As the Company’s CEO of the above-named divisions, Mr. Gross has maintained his roots in the telemarketing industry for the last 36 years. While attending The Ohio State University, Mickey changed his focus, direction, and overall life to begin his employment with Jones Boys Sales and Promotion which is the nation’s eldest telemarketing company; incidentally, Mr. Gross became JBSP’s President at the young age of 25 years. With experience working with over 400 newspapers in the United States and Canada, Mr. Gross founded Crossfire Newspaper Group (CNG) which spearheads the company’s newspaper division. CNG handles over 70 newspapers under various contracts and produces an average of 7,000 new home delivery customers per week.
In the later part of the 1980’s, while exploring new business ventures for the Jones Boys, Gross came upon the long distance deregulation industry, thus building the eminent leader in telemarketing companies selling long distance services to commercial businesses all the way through the mid 1990’s.
In the late 1990’s, along with CASA, (Customer Acquisition Services of America) Mr. Gross initiated a telemarketing pilot program for energy deregulation within the Columbia of Ohio territory; since that timeframe, Mickey has assisted with the development of sales operations for numerous energy marketers that includes a sales campaign that produces over 2,000 new customers a week for a major electricity marketer in the state of Texas. That division currently provides new customer acquisitions for five (5) energy suppliers in over 20 territories for both residential and commercial customers across the nation.
2001 was a landmark year for Mr. Gross in that he led a telemarketing campaign that produced over 1,500 new cellular phone customers for WorldCom that included the purchasing, activating, and distributing to cell phone customers that soon became the benchmark for all other telemarketing companies.
In 2002, Dish Network came calling to Mr. Gross and Mickey heeded the call to direct another successful telemarketing campaign and quickly became the forefront provider for providing new satellite dish customers in the state of California.
Crossfire Marketing Group was born in 2004 behind Mr. Gross’ vision; within CMG, Crossfire Marketing Group holds Crossfire Newspaper Group (CNG), Crossfire Energy Group (CEG), and Crossfire Satellite Services (CSS) as its main divisions. With this fortitude of vision, Michael Gross brought together additional team players to become more than ‘just a telemarketing company’ that solely dealt with telemarketing functions, but added a direct mail company (ListVantage PRO), a website development company (Crossfire Website Design), as well as a database development and management division to complete the company’s profile.
In 2006, Gross was nominated to the executive committee for the National Energy Marketers Association, NEMA who head up the Energy Suppliers across the nation with regard to the gas and electric deregulation industry.
Today, CMG has satellite offices in California, Ohio, Florida, Nevada, and Arizona and employs over 500 people in order to meet their clients’ goals. They also strive at being at the forefront of developing new programs and providing sales support and growth for companies.
Michael Gross can be reached via email @ mgross@crossfire1.com
Mr. Sheppard came to the Jones Boys back in 1977 and has been involved with and has headed up the newspaper division ever since its inception. John has been instrumental over the years in the acquisition of newspaper accounts and has led various initiatives regarding telemarketing efforts as well as face to face business to consumer and business to business sales.
John has become a fixture in the newspaper industry as he has worked with every major newspaper chain in the United States and Canada as well as most of the independent newspapers in smaller cities throughout the States.
In 2004, Mr. Sheppard was part of the group that brought Crossfire Marketing Group to fruition with his vision of growth and expansion of the company through other means of marketing and sales. John is a mainstay in the Midwest region of the United States for all newspaper sales and marketing, the overall scope of the Company and its growth with his expertise and knowledge of circulation and trends within the industry.
John Sheppard, or Shep, as he is kindly regarded by his colleagues is a powerful force when it comes to the branding and image of Crossfire and all its entities with his vast connection base of customers and followers. John and Mr. Gross have been partners for over 35 years and remain the closest of friends today.
John Sheppard can be reached via email @ jsheppard@crossfire1.com
Stephen became an employee of Jones Boys Sales Promotion in 1990 and has become a cornerstone of the company with his innovative sales and marketing techniques. Mr. Rudnicki began his career under the tutelage of Mr. John Sheppard in the Toledo, Ohio area within the newspaper division of JBSP.
Mr. Rudnicki quickly proved himself as a fast learner and master of sales presentations; he has been instrumental in the development of Crossfire’s energy division with the signing of three of three of the largest energy suppliers in the nation in the natural gas and electricity industries. He has also been a leader in the development of outbound sales scripts as well as inbound customer service sales presentations that have shown Crossfire’s clients an exponential increase in sales and revenue.
Stephen prides himself on running the call centers for Crossfire for over 20 years with no verified complaints from any public utilities and helping to develop the latest divisions of the Company—the website development company, the social media initiative, and a renewed interest in the energy division that is helping consumers go green and save money at the same time.
Stephen Rudnicki can be reached via email @ srudnicki@crossfire1.com
Mr. Wachs graduated from Miami University of Ohio, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Business. He served eighteen years as Managing Partner of Blake and Shaffer, a financial and accounting services firm and has been a Managing Member of Blake and Wachs, LTD (formerly Blake and Shaffer) since 1997.
Gary had previously performed work for Crossfire dating back to the early 2000’s and has been a key element in all aspects that Crossfire is involved including their involvement with large-scale energy companies, newspapers throughout North America, merchant processors, and all other functions involving the financial backbone of the Company.
Mr. Wachs’ expertise is in Corporate and Personal Tax preparation, certified audits, Internal Revenue Representation and tax fraud consulting along with non-profit organizations, business and financial consulting services, estate planning / retirement services, and marketing and merchandising consulting services.
Gary Wachs can be reached via email @ gwachs@crossfire1.com
Like his brother Stephen, Michael joined the Jones Boys in 1990 within the newspaper division under the tutelage of John Sheppard. More on the ‘people’ side of the organization, Mr. Rudnicki’s roots reside in the background of the Company and the recruitment of key figures to fill important roles.
He has been involved in the management of call centers in California and Ohio and helped, with his brother, Stephen, to gain the contract of Crossfire’s most profitable contract with the nation’s largest natural gas supplier as well as develop the many programs that they continue to run today including Crossfire Website Design, Crossfire Energy Group, and Crossfire Marketing Group as a whole.
These days find Mr. Rudnicki engaged with social media management, writing blogs and articles for all divisions for Crossfire (Crossfire Website Design, Crossfire Newspaper Group, ListVantage PRO, EcoWatt Energy, TransTech One, and Transcendent One) , writing web content, and working as a ‘catch all’ for the Company’s needs.
Michael Rudnicki can be reached via email @ mrudnicki@crossfire1.com
Jones Boys Sales and Promotion, Co, Inc (JBSP Co)
Crossfire Marketing Group, Inc (CMG)
Crossfire Newspaper, Inc (CNG)
Crossfire Energy Group, Inc (CEG)
Crossfire Satellite Services, Inc (CSS)
Crossfire Newspaper Group, President
Crossfire Marketing Group, Co-Vice President
Crossfire Energy Group, Vice President
Crossfire Marketing Group, Co-Vice President
All Crossfire entities
All Crossfire entities