Jocelyn
My background
I had the opportunity to go to California for a year to learn English when I was 17. Make no mistake, I didn’t end up with a family in Los Angeles, but in Hughson, a small Cowboy town with 5,000 inhabitants and just as many acres of farmland. As well as learning English, above all I learned to communicate and adapt to an environment very different from my own.
Back in France, I passed my A-level and headed off to the preparatory school in Dijon. From there I immediately discovered a passion for negotiating notes during my regular oral exams and less for solving theorems and their corollaries.
Following the competitive entrance exams, I was admitted to Télécom SudParis, which is located on the same campus as a business school (IMTBS). I chose this school because I wanted to pursue a more economic and commercial orientation. After 2 years in the core curriculum, I was lucky enough to join the International Business Engineering master and learn the nuts and bolts of doing business in a company.
Freshly graduated, I joined NetXP, now Almond, on September 1, 2016 to work as a business engineer.
My missions
I am responsible for a portfolio of customers of all sizes (CAC 40, intermediate-size companies, SME) and from all sectors (Luxury, Banking, Energy, Insurance etc…). In this context, my main missions are as follows:
ACCOUNT GROWTH
- Expand our business with existing customers: strengthen relationships with existing principals and discover new ones.
- Diversify Almond’s activities at the customer’s site: develop all Almond’s offerings, discover new projects…
PROSPECTION
- Contact prospects to promote Almond
- Presenting Almond’s offerings and DNA
DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCIAL OFFERS
- Draw up bids and commercial offers in On Site Work mode (commitment to means) and Fixed-price mode (commitment to results)
- Define objectives, approach and deliverables in tandem with a pre-sales consultant
- Propose one or more participants, a schedule, a budget estimate
- Send and track response
- Supporting, negotiating and contracting
REFERRALS
- Take charge of the referencing process with key account customers by compiling referencing files
- Convincing principals: conducting lobbying actions, monitoring relations with purchasing departments
CROSS-DISCIPLINARY
- Help offer managers and BU managers to formalize the offer, address customers and report needs
- Participate in company’s development: professional events (forums, afterworks, etc.) and brainstorming sessions.
My daily routine at Almond
One of the advantages of working as an account manager at Almond is that you don’t have a typical day. The idea is to organize your day according to your priorities and desires. But I’ll try to describe my daily routine:
I may start my morning with a meeting at the customer’s premises to present an Almond offer or sales proposal. I’m often accompanied by a pre-sales representative capable of convincing the customer on the technical side. For my part, I discuss the contractual and commercial aspects with the customer.
At the end of the morning, we have a meeting with the team leaders to talk about all the opportunities brought up by the sales people, to see how we can respond.
At the start of the afternoon, I immerse myself in a sales proposal to be written in order to put forward the arguments that will convince the customer, highlighting Almond’s expertise and making sure of the quality delivered, both in terms of form and content.
Then I go off to workshops with the BU or offer managers to help them define a new offer that Almond is starting to develop, or a new partnership that we’d like to launch.
. After a quick coffee, I dive back into my sales proposal (always reread what you’ve written at least once 
). In between reformulating and quantifying the proposal, I call prospects and contact customers to arrange meetings, collect requirements or check up on proposals.
proposals. Almond’s activity is varied, which makes my job very interesting and varied too. The big plus in my job is that I can easily get involved in a subject I like (presenting a workshop on negotiation, preparing the sales side of a forum specializing in security, etc.).
Finally, being an account manager at Almond means growing up in a team rich in knowledge and full of joy, on an infinite and truly challenging playground!
Mon conseil
Faire un métier sans passion est voué à l’échec. Au-delà de vos qualités d’experts soyez passionnés !
Job offers in cross-functional and sales functions
Would you like to ask me a question? Go for it!