First Light Fiber is looking for a highly skilled technical sales professional, with deep specialty in Cisco Collaboration Solutions, but strong proficiency in horizontal Cisco technology domains (Routing/Switching, Security, Data Center, Wireless).  Responsible for providing architectural design expertise on high value opportunities.   Collaborate with the sales, leadership, engineering peers, partners, and customers to develop winning and innovative business solutions and proposals by leveraging expertise, technical depth in architectural models and complimentary technologies, services and solutions.  Provides leadership in driving an architectural approach to understanding customer technical and service requirements within area of architectural specialization, including an in-depth knowledge of the competitive landscape.  Business/Market awareness allowing expertise an in-depth understanding to perform a business to technology translation integrating into the overall solution.  Technical advisor for their area to customer/field/partner architecting a long term (multi-year) business built solution.

Responsibilities

• Identify Opportunities
  • Support territory surrounding identification of specialized opportunities
  • Support account planning when specialized opportunities are identified, especially on dedicated accounts
  • Impact market awareness by participating in seminars, showcases, public events, etc.
• Develop & Present Solutions
  • Provide technical qualification for opportunity and can expertly recommend a Cisco Validated Design or an alternative solution
  • Actively recommend solutions options for customer and serve as liaison for driving product and solution innovations.
  • Design customized solutions for specific customers and industries within specialty
  • Produce Bill of Materials including all equipment and professional services required for project completion
  • Identify and engage appropriate post-sales support resources to position a service sell
  • Leverage existing business relationships with the Account Team internally, and various technology and business groups within customers’ organizations to recommend innovative customer solutions.
  • Provide leadership and guidance in technical responses to customer RFP’s. Trial and demonstration support.
  • Perform executive-level presentations for customers, partners, and prospects.
• Close
  • Adjust design based on customer negotiation process
  • Synch with post-sales engineer and provide adequate documentation for clear handoff to post-sales organization
  • Document technology-focused PoC/PoV if applicable to multiple customers and share findings with Solution Architect community.
• Personal & Organizational Development
  • Research and report on Cisco’s competition to develop “best of breed” white papers in area of technology specialization.
  • Publish white papers in specialty area.
  • Seek out opportunities to partner with and mentor less-experienced teammates within specialty, to share leading practices and help strengthen capabilities.
  • Leverage specialty expertise to help address customer concerns/issues and expedite a deal through the sales process.
  • Educate customer-focused resources on revenue opportunities within specialty
  • Promote new and innovative approaches to addressing business challenges and problems.

Skills & Behaviors

• Business Acumen
  • Maintain a detailed-level of expertise of the business economics and trends within specialty, and how Cisco solutions add financial and strategic value.
  • Expert at understanding Cisco vision and technology; articulate the vision from the customer perspective and create unique, novel value propositions around Cisco solutions
  • Expert understanding of customer business drivers and how to map these to a customer network platform, including identification of improvement areas in network design
  • Interact at a senior technical level within an account. Be a trusted technical advisor to the account team and customer
• Technical Acumen
  • Advanced knowledge of Cisco Collaboration Technologies.
  • Strong understanding of internetworking industry trends, including new products and solutions
  • Strong understanding of competitive product and solution landscape and can articulate trade-offs between Cisco and competitor products
  • Advanced knowledge in Routing & Switching
  • Advanced knowledge in Networking Platform Design
  • Expert technical consulting skills, including ability to define trade-offs, ask probing questions, and incorporate customer solutions into a broader technology environment
  • Expert knowledge in solution design
  • CCNP Collaboration preferred. Cisco CCIE Collaboration highly desired.
• Leadership Ability
  • Viewed internally as the lead mentor in providing technical and career guidance for peers
  • Leads internal virtual teams in domain area and actively collaborates to share best practices and areas of technical innovation
  • Able to drive solution delivery for specific opportunity
  • Has responsibility and demonstrates leadership in organizing special interest teams, industry events, and competitive teams.
  • Clearly and succinctly convey information and ideas, including expert executive communication and presentation skills
  • Probe customer business needs with insightful questions and demonstrate ability to recommend appropriate solutions and defend recommendations in a competitive environment
  • Expert at identifying and leading the appropriate resources (internal and external) required to develop and execute major customer strategic initiatives
  • Expertly recognize contentious situations and build consensus both within Cisco and with customer organizations
  • Promote new and innovative approaches to addressing business challenges and problems.