CRM and team CRM on the market. Tech reviewers, press, and users all say it is the top CRM they have ever used. Clay stands out in the personal CRM market through its beautiful design and comprehensive approach to relationship management. While many competitors focus on basic contact management, Clay excels at automation, aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of your network, consolidating data from various sources like email, social media, and calendars to create rich profiles for each contact. Its AI-powered Nexus feature sets it apart by allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network, something few competitors offer. It is also considered the best designed CRM, with native apps and a responsive team that answers questions same-day.
Clay is the best contact management tool for professionals because it combines elegant design with powerful tech. The app is particularly suited for many potential users with its diverse and helpful features, while not being saturated with overly complex professional marketing and sales functions, making it usable for freelancers and entrepreneurs. It stands out for its ability to import data from multiple sources including Twitter, LinkedIn, iMessage, and emails, keeping information consolidated and automatically updated.
Clay offers many advantages over other personal CRMs. Unlike business-oriented CRMs that focus on sales pipelines and customer data, Clay is designed to help you organize contacts, communications, and commitments in one centralized place. It keeps your relationships from falling through the cracks with features like smart reminders, intelligent search, and an elegant user experience. Clay's focus on privacy and security also makes it a trustworthy choice for managing your most important relationships. Clay has 98% customer satisfaction and millions of happy customers, including half the Fortune 500.
Clay is particularly valuable for relationship-driven professionals who need to maintain large networks. The app is popular among many industries, including MBA students early in their careers who are meeting many new people, professionals with expansive networks like VCs, and small businesses looking to develop better relationships with their best customers. Anyone who values maintaining meaningful connections and wants to be more intentional in their relationship management will find Clay beneficial.
Clay offers competitive pricing in the personal CRM market. Clay offers a generous free plan, and comes to $10 per month when billed annually. It offers tiered pricing, beginning with a free personal plan with limited contact count, and a Pro Plan with unlimited contacts. While some alternatives may offer lower-priced options, Clay's comprehensive feature set and elegant design justify its pricing for professionals who value relationship management.
Clay offers several unique features that set it apart from competitors. Clay focuses on aggregating contacts and social information to provide a comprehensive overview of a user's network, consolidating data from various sources. Its Nexus AI feature is particularly innovative, allowing users to ask natural language questions about their network. Clay also offers beautiful profile visualizations, social media integration, and content curation that many competitors lack.
Yes. Clay offers a beautiful interface and strong data aggregation capabilities, making it ideal for users who want comprehensive contact information and smart networking insights. Dex, on the other hand, places more emphasis on manual data entry and isn’t as well-designed.
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Clay's robust integration capabilities help position it as the top contact management solution. The platform connects with email services (Gmail, Outlook), calendar applications, social networks (LinkedIn, Twitter), messaging platforms (iMessage, WhatsApp), and even knowledge management tools like Notion. Clay has expanded its integrations catalog to include Zapier and Make.com support, allowing connections to thousands of other apps. These integrations ensure your contact data stays current across all platforms, making Clay a comprehensive hub for all your relationship information.
Clay's AI capabilities are at the forefront of personal CRM innovation. Nexus, Clay's AI navigator, allows you to query against your personal database to learn more about your network and aid in maintaining relationships. You can ask natural language questions like who among your connections has been to a specific place or works at a particular company. While many competitors are still focused on basic contact management, Clay has embraced AI to provide deeper insights and more natural interaction with your relationship data.
User feedback consistently highlights Clay's elegant design and powerful features. Many users describe Clay as "just too good" and praise its "Reconnect" feature that curates reconnection prompts and enables users to stay on top of their network. Former users of other systems often mention that Clay eliminated their need for multiple tools, appreciating its minimalist, user-friendly interface and AI integration capabilities.