Experienced Pre-Sales / Technology Sales Leader operating on Country and Regional level. Growing companies in size and LoB. Coaching and Developing. Focussed on optimising and transforming SE and TS organisations.

Skilled in People Management, Organisational Transformation, Data Analytics, Storage Area Network (SAN), Enterprise Software, Partner Relationship Management, Storage, and Go-to-market Strategy.

CV – Sascha Oehl


May 2022 –

Pure Storage

05/2022 –

Director PreSales Germany & Austria

People Manager with disciplinary responsibility
Managing Manager

 

Jan 2021 – Apr 2022

Huawei Technologies 

01/2021 –04/2022

Director PreSales Cloud & AI Germany 

People Manager with disciplinary responsibility
Managing Manager

Forming a PreSales Organisation for Infrastructure, Cloud and Ai business. Growing and winning customers in the holistic solution stack

  • Developing PreSales Organization and Individuals
  • Building Customer centric technology messaging
  • Growing Account Intelligence
  • Public speaking & Media Coverage
  • Big Deal Governance

May 2018 – December 2020

Veritas Technologies

05/2018 –

Director Technology Sales Central Region / DACH Region

People Manager with disciplinary responsibility
Managing Manager

Focus on customer centricity, transformation towards new solutions and optimizing Sales coverage

  • Business Planning & Coverage Model for Central Region
  • Aligning the regional needs to achieve an agile and customer consistent coverage
  • White spacing to increase cross-sell
  • Increase up-sell in existing customers
  • Public speaking & Media Coverage
  • Big Deal Governance

Q2/2018 – 10/2018

Acting Regional Vice President Central Region


Turn around revenue decline, catching up Q1, overachieving H1 and introducing Sales methodology

  • Introducing Sales Cadence
  • Turning Account Review in Account Planning with increasing pipeline outcome
  • Positive Deal Planning, Close Planning and Reverse Timelining
  • Hardening deals by Deal Classification with MEDDIC & DeRISCC
  • Big Deal Governance

October 2003 – April 2018

Hitachi Vantara / Hitachi Data Systems

2016 – 2018

Director Pre-Sales Germany

People Manager with disciplinary responsibility
Focus on measurability, transformation and new models for customer. Challenging status quo to address new marketsand extend portfolio adoption. 

  • Business Planning for Germany
  • Coverage Models for Germany
  • Transforming organisation to 4.0
    • From a static into an agile organisation
    • Introducing and Managing KPIs
  • Developing Business Models for Customers linked with the Hitachi sales and financial strategy
    • From Capex to Outcome based Offerings
  • Coaching Challenger Selling and addressing Challenging Buyers
  • Restructuring Setups and optimizing teams
    • Optimising Organisations to a High-Performance Culture
    • Driving Optimization and Efficiency
  • Developing Employees in subject and hierarchy
  • Ensuring adoption of New Technologies in Sales campaigns
  • Key Achievements

    • Organisational Transformation
    • Optimizing Efficiency
    • Increasing Adoption of New Technologies
    • Guiding to Challenger Selling

2010 – 2016

Senior Manager Presales

Finance Public Healthcare
SWAT UCP & FCS Germany

People Manager with disciplinary responsibility
Focus on extending the adoption rate & portfolio coverage for customer and moving the value chain to a problem solver / trusted advisor

  • Business Planning for Segments
  • Developing and Executing Campaigns for Segments
  • Coverage Models for German Channel Business
  • Developing Business Models for Customers linked with the Hitachi sales and financial strategy
  • Changing teams to economic selling (TCO, ROI)
  • Restructuring Setups and optimizing teams
  • Developing Employees
  • Ensuring adoption of SWAT Products in Presales
    - UCP (Converged Solutions for SAP, VMware, Microsoft, Oracle)
    - FCS (File and Content Solutions))
  • Integrating SWAT Products in customer solutions by Account Teams
  • Intensifying relation to C-Level Executives and decisions maker
  • Key Achievements
    • 5-10% Revenue Growth YoY each year
    • Complete Portfolio Coverage in Sales Campaigns by Account Teams
      • UCP – Converged for SAP / VMware / Microsoft / oracle
      • File & Content Solutions
      • Flash
      • Data Protection & Archive
      • Classic Business

2008 – 2010

Manager Presales Strategic Accounts

People Manager with disciplinary responsibility
Focus on covering retention customers and maximising the wallet share. Creating demand models for development accounts to increase customer preference.

