Position: Regional Sales Manager - Chicago

Position Summary

The Regional Sales Manager (RSM) is responsible for driving new business from prospective and existing customer accounts within their respective assigned territory, and meeting and/or exceeding all sales quotas to achieve revenue goals. This position will organize, plan, direct, and coordinate all sales activities for both prospective and established customers. Established customers outside of the pre-determined territory may also be part of this responsibility as assigned by the VP, Sales. This person should be skilled in understanding customer business needs via a methodical sales discovery process. Large complex sales situations will require a documented sales approach such as Strategic Selling, Sandler, TAS or a comparable process, which will ultimately address the customer’s critical success factors as they relate to Sendmail’s messaging products and professional services. Develop, nurture, and maintain relationships with prospective and current customers in the pursuit of solving the prospect’s or customer’s business issues while in turn driving Sendmail’s success.

Essential/Key Areas of Responsibility

• Act as a business resource to the customer and provide “industry expert” executive level selling practices while delivering clear differentiation.
• Create demand by understanding business challenges, by delivering entry point value statements, value propositions, and by identifying the key buying influences in a complex sales environment.
• Develop and drive a full pipeline of qualified sales prospects by networking with industry consultants and channel partners, active participation in industry associations, using direct marketing and inside sales and telemarketing resources, in addition to personal prospecting and market/territory research.
• Create demand for Sendmail products/services emphasizing the value of Sendmail’s products, services and messaging.
• Team with Professional Services, Sales Enablement and Business Development to deploy and execute account strategies and coverage.
• Identify all key “Buying Influences” within the assigned account base and prospective clients.
• Plan and conduct mid/high-level meetings with customers and prospects.
• Identify customer business needs. Develop strategies and present technology-based solutions based on TCO and ROI that deliver desired results. Develop and present proposals. Involve appropriate company resources and management throughout the sales cycle.
• Develop value statements, account profiles and strategies for all accounts.
• Manage opportunity funnel by continually qualifying and re-prioritizing opportunities among accounts, meeting with customers, managing the sales cycle, and reporting on opportunities, activities, forecast, and contact information (use of Netsuite/Salesforce.com).
• Establish, build and maintain customer relationships. Ensure that solutions balance the needs of both the customer and company. Build trust and credibility with the customer and ensure good communication between sales and professional services at customer accounts. Establish and maintain a strong working bond focused on the customer between Sales, Product Management, Engineering and Professional Services.
• Ability to quickly learn, apply, and position technical knowledge related to company and competitor offerings. Able to communicate technical aspects of product and service offerings to customers and prospects. Disciplined to follow-through and research technical/integration questions that may be outside normal scope of knowledge.
• Engage in contract renewal process, help design and implement renewal strategies. Review renewal proposal with Economic Buyer and follow through with execution of contract.
• Develop a solid understanding of the competition and how to develop strategies to neutralize. Share competitor knowledge with sales team.

Knowledge Skills and Abilities Required

• Minimum of seven years sales experience in the high tech industry with focus on solution sales of software, appliances, support and services.
• Experience in email/messaging, security and/or application sales is a plus.
• Knowledge of Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA, business compliance, and other industry regulations
• SalesForce.com or comparable sales force automation tool
• Outlook (email/calendar/tasks)
• PowerPoint (presentation development)
• Enterprise IT infrastructure/application knowledge
• Financial acumen to be able to assemble winning financially sound sales strategies
• Comfortable selling direct or through channel partners and consultants
• Excellent business writing skills
• Experience selling enterprise solutions to C-level clients.
• Practical use of Strategic Selling, Sandler, TAS or comparable sales methodology
• BS/BA or equivalent experience