A Global Award-Winning technology company is currently growing their Sandton team and in need of a passionate and strong Pre-Sales Engineer to joint their very successful team. This role is a technical pre-sales role, supporting the sales activities of the Middle East and Africa sales team. The successful candidate will be an enthusiastic professional with in-depth technical abilities as well as a commercial acumen and sales skills.

This is a great opportunity for someone who has a background in pre-sales or an experienced IT professional with strong communication skills looking to move out of the back office.

• Pre-Sales Support. Provide technical advice and support to sales opportunities by engaging with technical contacts within customer and reseller partner organizations.
• Technical Qualification Consulting. Provide product demonstrations, presentations to senior customer contacts, Proof of Concepts and writing formal RFP response documents.
• Training and Developing Partners. Train partners and develop close working relationships with various technical staff in the reseller partner organization.
• Product Feedback. Provide feedback on product features, functionality, marketing positioning and competitive differentiation.

Responsibilities:

• Sales enablement:
  • Position the company’s solutions as a business benefit to the relevant audience and/or decision
  • Produce meaningful and impactful Technical and Product demonstrations
  • Achieve trusted technical advisor status within all customer engagements
  • Identify and mitigate all technical risks associated with the company’s implementations to improve and ensure customer satisfaction;
• Build pre-sales competencies within all the company’s and Channel Partner sales teams
• Relationship building and networking
• Superior customer service
• Contribute strategically to the evolution and progression of the Sales Engineering Department within South Africa
• Contribute to Sales Engineering best practice knowledge base
• Contribute to and deepen organizational security knowledge
• Contribute to customer acquisition case studies
• Contribute to product evangelism initiatives

What the successful candidate looks like:

• The Pre-Sales Engineer will be an enthusiastic and energetic technical advisor who is looking for a role that places you at the forefront of new technology and innovation with an established solution set.
• Technically, you will be well-versed in the nuances of email infrastructure. You will have experience with Microsoft Exchange, and its relevant competitors too. You will understand email protocol, and the infrastructure required to support it.
• You must be able to establish & maintain strong relationships throughout the sales cycle, exude a passion for understanding the technical needs of the customer and articulating the value of the company’s products and solutions in meeting those needs.
• You must therefore be a confident and experienced communicator who is able to represent the company with impact and professionalism.

Skills and Experience Required:

• Bachelor’s Degree preferred (B-Tech: IT or similar)
• MCSE, MCITP or equivalent
• CISSP or equivalent certification preferred, but not essential
• Minimum 5 years relevant working experience in a similar role
  • Technical sales support or technical experience preferred
  • Ability to communicate technical solutions to a business focused audience effectively.
• Experience in consultative selling of complex services
• Technical demonstrations and presentations to customers;
• Demonstrable relevant experience in a reputable technology vendor or reseller
• Flexible approach and willingness to learn new skills and disciplines
• Experience working with demanding business customers
• Ability to work with and gain input utilizing resources from multiple teams and disciplines
• Industry specific knowledge of security, email infrastructure, email security and cloud-computing;
  • Well-versed in Microsoft-based infrastructures and security landscapes
  • Experience with the design, management and maintenance of typical business email systems, including:
    • Microsoft Exchange (ideal)
    • Office 365 (preferably)
    • Google G-Suite (optional)
  • Extensive understanding of email archiving solutions and archiving business drivers
  • Understanding of spam, viruses, email security and Internet based threats
  • Familiarity with networking and security technologies and services
  • Strong security technologies background will be preferable.
  • This role will be based in Johannesburg and will require an individual who is willing to travel domestically, several days per month.