Neil's story

Name

Neil Georgeson

Job Role

Global Head of Business Development & GTM Marketing (…try fitting that title in the usual boxes on forms!)

How long have you worked at Unit4?

4 years on September 4th.

What were your previous roles?

At Unit4, I’ve held the role of Inside Sales Manager, Director of Inside Sales and then the move to my current role in Business Development. I joined Unit4 for a number of reasons – but specifically because I wanted to build a brand new team and prove the value of an Inside Sales program, built from ground up from Graduates.

Before Unit4, I worked within an SME organisation focused on providing global outsource initiatives (in the areas of Business Development, Inside Sales, Sales & Operations…sound familiar) to large IT organisations. It was those 15 years of experience with multiple organisations, across multiple geographies & with varying scope of delivery that really grew my interest in “building” new teams & solutions.

What does your role involve?

Our core responsibility is generating pipeline for our New Business sales teams. Business as usual revolves around that focused task, and a lot of my energy is spent ensuring we maximize the achievement from the close working relationships we have with our stakeholders (Marketing, Sales, etc). We have a well-oiled engine running, which is targeted to deliver pipeline from a select group of customers (the “ABM list” that most have probably heard about), the entire ABM program needs close management to ensure we quickly exploit any & all opportunities.

Invariably, technology plays a big part in how our team works – and Business Development technologies are coming thick & fast, so understanding those & how we can leverage them... to decide if we should use them... is important. I’m always looking for force multipliers – what / who / how can we achieve more from what we do.

Who are the other members of your department?

We run a geographic team model – with a vertical focus therein. Crucially, we’re not “heavy” with dozens of teams, so it’s important we group our people together whenever possible; as lead engagement and cold calling (old school term, but still very real!) is difficult enough, so it’s important we draw energy, enthusiasm & drive from each other. A lot of our Business Development Executives (BDEs) are based in Reading and we have a similar group in Munich, whilst our US team runs a fully remote model.

What’s your main focus and objectives for 2020?

Pipeline. Getting to our FY20 number for our Salespeople. It’s been a very challenging year to date due to the pandemic, but we are still confident in delivering what we are tasked with. What that means is finding the silver bullet for pipeline generation in the “new normal”, which is as exciting as it is unknown.

We’re confident we are leveraging the best technologies now and confident in our people; it’s now about fine tuning the tactics, messaging & approach which resonates with our Leads to convert to pipeline.

Tactically, our team was only born in April 19, so there are still gains we can make in how we work – so we have programs to improve our business within Unit4. Ultimately, if it doesn’t move the needle on our Pipeline generation…it’s not a priority.

Personally, given everything that’s happened this year, we just want to get back to the Caribbean for a couple of weeks of sunshine, rum punch & good times! Although right now, the idea of sitting in a metal tube for 9hrs with hundreds of other people is really not very appealing.

Finally, which celebrity or person from history would you most want to be stuck in lock-down with and why?

James Hunt, I’m a petrol head and love the period he raced (the cars, the risks they faced, the characters). But I know he’d also have some amazing stories to share over a few drinks!