krakentech - Sales Manager, AI

• Commercial judgement needs to be their strongest quality • They naturally question the economics of a deal: what the customer is committing to, what we are charging, what it costs us to deliver and how the margin changes as usage grows. They understand how conversation volumes, channel mix, implementation effort, partner costs and contractual commitments fit together. • They can defend our value and negotiate firmly while maintaining a strong customer relationship. Discounts, additional scope and flexible terms are deliberate decisions with a clear return. They recognise when a large headline number hides weak commitments, expensive delivery obligations or an agreement that will be difficult to scale. • They are comfortable working through contracts with Legal and Finance, taking ownership of the commercial decisions and knowing when an issue needs escalation. • They have an agentic background and ideally a utilities background • They need to have sold agentic AI before ideally to large scale customers for enterprise software. • We have identified that a weakness in the wider AI team is an understanding of how agentic translates into real life issues encountered by utilities. This hire would ideally also have a utilities background to ensure both credibility with clients and that we do not become Sierra 2.0. • They can turn customer interest into a buying decision • They can sit with a CEO, COO or CFO and explain what Agentic Customer Service could change about their business, what that change is worth and what it will take to achieve it. • They challenge business cases and distinguish measurable value from optimistic assumptions. They also understand the power of humans and why certain AI needs to remain in the hands of humans to maintain their excellence. • They consistently bring conversations back to who will decide, what budget is available, what evidence is needed and what the customer is prepared to commit to. • They lead capable people and raise their performance • Their team should gain clear direction, strong coaching and useful challenge from this person. They set expectations across qualification, account strategy, negotiation, forecasting and expansion, with clear ownership between the roles. • They can inspect a deal and identify where the team needs help: an absent economic buyer, an unconvincing business case, a weak negotiation position or an expansion opportunity nobody is actively pursuing. They develop the team’s judgement while personally leading the situations that need their seniority.