Head of Partner Channel

About Iris:

IRIS Software Group is a leading global provider of mission critical software and services and one of UK’s largest privately held software companies.

We help organisations to make better business decisions by developing integrated software solutions to minimise admin, make business processes more efficient and give more time to do what’s valued.

We started 45 years ago with accountancy software and have evolved to be trusted by more than 100,000 customers in 135 countries around the world. We invest heavily in development using the latest processes and technologies, driven by our Indian and Romanian Product Development Centres to build the next generation of cloud-based accountancy, HR and education solutions.

Our global and domestic payroll and HR solutions are used nearly five million employees. Almost one million UK employees are managed by our HR solutions, and one in eight UK employees are paid through IRIS payroll solutions. We are the largest third-party online tax filer with UK Government, and we are used by 54 of the top 100 US and 91 of the top 100 UK accountancy firms. We also serve over 13,000 schools and academies, and almost five million UK families use our apps to connect to their child’s school.

In the last year, we have been awarded Technology Company of the Year in the UK Tech Awards; Employer of the Year in the Thames Valley Tech Awards; and the Americas Prime Award from the K2 Enterprise Awards. IRIS Education has been named Company of the Year at the UK National MAT Awards 2023, and crowned Company of the Year (more than 12m) in the Bett Awards 2023.

This position is a highly-strategic, customer centric role focusing on cultivating and maintaining relationships amongst current business partners and developing strategies to increase revenues through existing and new channel partners. This role is focussed across all IRIS product suites.

This position shall have a variety of responsibilities including: identifying opportunities for new partnerships; strengthening existing business relationships and collaborations; attending workshops; building professional networks; enforcing legally-binding contracts; developing and executing business plans for strategic growth; conducting market research; and attending meetings to serve as representatives of their organisations.

The selected candidate will engage with partners’ sales representatives in prospecting, qualifying and identifying sound business prospects interested in purchasing our software and services through our partner and reseller channel along with working closely with partner management to grow the channel.

What will you be doing?

In this position you'll be responsible for the following:

• Identifying and developing new partners
• Responsible for retaining and growing the existing partner base
• Representing IRIS and its products across the partner businesses, seeking out opportunities for growth and expansion
• Deep knowledge of the core product range
• Networking capabilities to create trust across the commercial team, and identify cross sector opportunities within the partners
• Responsible for achieving your assigned channel partner sales quotas
• Training and developing the partner sales teams to ensure our value proposition and product suite are front of mind in the organisation
• Support the inside sales team with their operational activity in working with the partners and resellers
• Analyse and report on partner initiatives
• Work proactively with marketing offering partner campaign ideas
• To build relationships to identify new opportunities

What skills or experience are we looking for?

We're looking for the following:

• Significant experience selling software and service solutions
• Experience of working in partner relationships
• Proven and successful sales experience at managing resources and complex, multi-dimensional sales efforts, both at the customer level and corporate environment.
• Excellent customer service skills
• Knowledge of the HR and Payroll / Accountancy / Education profession, professional services or generic IT software products would be advantageous.
• Ability to create and present effective sales presentations at exec level

If this sounds like you, please apply directly through LinkedIn. If you have any questions specifically about the role, please reach out to Jack directly!