Job opening – Manager/Director Sales Enablement

VFA, Inc.
Leading provider of end–to–end solutions for facilities capital planning and asset management
www.vfa.com
Location: Boston

Manager/Director Sales Enablement

Position Summary: The Manager/Director, Sales Enablement will work with Product Marketing, Product Management, and Sales organizations with responsibility for creating and delivering relevant and compelling sales tools and providing support for key sales opportunities. S/he will act in a leadership capacity to gather and synthesize market intelligence to create high impact tools designed to continuously increase relevance and effectiveness. The position requires technical expertise, strong relationship building skills and the ability to understand and pro-actively address needs (both internally and from the client’s perspective).

Essential Functions: Collaborate with Product Marking, Direct Sales, and other resources both inside and outside of the company to conduct competitive analysis and positioning; research, develop, and maintain high impact sales tools for use by sales personnel across vertical and geographic markets; create compelling collateral and content for use in positioning the company and its products/services; in conjunction with Product Marketing and Sales Operations, develop and participate in periodic training programs for VFA sales and partners related to the sales tools developed/implemented.

Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree, MBA preferred; 10+ years experience in product marketing/management, sales support and/or sales; proven track record of successful, hands-on sales enablement; ability to define problems, collect/analyze data, and draw valid conclusions; excellent written and oral communication skills coupled with strong analytical and creative problem solving capabilities.

For this position, forward your qualifications to resumes@vfa.com

Reading List – End of August 2010

“Forrester’s Santucci: Sales Enablement Defined” (Kathleen Schaub; August 23, 2010):

“[...] more and more people touch customers along the demand chain. [...] extend Sales Enablement constituents to include influencers, as buyers are also extensively socially-engaged. [...]“

Enterprise 2.0 › Blog “Is it Knowledge Management or Business Intelligence?” (Rich Blank @sharepointpmp; 08/19/2010)

“[...] Knowledge management – the buzzword of decades past that might be synonymous with other buzzwords like collective intelligence or intellectual capital. Or maybe you’ve heard of tacit and explicit knowledge – differentiating between what is in our heads vs what’s written down. From a technology perspective, KM represents the mounds of documents, information, conversations, blogs, wikis, emails, social networks, knowhow, and expertise …. it’s all the “stuff” that continues to overload us daily and continues to present challenges for individuals and organizations in filtering out what is important vs. what is just noise. KM is also about the way we create, collect, manage, consume, share, and leverage the unstructured information combined with the structured data [...]. [...] BI has many parallels to KM… and at the end of the day it’s all about being able to filter out the noise, identify all the variables in the equation, and make the right decisions based on what you know and assume to be true – be it structured or unstructured.”

“A Salesperson’s Seven Deadly Sins” (Steve W. Martin; August 23, 2010)

“The Content Economy by Oscar Berg: The business case for social intranets” (Stefan Pfeiffer; August 26, 2010)

“Selling “Naked” & 8 Other Truths About Content Marketing” (demandcreationspecialists.com; August 13, 2010)

“You’ve got to love Jill Konrath’s straight up approach to sales enablement: how to use content to engage with “crazy-busy” executives mired in a multi-tasking swamp. Her popular new book, SNAP Selling: Speed Up Sales & Win More Business with Today’s Frazzled Customers [...]:

• Don’t be the “Naked Seller” – woefully unprepared to make successful sales calls because they’re still speaking “seller” when the language has changed to “buyer.”
• Salespeople desperately need content, and they need guidance about how to use it. This is marketing’s job…and marketing has not done a great job at this.
• Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) is often camouflaged. It needs to be loud and clear, in the form of case studies, white papers, webinars and great content.
• Decision makers today have chaotic lives. They’re overburdened and burned out. Their psyches cry out for “don’t waste my time” sales and marketing content that simplifies your value proposition and makes their lives easier.
• Buyers want to talk to experts. People who know their vertical, its pitfalls and challenges. Good content fills this need, and supports the sales process.
• Whether you’re in sales or marketing, ask yourself: have you aligned with the buyer’s objectives? Does your content reflect this? If not, you’re toast.
• Content must demonstrate value, and be delivered for short attention spans.
• Acknowledge and work within the customer’s process:
1) Allowing Access – takes 8-12 contacts to achieve this.
2) Decision to Initiate Change – where clients break out of the status quo.
3) Decision on which option to choose – Content quality can make or break this.
• The acronym says it all – Simple; iNvaluable; Aligned; Prioritized (SNAP)”

