Sales Role (unspecified)

Overview

You sell Opengear's network resilience platform—purpose-built hardware plus Lighthouse management software—to IT and operations teams who manage data centers, edge locations, and distributed infrastructure. Your buyers are network engineers, IT directors, and ops managers who need secure out-of-band access when their primary network goes down. This is infrastructure sales: not flashy, but critical when things break.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Private, likely mature—177 employees and established product

Size: 177 employees globally (NA, EMEA, APAC)

Growth: Stable infrastructure vendor, not hypergrowth startup

Market Position: Niche player in network resilience—competing against DIY solutions, console servers, and larger networking vendors' offerings

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 40% Outbound - IT infrastructure is a relationship and timing game. You're calling into companies during refresh cycles or after outages.
• 30% Partner/Channel - VARs, MSPs, and system integrators who spec Opengear into deals.
• 20% Inbound - Some web inquiries from IT teams researching solutions, but not high volume.
• 10% Existing customer expansion - Customers adding sites or upgrading hardware.

SDR/AE Structure: Unknown from post—likely direct sales model given company size.

SE Support: Probably yes—this is technical infrastructure that requires demos and POCs.

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: Traditional console servers, DIY solutions using Raspberry Pi or commodity hardware, and features built into enterprise routers/switches from Cisco/Juniper.

How They Differentiate: Purpose-built hardware + centralized Lighthouse management software + compliance certifications (security audited). The pitch is "don't cobble together a solution—get enterprise-grade resilience."

Common Objections:

• "We can build this ourselves cheaper"
• "Our primary network is reliable enough"
• "Budget is frozen until next fiscal year"
• "We need to see it work in our environment first"

Win Themes: Security compliance requirements, past network outages that cost money/reputation, distributed site management complexity, regulatory needs in banking/healthcare.

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Prospecting (30%) | Active Deals (40%) | Technical/Internal (30%)

Key Activities

• Outbound to IT teams: Calling network engineers and IT directors at companies with distributed infrastructure (retail chains, healthcare systems, financial services). You're trying to find companies in refresh cycles or who've recently had outage pain.
• Technical discovery calls: Understanding their current setup—what equipment they manage, how they handle remote access now, security/compliance requirements. These buyers want to talk technical details, not value props.
• Coordinating POCs and demos: Working with SEs to set up proof-of-concepts. Infrastructure teams want to test in their environment before committing.
• Multi-threaded follow-up: Infrastructure purchases involve network teams, security, procurement, and often a VP/CIO sign-off. You're chasing multiple stakeholders and waiting on committee decisions.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Infrastructure sales move slowly. Nobody gets fired for pushing the decision to next quarter. Budget cycles and procurement processes drag things out.
• You're often selling insurance—trying to convince people to invest in resilience before they have a major outage. Deals accelerate after disasters, but those are unpredictable.
• Technical evaluation cycles mean lots of demos, questions, and internal testing. You need patience for back-and-forth.
• Small company means less brand recognition. You're explaining who Opengear is before you can pitch the product.
• Getting to the right person is hard. You might start with a network engineer but need director/VP approval for budget.

What Success Looks Like

• Closing 1-2 deals per quarter if you're mid-market AE, more if you're working smaller accounts.
• Building a pipeline of opportunities in different stages—some in POC, some in procurement, some in technical review.
• Developing relationships with channel partners who pull you into deals.
• Getting renewals and expansions from customers who deploy at more sites.

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• Network Engineers / Network Architects (technical champions)
• IT Directors / Infrastructure Managers (budget holders)
• Security teams (approval needed for compliance)
• CIO/VP Infrastructure (final sign-off on larger deals)

What They Care About:

• Uptime and reliability: Can they access equipment when the primary network fails?
• Security and compliance: Does it meet audit requirements for secure remote access?
• Ease of management: Can they manage hundreds of distributed devices from one dashboard?
• ROI on avoiding downtime: What's the cost of an hour of downtime vs. the cost of Opengear?
• Vendor stability: Will this company be around to support them in 5 years?

Requirements

• Experience selling technical infrastructure or networking products (not just software)
• Comfortable with technical buyers who want to drill into specs and architecture
• Patience for 3-6 month sales cycles with multiple stakeholders
• Understanding of data center operations, network management, or IT infrastructure
• Ability to work with SEs and partners—this isn't a solo sale
• Willingness to learn about compliance frameworks (SOC 2, ISO, HIPAA) that drive buying decisions