Mag. Sonja Aboulez

Defined Digital Sales Strategy for CA in EMEA. Transformed the EMEA Digital Sales team from focusing on lead generation to becoming a professional e2e sales team, covering Presales, Account Management and Partner Sales. Accountability for new license sales and SW license & maintenance renewals for about 1000 customers across Europe. Demonstrated double-digit improvement in renewal realization rate and growth in up- and cross-selling in 1H of FY19, expecting equally strong results for 2H.

Transformed and lead the IBM Channel organization across the region from a reseller-based model to a solutions and Cloud-based Partner Ecosystem. . Accountable for sales across the region through IBM BPs for all IBM product lines and for uncovering new streams of revenue via the dynamically evolving partner ecosystem. Consolidated Channel Distribution model across the regions for better efficiency, reach and scale, and lead the IBM Channel business back to solid growth after 4 years of decline.

Transformed the IBM Digital Sales organization in CEE to a growth engine for IBM's solution portfolio across the region, emphasis on our strategic Cloud and XaaS offerings. Transformed customer and partner engagement by applying innovative digital and social prospecting & selling techniques. Expanded IBM's reach into uncovered and under-covered territories. Focus on key sales talent recruiting, talent development and retention. Delivered double-digit growth in revenue and signings for 7 quarters in a row.

Led the advancement of the digital & social selling eminence of about 1000 Inside Sales Reps and Sales Leaders by transforming the way IBM Inside Sales engaged and interacted with clients and partners across the Growth Markets, and by leveraging all aspects of digital & social throughout the selling process e2e. Achieved strong improvement in social selling skills and increased sales productivity across the Inside Sales center locations in all eight regions (AP, CEE, GCG, India/South Asia, Korea, LA, MEA).

Business development through B2B consulting for IBM clients in the region to help them define strategies and business models that utilise customized Web solutions in order to drive optimization of business processes, e.g. SW license management, HW maintenance management, Procurement processes etc. These efforts also help increase sales productivity both for our clients and IBM, and enhance collaboration between customers and IBM client teams, enhance client satisfaction & loyalty.

Strategy for and management of B2B Web Sales activities globally for IBM hardware, software, services and solutions throughout the entire small & medium client segment across all industry segments.

Developed an efficient and scalable operational model for merchandising IBM’s products, services and solutions across the ibm.com domain in more than 90 markets worldwide to help customers and prospects learn about IBM's offerings online. Established and deployed Web Merchandising as a Web sales discipline with a standard planning, execution and analytics framework.

Established a Management System globally to identify key customer satisfaction detractors and to drive improvement actions for measurable improvements in the online and tele-based customer experience. Developed and deployed a standardized methodology across all geographies which is being applied locally for analysis of key listening posts in order to identfify detractors and to determine appropriate actions that lead to significant, sustainable improvements and increased client satisfaction.

Established IBM Web Consulting and Web Design/Usability facility for Europe, Middle East/Africa. Management of Vienna based (team of 9) and Germany/Stuttgart based (team of 25) core teams as well as remote Web design and production teams (internal and external). Primary objectives of that unit were to increase Web effectiveness through consistent Web user experience, design and site architecture, localization and personalization of content & functionalities across 34 countries.