“The Importance of Context: Why Enterprise 2.0 Still Fails to Deliver Value” (AARON ROE FULKERSON Aug 25, 2010)

Job opening – Product Marketing Manager incl Sales and Channel Enablement

Product Marketing Manager
pVelocity
www.pvelocity.com
Location: Toronto, ON, Canada
POSTED ON AUGUST 23, 2010

About the Company
What’s the most effective way to measure productivity and profitability? This next-generation BI vendor knows. With 75+ plants in production, they’re bringing their solution to global clients in pharma, chemicals, aluminum and more. Their cash flow is steady, their pipeline is full and the SAP community heavyweights are enthusiastic supporters and partners. The best sign that they have a solid product and a winning methodology? To date, no pilot installation has failed to turn into a deal. Not a single one.

The Opportunity

As a Product Marketing Manager, you will be responsible for the outbound marketing activities for your products. You will craft the messaging and positioning for products. You’ll conceive and develop innovative marketing programs that drive demand. Attention to detail and an eye for quality, along with the ability to grasp and translate technical capabilities into benefits is crucial. In your role as a Product Marketing Manager you will be the expert in buyers, how they buy and their buying criteria and will transfer that knowledge to the sales channel.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop product positioning and messaging that differentiates your products in the market
• Sales enablement – communicate the value proposition of the products to the sales team and develop the sales tools that support the selling process of your products
• Product launch – plan the launch of new products and releases and manage the cross-functional implementation of the plan
• Market intelligence – be the expert on your buyers, how they buy and their buying criteria; be the expert on your competition and how to crush them
• Demand generation – develop the strategy and manage the marketing programs that drive demand for your products
• Channel marketing – build from the ground up a new infrastructure to enable 3rd party sales teams
• Close working relationship with company’s executive team

This position offers a competitive compensation package, including stock options. pVelocity is an equal opportunity employer.

Who Should Apply

Requirements:

• 5+ years of software product marketing experience with at least 2 years experience in a field facing role
• Bachelor’s in business or marketing
• Very strong written communication skills
• Willing to travel
• Partner/channel marketing experience is an asset
• Experience in ERP, MRP, CRM, and/or BI solutions a plus
• Excellent people and management skills to interact with staff, colleagues and cross-functional teams, and third parties.
• The Candidate must be based in Toronto.

Contact

To make an inquiry and/or to submit a resume, please contact: pVelocity@redcanary.ca

Sales Enablement market exists and is growing

On August 16, 2010 Jochen Moll posted “6 weeks on the job: Review by Jochen Moll, CEO SVA-BizSphere AG”:

 

Having been on the job for six weeks now, it is a good time to review and reflect. In the first weeks as CEO of SVA-BizShere AG, I had the opportunity to take in a lot of internal information and I got a lot of valuable feedback from customers, partners, analysts and investors. The collected impressions can be summarized as follows:

The Sales Enablement market exists and is growing

More and more decision makers in companies realize that ‘information overload’ – especially in times of the social web – means that many (Sales and Marketing) employees can not be as effective any more. There are no intelligent tools to manage this amount of information and at the same time ensure quality, relevance and up-to-dateness. The classical approaches of information management can not provide crucial information in the right format, at the right time and in the right place for all undertakings. The BizSphere Sales Enablement solution and our expertise is exactly the right approach for this problem!

Our innovative strength is outstanding and our focus on the ‘user experience’ is recognized in the industry

I’m very impressed by the innovative force that I feel at BizSphere. Our applications and the consistent logic behind them are compelling and brilliant! In very short iteration loops, we come up with new ideas and approaches to enhance our application suite and expand its areas of use – especially our focus on the ‘user experience’ analysts see as a strength. More than ever, will the ease-of-use of an application decide its success or cause a lack of adoption.

