Inside Sales Presales Solution Architect

Job description

Do you have the ability and enthusiasm to work with sales but also be a bit of a technical guru?  Would you like to take on an active role in the company and work in a diverse, fast moving and creative culture, with world-class professionals working alongside you?  Presales is about having the ideas and the ability to convert them into practical solutions, designed to help our customers. As a key member of a technical team based in one of three European locations you’ll have the ability to influence opportunities and help HP win deals against clever competition. You’ll work on complex opportunities and with multiple groups to design winning solutions.
 
As part of the Presales team you’ll have a variety of roles to play:
·         Speaking to customers to understand their requirements
·         Helping the sales team convince the customer that HP has the best solution
·         Training the Sales team and imparting your understanding and wisdom
·         Out-witting the competition and knowing why HP has the best solution
·         Providing the best solution for the customer
·         Working with partners to support multiple routes to market
·         Becoming a trusted advisor to customers and partners
·         Understanding and evangelizing HP’s products and solutions
·         Training and achieving accreditation to HP ExpertONE standards
 
 
Job Purpose: 
 
As Presales Solution Architect you will be responsible for providing Pre Sales technical advice and support for a defined team of Inside Sales Representatives. Through a combination of attending customer calls, coaching and providing product training you will support and drive delivery of revenue goals both across the team and at an individual ISR level with respect to specialist products and solutions.
 
In this role important performance measures are: 
·         Team coverage (valid level of opportunities across team)
·         CRM data quality
·         Quota attainment of team/individual relating to specific solutions or products
·         Coaching activity (valid level of coached calls)
·         Program execution
·         ISR Product knowledge development
 
Your key relationships will be:
·         Inside Sales reps
·         HP Presales (field
- and office-based)
·         Field Sales
·         Channel Partners
·         Stakeholders
 
And your key responsibilities will be:
·         Drive team revenue achievement on product lines through customer engagement, call coaching and product knowledge up-skilling across Inside Sales Representatives (ISRs).
·         Drive revenue goal based on individual ISR revenues on product specialism (penetration/attach rate)
·         Achieve agreed volumes of customer calls either jointly with ISR or independently to add Presales input to opportunities – aim to maximise solution uptake including associated services
·         Maintains a level of technical depth in one or more product / solution areas.
·         Proactive self-development – HP Products, HP communications, Industry trends, competitor activity
·         Call coaching ISRs to maximum product / solution penetration and enhance ISR’s product knowledge
·         Provide regular product/solution Training via 1:1 sessions, workshops & team meeting rollouts to ensure ISRs are maintaining the latest knowledge of HP’s Portfolio.
·         Present products/solutions either remotely or face to face to customers in support of opportunity/ISR
·         Support manager in continual development of ISRs with respect product/solution knowledge
·         Support L&D when required with respect product/solution training.
·         Form key relationships with HP presales to achieve alignment with wider HP presales goals and working methods.
·         Gathers and assesses customer technical needs;
·         Identifies related needs (lead generation, opportunity expansion)
·         Identifies site-specific parameters and constraints that impact the solution
·         Identifies probable competition
·         Solicits inputs from other experts as required
·         Investigates and optimizes a solution's fit to the requirements of an opportunity
·         Adapts solution design to new requirements
·         Establishes the validity of a solution and its components
·         Generates an implementation plan with timelines for the solution
·         Creates the appropriate test plan as required
·         Anticipates some of the potential challenges for the proposed project plan
·         Assists peers in area of expertise as needed
·         Maintains excellent communications with customers
·         Advances opportunities through the use of effective consultative selling techniques
·         Builds customer loyalty through being a trusted advisor
·         Partners effectively with others in the account to ensure problem resolution and customer satisfaction
·         Actively supports the account team with solution advice, proposals, presentations, and other customer communications
·         Engages appropriate additional technical resources as needed
·         Provides support to deals in the pipeline where needed
·         Contributions have some impact in assigned territory or Regional BU

Desired profile

What do you bring to HP?:
 
- A Technical University or Bachelor's degree preferred
- Typically 3-8 years’ experience in technical selling and/or consultative selling
- Experience in the industry is desired
- Technical and/or solution experience in vertical industry preferred
- Fluency in English and ideally one additional language from the following: Dutch, Flemish, German, Swiss, French, Swedish, Finnish, Danish or Norwegian.
 
Knowledge and skills required for the role:
 
- Demonstrates a solid knowledge of HP's breadth of solutions
- Demonstrates deep technical capabilities in assigned area of specialization
- Awareness in competitive solutions knowledge.
- Understands data business center components and how IT is used to address business needs
- Demonstrates current understanding of technical innovations & trends and their impact on solving customer business problems
- Demonstrated ability to work as the lead for components of large complex projects
- Has a high level understanding of the HP product roadmaps for multiple BU's
- Has demonstrated hands-on level skills with some of the technology
- Understands and applies basic financial and accounting concepts as well as capital investment concepts and applies them appropriately in positioning
- Applies understanding of the customer's value chain and business requirements when designing and proposing solutions
- Communicates the value of the solution in terms of financial return and impact on customer business goals
- Solid level of industry acumen; keeps current with trends and able to converse with client on issues and challenges
- Demonstrates solid questioning techniques and related communications skills with customer managers
- Demonstrates understanding of the competition as well as good positioning & strategy
 
 What we offer:1. Personal & Career developmentWe want to help you grow further and to enable you to be successful. Our development program gives every employee the opportunity to closely plan and monitor her/his career path. HP offers you a wide variety of training and education, a mentoring program  and an active program where we stimulate HP-colleagues to explore the various business units of HP. Being a worldwide leading company implies you don’t have to limit your future ambitions.2. Competitive Compensation package HP offers you a good pension scheme and competitive compensation package.3. Great company cultureHP employees have the opportunity to be flexible in time and place if their position permits it. We have an open-door-policy which means that employees in all levels of the organization are more than willing to help you, so you can make a quick and easy start within HP. You will get to learn many colleagues during our monthly activities: think of our quarterly all employee meetings, voluntary work and the many work-life focused activities such as sports, culture, photography and so on. HP is Highest Ranked Electronics Company in Best Global Green Brands Ranking 2012 and our Global Citizenship Report is well respected as one of the most extensive reports made in our business.

About HP - Hewlett Packard

Hewlett-Packard, abrégé en HP, est une entreprise d’informatique créée par deux diplômés de l’université de Stanford, Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard, démarrée dans un garage en 1939. HP, qui fabriquait et vendait à l’origine des appareils électroniques (instruments d’essais et de mesure, notamment), s’est progressivement tourné vers l’informatique et les périphériques : ordinateurs, imprimantes, serveurs, scanners, appareils photo numériques, etc. Hewlett-Packard vend aussi bien aux professionnels qu’aux particuliers, et réalise un chiffre d’affaires annuel d’environ 125 milliards d'euros. L’entreprise produit près de la moitié des imprimantes vendues dans le monde, celles-ci étant à l’origine du quart de son CA.