Head of Sales France

We at Bohemia Interactive Simulations are a well-established company specializing in the development of world-leading, game-based military simulations for major NATO powers and their allies. Our mission is to advance the industry by leveraging the latest technologies and trends, including whole-world simulation, virtual reality, motion tracking, and AI.

We are seeking a motivated Head of Sales to join our team. This role has a high-level focus on generating significant sales growth through building new, strategic opportunities and developing new customer segments in France and Belgium, both in the defence sector and in other related sectors - as well as expanding on the foundation of our past successes in these countries. 

As this new role covers both Bohemia Interactive Simulations (BISim) and Pitch Technologies (Pitch) solutions, services and products, cross-selling the two companies’ combined capabilities is a key vector for growth.

Key Areas of Responsibility:

• Close significant sales in France and Belgium.
• Identify and generate new business opportunities, and new customer accounts, in the territories.
• Develop sales and marketing strategies relevant to the generation of new business opportunities in the territories, and successfully executing them.
• Lead relevant sales and marketing activities in France and Belgium.
• Attend conferences, trade shows, industry days and other events as deemed relevant to generating new opportunities or as otherwise  required by BISim and Pitch.
• Create proposals and pitches/presentations to capture new business.
• Liaise with the Leadership team on business development or commercial issues and accepting additional tasking as required.
• Manage and coach the Business Development Manager France & Belgium, ensuring they hit their targets and expected performance levels.

Objectives:

• Create demand for BISim and Pitch solutions, services and products in the territories in Defence (Land) and previously under-serviced defence sectors (e.g. air, maritime, space, cyber, intelligence).
• Create demand for BISim and Pitch products, services and solutions in the territories in market sectors outside defence (e.g. civil emergency management, first responders).
• Create demand for BISim and Pitch products, services and solutions in the territories in novel and inventive ways that generate new lines of business for the company.
• Manage the sales cycle to create opportunities and win/close deals equivalent to $20million USD in revenue each year.
• Meet established deadlines.
• Respond to Requests for Information (RFI) and Requests for Proposals (RFP) in an appropriate and timely manner keeping management informed throughout the entire process.
• Meet or exceed given sales targets.
• Help product management with demand signals and capability requests.

Skills:

• Strategic networking and relationship building skills.
• Expertise in managing customer/partner relationships: Establishing trusted multi-level, long-term relationships with customers, so that customers have a natural affinity with BISim and Pitch solutions.
• Solution selling: Ability to align BISim and Pitch offerings with customer needs, proposing integrated solutions that meet operational, security, and technical requirements.
• Consultative selling approach: engaging early in the planning phases of customer programs to shape the requirements and scope of future projects, ensuring BISim and Pitch solutions are embedded.
• Sales Pipeline Management: Building and managing a sales/prospect pipeline in the territories/domains assigned to them.
• Bid Analysis and Capture Planning: Creating strong bid analysis using tools such as Blue Sheet and Capture Plans, and effective reports/summaries.
• Customer Stakeholder Management: Identifying and addressing the stakeholders involved in the customer buying decision, and having a detailed understanding of the customer buying process and timelines.
• Assisting customers with their requirements & solutions: Assisting customers to analyse their needs and propose deliverable solutions, including licenced software, training, support, development, and include other parties where appropriate. Propose basic solutions that are deliverable and profitable.
• Bid Management: Championing a bid and managing BISim and Pitch resources and processes up to contract award, to deliver sound and competitive bids that have been reviewed and approved.
• Having a keen understanding of customers budgetary constraints to ensure they get the maximum benefit of BISim and Pitch capabilities.
• Customer-centred Proposals: Clearly and quantitatively writing proposals that speak to the value delivered by BISim and Pitch solutions and how the end consumer of customers' capabilities will benefit from the solution.
• Win-win Customer Negotiation: Conducting negotiations with customers on key issues such as trade-offs between requirements and cost, schedule, support, IPR, and cash flows, resulting in win-win solutions for the customers and for BISim and Pitch.
• Strong written and verbal communication and presentation skills.
• Adaptable to changing requirements and able to problem-solve.

Education and Experience:

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• 10+ years of experience in French military sales/procurement/programmes, at DGA/Armed Forces/Ministre des Armées level, capability sponsors, and end users.
• 10+ years of experience of defence/aerospace/IT business-to-business sales/procurement/programmes in France.
• This role may suit a recently retired military officer (up to 3 years post-retirement), with experience in procurement and requirements generation related to geospatial, simulation, or synthetic training industries on programs >$20M USD-equivalent.
  • Optionally with 12 months civilian sales/business development experience
• This role may also suit a BD leader responsible for end-to-end business winning ownership of contracts upwards of $10M USD of products and services delivery related to modelling & simulation or geospatial.

Additional Attributes:

• Confidence and authority that instil confidence in stakeholders that BISim and Pitch can manage large-scale solution-oriented projects and deliver results.
• Excellent Communication Skills: Proficient in both written and verbal communication, capable of creating compelling value propositions, business cases, proposals, and presentations for executive-level internal and customer stakeholders.
• Problem-Solving Abilities: Given the complexity of defence projects, they must be solution-oriented, able to navigate obstacles, and provide innovative solutions.
• Strong Government Relationships: Established relationships with key decision-makers in defence departments (such as the DGA), military branches, and defence contractors. Understanding of who holds influence and how to work through complex bureaucracies.
• Expert Stakeholder Management: Expertise in managing high-stakes relationships with senior defence officials, military personnel, and corporate executives in primes (e.g., Thales, Airbus, KNDS).
• Ability to create partnerships: Capable of forming strategic partnerships/partner ecosystems with other contractors, suppliers, and industry bodies to form consortiums or alliances that can drive large deals.
• High-Level Sales Expertise: Proficiency in large, complex deal structuring, often involving multiple stakeholders, stages of approvals, and lengthy negotiation cycles. Capable of identifying long-term opportunities and nurturing leads that align with defence budgets and projects.
• Demonstrated ability to manage customer/partner relationships.
• Demonstrated ability to create and close deals.
• Demonstrated ability to manage internal teams not directly in the chain of command.
• Good IT skills for Google Workspace or equivalent, Slack or equivalent.,
• Social media and marketing savvy.
• Perseverance

Travel:

• Extensive travel in Europe to support customer engagements.
• Travel to other territories as needed.
• Travel to international sales conferences.