Senior Technology Strategist - SLED

As a Technology Strategist for our SLED (State, Local, and Education) market segment, you will be responsible for setting the account planning & strategy, driving customer meetings, and developing new opportunities with a focus on our growth products. You will be working with and driving activity for high-profile, named accounts and/or specific market segment(s) that lead to large opportunities. You will participate in business development activities, coordination, and mobilizing the ecosystem around the pursuit of large deals which will also include participating in RFPs. You will be responsible for understanding the market in your region, developing overall pursuit strategy and implementation of the plan that aligns Lumen solutions with customer requirements.

* Grow revenue in the SLED market by uncovering new opportunities by solution selling across the modernized products in the Lumen portfolio.
* In this role you will showcase the full range of Lumen's Managed Service offerings including Cloud Computing Services, Edge/Cloud Solutions (IaaS), Business Continuity/Disaster Recovery, IT Infrastructure Services/Outsourcing, IT Consulting, Co-location, Lumen Digital (Advanced Network), Unified Communications (UCaaS) and Contact Center (CCaaS).
* You will be part of a regional team of specialists helping our clients with their most complex technology needs contributing toward their business resilience.
* Drives account management responsibilities as an overlay sales role including solution creation, solution offering, configuration management, order issuance, service delivery, service management and revenue recognition. Demonstrates a balance of strategic and tactical thought leadership.
* Identifies, bids on, negotiates, and closes new sales opportunities to meet and exceed established sales and revenue quotas. Provides comprehensive account plans and strategies to win new business from new and/or existing accounts.
* Provides input to sales management about trends and changes taking place within the customer's organization and make recommendations about future courses of action necessary of the company towards improving its position with the customer.
* Collaborate with our Product Management and Architects to ensure that our solutions meet customer demands.
* Provides accurate and detailed weekly forecast funnel of identified and proposed opportunities in order to meet or exceed sales quota requirements.
* Develop and maintain customer relationships from the operational through the 'C' level in the pursuit of solution sales of SLED accounts.
* Accountable for meeting and/or exceeding assigned sales objectives and monthly revenue quotas, maintaining existing and building new revenue within a designated region.
* Own and drive opportunity strategy to close. Ensure that large opportunities are approached strategically with unique customer value defined beyond focus on price.
* Build a short- and long-term pipeline that ensures attainment of quarterly sales and revenue goals and drives improved forecast accuracy.
* Must demonstrate advanced technology and solution knowledge of IT solution sales on a day-to-day basis and how they align with SLED customer purchasing vehicles, contracts and RFXs.
* Will build and maintain accurate and up-to-date strategic account plans associated with new business opportunities being developed in partnership with account owners.
* Ability to set strategy, create plans, and support a geographically dispersed team to meet or exceed objectives
* Strong organizational skills imperative.
* May be required to obtain technical certifications.
* Continuous learning to acquire and integrate industry knowledge related to general trends, emerging technologies, partner solutions and competition in SLED accounts to provide internal feedback on the development of market strategy.
* Partner with Lumen account managers and customers through a strategic and consultative sales approach to understand their business needs, issues, strategies and priorities to align Lumen products and solutions to meet customer needs.
* Manage sales funnel to analyze and manage pipeline activity and monitor sales activity against assigned quotas.
* Guide sales teams/leadership on sales strategies for opportunity management (e.g., up-sell, cross-sell, renewal, recapture) as a subject matter expert. May coach and guide large deal pursuit.

* Minimum of 8 years of experience in selling complex IT infrastructure solutions to medium and enterprise businesses (SLED experience a plus) with meaningful relationships within that community. Existing C Level relationships a plus.
* Demonstrated success in applying consultative selling techniques to opportunities.
* Listens and communicates well with others within and outside of Lumen. Creates a team environment that is positive and productive. Self-motivated, proactive, results-oriented professional with an ability to work with minimum direction.
* Proven and verifiable track record in exceeding sales quotas.
* Strong communication skills and presence in communicating with Executives. Excellent business writing and presentation skills
* Technical sales certifications
* Consultative or solutions-selling training (Miller Heiman, Sandler, etc.)
* Demonstrated level of success in the development of high-level client relationships
* Willingness to travel
* Demonstrated experience selling a combination of the following strongly preferred:

• IT Infrastructure Solutions
• CPE Solutions, positioned in an end-to-end solution format
• Managed Services
• IT Infrastructure Services/Outsourcing/IT Consulting
• Professional Services
• Co-location, Cloud/Edge Compute
• Contact Center/Unified Communications

Based on your job application information you may be given the opportunity to complete a video interview immediately after applying. This will include a set of questions for you to record a response to in addition to Game Challenges. Completion of this video interview is a requirement in order to be considered for our open position. Now not a good time? No worries, we will also send you an email with a link to complete the video interview. We strongly recommend that you complete this within 5 days of your application date.