Commercial Sales Director @ Rtccom

The Commercial Sales Director provides strategic and hands-on leadership for RTC Communications' business-to-business sales organization and is accountable for accelerating profitable revenue growth. This role develops and executes the commercial sales strategy, leads and develops sales personnel, establishes goals and forecasts, strengthens key customer relationships, directs pipeline and CRM discipline, and coordinates with Marketing, Product Development, Commercial Solutions, Operations, Finance, and executive leadership. The successful candidate will be energetic, persuasive, well organized, data-driven, and capable of leading the complete telecommunications sales cycle from prospecting and discovery through proposal, negotiation, close, implementation handoff, expansion, and renewal.

Sales Strategy and Revenue Leadership

• Collaborate with executive leadership to establish company growth priorities, revenue objectives, territory plans, market-segment strategies, product emphasis, and annual commercial sales plans.

• Define and execute appropriate sales and business-development strategies, including prospecting, account development, partner engagement, vertical-market initiatives, events, campaigns, technical-sales support, and customer-retention programs.

• Determine annual unit, revenue, margin, and gross-profit plans by analyzing historical performance, market opportunity, customer demand, product economics, competitive conditions, and organizational capacity.

• Establish annual and periodic sales objectives, quotas, and performance expectations for regions, territories, products, and individual contributors; project sales volume and profitability for existing and new offerings.

• Own commercial sales forecasting and provide accurate, timely outlooks based on pipeline quality, opportunity stage, buyer actions, historical conversion, sales-cycle length, risk, and representative judgment.

• Maintain an appropriate balance of sales volume, product mix, contract value, selling price, margin, and customer fit by monitoring market trends, economic indicators, competitive activity, supply and demand, and delivery capability.

• Recommend and administer approved pricing strategies, discount practices, and deal-review processes based on cost, competition, customer value, demand, margin requirements, and delegated authority.

• Identify new markets, customer segments, partnerships, products, and routes to market that support sustainable growth.

• Attend and strategically use key business, community, industry, trade-show, and customer events to build relationships, develop leads, and strengthen RTC's market presence.

• Regularly report sales performance, risks, opportunities, corrective actions, and strategic recommendations to executive leadership.

Sales Team Leadership and Development

• Lead, coach, motivate, and hold accountable commercial sales employees while fostering a collaborative, ethical, customer-focused, and high-performance culture.

• Plan staffing needs and participate in recruiting, selecting, orienting, training, developing, and retaining qualified sales personnel.

• Set clear expectations, monitor activity and results, conduct regular one-on-one coaching, evaluate performance, recognize achievement, and address performance concerns in coordination with Human Resources.

• Build team capability in prospecting, discovery, consultative selling, telecommunications solutions, business-value communication, proposal development, negotiation, account planning, forecasting, CRM use, and customer retention.

• Coordinate sales training and sales-support programs with technical, product, marketing, operational, vendor, and external training resources.

• Allocate territories, accounts, leads, opportunities, and sales resources fairly and strategically based on market potential, customer need, employee capability, and company priorities.

• Promote ownership, disciplined follow-through, continuous learning, and consistent use of approved sales processes and tools.

• Contribute to the overall RTC team by accomplishing related leadership and business results as needed.

Business Development and Customer Relationships

• Create and maintain strong relationships with key customer stakeholders at executive, senior-management, operational, and technical levels.

• Directly support strategic, complex, high-value, or escalated opportunities and accounts across small-business, mid-market, enterprise, public-sector, and community organizations.

• Ensure the sales team understands and effectively communicates RTC's value proposition, fiber and telecommunications technologies, commercial solutions, implementation process, service model, and relevant partnerships.

• Develop executive-level account and opportunity plans that identify customer priorities, stakeholders, decision criteria, competitive position, technical requirements, risks, timing, next actions, and growth opportunities.

• Work across territories and with internal teams to pursue coordinated opportunities, share expertise, and present a consistent customer experience.

• Identify and solve customer issues strategically, engaging Sales, Account Management, Commercial Solutions, Network Operations, Customer Service, Finance, or technical support when appropriate.

• Serve as an escalation point for significant customer concerns and ensure issues that directly affect customers or partners receive clear ownership, communication, and resolution follow-through.

• Identify appropriate expansion, upsell, cross-sell, renewal, and retention opportunities that create genuine value for the customer.

• Represent RTC Communications professionally and persuasively in customer meetings, presentations, negotiations, industry forums, and community events.

RFPs, Proposals and Sales Execution

• Lead or coordinate the identification, qualification, development, review, submission, and follow-up of requests for proposal, requests for information, bids, quotes, contracts, presentations, and related sales documents.

• Establish clear bid/no-bid criteria and confirm each opportunity aligns with RTC's technical capability, service area, capacity, margin requirements, risk tolerance, implementation resources, and strategic priorities.

• Coordinate with technical, operational, financial, legal, product, and executive resources to ensure proposals are accurate, responsive, competitive, supportable, timely, and properly approved.

• Maintain standardized proposal content, customer references, case studies, pricing inputs, technical descriptions, compliance responses, and supporting sales materials.

• Lead the basic and complex sales cycle, including lead qualification, discovery, needs analysis, solution coordination, business case, proposal, objection handling, negotiation, close, contracting, and implementation handoff.

• Ensure customer commitments, assumptions, special requirements, pricing approvals, timelines, and handoff information are documented accurately before implementation.

