Company
Manufacturing Presales Consultant
Location: Chicago, IL

Summary:
The primary role of the Manufacturing Presales Consultant is to support the Sales Rep and Sales Management by providing product and industry expertise during the sales cycle, with the chief goal being to "close the deal".  Responsibilities include quickly understanding the operations of a company, determining key requirements and goals during the survey process, developing solution demonstrations to meet the prospect's requirements, emphasizing the strengths of Ross Systems, Inc., and presenting the demonstration in a professional manner using outstanding presentation skills and employing good sales techniques.

Primary Responsibilities:
1.    Support the Sales Cycle with, but not limited to:
•    Replying to RFI's/RFP's/RFQ's
•    Performing Company Surveys to understand how a company operates, determination of key requirements and planned goals/vision of the company.
•    Develop Product Demonstrations to meet the requirements of the prospect, emphasizing the strengths of Ross, and developing alternative solutions to weaknesses.
•    Performing various levels of demonstrations, including but not limited to, high level overviews, product introductory demos, detailed demonstrations, proof of concept or conference room pilots and follow-up demonstrations.  
•    Demonstrations can be made to various groups and individuals including company executives, functional managers, evaluation team members, users and IS technicals.
•    Provide follow-up to demonstrations and objections as needed.
•    Maintain record or requirements and solutions proposed in order to effectively "turn-over" a customer to services for implementation.
2.    Required to be a "Product Expert" for all Manufacturing and Distribution applications.  Should also be knowledgeable with the other applications that interface to the Manufacturing and Distribution applications.
3.    Required to know and demonstrate various 3rd party applications that work with products by Ross Systems, Inc.
4.    Provide expertise on Products and Industries as required to other areas of the company, such as Marketing.
5.    Provide internal training for other Presales Consultants on an as required basis.
6.    Support various company activities such as seminars, trade shows, and user groups with product expertise, industry expertise, and demonstrations.
7.    Frequent and constant Travel is required.

Experience and Education:
•    College degree desired with major in Business, Engineering, or Management.
•    Prior experience in developing and performing Sales Demonstrations for software applications.
•    Must have a detailed knowledge of manufacturing principles, such as Planning and Scheduling, Inventory Control, Recipe Management, etc., along with an overall understanding of the business flows of a manufacturing organization.
•    If not already knowledgeable about Process Manufacturing Industries, must be able and willing to quickly learn about the Process Verticals that are focused on at Ross Systems, Inc.
•    Prior experience as a functional user/manager in an area such as Materials Management, Planning and Scheduling, Production Management, Inventory Control, Purchasing, or Sales Management.
•    Prior experience in the implementation of an ERP system, preferably as a consultant or a software vendor.

Skill Requirements:
•    Outstanding Presentation Skills with the ability to control a group for days at a time.
•    Capability to interact with a PC, as it was second nature, performing complex functions in a demonstration while continuing to focus on the presentation and not the equipment.
•    Interact and Communicate well with prospects at all organizational levels.
•    Motivated self-starter with the ability to learn rapidly, including company requirements and software products.  
•    Must be able to learn the software in detail, often working alone without formal training, in a short timeframe.
•    Must be able to understand the breadth of the software applications and the overall integration, with the ability to present multiple applications in detail.
•    Good Sales Skills in various situations.
•    Must be able to "think on their feet" to questions raised during the demonstration.
•    Ability to "head-off" and overcome objections that may be raised without becoming "rattled or defensive."
•    Ability to use a PC with Windows operating system and effective with Microsoft Office applications.
•    Must be able to keep multiple activities going, while working with multiple prospects and multiple sales reps simultaneously, in various stages of the sales cycle.
•    Must be able to build the demonstration often without the benefit of long lead times.

Performance Objectives:
Meeting or exceeding annual sales quotas for presales consultants.

To apply Please submit resumes to jobs@cdcsoftware.com with "Pre-Sales Consultant" in the subject line.