This ability is a very important asset, which we as a company have as an advantage.

I’m looking forward to meeting more of our customers and stakeholders in the sales enablement space.

Best regards,

Jochen Moll, CEO, SVA-BizSphere AG

Reading List – Middle of August 2010

“Been there, sold that” – Marketing to CMOs can be a tricky proposition, but a little listening and a lot of knowledge go a long way (Kate Maddox, BtoB Magazine; August 16, 2010)

“Is Your Sales Experience Valuable to Buyers?” (John Cousineau; August 13, 2010)

“Forrester and IDC think Sales Enablement is a Big Deal … and We Agree!” (Tom Pisello; August 15, 2010)

“What Is “Sales Enablement” And How Did Forrester Go About Defining It?” (Scott Santucci; August 14, 2010)

“Rise of the Sales Operations Function” (Michael Gerard, VP for IDC’s Sales Advisory Practice; July 27, 2010)

“Where Sales Reps Go Wrong” -

“The “most destructive” failures of business-to-business sales reps are too much contact with customers (35%) and inadequate product knowledge (20%), a McKinsey survey of sales targets indicates. [...]” (McKinsey & Company; June 21, 2010)

Matthias Roebel takes on the role Chief Innovation Officer at SVA-BizSphere AG

On August 8, 2010, SVA-BizSphere AG (full disclosure: I work for SVA-BizSphere AG) published the following press release in German.

Here is what Google Translate makes out of it:

Press Release:

SVA-BizSphere AG now relies on innovation and enhanced marketing activities

Stuttgart (ots) – SVA-BizSphere AG, international startup company that specializes in innovative software solutions for B2B sales forces strengthens its focus on innovation. Matthias Roebel – as “Chief Innovation Officer” – takes on responsibility for product management and strategy in addition to his responsibilities for business development at SVA BizSphere. The startup will be even more responsive to the ever-changing demands of the market and its role as a leading innovator in Sales Enablement solutions continues to expand. At the same time, the company adds to its marketing function. Since August 1st Tamara Vierling strengthens the team as Marketing & Communications Manager. The 35-year-old is responsible for the external and internal communications at SVA BizSphere.

Matthias Roebel has influenced the product development at SVA BizSphere in the past few years. Previously, the 33-year-old worked for in international positions in marketing and business development, Nortel and IBM.

Tamara Vierling has extensive experience in communication in international companies and agencies. She studied German language and literature studies and worked for companies including EMC, IBM and Kia Motors.

“With the realignment in marketing and a focus on innovation, we want to strengthen our presence on the market in the medium term,” says Jochen Moll, CEO of SVA BizSphere. ”We offer our customers not only an information management software, but innovative solutions for their challenges. We can only do that if we allow ourselves to be guided by innovation,” said Moll.

SVA-BizSphere AG

The SVA BizSphere AG was founded as a division called “BizSphere” within the SVA GmbH, one of the largest systems integrators in Germany led. In 2007, this area into an independent legal status, the SVA-BizSphere AG. The company is based in Stuttgart and worldwide with employees represented in Wiesbaden, Hamburg, Munich, Shanghai, Chicago and Toronto.

With BizSphere Sales Enablement SVA-BizSphere AG has developed an innovative software solution and consulting method, the company enables efficient and customer-specific sales and marketing communications. BizSphere Sales Enablement helps companies to structure the existing diversity of information content and manage it meaningful. The distribution information are as flexible and available on demand available. This undertaking, in spite of continuous change processes in a position to respond to the needs of their customers quickly and efficiently. The solution combines the know-how from the fields of social and semantic Web (Web 2.0/3.0) with an innovative user interface design.

