A Day in the Life of a Solutions Specialist at IBM
A Solutions Specialist at IBM has a highly variable day-to-day experience, focusing on "identifying new opportunities and driving those to closures," which includes collaborating with colleagues, preparing and participating in software demos, aligning with business partners on pricing and documentation, and pursuing purchase orders, especially toward the end of sales cycles. This role necessitates a multifaceted approach combining sales, collaboration, and technical understanding of IBM's software portfolio.
Sales, Client Relationship Management, Software Solutions, Teamwork, Business Development
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Dylan Evans
Solutions Specialist
IBM
Lehigh University Class of 2010
UCLA Anderson MBA
Computer Science
Technology
Sales and Client Management
Worked 20+ Hours in School, Student Athlete
Video Highlights
1. Working with cross-functional teams is a significant aspect of the role, collaborating with sales specialists, technical specialists, and business partners to achieve sales targets. This highlights the collaborative nature of the job and the importance of teamwork.
2. A Solutions Specialist needs to be adept at identifying new sales opportunities, which involves analyzing client data, understanding their needs, and presenting suitable IBM solutions. This showcases the analytical and strategic thinking required in the role.
3. The sales cycle involves various stages from initial client interaction to closing the deal, including activities like preparing demos, aligning with the technical team, managing pricing, and chasing purchase orders. This emphasizes the dynamic and multifaceted nature of the day-to-day tasks.
Transcript
What does the day in the life of a solutions specialist look like?
There's really no consistent day or even week in the life. A lot of my responsibility is identifying new opportunities and then driving those to closure.
Some of the activities I'm responsible for include finding new clients. I do this by looking at which clients on my list already have certain software, and which have relationships with IBM.
We have many IBMers who cover the same accounts. So, we try to team up to see where we can partner on different opportunities and sell multiple software solutions to these clients.
One of the activities is a weekly cadence call with our squad, which includes all the different sales specialists covering these accounts. We discuss existing opportunities and how to interest the client in other brands within the IBM portfolio.
Oftentimes during the week, I'm also part of demos that my technical specialists run. In that role, I'm typically responsible for giving an introduction about what the software does and any existing conversations. Then, the technical specialist will do the demo.
At the end of the demo, we'll often share pricing. I prepare the pricing in advance. Before any demo, I meet with the technical team to make sure we're aligned on showing the pieces of software most applicable to the client's business and requirements.
Afterwards, we also sell through a lot of business partners. Essentially, a business partner buys the software from IBM and then resells it to the client. After a demo like that, I'll meet with the business partner to ensure we're aligned on pricing and that they have all the documentation needed to present to the client.
That would be a typical set of activities I do in any given week. As you get closer to the end of a sales cycle, which often happens at the end of a quarter or year, I'll be chasing down purchase orders from different clients.
So, to recap, there's really no set day in the life, but there are a variety of sales-focused activities I'm doing on a weekly basis.