Cloud player ServiceSource, a global leader in technology-based service revenue performance for the hi-tech, medical and life-sciences industries, says it plans to hire 100 people for its Dublin operation in the coming year.
The company originally announced plans to create 70 jobs in Dublin in 2010 but now it has 350 people in Dublin – 12pc of the company’s global workforce of 3,000 people – and it is now looking for a further 100 employees.
“This year we estimate we will hire about 100 people, to serve existing and new clients,” said Olivier Sabella, vice-president of Inside Sales EMEA at ServiceSource, ahead of the upcoming Career Zoo event in Dublin on 15 February.
Sabella said the company specialises in recurring revenue management, customer retention and business productivity for tech organisations, including Dell, EMC, HP, VMware and Microsoft.
“We are anticipating a need for 100 people as we win new customers and as existing customers experience organic growth and their recurring revenues grow,” Sabella said.
“Here in Dublin 75pc of our workforce is engaged in ‘inside sales’, selling on behalf of our clients.”
Cream of the crop in tech sales
Sabella said the kind of roles ServiceSource is seeking to fill include entry-level roles for graduates with degrees, to roles for people with at least two years of experience and senior roles for people who are interested in managing a sales territory in Europe.
“Many of our existing people have grown internally in the organisation and are now taking on more complex sales and management roles.
“Many of our clients are across EMEA so we are focused on people who are multilingual and who have a great aptitude for sales.”
Sabella said training and development are a critical aspect of working with ServiceSource and workers spend 12pc of their time on training and development, or what is officially termed a Personal Development Plan.
He said this is an exciting time for sales professionals as new technologies and tools transform the landscape.
“We’re seeing major changes in sales and marketing. Businesses have not only got to retain existing customers and maximise revenue but acquiring new customers using new technologies like social and cloud requires a whole new level of skills and thinking.
“Salespeople need to be able to engage more readily with customers and lifecycle management of technology is vital in terms of being able to up-sell and cross-sell.
“We need to have people who can prove they can sell and understand the value of technology opportunities,” Sabella said.
He explained that tech sales has evolved from a one-time big sell to a pay-for-consumption model.
“It is because of this shift that value selling in a tech environment now becomes critical and it is why we have transformed our learning and coaching programmes to develop that competency. We believe this is one of our competitive advantages in the marketplace.”
