Director of Channels, NA

We are looking for an enthusiastic individual responsible for developing and managing channel partner relationships in North America. The Channels Director will act as the primary resource for partner development and relationship growth. This role involves educating our partners and their sales teams on CTERA’s offerings and how to effectively position our products to their clients.

The Channels Director is responsible for driving and delivering sales leads with partners in the channel and working with the CTERA sales team to convert this into new business.

To perform this job successfully, an individual should demonstrate the following competencies:

1. Achievement Focus: Demonstrates persistence and overcomes obstacles; recognizes and acts on opportunities; sets and achieves challenging goals; takes calculated risks to accomplish goals.
2. Sales Skills: Achieves sales goals; initiates new contacts; maintains customer satisfaction; maintains records and promptly submits information; overcomes objections with persuasion and persistence.
3. Sense of Urgency: Displays a matter of utmost urgency; understands the importance of making critical business decisions in a timely manner with strong attention to detail; realizes that efficiency and prioritization is critical to success.
4. Customer Service: Manages difficult or emotional customer situations; meets commitments; responds promptly to customer needs; solicits customer feedback to improve service.
5. Problem Solving: Identifies and resolves problems promptly; gathers and analyzes information skillfully; develops alternative solutions.
6. Written Communications: Edits work for spelling and grammar; presents numerical data effectively; varies writing style to meet needs; writes clearly and informatively.
7. Oral Communication: Demonstrates group presentation skills; listens and gets clarification; responds well to questions; speaks clearly and persuasively.
8. Adaptability: Adapts to changes in the work environment; manages competing demands; changes approach or method to best fit the situation; able to deal with frequent change, delays, or unexpected events.
9. Planning/Organizing: Prioritizes and plans work activities; uses time efficiently; plans for additional resources; sets goals and objectives; develops realistic action plans.

• Minimum of 5 years experience in managing channel partners in a technology environment.
• Experience in the technology storage industry and/or in global file systems
• Experience facilitating onboarding and enablement activities for channel partners.
• Knowledge of software channel ecosystems in the territory.
• Familiarity with CRM and forecasting systems.
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills.
• Strong negotiation and presentation skills.
• Bachelor’s Degree preferred.

• Build, cultivate, and develop strategic partnerships with VARs, System Integrators, and OEMs for the assigned territory.
• Develop a solid working knowledge of the CTERA products and understand the benefits they will provide to potential customers.
• Cultivate strong consultative relationships and act as a primary point of contact for assigned territory partners to ensure partner satisfaction.
• Consistently articulate the CTERA value proposition to assigned territory partners to maintain and increase CTERA’s share of each partner’s business.
• Maintain a detailed understanding of assigned partners’ business (growth initiative, strategic focus, investment areas, profitability factors, etc.).
• Effectively articulate the requirements, expectations, and benefits of the CTERA Partner Program to assigned channel partners.
• Coordinate sales activities with partners and resellers to identify and close new business.
• Work with CTERA Account Executives in the territory to connect target partners to meetings.
• Initiate phone and email contact with potential prospects from developed web and lead generation lists.
• Work on the leads generated by Marketing and the Inside Sales Team to set up additional meetings for the Account Executives.
• Coordinate recruitment of new channel partners as required by the territory channel planning process.