Sales Role (General)

Overview

You sell Salesforce and Snowflake implementation and consulting services to mid-market and enterprise companies in financial services and retail. You're not selling software licenses—you're selling professional services projects that involve discovery, implementation, integration, and ongoing support. Most deals involve working with existing Salesforce or Snowflake customers who need expert help, or companies ready to adopt these platforms.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Private, established consultancy (no VC funding data available)

Size: 193 employees

Growth: Actively hiring across roles, focused on financial services and retail verticals

Market Position: Challenger in a crowded Salesforce/Snowflake consulting market competing against Big 4, boutique shops, and platform partners

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 40% Outbound - Cold outreach to companies using or evaluating Salesforce/Snowflake, targeting VPs of Sales Ops, IT, Data/Analytics
• 30% Partner Referrals - Salesforce/Snowflake partner programs, but you're not getting prime leads handed to you
• 30% Inbound/Referrals - Existing client expansion, word-of-mouth, website inquiries (not high volume)

SDR/AE Structure: Likely self-sourcing or shared pool of BDRs. In consulting services, AEs typically do a lot of their own prospecting.

SE Support: You work with Solutions Architects and delivery leads for scoping and demos, but you're the primary relationship owner throughout.

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors:

• Big 4 consulting (Deloitte, Accenture, PwC, KPMG)
• Larger SI partners (Slalom, Atrium, Coastal Cloud)
• Boutique Salesforce/Snowflake shops
• In-house teams or direct platform professional services

How They Differentiate: Deep expertise in both Salesforce and Snowflake (many shops specialize in just one), focus on financial services and retail verticals, presumably more nimble than Big 4.

Common Objections:

• "Why not use Salesforce/Snowflake's own professional services?"
• "We can hire contractors for less"
• "Never heard of you—why not go with [bigger brand]?"
• Price—professional services are expensive and clients push back on hourly rates

Win Themes: Vertical expertise, platform certifications, ability to move faster than Big 4, track record with similar implementations.

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Prospecting & Outreach (35%) | Active Deals (40%) | Internal/Admin (25%)

Key Activities

• Prospecting & Qualification: You're identifying companies in financial services and retail that use (or should use) Salesforce or Snowflake. Cold calling, LinkedIn outreach, conference networking. Lots of "not interested" and gatekeepers. Target is probably 20-30 meaningful conversations per week.

• Discovery & Scoping: When you get a meeting, you're doing technical discovery—understanding their current state, pain points, and requirements. You bring in Solutions Architects to scope the project. Many deals die here when budget doesn't match scope.

• Proposal & Negotiation: Writing detailed SOWs, presenting proposals, negotiating rates and timelines. You're justifying $150-250/hour blended rates. Lots of back-and-forth on scope creep, payment terms, and contract language.

• Internal Coordination: Working with delivery teams to ensure you're not selling something they can't deliver. Managing capacity—sometimes your deals get delayed because consultants are tied up on other projects. Weekly pipeline reviews, forecasting, CRM hygiene.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Long, uncertain sales cycles: Deals take 3-9 months and can stall at any point. Budget gets frozen, priorities shift, champions leave. You'll have deals in your pipeline for quarters that never close.

• You're selling expensive services in a crowded market: Clients are price-sensitive and constantly comparing you to alternatives. You're often not the brand-name choice, so you're fighting uphill on credibility.

• Scoping is complex and changes constantly: What starts as a $200K implementation becomes a $500K project during discovery, or gets cut to $75K when the client sees the price. Managing scope vs. expectations is a constant negotiation.

• Delivery impacts your sales: If a current project goes poorly, it hurts your ability to close new business. If delivery is fully utilized, you can't take on new work even if you close it.

What Success Looks Like

• Closing 4-8 projects per year in the $150K-$300K range
• Building a pipeline that's 3-4x your quota (because so many deals slip or die)
• Generating expansion revenue from existing clients (upsells, Phase 2 projects)
• Maintaining relationships that lead to referrals and repeat business

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• VP/Director of Sales Operations (for Salesforce projects)
• VP/Director of Data & Analytics (for Snowflake projects)
• CTO/CIO (for larger transformation initiatives)
• Sometimes CMO for marketing automation/CDP work

What They Care About:

• Track record with similar companies: Have you done this exact thing for companies like theirs?
• Avoiding implementation disasters: They've heard horror stories and want to de-risk the project
• Speed to value: How quickly can you deliver vs. a 12-month Big 4 engagement?
• Total cost: Not just your fees, but licensing, ongoing support, internal resources required
• Certifications and partnership status: Do you have the platform credentials and support relationship?

Requirements

• 3-5+ years selling professional services, consulting, or enterprise software
• Understanding of Salesforce and/or Snowflake ecosystems (you don't need to be technical, but you need to speak the language)
• Experience selling deals $100K+ with 3-6 month cycles
• Comfortable prospecting and self-sourcing—this isn't an inbound-heavy motion
• Ability to work with technical teams on scoping and proposals
• Financial services or retail industry experience likely preferred but not required
• CRM proficiency (they're a Salesforce shop, so you'll live in SFDC)