• Work with internal teams on behalf of customers to maintain a high level of service throughout sales, implementation, adoption, support, renewal, and expansion.

Sales Operations, CRM and Process Management

• Manage and continuously improve sales forecasting, territory planning, account planning, buyer-driven sales processes, lead management, opportunity governance, pipeline review, and sales-to-operations handoffs.

• Establish high standards for quality, accuracy, timeliness, consistency, and accountability across the commercial sales process.

• Drive successful implementation, adoption, and effective use of RTC's customer relationship management, sales automation, marketing automation, proposal, reporting, and productivity platforms.

• Ensure representatives maintain accurate account, contact, activity, opportunity, quote, forecast, next-step, and close information in RTC's CRM and related systems.

• Define contact, account, and opportunity data-quality standards; establish processes for data acquisition, validation, correction, deduplication, ownership, retention, and ongoing maintenance.

• Monitor the quality of sales and marketing information and implement data-improvement, user-training, and process-compliance programs when needed.

• Collaborate with Sales, Marketing, Account Management, Product Development, Commercial Solutions, Operations, Customer Service, Finance, and technical teams to implement targeted sales strategies and improve the customer journey.

• Develop clear process documentation, dashboards, review rhythms, and operating expectations that support repeatable growth without unnecessary administrative burden.

Reporting and Analytics

• Develop, maintain, and distribute actionable sales reports, dashboards, internal intelligence, and market insight for the sales, marketing, operations, finance, and executive teams.

• Analyze pipeline and lead data and provide periodic reporting on demand generation, pipeline coverage, forecast and trends, activity, conversion rates, target accounts, market segmentation, sales-cycle age, product mix, win/loss results, revenue, and margin.

• Monitor key performance indicators across the lead and opportunity waterfall to maintain a consistent closed loop between marketing and sales.

• Evaluate individual and team performance against activity, pipeline, revenue, margin, retention, forecast-accuracy, and other approved measures.

• Use reporting and analytics to validate lead, account, opportunity, and pipeline quality; identify risk and opportunity; and make strategic, evidence-based recommendations.

• Translate data into practical actions for territory focus, account prioritization, coaching, campaign adjustment, process improvement, staffing, pricing, and resource allocation.

• Protect confidential company and customer information and comply with RTC requirements for privacy, CPNI, cybersecurity, records, contracting, and delegated approvals.

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities

• Strong understanding of telecommunications sales, recurring-revenue services, fiber internet, voice, managed network, cloud, security, and related commercial solutions.

• Demonstrated understanding of consultative and buyer-focused sales methods and the ability to lead the complete sales cycle.

• Excellent leadership, coaching, performance-management, negotiation, prospecting, presentation, relationship-building, and closing skills.

• Ability to understand the impact of operational, technical, financial, service, and product initiatives from the customer's and salesperson's perspectives.

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills with technical and non-technical audiences, including customers, executives, employees, partners, and community stakeholders.

• Ability to analyze data, build meaningful reports, evaluate trends, forecast results, and make strategic recommendations supported by evidence.

• Ability to identify and solve client or business issues strategically and develop creative, commercially sound solutions.

• Ability to manage multiple projects, shifting priorities, and tight deadlines in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial, technology-driven environment.

• Strong business judgment, financial awareness, initiative, independence, organization, attention to detail, and commitment to excellence.

• Proficiency with Microsoft 365 applications, particularly Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Teams, along with RTC's CRM and related sales tools.

• Ability to work collaboratively across functions while taking ownership of projects and exceeding reasonable performance expectations.

• Commitment to ethical selling, accurate representation of RTC's capabilities, responsible use of customer information, and extraordinary customer service.

Education and Experience

• Bachelor's degree in business, marketing, communications, telecommunications, technology, or a related field preferred.

• At least five years of progressively responsible sales, business-development, account-management, or related experience in telecommunications or a closely related technology industry preferred.

• Documented record of achieving revenue or sales goals and successfully developing customer relationships required.

• Direct sales experience with customers ranging from small businesses to enterprise or public-sector accounts strongly preferred.

• Prior experience leading, supervising, coaching, or developing sales professionals strongly preferred.

• Experience with RFPs, commercial proposals, CRM administration or governance, forecasting, pipeline analytics, recurring-revenue services, and complex solution sales preferred.

• Equivalent combinations of education, professional training, industry knowledge, leadership experience, and demonstrated sales success may be considered.

• Must possess, or be able to obtain and maintain, a valid Indiana driver's license and an insurable driving record under RTC requirements.

Work Environment and Physical Requirements

• Work is performed in office, customer, community, conference, and telecommunications-related environments.

• The position requires frequent computer, telephone, video-conference, presentation, driving, and in-person customer activity.

• Must be able to travel regularly throughout assigned territories and occasionally beyond RTC's service area for customer meetings, prospecting, industry events, training, conferences, and business development.

• Must be able to safely lift and carry presentation materials, demonstration equipment, or other work items weighing up to 25 pounds, with or without reasonable accommodation.

• Evening or weekend work may be required for customer meetings, networking functions, community events, conferences, proposal deadlines, or other business needs.

General Statement

This job description summarizes the principal duties and requirements of the position. It is not intended to be an exhaustive list of every duty, responsibility, or qualification. RTC Communications may revise duties or assign additional responsibilities based on strategic, operational, business, and customer needs. RTC Communications is an equal opportunity employer and considers qualified applicants and employees without regard to legally protected status.