Business Development Executive

Job content

Geneva, Switzerland

Premise has built an industry leading research platform that allows our customers to collect insights, observations and opinions from its proprietary network of >5m smartphone owners in >130 countries. We are seeking a driven, talented and supremely capable Research Manager to join our team of technologists, data scientists and engineers to help us build the next generation of Research Technology.

Overview

Premise seeks to more than double the size of its international development business in 2022 and do it again in 2023. Business Development Executives (BDEs) at Premise and the Senior Director of International Development own this responsibility. Building on our strong customer base, you will help continue to expand our reach into the mainstream portion of the international development market and solidify our role as the go-to provider of remote data collection and analytics. This position will primarily focus on European-based organizations, especially UN agencies.

The Business Development Executive will both identify opportunities for Premise with donors, implementing partners, and UN agencies and receive early stage opportunities from Premise’s business development reps. The BDE will then lead the prospective customer through a well-defined sales process that involves multiple Premise team members. This process will result in the customer buying a subscription to the Premise platform as a commercially available off-the-shelf software as as services product (COTS SaaS).

Education And Experience

Premise seeks a candidate with at least a Bachelor’s degree and a minimum of 8 years of full-time experience in business development in the international development industry. Business development at Premise is very different from capture management or proposal development at an international development implementing partner. Ideal candidates will either have experience selling technology (as opposed to professional services) and/or strong knowledge of and networks in the organizations Premise is targeting.

What You Get To Do

• Mainstream the use of remote data collection and analytics software in the international development industry.
• Identify potential customers and programs that would benefit from using Premise
• Teach potential customers how Premise’s software works and help them achieve their objectives
• Map potential customers’ needs to the appropriate Premise software product and support offerings
• Guide potential customers through a structured sales process that results in their purchase of Premise on our terms. Please note that this requires strong knowledge of how certain organizations (UN agencies, NGOs, European governments, etc.) procurement processes and how to hack that so that they are able to use programmatic funds to purchase commercial software.
• Help develop strategic partnerships with funding agencies and implementing partners, e.g. long Term Agreements (LTAs) with UN agencies.
• Provide ongoing feedback to Premise’s product development, software engineering, and data science teams based on your interactions with customers and industry knowledge
• Act as an evangelist for data-driven international development.
  

The Following Traits Probably Describe You (This is What We are Interviewing for)

• You have grit. Marketing and selling a disruptive technology product in the international development market requires incredible perseverance.
• You hustle. We’re looking for a high energy candidate that never waits to be told what to do and isn’t afraid to be aggressive.
• You have international development industry knowledge. Our ideal candidate is intimately familiar with how different funding agencies and implementing partners do business.
• You’re comfortable with data and technology. You don’t need to be an expert, but you should be comfortable with basic statistics and geospatial concepts.
• You’re a natural teacher and performer. You will spend a lot of time presenting to prospective clients and teaching them how remote data collection and analytics can improve their programs. You should be comfortable spending part of every day in “performance mode.
• You’re accountable. This position has a sales quota and part of your compensation will be variable (and uncapped).
• You’re a bureaucracy hacker. Getting customers to buy Premise as a commercially available off-the-shelf product often requires digging deep into how these organizations operate and then teaching your prospective customer their own rules. You will have to hack their system.
  

Bonus Points

• Experiencing working for a technology company that caters to international development.
• You have some name recognition in the industry. You will find it easier to build a pipeline if you already have a large network.
• You have a background in global health, monitoring and evaluation, or humanitarian assistance. These are Premise’s largest use cases at the time of this writing.
• You speak French or Spanish fluently. Selling Premise involves building consensus among many stakeholders, some do not speak English fluently.
• Experience working in distributed companies or with international teams. Staff working on our international development portfolio are distributed across our Washington DC, Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Bogota, and London offices.