シニアセールスエグゼクティブ(EMEA)

Licensed sponsor London Full-time Posted 6 days ago

Overall Purpose of the Role

IIJ Europe is the European arm of Internet Initiative Japan, providing network, security and cloud services to Japanese-affiliated companies in the United Kingdom and across Europe. The business is growing towards a hundred employees and is at an important stage in its growth.

This is a full-cycle sales role. You will own a portfolio of accounts and open new ones through your own approach to the market. Customers approach us with business problems, not IT specifications. You will build the relationship, work through the problem with them, define it in IT terms and propose a solution together with your technical team. Where no off-the-shelf product fits, you will design one that does.

We value long-term relationships with our customers, and yours will continue after delivery, supporting them on issues small and large and growing the account as their business grows. The work is done alongside engineers in the UK, Germany and the Netherlands, and with colleagues across IIJ's wider international network.

■Main duties and responsibilities ------------------------------------------

Owning and growing a portfolio of accounts

Build a deep understanding of each customer's business operations, their objectives and challenges: what they sell and where they are growing.
Map the decision-making and influence within each customer organisation, including the parent company in Japan, and shape your approach to it.
Develop account plans, identify opportunities across your portfolio and open new accounts through your own approach to the market.
Lead negotiations through to contract signature, and maintain an accurate pipeline and revenue forecast.
Work with vendors, partners and colleagues in other countries throughout the sales cycle.

Consultative selling

Uncover the problem behind the request. Spot problems the customer has not raised.
Approach the customer with a hypothesis, test it with them, and refine the problem and the solution in rapid cycles.
Prepare and present proposals setting out options, costs and trade-offs, so the customer can make an informed decision.
Advise on approaches and solutions that put the customer's best interest first.
Design solutions that combine IIJ services, third-party products, integration work and ongoing SI support services.

Leading the account team

Lead account teams, setting direction and pace on each opportunity, and win the commitment of colleagues in other departments.
Resolve differences between what is commercially attractive and what is technically sound.
Bring colleagues into the picture as the account develops, draw on your engineering colleagues' insight to take it further, and work to a strategy the whole team shares.

■Working Conditions and/ or Physical Requirements ---------------------

Standard opening hours are from 09:00 to 17:30, Mondays to Fridays.
The company operates a minimum of three office days per week. This role is customer-facing and works closely with the engineering team, and you should expect to be in the office or with customers on most working days.
Occasional work outside standard hours is required, including early morning or evening calls with colleagues in other time zones and occasional business travel.

Essential

At least 5 years in business-to-business IT sales, with a portfolio of accounts and a target of your own.
Experience of opening new accounts as well as developing existing ones.
The initiative to identify opportunities nobody has asked you to look at, and to take them forward.
Experience of selling into organisations where decisions involve more than one party, including a head office in another country.
Working knowledge of network, security or cloud infrastructure services.
The ability to write proposals, account plans and presentations to a high standard.
Experience of leading account teams across sales and engineering without line authority.
A practice of working with engineers throughout the sale, and of sharing what you learn as you learn it.
Fluent written and spoken English.

Desirable

Experience of selling to, or working within, Japanese-affiliated companies.
Japanese language ability.
Experience of working across several countries, or with colleagues and customers in other time zones.

What the role offers

A business on its way to a hundred people, where the accounts you open now are the ones it grows on.
Customers at board level, and engineers at the next desk.
Accounts that stay with you after delivery, so you see where your own advice led.
Work across several countries and a wide range of technologies, with colleagues in Europe and in Japan.

Assessment

Selection is based on specific examples. Be ready to talk through one account in detail: what you thought the problem was, how you tested that, what you got wrong, and what changed for the customer.