Chris Thomas Email & Phone Number

After the completion of the T-Mobile & Sprint merger I took on the roll of a National Account Executive in the Channel Partner Program. In this roll I support the SMB organization drive sales though the Partner Channel.

After 3 years of learning different experiences, I had the opportunity to return to Sprint in their Channel Sales division. This was an exciting change as it enabled me to apply my recent learnings in a new capacity. This position required sales, OEM, and technology experience to be successful. A large motivating factor for me in accepting the position was the pending, and now complete, merger with T-Mobile.

I was eager to return to a customer-centered sales environment in the telecom industry, and that made SOLiD a good fit for me. Each year, I worked with $12-14 million sales quotas, and using my background in sales engineering in this sector, I cleared $23.5 million in sales in just my first year. The following year, my successes included a $3.9 million sale to a major third-party operator at a top-three international airport in the US.Working at SOLiD as a Regional Sales Manager also provided me with new opportunities to expand my professional network. I was responsible for Distributed Antenna System (DAS) sales in a 10-state region, including Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. I owned every aspect of each of my customer interactions, including sales, support, and customer-relationship development.I also took the opportunity in this position to continue learning more about specialized aspects of network technologies that I had yet to discover. When it came to the technical aspects of what we offered clients, I took the lead in educating my fellow Regional Sales Managers so that they could more effectively provide our services to their customers in different regions. This increased our ability to work with customers directly, saving valuable time and resources for the sales-engineering team.Thanks to the DAS solution that I offered to my customers, I helped people throughout my region stay connected in some of the most challenging places—from hospitals to sports venues and university campuses.

When Sprint incentivized volunteers who were willing to part ways with the company before an anticipated round of layoffs began, I saw their offer as an opportunity to try something new in the world of sales within the technology sector. I had previously specialized in sales engineering, but in this role, I was more directly involved with sales ownership. As Global Account Manager at NCR, I was responsible for cultivating new relationships with customers in telecom and technology industries across the world. Our key sales opportunities included networking equipment (routers, switches, Wi-Fi) and maintenance and monitoring (M&M) sales. In my brief time at NCR, my approach to developing valuable business relationships with the right customers was built on the same strategies that I had developed as a sales engineer to target customer needs and deliver solutions.

Overland Park, Ks

After three years as a Solutions Engineer, I left the Philadelphia area and relocated to Overland Park to build the Mid-West Solutions Engineering team there. In this new position, I accepted considerably more responsibility in the company and more opportunity to develop and execute operations strategy.The Mid-West Solutions Engineering team’s charge was to drive revenue growth and reduce customer churn by partnering with sales teams for customer account planning, discovery, solution selection, cost analysis, and the development of contract proposals. Our solutions were to include DAS, Small-Cell, Wi-Fi, CDMA, and LTE, all of which were integral parts of the technologies used by Sprint customers.As the leader of this new team, I was selected to participate in Sprint’s Manager Leadership Program, which is reserved for highly effective managers who are identified by the executive team as potential candidates for executive positions. This training—in addition to my training in the business school at Pennsylvania State University and other leadership programs, including the Supervisory Leadership Development Program at Rutgers University—informed every aspect of how I built the team, from hiring to professional development and team organization.Our cross-functional team’s achievements included engagements of an average of 100 new project requests each month and a 53% reduction in cycle times for the end-to-end in-building solutions process. As the leader of the team, I also developed and implemented a business-continuity plan following a major reorganization that minimized the effect of the reorganization on customers. I collaborated with senior executives on solution development, strategy, and sales. The solutions sales capital costs exceeded at least $15 million per year and some years reached higher than $25 million and $100 million overall as a team.

Greater Philadelphia Area

After having worked in network optimization and expansion as an Engineer and Manager, I was ready for a new challenge. I accepted the position of Solutions Engineer so that I could continue developing as a strategic team leader and contribute to the company on the sales side of operations.In this position, I was able to use my deep knowledge of the technical side of our product to produce data solutions sales in the strategic accounts segment of our customer base. Because I could speak their language, I worked well with software developers to integrate custom applications through APIs. I planned and led formal presentations for C-level customers, and I collaborated with account managers to facilitate the sales process from needs assessments to solution selection, proposal, and sale.As I continued to accept greater responsibility in this position, I oversaw the implementation of SalesForce to help facilitate sales growth. I planned and managed the migration of account data, conducted a training program for my colleagues, and developed a protocol for its use by my team. By the end of the implementation phase, we had achieved a highly successful adoption rate of 95%.One of my greatest achievements in this position was the development and execution of an account plan for a Fortune 100 company. This resulted in a 57% increase in monthly data revenue over a two-year period. By developing a multi-disciplinary approach—integrating the engineering side with sales—and working closely on developing relationships with our clients, I created substantial opportunities for growth for my company, my colleagues, and myself.

Greater Philadelphia Area

My first job after completing my engineering degree at Temple University developed from an internship in RF Engineering. This is where I first used my engineering training not just to follow logical processes but to “break free” of those processes to create better processes. I was a quick learner and worked well as a leader, so I was promoted quickly to the level of Manager. In just three years, I was managing a network of more than 245 cellular sites and 200 in-building solutions, overseeing extensive market growth of more than 100 new cellular sites, and providing leadership to teams focused on problem discovery, resolution, and network optimization. This is also where I developed my public-speaking skills, after providing expert testimony at over 50 public meetings for the purpose of securing government approvals for network expansion.

Master Of Business Administration - Mba

Bachelor’S Degree, Electrical Engineering, Minor Math, Magna Cum Laude

Activities and Societies: Eta Kappa Nu, IEEE