Oakleaf Surveying Ltd are a leading UK based supplier of building surveying services, with customers and projects located across Europe.Relishing a challenge I was offered the chance to move into a Business Development role, which in itself presented an opportunity to transfer the skills I had accrued in IT and Service Management over the last fifteen years into a completely new industry.Oakleaf have been providing surveying services for over thirty years and were looking to expand their service offerings into new sectors. My wide experience with commercial, education and local authority clients was key to helping achieve this.One of the biggest shifts for me was a lower 'retained client' base and a much higher focus on new business opportunities and reactive customer requirements. Although my responsibilities are in line with previous positions, it is key to be able react to the more ad-hoc nature of the business, recognise changing trends in requirements across customer sectors and provide accurate forecasting.I have since moved into the position of Director of the Sales department, continuing my work within business to business sales but also managing the team and reporting directly to the company board.

RMS Services are suppliers of ITIL Service Management solutions, including service management, asset management, network monitoring & management, asset discovery and password reset software. Based in the UK their customers are located across Europe, also working with partners and associated customers worldwide.I began working for RMS who were already aware of the work I was doing within the ITSM customer base. In the role of Sales Account Manager I was directly responsible for building and maintaining strong relationships with all UK and European customers and new business sales. With contracts running on a subscription basis it was imperative that I was in constant communication and meeting customer expectations at all times.As well as providing new business sales demonstrations and negotiations, I was heavily involved with marketing and production of documentation and audio/video advertising for both the corporate website and all industry events.Working directly with the full portfolio of software solutions I was required to have a strong understanding of the underpinning and supporting technologies; in-house solution, hosted & SaaS and hybrid delivery methods. - Customer management and support - Contract renewals and negotiations - Product demonstrations & new sales - Sales into existing customer base and new business - Authoring and submission of competitive tenders - Product development and evolution - Production of marketing materials and media - Attending, presenting and demonstrating at industry conferences and events - Management of CRM systems, customer data and pipeline

Marval Software are worldwide suppliers of ITIL Service Management solutions, including service desk and asset management software. Based in the UK with partners across the globe.A position I achieved after beginning my career as a First Line Technical Engineer, providing direct customer support. Over my eight years at Marval I worked my way up through progressively senior roles within the IT Department until I was given the opportunity to move into the Customer Account Manager role, resulting in sole responsibility for the entire UK and Ireland customer base.Due to my experience within the company and its solutions I was also able to contribute to new sales presentations as well as being heavily involved in the development of the new, web based service management software as we transitioned from the traditional client/server model.My various roles within Marval meant I travelled to many worldwide destinations to work with our partners, whether that be providing training, attending international conferences, or providing sales assistance. This also gave me far reaching exposure to different business cultures. - Assisting with BS15000/ISO20000 accreditation and retention - Policy & procedure authoring and monitoring - Assisting product development and transition to new technologies - Customer management and relationship building - Contract renewals and negotiations - New sales into the existing customer base - New business sales - Authoring and submission of competitive tenders - Product demonstrations and attendance at industry conferences