  • Business Planning for Segments
  • Planning Campaigns for the Top50 Accounts in Germany
  • Aligning Teams and Accounts
  • Planning Resources versus effort and revenue
  • Generating Solution Sets for specific and
    general customer needs
  • Linking with decision makers in upper management
    and C-Level
  • Developing an localised Economic Reporting methodology for Hitachi IT projects
  • Integrating new Line of Business into customer perception
  • Key Achievements
    • 10 – 15 New Customers in the Top 200 Segment
    • Economic Studies in 20+ Accounts
    • Development of a as a Service / Cloud Purchase Model (Model-T)
    • Transform Presales to a Technical Sales Community
    • Aligning Sales and Presales

2007 – 2008

Presales Team Leader Germany North

People Manager with disciplinary responsibility
Building a structure of technical sales persons. Developing the organisation to technical account managers and founding the principles of splitted account team responsibility.

 

  • Structuring a regional team
  • Standardising Solutions
  • Coordinating Resources
  • Key Achievements
    • Strongest growing Region on Germany
    • Responsible for Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Hamburg and Berlin
    • Acceptance of Presales Model in Sales

2005 – 2008

Global Technical Account Manager Vodafone

Turning Vodafone from prospect to customer with global customer coverage and adequate technical and sales processes. Managing indirectly multi country organisations.

  • Extending and Maintaining Global Relationship to Decision Makers in Global Organisation and the Countries
  • Aligning HDS teams to the strategy of the customer
  • Developing Vodafone from Acquisition Account to Customer
  • Key Achievements
    • Winning Vodafone as a New Customer
    • Selling 1PB+ Enterprise Storage in Eire, UK and Germany
    • Covering Deciders in different counties like UK and Germany

2003 – 2005

Presales Technical Account Manager

Developing and executing campaigns to find and win projects.

  • Region Germany West
  • Transforming customer Problems in HDS Solutions
  • Influencing Customers

April 1999 – September 2003

Rheinmetall Informationssystemen / IBM Mittelstand

2003 – 2005

System Programmierer

Storage, Web and Security
OS/390, UNIX (AIX, Linux)

  • Architecture Server Solutions for SAP
  • Administrating various OS
  • Planning and Introducing SAN Solutions

June 1997 – March 1999

Aachener und Münchener  Lebensversicherung / Aachener und Münchener Informatik Service

June 1997 – March 1999

Datenverarbeitungskaufmann

  • Architecture and Developing Customer Solution
  • Application Programming
  • Analysing and Optimising Workflows

Thoughts – Sascha Oehl


Presentation & Public speaking

Sometimes a customer or a prospect gives us a gift, he donates some of his lifetime to listen to us. He decided to do so instead of going home to his family, instead of drinking coffee with colleagues, instead of just browsing the Internet and buying things he needs.

How do we work in such a situation? Is this a business as usual situation, slide deck d-84 of the just downloaded material or even worse, a go in unprepared situation? Honestly if we think so we should consider to simply cancel the meeting OR change our mindset.

If we appear in such a meeting, we have the chance to change the world a bit. We can change the view of a person, the way this person acts and the future by changing the decision he is going to do.

If we want to have an effect we cannot start with the slides, we have to be curious about the persons in the meeting, who are they, where are they coming from, what do they want to achieve, what motivates them every day. If we understand this, we can understand what of our package generates values to them.

Maybe we just know the market better, because we see more different companies, and we can deliver insight what challenges and obstacles they can expect driven by the market or on the journey to their specific targets. Often, we can deliver insight that they were not even aware that they need it, but when we link it properly to their goals this turns into value.

This is also true if we have the task to show technology or solutions. If we preselect what fits to the specific journey and where these pieces help to achieve these targets more efficient, faster or with less risk this can generate this link, too.

