Company Overview
For more than two decades, FoodChain ID has been at the on the forefront of the New Food industry providing expertise worldwide to navigate the requirements of an ever-growing demand for higher levels of transparency, accountability, safety, and sustainability. Our technical and business services include serving clean label, food safety, and sustainability claims through offerings of Non-GMO Project verification, USDA Organic certification, BRC and SQF food safety certification, and more. Today, more than 30,000 companies in over 100 countries rely on our industry-leading solutions. The FoodChain ID vision encompasses nothing less than assuring the safety, transparency, and integrity of the global food chain, one client and product at a time.
Position Summary
FoodChain ID has a breadth of software solutions and professional services to help our customers innovate, formulate, commercialize and manufacture products safely and transparently. This breadth of solutions and their depth of functionality can make it challenging for customers to determine the right solutions for them, how those solutions would address their specific business needs and how they would integrate into their existing enterprise software landscape. The Principal Sales Engineer uses their creativity, talent, industry experience and engineering expertise to assemble the best combination of software and professional services as well as assist FoodChain ID’s customers in understanding and valuing that total solution.
FoodChain ID’s customers are typically food and beverage manufacturers, retailers and restaurants which have a unique set of business challenges. The Principal Sales Engineer discovers each prospective customer’s unique challenges and assembles the group of products and services to best address those challenges. In this way, The Principal Sales Engineer provides customers with a bespoke solution through a combination of software products, custom development services and custom consulting services to maximize both value to the customer and revenue for FoodChain ID.
The Principal Sales Engineer works with Sales Executives on Account and Opportunity Teams to help match prospective customers with the products and services that would best match their needs as well as helping prospects assess the value these offerings would bring to their organization.
An ideal candidate is a technical consultant at-heart who loves the creativity of being able to embrace the “art of the possible” with prospective customers. Candidates should have IT engineering experience and sufficient food and beverage and/or process manufacturing experience to be able to speak the same language as prospect in order to understand their challenges and credentializes themselves and the FoodChain ID organization. An ideal candidate is a passionate evangelist combined with an entrepreneurial spirit to actively connect prospects with great solutions. FoodChain ID has a strong company culture which emphasizes high ethical standards, client success, teamwork and sustainability which the Senior Sales Engineer should embody.
Specific responsibilities include:
- Qualify and Pursue Sales Opportunities
- Read, interpret, qualify and respond to RFPs
- Plan, direct, coordinate and perform estimation and quoting activities
- Assist Sales Team with qualifying leads and opportunities
- Co-Lead Opportunity Teams
- Collaboratively develop and continually reinforce the overall solution vision, value proposition and differentiators with the opportunity team
- Along with the opportunity owner lead the core and extended opportunity team through the sales process
- Proactively ensure messaging and deliverables are provided on committed timelines and are consistent with the solution vision and customer perception
- Independently host and perform prospect discovery, scoping, presentation and demo sessions with prospects as necessary
- Discovery, Present and Demonstrate:
- Influence and communicate with all levels of stakeholders from C-Level executives to directors to junior staff
- Lead discovery meetings with prospects to accurately determine the prospect’s needs and constraints
- Prepare re-usable product demonstration scenarios and configurations for compelling product demonstrations
- Flexibly and fluidly perform product demonstrations that highlight business value and key differentiators
- Develop and refine professional sales presentation materials
- Prepare and deliver compelling sales presentations to prospects and customers
- Respond to prospect and customer questions and objections
- Industry and Community Promotion
- Write and publish promotional and industry insight material on blogs, newsletters and social media
- Discover and participate in other avenues of product and brand evangelism
- Support sustainable sales growth:
- When requested, provide field feedback to product management to help with the roadmap of product features
- Develop and maintain professional relationships with clients and prospects to assist with customer satisfaction, gain usage insights/anecdotes to inform future presentations and build awareness around additional solutions that could be useful to them
Qualifications
Candidates should be an experienced consultant leader with significant experience in the manufacturing industry with a strong preference for process industries.
The successful candidate will have:
- At least 5 years sales engineering, sales consulting and/or pre-sales professional experience in software or professional services sales opportunities
- Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience
- Outstanding general consulting skills (soft skills, structured thinking, effective written communications and great presentation and stakeholder engagement skills)
- Strong business and sales acumen
- Knowledge and experience of significant aspects of related disciplines such as Enterprise Software, Enterprise Architecture, Agile Software Development and Digital Technologies
- Significant Experience with Manufacturing or Retail industries including specific experience with enterprise supply chain solutions
- Experience with Process Manufacturing industries preferred
- Ability to operate in a fluid environment and comfortable with high levels of uncertainty
Location and travel
This position is remote, but candidates must be within reasonable distance of a major US airport.
Candidates should expect 25% travel as conditions permit focused on customer and prospect visits.