Channel Sales Account Manager

Description:

We’re beginning to grow our offering outside of direct sale in education both into the wider public sector and sell through partners such as local authorities or bodies which represent large groups of educational establishments. We are looking for an experienced Channel Sales Account Manager to lead our sales effort into some of our existing channel partners. Within this role you will be expected to manage and grow existing accounts.

The key focus for the role will be to retain and grow our high value channel partners to sell through effectively, helping them to target new customers and emerging market opportunities, qualifying leads, cross-selling, managing sales opportunities (via both bidding and less formal routes), working closely with bid team colleagues and the wider Go to Market team. Bids and large opportunities require us to describe in detail our proposed solution, plans for the implementation, how service will be managed, and how digital transformation will be achieved. This is against the backdrop of a competitive market. The CSAM plays a key role in helping to bring to life the RM solutions to a customer’s requirement but most importantly is responsible for ultimately winning the deal through a channel partner by providing and driving the commercial steer and proposed pricing alongside the articulation of the win themes that will look to set us apart from the competition within the bid response.

Success involves engaging with the necessary level of contacts within the existing accounts and identifying required levels of opportunities, creating maximum demand for the company’s key propositions, ensuring opportunities are expertly qualified, and converting as many of these opportunities as possible into orders, with the aim of exceeding the annual sales targets.

You will work across a variety of channel partners, bids and campaigns to motivate leaders to want to engage further with RM and use these conversations to uncover and create new sales opportunities. You will help channel partners successfully sell the related RM solution, by building superior joint value, overcoming objections and gaining a financial commitment from the prospect. The role holder needs the skills and experience to sell through responding to complex and competitive tenders as well as through more informal procurements.

To be successful you will need to develop and maintain a knowledge of the market including the key

suppliers and your channel partners, including Public Sector bodies, you should engage. Reporting to Channel Sales leadership, you will bring your Public Sector and Channel experience to the team and help in shaping and delivering the strategy for this exciting opportunity.

Responsibilities

Main Responsibilities

Main Responsibilities include but are not limited to:

Opportunity identification, development and closure

Identify pursue and develop new opportunities within your existing partners
Where applicable, lead the bid response effort with the support of the bid management team.
Generate Channel Partner acquisition growth through prospecting, networking, attending events, and leveraging consolidation opportunities.
Manage the full sales cycle from renewal through to negotiation and close.
Win significant business growth opportunities, working with the Go-to-market team, bid team and the rest of RM as appropriate, positioning RM as a credible organisation to grow the partnership with.
Take and lead bids through formal governance & exec steering for permission to bid, no bid, submission and contract close.

Customer engagement

Map out, Engage, maintain and influence a network of decision makers and influencers within the Channel partners you manage to generate long term relationships that can be converted to a tangible future sales opportunity.
Attend Channel Partner meetings, growing personal profile and connections across the organisation.
Act as a window into RM as a point of escalation for the channel partner.

Pipeline management & forecasting

Deliver against targets through pipeline management within RM’s CRM.
Track pipeline and ensure coverage against target.
Ensure appropriate regular contact with all opportunities and the account in general.
Identify and mitigate risks within the Channel pipeline – both new business and existing.
Prioritise opportunities and the time allocated to them.
Accurately forecast opportunities through providing a monthly commit during regular meetings with your channel Sales leadership.

Improvement focus

Work closely with your Sales colleagues to share best practice and help each other improve win rates.
Identify any solutions gaps/requirements that RM needs to address to be successful in any given initiative and support the Business in bringing this to life in bids and customer engagements.
Work with marketing and product management colleagues to develop a replicable bank of sales assets and case studies to engage / influence the market with, in terms of RM’s capability.

Experience

Skills and Experience

You will have proven experience of:
Selling & managing accounts delivering complex, strategic solutions into the Channel and public sector, ideally in the IT and business process outsourcing sectors.
Working in and leading matrixed sales and bid teams, involving different specialists.
Business development success at an account level, through both structured (e.g. bid and tender) and unstructured sales processes.
Building strategic relationships at an Executive/Director level.
You will be:
Self-motivated, target-driven, and able to work independently.
A strong strategic thinker and account planner, able to analyse complex market dynamics and requirements, and develop a coherent and compelling response.
Analytical, able to understand both RM’s business drivers, solutions and delivery, and customers’ key drivers and their impact on solution design, and how these are brought together effectively, under effective commercial contract.
Self-motivated and highly organised, able to operate within a complex environment.
Someone who acts with initiative, able to find a creative approach to solving customer problems and finding channel to market.
A great communicator, able to engage with and influence external and internal stakeholders of different levels, articulate complexity in a clear and straightforward manner, negotiate effectively, and present compellingly.
Proficient in using CRM systems.
You will have:
Building relationships at an Executive/Director level within the channel partner.
A full UK driving licence, and a willingness to travel
Passion for working with the Education sector and selling through partners.
A flexible can-do attitude, with a willingness and ability to adapt within the role.
A strong alignment to RM's core behaviours: Be Brave, Win Together, Be Curious, Make it Simple and Consider it Done.