Business Development Manager- Video Conferencing & Collaboration

Our client is an IT distributor operating across Africa and the Middle East, providing technology products, solutions, and support to businesses and partners.They are currently seeking a Business Development Manager – Unified Collaboration & Video Conferencing to drive the growth of our Unified Communications, Collaboration and Video Conferencing portfolio.

1. Sales & Business Development

· Identify, qualify and pursue new business opportunities across enterprise, commercial, government and SMB markets.

· Generate and manage a healthy pipeline of UC, IP telephony and video conferencing opportunities.

· Drive the complete sales cycle from prospecting and discovery through proposal, negotiation and closing.

· Achieve and exceed monthly, quarterly and annual sales targets.

· Develop new accounts while expanding existing customer relationships.

· Identify cross-selling and upselling opportunities.

· Develop strategic accounts and maintain strong customer engagement.

Actively compete against established Unified Communications and collaboration vendors, including:

· Avaya, Grandstream, Yealink, Cisco, Poly / Polycom, Logitech, Jabra, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Mitel, NEC, Fanvil, Snom, AudioCodes, Other relevant UC/VC brands

The successful candidate will:

· Understand customers' existing communication and collaboration environments.

· Identify opportunities to replace, upgrade or expand existing solutions.

· Develop competitive positioning and objection-handling strategies.

· Demonstrate the commercial and technical advantages of our solutions.

· Convert customers from competing UC/VC solutions where appropriate.

· Monitor competitor products, pricing, promotions and market positioning.

Develop opportunities around solutions including:

· IP PBX / IP Telephony

· Business Phones and IP Phones

· SIP / VoIP Solutions

· Unified Communications Platforms

· Contact Centre Solutions

· Audio Conferencing

· Video Conferencing

· Meeting Room Solutions

· Interactive Collaboration Systems

· Wireless Presentation

· Headsets and Collaboration Devices

· Microsoft Teams Integration

· Zoom Integration

· SIP Trunking

· Cloud PBX

· Hybrid Communication Solutions

· UCaaS and collaboration platforms

The candidate should be able to understand customer requirements and translate them into appropriate UC and collaboration solutions.

· Identify and develop video conferencing opportunities across enterprise and mid-market customers.

· Engage CIOs, IT Managers, Heads of Infrastructure, Facilities Managers and other relevant stakeholders.

· Conduct customer discovery sessions and solution presentations.

· Work with technical/pre-sales teams on demonstrations, proof-of-concepts and solution designs.

· Develop meeting-room and collaboration solutions based on customer requirements.

· Position video conferencing solutions against competing platforms.

· Identify opportunities for room upgrades, expansion and standardization.

Maintain regular engagement with strategic accounts and develop long-term customer relationships.

· Identify, recruit and develop UC/IT resellers, system integrators, MSPs and technology partners.

· Build strong relationships with existing channel partners.

· Enable partners on UC, collaboration and video conferencing solutions.

· Drive partner-led opportunities.

· Develop joint go-to-market activities with partners.

· Develop partner sales plans and pipeline.

· Organize partner training, workshops, seminars and customer events.

· Identify new partners with existing relationships in the corporate and enterprise market.

· Maintain accurate and up-to-date sales forecasts and pipeline reports.

· Use CRM systems to track opportunities, activities, forecasts and customer engagements.

· Provide regular sales performance reports to management.

· Develop account plans for key customers and strategic opportunities.

· Ensure opportunities progress through the sales cycle in a timely manner.

· Maintain accurate sales forecasts and probability assessments.

· Develop a strong understanding of the company's UC, collaboration and video conferencing portfolio.

· Work closely with technical/pre-sales teams to conduct product demonstrations and proof-of-concepts.

· Understand customer communication and collaboration requirements.

· Translate technical capabilities into clear business value and ROI.

· Present solutions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

· Develop commercial proposals and solution presentations.

· 5+ years of proven B2B sales experience in Unified Communications, IP Telephony, Video Conferencing, Networking or IT Infrastructure.

· Demonstrable experience selling UC, IP telephony, collaboration or video conferencing solutions.

· Existing experience selling Avaya, Grandstream, Yealink, Cisco, Poly/Polycom, Logitech, Jabra, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Mitel or similar solutions.

· A proven track record of meeting or exceeding sales targets.

· An established network of IT decisionmakers, enterprises, resellers, system integrators and/or managed service providers.

· Experience managing the full sales cycle from lead generation to closing.

· Experience with channel/distributor/reseller sales models.

· Strong understanding of UC, VoIP, IP telephony and collaboration technologies.

· Experience working with vendors, distributors and technology partners.

· Excellent business development and prospecting skills

· Strong consultative selling ability

· Excellent negotiation and closing skills

· Competitive selling and objection handling

· Account management and relationship building

· Channel/partner management

· Pipeline development and forecasting

· Strong presentation and communication skills

· Commercial awareness

· Understanding of UC and collaboration technologies

· Ability to communicate technical solutions in business terms

· Target-driven and self-motivated

· Ability to work independently and as part of a team

Success in this role will be measured by:

· Achievement of monthly, quarterly and annual sales targets

· New customer acquisition

· Revenue growth

· New opportunities generated

· Pipeline value and pipeline conversion

· Number and quality of active channel partners

· Competitive account conversions

· Customer retention and account expansion

· Gross margin/profitability

· Forecast accuracy

· Partner-generated revenue

· Growth in strategic enterprise accounts