Sales Specialist

Boardroom Appointments; Johannesburg; On-site; ZAR 500,000 - 700,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading recruitment firm is seeking a Sales Specialist in Johannesburg. This role involves pursuing qualified leads and developing stakeholder relationships. The candidate should have substantial sales experience, particularly in technology, and a strong track record in solution-based selling. Responsibilities include conducting client workshops and ensuring deals are secured to meet assigned quotas. Ideal candidates will possess negotiation skills and a degree in a relevant field, with familiarity in AWS and Azure being a plus.

Qualifications

• Solid sales experience in a technology or services environment.
• Demonstrable experience of solution-based selling with a proven track record.
• Experience in selling complex solutions and services to C-Level clients.

Responsibilities

• Identify and pursue qualified leads identified by management.
• Maintain subject matter expertise in relevant technology domains.
• Develop and execute an opportunity plan to achieve sales targets.

Skills

Sales experience in a technology or services environment

Solution-based selling

Networking with C-Level clients

Negotiation skills

Education

Degree in a Technical or Sales field (preferred)

Tools

Sales methodologies and tools

Job description

The Sales Specialist role is a quota-bearing sales persona and the purpose is to primarily pursue and land qualified leads identified by the Client Management team and Lead Generation Representatives. The Sales Specialist will identify new opportunities from a selection of existing accounts, and present solutions, value propositions, partner configurations, cost structures, and revenue models to the client that meet their needs. The SS will work directly with clients at a variety of levels, as well as internal subject matter experts.

A substantial amount of time will be spent on engaged selling or supporting the sales process in partnership with Client Managers. Contribute to the pre-sales process by working with pre-sales architects to create the best solution design for the client.

Building and developing excellent stakeholder relationships with new and existing clients, whilst developing new business channels and territories will be a core focus of this role.

Duties and responsibilities:

• Maintain Subject matter expertise in a technology domain, multiple domains or solutions set
• Support the closure of sales based on technology domain knowledge
• Address the technology conceptual challenges during the sales process
• Maintain a high level of relevant product and service knowledge to have meaningful conversations with potential and existing clients
• Maintain awareness of the competitive landscape, market pricing, and strategy and how to penetrate a new market
• Contribute to the knowledge base of company solutions and services within a practice area or service area by sharing best practices with internal teams, as well as client teams
• Work with relevant technology vendors and ensure a deep understanding of their solutions and how they can contribute to our own solutions set
• Uncover and understand client business goals
• Articulate the solution/deliverables that the client requires, as opposed to the products that they need to buy
• Articulate our value propositions throughout all steps in the sales process
• Conduct functional gap analysis and address business issues raised by clients
• Prepare and conduct client workshops and presentations
• Establish relationships with multiple client stakeholders and secure deals with clients to achieve assigned sales quotas and targets
• Use understanding of the clients business and depth of knowledge on the technology-specific solution to personalize the recommended solution in line with the clients need
• Be able to spot new sales opportunities within an account and work with the sales teams to drive them to closure
• Pursue and land qualified leads identified by the client managers and other lead generation sources
• Work alongside Client Managers to support the sales process, position technology solutions, and close the deal
• Support the wider territory sales plan and execute the sales strategy, and based on that define your own plan for your solution to achieve your sales targets
• Develop and maintain clear account plans for appropriate clients and targets
• Discover, forecast, and run opportunities in the medium and long-term
• Scope and document solutions to meet customer requirements
• Identify, assess and highlight client risks that could prove detrimental to the clients organization and credibility
• Collaboratively work with sales teams, especially Client Managers, to successfully close the deal
• Partner with internal teams to ensure the scope of work and proposals are tracked and managed
• Work closely with other in-territory counterparts and matrix teams to achieve the shared goal of growth
• Use company sales methodologies and tools such as target plans, opportunity plans, and account plans to drive the sales process
• Develop and implement an opportunity plan, to provide regular check-ins with the primary point of contact and have an established process for getting buy-in from all stakeholders

Qualifications and experience:

• Solid sales experience in a technology or services environment
• Sound understanding of IT Managed Services environment
• Demonstrable experience of solution-based selling with a proven track record of sales over-achievement
• Prior experience in selling complex solutions and services to C-Level clients
• Experience in resolving a wide range of issues in creative ways to meet targets and objectives
• Strong experience in networking with senior internal and external people in the specialist area of expertise
• Expert level capability and the ability to work independently with little instruction on day-to-day workload
• A Degree in a Technical or Sales field is preferred but not essential
• Negotiation Skill methodologies such as Scotworks
• Desirable: AWS Cloud Practitioner Essentials Training, MS Azure Fundamentals Training, or latest equivalent are also desirable