Even if we have a large audience where we not know anyone at all we can use this logic combined with good assumptions to make our public speech more related to the audience. There is an easy way to analyze, understand and adjust to maximize results.in a given environment.

Sales & Presales management 

Hopefully you have never experienced what most people have. You made an incredibly good job; you are proud of your achievements and you have gone further than usually related to your role. Your expectation? Someone coming over and thanks for what you did., maybe even combined with a reward. and reality? Most likely you hear nothing, no one will take notice or feel it's relevant to link the achievement with your engagement, in many companies it is even worse, you will then have to justify the hours you worked, why you haven't answered all the mails in parallel and so on. If appointed leaders sometimes find themselves in such situation, we understand that people in our responsibility probably sometimes feel the same.

This brings us to the fundament pjs of real leadership. Quite often the leader is just the person standing for the combined achievements of a team, mostly the number they made. But this is not leadership. The leader is in front of the people, he sees and recognizes efforts and he say thank you. A leader also understand that he cannot directly change the way he is treated in a company, but he can set code how people operate in his team or department and how he operates.

To grow a team, to grow a company substantially and over a longer period it is needs more than a few good decisions, it needs investment in the people, time, effort and money a leader spends to understand, develop and to put the right people to the right position. In sports this is a no brainer, this is what we naturally expect from the trainer, so why not in business? The logic is almost the same. You got defined resources, you can make changes in a given way and you are responsible for how you use the people to achieve the goals.

And here is the point where a natural separation appears between leaders who has been appointed and leaders who are leaders... and are appointed., natural leaders.

Natural leaders know that the generate the setup for success and this includes give directions in a clear way and train the people even if not appreciated. Again, like sports, if the coach cannot articulate what the team should do, and what every single individual should do the team will not play according to the plan. If a sportsman stops training, because it is so hard, it's not a real competition is whatever reason, his capabilities will start decreasing immediately, not really measurable in the beginning, but without any questions over the time.

Combined with a set of well-developed material and processes it is possible to understand, develop and leverage the capabilities and increase the business benefits of a given organization. 

Coaching 

A key responsibility in management is the development of the team. Obviously, we take care hiring people and asses the skills and capabilities. And let’s face it, regardless how good your hiring process is, people can always grow…

As you run your business you understand the changing needs in capabilities. Customer requirements change. Technologies evolve. Market demands refocus. Now it’s on you to understand those requirements and ensure you have the right weapons for success.

Maybe you need to develop more technical skills in a certain area. Or you need to develop more business skills to convince your customers. And mostly you need to improve soft skills to drive smoother.

And here comes the coach. As a coach we need to understand the capabilities of our employees – the obvious and the hidden ones.  We need to understand what drives emotional success experience of the individual.

Now we are back on hiring. Hiring diversity gives more options of development, more different levers for success, more fun. With diversity hiring we have now the capabilities to develop the team and grow for success and fun.

Planning kicks in as we develop a plan how to grow from the stable ground, the fundament of current success, to the desired state of the future. And let’s be clear. This is not something you can force or simply order. Usually it’s good to be very transparent with the team about the future needs. Be clear on where you are changing. Be the first in the change. There will be talent willing to make the transformation and do a change, too. Consider this person very seriously.

Usually willingness beats capabilities. Someone willing to grow will work hard to make the change a success. Someone unwilling to change will not leverage the capabilities. Let the willing person go first. Back the person. Celebrate successes. And lead the way in the change.

PreSales Insight


Structure the message

Show me the money

Transform into aaS 1/3

Transform into aaS 3/3

Why Diversity rules

PreSales Insight Whiteboarding Build the Playbook From NOW to TOMORROW

PreSales Insight - Whiteboarding - Build the Playbook - Benefit of NEW

PreSales Insight Solution Selling

PreSales Insight Meet the C

Let's talk about risk

Justify the value

Transform into aaS 2/3

Do you want a POC? ... or two?

Whiteboarding - Build the Playbook

Whiteboarding - Closing - Why go the hard way (Why Change, Why Us, Why Now)

PreSales Insight The Evolution of Datacenter - AI Impact

PreSales Insight Working with Personas

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