Channel Account Executive

Role Summary

The Channel Account Executive (CAE) is accountable for managing strategic Sophos partners. They are responsible for developing joint business plans with partners to hit revenue and profitability targets by developing new MDR, services, MSP and next-gen portfolio customer opportunities, up-sell and cross selling to existing customers and renewals.

This role will be responsible for working with a selected set of Sophos strategic partners across the SADC region, specifically in South Africa. This role will work closing with the local team consisting of sellers, technical and marketing, as well as interacting with the local distribution lineup.

What You Will Do

• Develop a set of selected strategic partners; existing and net new.
• Develop relationships at all levels across the partner to drive revenue growth and profitability.
• Build and execute business plans that identify, develop and close incremental opportunities to deliver outstanding growth for the partner and Sophos.
• Enable partners to take full advantage of Sophos comprehensive solution and services portfolio to improve their customer’s security protection and response.
• Directly support partners qualify and close complex customer deals, engaging wider sales and sales engineer teams where required, gather insights to ensure accurate business forecasting.
• Own and manage the frequent joint business review, and planning process between Partners’ and Sophos decision makers, incl. clearly defined KPI’s and SMART goals with agreed outcomes.
• Collaborate to develop marketing plans with partners to drive incremental sales pipeline ensuring high return on investment from activities like lead gen campaigns and events.
• Coordinate the involvement of Sophos staff, including product management, sales, SE, marketing, support, service and management resources to meet partner performance objectives and partner expectations.
• Drive high renewal rates by ensuring partners focus on their renewals and build an engagement plan to align Sophos and Partner teams, identify new business and cross sell opportunities.
• Motivate, educate and ensure Partner sales and technical staff are go-to-market ready, provide access to certification and training materials and develop an enablement plan.
• Travel both local, nationwide and some international is required to ensure engagement across aligned partners and as a component of managing the landscape, and working at Sophos.

What You Will Bring

• 5+ evidenced years in channel sales and territory management in networking or security sectors.
• Extensive knowledge of the partner landscape across the region, with partner relationships in multiple countries, but specifically South Africa.
• Experience building and executing successful business and marketing plans.
• Understanding of the technology channel eco-system and the business model of different types of channel partners (VAR/MSP/Distribution/Marketplace etc.).
• Adept at account management and business partner techniques with strong interpersonal, active listening, discovery, and qualification skills.
• Solid technical acumen able to explain the benefits of different technologies, strong cybersecurity knowledge an advantage.
• Experience of translating market trends and customer issues and needs into business opportunities for partners.
• Ability to thrive in a team selling environment, winning together outlook with the ability to build relationships and influence via email, telephone and in person.
• Excels at engaging partner personnel across all levels and functions, builds multifaceted relationships.
• Excellent organizational skills and ability to prioritize and manage multiple tasks at once.
• Understanding of tools such as PowerBI, Clari, SFDC, Co-pilot and other AI programs.
• This role will require travel mainly around South Africa, especially Cape Town, Durban and surrounding Johannesburg region