![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Good Times #1
Oct. 24th, 2009 08:10 pmThis is the beginning of a work-related set of posts I plan to do. The purpose of these posts will be to explore what elements of my past careers I've really enjoyed, why I enjoyed them, and what aspects will be useful or marketable to new employers or useful in going into business for myself. These work-related posts might end up being four posts. I'm not sure, but this will be fun and useful for me, I think.
Up to about 6 years ago, I was living a happy professional life in Trenton, NJ, and working in Princeton at a software company. It was wonderfully fun to work there. Just about everyone I worked directly with was in their 30s or 40s; our founder at the time was in his early 50s. I worked at the company twice over 6 years and loved it. The company's founder hired me back within my Client Services department in late 2000 as manager of the department.
Even with all the organizational and company culture changes over the years, the account management position was for certain one of my most favorite jobs. I dealt with software, the internet, and all production groups within the company to make sure that the clients were getting what they paid for. As an Account Manager, my main focus was clients in regards to training, implementation, up-sell, technical support, innovation, documentation, and software QA & testing. Marketing and I worked together closely on Requests for Proposal (RFPs) - responses to prospective clients.
I also worked closely with sales in many capacities from pre & post-sales calls, product training for the sales staff, and client transition from sales and contracting to account management. In fact, I came up with the idea and implemented it initially for a Sales Support Group to begin. Once I worked out the processes of elements of Sales Support, my involvement within that capacity was given to someone else who took the position. I then returned fully to Client Services. While I worked with the sales staff as Sales Support, I traveled extensively (which I loved!) and helped reduce the typical 9-18 month sales cycle down to 6-9 months!
My Sales Support concept was for the Sales Support person to be the more technical and customer-focused voice championing the clients' needs within our company together with sales negotiating and writing up the contracts. The sales staff used their company contacts to get in the door of prospective clients. Once we were in and sales was ready for demonstrations and consultative services, Sales Support would work beside sales and help guide the prospective client into a contract. Of course, with the technical and client-focused background of Sales Support people, they were also be heavily involved with Marketing in the RFP process. After I went back to Client Services, the Sales Support became more of an administrative function rather than the active, consultative role I had initially envision and implemented.
Even though my primary focus at the company was account management, I used my education background in web-based instructional design, training design & development, training coordination & facilitation & results assessment. I always used elements of project management in Client Services. In the PM capacity, I was charged with creating the implementation process, which included transitioning clients from sales and contract signing into account management. I helped clients develop methods of marketing the new software in their organizations. I worked closely with my clients to make sure that their implementation went smoothly and people began using our system.
The most exciting aspects of this job were 1) the diverse requirements of the job, 2) the many hats I was able to wear, 3) the clients I had (mostly all Fortune 500 and 1000 companies), and 4) my colleagues. I imagine it'll be hard to find a new job that will help me remain a jack-of-all-trades within their organization. Maybe that will come with time once I'm there, if I get a new job. That "IF" remains out there because Matt and I have been talking about working together and we have begun working together on some projects.
Up to about 6 years ago, I was living a happy professional life in Trenton, NJ, and working in Princeton at a software company. It was wonderfully fun to work there. Just about everyone I worked directly with was in their 30s or 40s; our founder at the time was in his early 50s. I worked at the company twice over 6 years and loved it. The company's founder hired me back within my Client Services department in late 2000 as manager of the department.
Even with all the organizational and company culture changes over the years, the account management position was for certain one of my most favorite jobs. I dealt with software, the internet, and all production groups within the company to make sure that the clients were getting what they paid for. As an Account Manager, my main focus was clients in regards to training, implementation, up-sell, technical support, innovation, documentation, and software QA & testing. Marketing and I worked together closely on Requests for Proposal (RFPs) - responses to prospective clients.
I also worked closely with sales in many capacities from pre & post-sales calls, product training for the sales staff, and client transition from sales and contracting to account management. In fact, I came up with the idea and implemented it initially for a Sales Support Group to begin. Once I worked out the processes of elements of Sales Support, my involvement within that capacity was given to someone else who took the position. I then returned fully to Client Services. While I worked with the sales staff as Sales Support, I traveled extensively (which I loved!) and helped reduce the typical 9-18 month sales cycle down to 6-9 months!
My Sales Support concept was for the Sales Support person to be the more technical and customer-focused voice championing the clients' needs within our company together with sales negotiating and writing up the contracts. The sales staff used their company contacts to get in the door of prospective clients. Once we were in and sales was ready for demonstrations and consultative services, Sales Support would work beside sales and help guide the prospective client into a contract. Of course, with the technical and client-focused background of Sales Support people, they were also be heavily involved with Marketing in the RFP process. After I went back to Client Services, the Sales Support became more of an administrative function rather than the active, consultative role I had initially envision and implemented.
Even though my primary focus at the company was account management, I used my education background in web-based instructional design, training design & development, training coordination & facilitation & results assessment. I always used elements of project management in Client Services. In the PM capacity, I was charged with creating the implementation process, which included transitioning clients from sales and contract signing into account management. I helped clients develop methods of marketing the new software in their organizations. I worked closely with my clients to make sure that their implementation went smoothly and people began using our system.
The most exciting aspects of this job were 1) the diverse requirements of the job, 2) the many hats I was able to wear, 3) the clients I had (mostly all Fortune 500 and 1000 companies), and 4) my colleagues. I imagine it'll be hard to find a new job that will help me remain a jack-of-all-trades within their organization. Maybe that will come with time once I'm there, if I get a new job. That "IF" remains out there because Matt and I have been talking about working together and we have begun working together on some projects.
