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  • Posted: Jun 19, 2018
    Deadline: Not specified
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    SparkMeter offers comprehensive low-cost metering solutions for everything from rural micro-grids to existing urban central grid utilities. Our products help make access to electricity possible in hard-to-reach places and underserved markets. Our metering system is being widely adopted by utilities serving customers in rural parts of Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa...
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    Commercial Operations Associate

    Come join SparkMeter’s Commercial Operations team and help increase electricity access in developing countries. As Commercial Operations Associate, you will help facilitate our sales process by moving our microgrid and central utility customers through our sales pipeline, helping improve our processes and systems and supporting the rest of the team with market research.

    We pride ourselves on a problem-led, solution-based sales philosophy. We understand the challenges facing utilities who are working to increase energy access, and we’re not trying to sell useless things to another salesperson - we’re talking with interested commercial and technical experts to develop a solution that works for them.

    You’ll focus on:

    • Sales. This is an external-facing role, and you’re excited to speak with utilities about their challenges and determine if we are the right product fit to help solve them. You are eager to learn what makes a customer a better fit for our product and are constantly aiming to better understand our business as a whole to ensure we focus on customers we can serve profitably.
    • Account management. A large proportion of our sales come from existing customers. You’ll work with existing accounts to understand their needs and how SparkMeter is performing for them. You will work with our Logistics Teams, Customer Operations team and Systems Engineering team to ensure we are delivering on our customers’ needs, whether for new hardware, new features, training, or anything else that comes up.
    • Managing our growing pipeline. You’ll make sure we’re following up with our contacts regularly so our leads have the information they need when they need it and so we don’t miss out on opportunities. You’ll track metrics and use reports to keep the full commercial operations team apprised of the status of opportunities in our sales pipeline and our sales performance.
    • Improving our commercial operations processes. You’ll help manage our CRM (Salesforce) and track opportunities from qualification through quotation and negotiation to close.

    In your first few months you'll:

    • Join sales calls. You’ll jump right into our work by joining calls with leads to get firsthand contact with the criteria we use to qualify customers so you can apply what you learn throughout your work. After you become more familiar with how our products work, you’ll help us conduct demonstrations for our potential customers. (This is usually online, but may occasionally be in person.)
    • Manage market research. You’ll help us identify utilities and developers who might be interested in our products. You will follow developments in the microgrid, renewable energy and energy access sector and help us determine who we should contact -- and how best to do it. You’ll help us track and organize information about various markets and our targets and partners within them.
    • Develop marketing materials. You’ll help us create FAQs, newsletters (content creation and email distribution), and other materials to help our prospects and customers understand our products. You will think from their perspective to help define what resources would be most useful to understand the features of our metering system.
    • Represent SparkMeter at industry events & conferences. We travel internationally to events regularly to give talks, meet with our current customers, and expand our networks in the industry. You’ll join other members of our team at a few events each year. (Some recent events have been a few blocks away from SparkMeter’s Washington, D.C. office, while others were in Abuja and Lisbon!)

    Where You'll Work & Expected Travel

    SparkMeter is based in Washington D.C., but our people are all over the world. You'll be an early member of our Nairobi, Kenya office. SparkMeter’s Nairobi office is in Westlands, and you are welcome to join us here! You’ll be joining colleagues from Commercial Operations and Customer Operations.

    You can expect occasional travel of 5-10%, or ~2-5 weeks per year.

    Type of Role & Compensation Structure

    This is a full-time role with benefits. Compensation is salary, not commission.

    SparkMeter was founded to promote opportunity in underrepresented communities.

    SparkMeter’s mission is to increase access to electricity in underserved communities. We believe that access to electricity and the services derived from it unlock human potential and create opportunities for underserved communities to achieve great things. This commitment is also reflected in our hiring ethos: we believe the strongest teams have diverse backgrounds. We encourage applications from members of groups currently underrepresented in our sector and in technology in general.

    Requirements & Skills

    You will be a good fit for this role if you have:
    • Empathy. Our customers and partners are all over the world, and come from many different backgrounds. You should be comfortable (and, ideally, enjoy!) talking with people different from yourself.
    • A connection to energy and energy access. Our mission is to increase access to electricity in underserved communities, and your connection to our mission will both inform your work and make it meaningful for you.
    • Curiosity. You’ll use your knack for gathering information and problem-solving to help us figure out ways to create solutions to our customers’ unique challenges.
    • An ear and eye for marketing. Ideally you will have worked in marketing or sales and are comfortable creating content that represents our brand and value proposition.
    • Experience working with customers. You should be comfortable engaging with customers via email and over the phone and helping solve their problems.
    • Uncommonly organized problem-solving skills. You love devising new systems and getting all things in their right place.
    • Disciplined self-startedness. We’re a startup, which means we are building systems as we grow and require leadership from everyone in our company for this.
    • Strong writing skills. In order to create great documentation and communicate well with customers, you should have excellent writing skills.
    We’d also like to see (but don’t require):
    • Experience with a CRM. We use Salesforce as our CRM to track opportunities and generate quotations for customers. Ideally, you should have some experience with Salesforce or another CRM system for tracking opportunities, generating quotations, and creating reports. SparkMeter uses many customized features within Salesforce, so comfort with adding custom fields and features is a plus.
    • A background in business development or sales. If you have experience in sales, that’s great! However, you don’t need that to do well in this role. This role combines aspects of consulting and professional services, product and design, account management, and general administration, and experience in any of these areas will be an asset for you.
    • Comfort with technology. While you don’t have to be an engineer to do well at this role, you should be comfortable with computers, science and engineering concepts, and electricity.
    • Industry experience. Have you worked in energy for a private company? Do you have experience on the public sector side of energy access but are looking to make the switch to the private sector? We think that either of these would give great perspective to work at SparkMeter.

    Method of Application

    Interested and qualified? Go to SparkMeter on www.sparkmeter.io to apply

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