Enterprise Sales Lead

Merkle, a dentsu company, powers the experience economy. For more than 35 years, the company has put people at the heart of its approach to digital business transformation. As the only integrated experience consultancy in the world with a heritage in data science and business performance, Merkle delivers holistic, end-to-end experiences that drive growth, engagement, and loyalty. Merkle’s expertise has earned recognition as a “Leader” by top industry analyst firms, in categories such as digital transformation and commerce, experience design, engineering and technology integration, digital marketing, data science, CRM and loyalty, and customer data management. With more than 16,000 employees, Merkle operates in 30+ countries throughout the Americas, EMEA, and APAC.

As part of our EMEA Merkle Sales Leadership Team, we require an experienced Enterprise Sales Lead that will build and expand strategic relationships, identify high‑value opportunities and close complex deals with clients. The role will own a new logo Merkle EMEA sales target against one or more industry verticals as a sales territory. You will report into the Merkle EMEA Chief Growth Officer whom owns an overall new logo sales number to be achieved across the team.

Being an Enterprise Sales Lead at Merkle

As an Enterprise Sales Lead, with substantive sales related and leadership experience, you are the strategic lead and will work as a point of specialism for your allocated territory focussed on sale of our Arc product and associated services to deliver our sales strategy effectively. You will develop and execute a strategic sales plan, accountable for ensuring sales quotas are met against target accounts as part of the CXM sales team.

You will have a key strategic partnership with leaders, including C‑level executives, across the business. You will be leading on a specialist area to achieve strategic growth targets and to influence and shape organisation direction. You will hunt new logo opportunities and run complex sales processes for closing net new logo accounts for Merkle as a strategic primary focus, while also adopting proactive up/cross‑sell growth activities from across our wider dentsu client base (by working with dentsu practice client leads).

You will be a renowned effective leader and have expert knowledge of the breadth of Merkle service offerings as well as our capabilities across our many alliance partners including Salesforce, Adobe, Braze, Shopify, Google and other CMS/commerce platforms to enable synergy business development efforts in tandem with Merkle Alliance Managers also within the local and regional sales team.

You will design tailored sales motions and strategies for Merkle to sell effectively into your sales territory and proactively seek development of client decision‑maker/c‑suite strategic relationships. You will be supported by a marketing function to help source leads. You will provide leadership and proactively mentor junior sales team members and foster a high‑performance culture. You will be expected to utilise your own network, networking and proactivity to hunt and self‑generate new logo opportunities, as part of strategic growth approach in your specialist area.

Key Responsibilities

• Developing and maintaining deep strategic relationships with across our Merkle practice areas and alliance partner ecosystem.
• Ownership of a set of new logo accounts to proactively drive and lead on new business revenue.
• Develop and execute a strategic pitch‑winning sales plan (from lead to closed) for your industry vertical, creating own opportunities and new contacts within assigned new logo accounts, alongside those sourced from marketing or alliance partners in order to meet an annual individual sales quota.
• Establish trusted strategic relationships with client decision‑makers, c‑suite and alliance partners to drive sales opportunities.
• Accountable for ownership of processing inbound RFI and RFPs related to assigned sales territory following the Merkle defined sales process owning associated pipeline management (ensuring forecasting accuracy into Merkle Sales tools and reporting activities).
• Analyse prospective client business goals, objectives, needs, process and existing infrastructure to propose Merkle solutions proactively and provide strategic insights to support pitch teams you will lead.
• Understand the prospect and client decision making process and define stakeholder/organisational maps.
• Apply business outcome‑based sales principles and demonstrate relevant and transferable company experience in developing sales strategy and sales plans.
• Demonstrate robust leadership, working closely with our Alliance Managers and their external partner manager counterparts to maintain and foster strong and trusting client relationships.
• Proactive pipeline building against target accounts and build 1:1 relationships with alliance partner account executives to drive partner sourced leads and lead strategic co‑sell sales plays.
• Working closely with the Merkle solutions, strategy and practice leaders to help define and position relevant client or industry vertical specific Go-To-Market propositions.
• Accumulate the latest trends and developments in digital marketing and assigned industry verticals through an inquisitive and self‑motivated approach demonstrating subject matter expertise, becoming a trusted advisor to clients and prospects.

Key Characteristics of a Merkle Enterprise Sales Lead

• Strong Commercially Driven Mindset
• Goal‑Orientated Focus
• Reward Motivated
• High Risk Tolerance – bold and brave
• Resilient and persistent
• Strong time management and diligence with sales administration (Sales CRM and pipeline accuracy)
• Strong Communicator and Relationship builder
• Confident, credible and personable
• Curious by nature on client business, industry trends and Merkle’s evolving capabilities
• Comfort with ambiguity and adaptable to lead clients towards the right solutions
• Bold, brave and proactive in proposing Merkle solutions to prospective clients.

Required Qualifications & Experience

• Anticipated the appropriate candidate will have circa 10+ years consultative sales experience. Strong experience in the CMS, commerce and digital/CX agency is essential, CRM expertise is also desirable.
• Demonstrates C‑suite maturity, excellent communication skills, and ability to handle complex decisions and difficult situations.
• Proven ability to lead (internally and with clients) with influence, credibility and authority.
• Extensive experience of negotiating and influencing senior stakeholders.
• Demonstrable experience leading on and closing large, complex sales deals with high motivation to attain sales success through both collaboration and leadership.
• Demonstrable success in driving and supporting successful prospecting and lead generation efforts.
• Substantive sales experience in marketing technology, professional services or digital agency with proven history of consistent quota attainment.
• Demonstrable success working within an individual and team environment with ability to provide leadership and direction.

Essential Skills / Attributes

• Highly articulate with an ability to clearly and succinctly communicate with senior leadership (written, verbal and PPT).
• Well organised, dynamic individual who can work with multiple specialist functions to deliver a common goal.
• Leadership – ability to inspire and command respect of peers and wider functional community (ability to simultaneously prioritise and provide strong leadership).
• Strong co‑ordination & organisational skills.
• Ability to translate strategic ideas into actionable deliverables within the business.
• Self‑starter with strategic mindset and the ability to think quickly, adapting to client needs with ability to deliver under pressure.
• Ability to quickly develop strong relationships with senior people.
• Strong team player, collaborative style of working.

Preferred Qualifications & Experience

• Experience of any of Salesforce, Adobe, Braze, Shopify, CMS, Content CRM, marketing automation, Commerce, Customer Data Platforms or Customer experience capabilities or platforms.
• Knowledge of the inner workings of software alliance partnerships.
• Viewed as a thought leader in an industry vertical.
• Well‑connected/networked and able to leverage their network to drive Merkle sales success.

At the point of application, the candidate must have the legal right to work in the UK as we are unable to sponsor visas as this time. Merkle does not discriminate against job applicants on the basics of age, disability, gender, marital or civil partner status, pregnancy or maternity, race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin, religion or belief, sex or sexual orientation. Experience stipulated in this job description serves as a guide only and all applications will be considered on their merits, irrespective of experience. As part of our Diversity and Inclusion agenda, and as an Equal Opportunities employer, if you require interview adjustments during the selection process please engage directly with your Talent Partner.

Location: London

Brand: Global Functions

Time Type: Full time

Contract Type: Permanent