Storage & Data Services Presales Manager

Hewlett-Packard

We are hiring for a Presales Manager for Data Services and Storage, leading a team of Technical Architects aligned to our Middle East and Africa business.

We re looking for a leader who can enable the team members to be a success, and to develop and grow, alongside with being a business partner for the aligned sales manager(s). Collaboration should be at the heart of what you do, and be able to operate across a larger presales ecosystem and engage with technical and global stakeholders.

The Data Services & Storage portfolio continues to develop, with key offerings for block storage, but also for unstructured data for file and object workloads, and data protection.

The leader will be responsible for setting the direction, managing the deliverables of the assigned group, and achieving revenue and expense objectives, whilst enabling the team to develop best-in-class solutions for customer.

Customer engagement is a key focus, supporting by the team to maintain customer satisfaction, but also build strategic executive relationships with external clients and partners. Internally, they are responsible for representing assigned area to all levels of sales and other company management and building relationships. They will manage the performance of individual contributors and the team overall and grow and develop talent within the organization.

Responsibilities:

Managing the Business:

• Manages a group of Presales resources to provide account support or shared resource support.
• Resource management & Intra-Region support - Creates presales utilization plans that reflect the requirements and opportunities within area of control.
• Actively collaborates with peers to address regional presales coverage gaps and leverage technical expertise where warranted to win opportunities for the company.
• Partnering with Sales & acct. planning - Assists in planning sales strategy; collaborates within the company and with the field to prioritize, facilitate and direct the use of resources; works with Sales managers to assess sales pipelines in area of control to ensure appropriate and timely utilization of presales support.
• Contributes to and builds the overall culture of the Presales organisation, in alignment with peers, ensuring the best in-class experience for team members and connecting functions

Business acumen:

• Continuously monitors, troubleshoots, and improves area-of-control operations to ensure alignment with the company's business direction, the quality of business practices, optimum organizational performance and a highly motivated presales force.
• Understands business, financial and legal concepts to develop meaningful business recommendations.

Leading & Managing Presales People:

• Coaching - Assesses and manages employee performance to ensure individual and group excellence; counsels and supports individuals through selling challenges; manages performance and results of high and low performers.
• Leadership - Models effective selling skills; motivates and supports presales teams; demonstrates a high level of support in the pursuit and closing of deals.
• People development - Nurtures and advances the talent required to maintain company presales force excellence within area of control; sponsors and directs skill building activities to increase the productivity and accomplishments of the presales force; ensures strong technical acumen across the group needed to support sales.

Selling as a Presales Manager:

• Focuses on strategic direction- understands the overall company/BU strategic direction and portfolio, and can assist sales teams in customizing solutions based on client needs.
• Consultative selling - strategizes with and coaches their team on how to apply consultative-selling techniques to advance sales opportunities; demonstrates client-sensitive practices within the account(s) and internal gate-keeping within the company to support building strategic trusted advisor status.
• Financial selling - employs a financial selling approach to meet customer needs; works with team to build business cases that link proposals to customer's goals, strategies and relevant business metrics, and that demonstrate industry and competitive proficiency.

Education and Experience Required:

• University or Bachelor's degree.
• Typically, 7+ years experience in sales.
• Directly related management experience and work results including success in supporting the achievement of progressively higher quota or other sales related goals.
• Demonstrated level of project management skills.
• Additional specialized knowledge in breadth and/or depth

Knowledge and Skills:

In addition to core technical skills:

Business Management

• Forecast/Budget Control Operations.
• Building/ Improvement.
• Resource Brokering/ Allocation.
• Management of business processes.

Business Development

• Strategic Account Support.
• Negotiation skills within the company.

Consultative Selling

• Presentation and communication skills.
• Ability to develop strong customer relationships.
• Consultative, solution selling and business development skills.

Workforce Planning & Development

• Workforce Planning.
• Career Planning & Development.

Workforce Management

• Coaching & Supervision.
• Timely management of low performers.
• Skill Development/ Enhancement.