A successful A&C Sales Manager will be a self-motivated team player who excels at cultivating executive-level, strategic relationships that gain commitment and support to execute on a number of agreed business growth objectives.
Effective in utilising Oracle's internal resources, the experienced Channel Sales Manager understands their partners' business models, mobilises necessary resources and proposes "innovative and disruptive" strategies that they can take to their customer base to achieve a mutual win-win for both the partner and Oracle.
The Sales Manager will have a good understanding of IT industry trends and be able to competitively position Oracle’s strategy and help the partner understand the journeys to the Cloud and how On Premise Hardware fits into our strategic direction. He/she is responsible and accountable for the development, management and the governance of approximately 10-12 partners in the African region.
Responsibilities\:
General
• Primary relationship owner for the Oracle Partner Network Strategic Partners that they manage, in respect of sales of servers, storage and ODA products.
• Maintain a cross line of business approach to ensure balanced management and growth where relevant and supporting their colleagues in the Oracle Technology/Cloud, Alliances and Channel Organisation
• Responsible to agree and set the Channel Strategy for their designated territory and partners for the HW products in their portfolio
Enablement
• Ensure their partners have and maintain the necessary Oracle Partner Network contractual, resell and service accreditations by working as local liaison and with our Partner Business Centre
• Ensure timely renewal of OPN Membership, Full User Distribution Agreement, Product Resell Rights, Public Sector Addendums and Field Delivery Agreements by working as local liaison and with our Partner Business Centre
• Run regular update sessions with the partners consultants/architecture to ensure they are up to date with Oracle’s Product and Services portfolio and understand how, through the use of Oracle’s Innovation they're able to differentiates their solutions to their end client. Specifically to also help our partner market their IT Solutions on Oracle HW platform
• Be the “in country point” of contact for all partner enablement activities for the designated territory for their Line of Business leveraging our Enablement and Business Development teams to provide content and resources
Compliance
• Ensure that all partners attend Ethics and Compliance and Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) training sessions.
• Ensure that the partner maintains a company Code of Ethics policy which is regularly updated, reviewed and adhered to.
• Ensure that all partners are aware of and operate within Oracle’s policies and procedures and adhere to all Export Compliance regulations.
• Ensure that all partners operate within Oracles Ethics and Compliance framework and adhere to all Foreign Corrupt Practices Act regulations.
Governance
• The identification, development, forecasting and management of opportunities to achieve their partner’s transactional revenue goal.
• Ensures that all opportunities are entered into OMM and kept up to date on a weekly basis in the necessary business management/forecast tools.
• Ensure that once a clean order has been placed with the partner, from a customer, that the order is managed from the partner to the VAD with any relevant documentation such as Letters of Credit.
Business Planning
• Development and execution of the business plans for their assigned partners.
• Develop an understanding of the markets the partner operates in, and the Partners own competitive strategy.
• Actively develop personal knowledge of industry/market sector, partners’ business challenges and the impact of potential future changes.
• Agree and set achievable quarterly Systems bookings targets.
Demand Generation
• Work with Channel Marketing to drive the maximum ROI from any partner marketing funds allocated to their partners.
• Understand the specific Sales Plays and Demand Generation programmes available to our partners through Corporate or EMEA channels and maximise the engagement of partners within these programmes to drive demand
• Ensure all focus partners are active in terms of Demand Generation activities.
• Focus distinctly on activities that demonstrate partner value add and also the development of incremental business originated by the partner
Engagement
• Broker and manage the engagement between Oracle’s and the Partner’s client team to ensure there are clear measurable objectives set, followed through and managed.
• Achieve partner/customer satisfaction to agreed levels and strive to outperform competitors.
• Lead negotiations with the partner to ensure that business/contractual relationships are developed and sustained and that all engagements remains profitable.
• Conduct sales presentations to and in conjunction with their partners to our mutual customers.
• Lead a matrix team of Oracle resources to engage with the partner at all levels in the organization.
• Manage partner conflict between partners in a region and also conflict between partners and Oracle’s direct sales force.
• Must manage, support and maintain a two tier distribution model at all times in order to support Oracle’s VAD’s. This model must be communicated to both partners and Oracle internal teams on a regular basis.
Services
• Be the point of contact to ensure a smooth engagement between Oracle Services and the partner.
• Initiate requests from partners to be Field Delivery Partners up the management chain using the correct FDP Business plan templates as supplied
• Ensure that Oracle’s services are represented correctly and Point of Sale attach is strictly enforced.
Behavioral Characteristics\:
• Excellent verbal and written communication, interpersonal and teamwork skills, highly organized.
• Partner-focused individual (high level of empathy and ability to understand the needs of partners).
• Self-motivated, strategically orientated and able to execute on a strategy.
• A background of consistently exceeding target.
• Focus on results with ability to follow through.
• Good attention to detail.
• Strong leader, technically and otherwise, with a results-oriented attitude that overcomes barriers.
• Strong entrepreneurial spirit, able to identify opportunities and associated risk.
Required Skills\:
• Post-secondary education (BA, BS or B.COM) strongly preferred (or equivalent work experience).
• Strong business acumen.
• Ability to develop, build and execute against business plans.
• Experience in building and leveraging Partner sales relationships.
• A good understanding of the VAR, ISV, VAD, Systems Integrator business models and the ability to use this knowledge to develop sell to and sell through business.
• A broad understanding of IT Technologies and how they relate to current business challenges
• Thorough understanding of complex solution sales cycle and a proven track record of successful solution selling.
