Pre Sales Specialist in Leeds

Location: Leeds Office or UK/Remote

About the role:

The Managed Services Pre-Sales Specialist reports to the Service Operations Director. As an advocate and a senior member of the Managed Service team, the Managed Service Pre-Sales Specialist will represent, design and present the Xalient Managed Service solutions to Customers, in a PreSales and Customer Success capacity. The Pre-Sales Specialist will own overall responsibility for the Managed Services elements of the Pre-Sales engagement process with the Client, will support the Sales Team throughout the sales cycle through to a decision point and then hand over into delivery process for business wins whilst remaining as a consultant throughout the delivery processes to answer any questions and assist delivery team in service acceptance.

What you’ll be doing:

• Working as part of the Managed Services team and with regular time in Leeds offices and on site with Customers.
• Responsible for achieving success by driving business growth, influencing sales propositions to win business deals in a Pre-Sales capacity.
• Track and monitor activity and success as a single point of truth for Managed Services Pre-Sales activity. Ownership of supporting sales to achieve targets.
• Maintain close, sensitive and long-term working relationships with key customers acting as a trusted advisor.
• Pre-Sales design of Managed Services to fulfil customer requirements aligned to the Company's Managed Service capabilities whilst working alongside the Managed Services leadership team to close gaps and recognise development (training), availability and capability requirements with a high degree of accuracy.
• Lead bids within the Managed Service team and organise activity to ensure timely bid submissions, meeting (and exceeding) agreed deadlines.
• Submit content, costs, bills of materials (as required) and validate content for high level Managed Services designs for peer review. Peer review designs from other colleagues with critical & positive appraisal.
• Prepare and deliver effective presentations to peers as part of ongoing Sales Enablement. Prepare and deliver effective presentations to customers to highlight Managed Service detail and business benefit and help win/close deals.
• Ensure continuity for the customer by providing an effective handover to the delivery teams or scope, commercials etc. for business wins.
• Acting as an ambassador for the company, raising the Company’s profile, branding and credibility within the market, delivering excellence to delight our customers.
• R&D/Product Development - working alongside the Company's Senior Management, other Pre-Sales Architects, Managed Services leadership and Product Management throughout product development forums and collaborate to develop new products and/or improve service offerings to customers.
• Keep apprised with developments in associated (and competitive) technologies and services within the Company's market segments.
• Contribute to the development of Company goals, growth and profitability targets by being an active member of the team and culture.
• Build strong relationships with vendor commercial and technical contacts.

What you’ll need:

• At least 5+ years working experience of developing, implementing or running Managed Service contracts in similarly aligned roles (such as operational management, service delivery and/or service implementation roles).
• ITIL Intermediate / Expert Level Training and awareness (service management best practice).
• Awareness of ISO20000 (Service Management) preferred, though not essential.
• Exposure to SD-WAN and Cloud Security technologies preferred, though not essential.
• Experience of Identity and Access Management preferred, though not essential.
• Experience of Unified Communications technologies is beneficial.
• Experience of pricing and capacity planning personnel resource and understanding service costing models.
• MSP/ISP specific experience around support, projects and pre-sales processes preferred, though not essential.
• Demonstrable experience in the following areas: Understand the competition, ability to competitively position Xalient and differentiate the offering.
• Clear understanding of technical solutions and the value proposition that enables the customers’ business to operate in an efficient and cost-effective manner.
• Excellent customer orientation and the ability to engender this culture throughout the Technical Sales process and influence others.
• The ability to work under pressure, demonstrating drive and a positive approach to work.
• Ability to learn and develop new skills whilst showing that you can prioritise work efficiently and productively and manage your time well.
• Challenge the status quo to create value for the organisation and our customers.
• Recognise and embrace change, seeking opportunities to foster innovation and continuous improvement.
• Self-motivator, results and quality orientated, exceptional organisational skills, attention to detail, positive helpful attitude.
• Excellent communication skills (verbal, written and listening) including an excellent conversational manner and strong customer first focused skills.
• Possess and display business acumen.