Taoti Creative is Hiring a BizDev / Sales Engineer

Summary

It all starts with the sale, right? In many ways, the humble salesperson is the one of the most talented and resourceful people in the shop because you need to know a little bit about everything. Except it’s not such a ‘little’ bit anymore. At our level, clients are educated and experienced, and they expect you to be able to push and challenge them and put together a solution that will fundamentally make them a better organization—that ‘moves their needle,’ as we like to say. It’s a tough gig because every opportunity and prospect is unique. There’s never enough time or money to do as much as everyone wants. But there is an upside that makes it worth it: you’re the guy/gal that is ultimately the true architect behind everything that we build. Sure, the rest of the team weighs in and helps flesh out the details, but it’s your fundamental strategy and ideas that convinced the client that we’d be a good fit for them. And when we launch the site or app or whatever it is that we’re building, you get to look at it and say, “I came up with the core concept for this site.”

The Job Itself

Let’s be clear: this is a sales job. Your job is to find, cultivate, and close deals. Good deals. But you’ve got lots of help. There’s pretty much no cold calling in our operation. Leads find us. Perhaps more importantly, we’re genuinely good at what we do—better than most. And we’ve got a helluva team that you can show off. So between the people and our work, you’ve got a lot of ammunition to work with. On a daily basis, you start with RFPs or inbound calls/emails. Evaluate them for fit. Qualify them for viability. And if it’s a good opportunity, you build the relationship, learn about what they need (sometimes despite what they SAY they need), and come up with the big ideas and concepts that will achieve their objectives. You’ll work with the rest of the team (any/everyone on staff is at your disposal) to put together a compelling offering and proposal. Usually, if the prospect likes what you have to say, we get invited in for a final round presentation (which you’d normally take a small team to), and that’s where you really do your magic. Of course, there will be estimates to figure out and details to negotiate. Making all the parts fall into place to keep the prospect happy while making sure it’s a good and viable deal for Taoti—it’s no small task. But you’ve got lots of help, as Taoti sees selling very much as a team sport.

Please note, we are looking for a full time, in-house employee that would have less than a 45 minute commute to our office.

What We’re Looking For

• You know how to work your network and find new leads (there are substantial bonuses for self-generated leads!)
• You well-versed in all things web. You know how to talk the talk, even if you can’t always walk the walk.
• You can estimate somewhat technical requirements.
• You know Drupal and/or Wordpress well enough to talk about them in detail.
• You write really good. And the grammar problem in that sentence offended your senses.
• You can write a killer proposal.
• And you’ve written enough proposals that you have templates and systems to crank out lots of pages with less effort, while not sacrificing quality or customization.
• You have cross-sector experience (Gov, NGO, commercial, non-profit, etc.)
• You’re used to dealing with C-level buyers.
• There’s a bit of ‘account manager’ built into your DNA in that makes you want to keep checking in on past clients.
• You’re fundamentally a people person. You’re outgoing, high energy, always ‘on’ and clients and colleagues love you.
• You’re all about the activity. 

How to Get This Job

• Stand out. When you apply, make an impression.
• We’re looking for a seasoned veteran. Show us your scars.
• Be yourself—not some version that you think we want you to be for the sake of an application.
• Have experience selling the kinds of things we sell to the kinds of clients we sell to. We’re looking for someone who can hit the ground running, so it really helps to have agency experience selling Drupal and WordPress-based projects.
• In this role, there is a lot of ‘precursor’ deliverables that are critical, but never see the light of day. Show them to us! Show us how your sausage is made.
• Tell us why you want to work at Taoti, specifically. And what was wrong with your last gig that makes you want to leave?
• Be passionate and genuine. Can’t stress this one enough. We’ll hire genuine passion over talent any day.

Bonus Points if You Wanna Show Off

• Be a thought leader (by virtue of having posted technical opinions on social media, spoken at cons, or similar)
• Have hands-on Drupal and/or WordPress experience.
• Tell us about your sales track record.
• Know about government sales.
• Have experimented with emerging technologies outside of your comfort zone.
• Show us when a client gushed over you.

What’s In It For You?

• We’ll give you a full time (w2) job. 
• Great benefits, including health, dental, vision, etc. And not the cheap plans… we offer both gold and platinum plans, 100% company paid!)
• Flex Spending Plan Short and Long Term disability insurance
• IRA plan with company matching
• 3+ weeks of PTO (minimum) Family leave (for moms and dads)
• Telecommuting privileges (we treat it like PTO…earn it over time and use any time you see fit)
• Guaranteed annual raises (We figure awesome people deserve raises, and we only employ awesome people.)
• Tax-free SmartBenefits (ie, “Metro”)
• Personal (and departmental) budgets (both time and money) for self-improvement
• Charitable contribution matching
• A swanky new office space in the heart of Capitol Hill
• Regular company boat outings, Wednesday happy hours on the roof deck, yard game tournaments, provided nerf gun, etc.
• It’s sad that this is a perk and not the norm, but we respect the work/life balance. Give us 40 solid hours a week, and we won’t ask for more. No nights. No weekends. If you want to come in early and leave early, that’s cool.

Our Culture

The above are some things we have, but they’re not what make up the culture. The culture is focused on meaningful work that makes things better. “Moving the needle” as we like to say. In fact, our favorite question: “Wouldn’t it be better if….” (It’s written on your mousepad and coffee cup, just so you don’t forget to ask it all day, every day, to everyone.) We’re all about new things. We’re constantly tweaking our process. We like to play with emerging technology like VR and connected devices. We like projects that let us spread our wings both creatively and technically. We do diverse work for diverse clients. Big non profits. Small charities. The Federal government and local agencies. Commercial, education… you name it. For us, it’s about the nature of the project—not the sector of the client. We’re about collaboration, candor, original ideas, and doing great work above all else. We’re also casual, fun, and ambitious. We’ve been named ‘Agency of the Year’ by DC Web Women, ranked 2199th on the Inc5000 list of America’s fastest growing companies, have won lots of awards for our work, etc.

Apply Now

First impressions are important. Candidly, we can usually tell from the cover letter if it’s a good fit or not. So make it count. Please send at least a cover letter, resume, portfolio links, and salary requirements to [email protected]. Thanks!

About Taoti Creative (www.taoti.com)

Taoti Creative is a Washington, D.C. based digital creative agency with over 20 years’ experience developing digital strategies, websites and apps for non-profit, NGO, government and commercial clients. Listed on Inc. 5000’s list of fastest-growing firms in the nation, the team at Taoti designs and builds digital projects that move the needle for our clients. Our goal is to achieve their goals, and we do so by asking, “Wouldn’t it be better if…?” We’re experts in open-source such as Drupal and WordPress, and we’re aggressively growing into more cutting edge solutions involving connected devices, experiential marketing, and how virtual reality can help our clients do what they do. While we love the technology, it’s not about that. It’s about what the technology can do and the impact it can create.