For more information:
www.bizsphere.com
www.bizsphere.com/blog
http://twitter.com/bizsphere
http://slideshare.net/bizsphere
http://youtube.com/bizsphere

Press Contact:

SVA-BizSphere AG
Marketing & Communications Manager
Tamara Vierling
Borsigstr. 14
65 202 Wiesbaden
Mobile: +49 (0) 172-3967686
Landline: +49 (0) 711-49039-744
Fax: +49 (0) 6122-536319
E-mail: @ tamara.vierling bizsphere.com

Reading List – July/August 2010

Not all written in July/August 2010 but discovered/read by me during that time frame:

‘Am I the only one not on board with aligning Sales & Marketing?’ by Maureen Blandford

‘When it comes to Social Media, CEOs and CMOs should lead from the front’ by HARISH KOTADIA, PH.D. (NOVEMBER 9, 2009)

‘Who Knows What? – Finding in-house experts isn’t easy. But most companies make it harder than it should be.’ (OCTOBER 26, 2009)

The Forces Behind, and Against, Consumerization of the Enterprise

The Failure of Traditional Intranets

Job opening – Global Sales Enablement Process Manager at Ariba Inc

Employer: Ariba, Inc.

Global Sales Enablement Process Manager
Location: Atlanta
Description
Title: Global Sales Enablement Process Manager
Department: Commercial Operations
Location: Alpharetta, Georgia
Reports To: Sr. Director, Global Sales Enablement
FLSA Status:

Job Description Overview
Ariba, Inc. is the leading provider of collaborative business commerce solutions. Ariba combines industry-leading software as a service (SaaS) technology to optimize the complete commerce lifecycle with the world’s largest web-based community to discover, connect and collaborate with a global network of trading partners and expert capabilities to augment internal resources and skills, delivering everything needed to control costs, minimize risk, improve profits and enhance cash flow and operations – all in a cloud-based environment. Whether you’re buying, selling or managing cash, you can do it more efficiently and effectively in the Ariba® Commerce Cloud. Over 300,000 companies, including more than 80 percent of the Fortune 500, use Ariba’s solutions to drive more efficient inter-enterprise commerce.

In this role, you will lead the Process Management for the Ariba Global Sales Enablement organization. Responsibilities include managing, implementing, refining and reinforcing the process for targeted programs to drive sales productivity throughout the organization. This role will partner across sales operations, sales leadership, marketing, and other teams to create and effectively execute programs to increase levels of sales capacity, productivity and performance to achieve organizational goals.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Implement the enablement process of Ariba’s Sales Process / Methodology to the sales force to enhance the sales cycle and drive productivity. This is inclusive of management training and tracking sales organization adoption and performance improvement.
• Support sales cycles with process to measure compliance with Ariba’s defined Sales Process such as pipeline analysis of data against account activity and closure.
• Construct formal communications process to proactively reach sales force with Global Sales Enablement training and tools to promote skill growth comprehensive of branding, method, and managing submitted content.
• Participate in (and actively lead when necessary) sales enablement training, especially as it relates to sales process, skills, and activities.
• Support the Sales Enablement team and Event Planning team in the coordination, planning and execution at annual Commercial Operations Sales Kick Off especially as it relates to sales enablement initiatives.
• Process Leader to execute Best Practices Virtual Enablement Series handling all logistical aspects of program on decided enablement (i.e. secure subject matter expert, scheduling).
• Manage overall process of sales enablement offerings to continually evolve and enforce the ongoing readiness of Ariba’s sales force aligning with priorities and initiatives of Commercial Operations.

Preferred Qualifications

• Atlanta based
• Ability to work on issues where analysis of data requires in-depth evaluation of variable factors
• Team Lead management experience
• Event planning experience
• Extensive experience using sales force automation systems
• Resourceful at getting information and able to succeed in a rapidly changing environment
• MBA Preferred
• Solid process, project management, and implementation skills
• Strong interpersonal skills – ability to collaborate across functions, geographies and levels to build and deliver business solutions.
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills
• Experience in enablement tool and collateral design
• Ability to manage a variety of projects simultaneously

Basic Minimum Qualifications

• BS, BA or equivalent experience required,
• 5 + years of work experience in a Technology organization
• Prior Knowledge of standard sales processes
• Minimum Travel Expectations – 10% of job role