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![TMCNet: I work on... Enhancing service sales initiatives by millions of dollars [Financial Management (London, England)]](http://images.tmcnet.com/siteart/invisible.gif)
I work on... Enhancing service sales initiatives by millions of dollars [Financial Management (London, England)]
(Financial Management (London, England) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Start date January 2010 End date Continuing
Since January 2010, Jon Rhymes has been responsible for large, complex deal pricing in the IT infrastructure and cloud computing services division at computer giant Dell. Some 500 specialist consultants in Dell's Europe, Middle East and Africa region sign up around 900 deals each quarter, and the IT outsourcing team is involved with pursuing hundreds of millions of dollars in opportunities.
Rhymes and his team of business development "fixers" work closely with bid teams and sales colleagues to construct deals. "The sales guys want the pricing team to be with them on the deal," says Rhymes. "It helps them to sell and assists with internal approvals. It also supports what they are trying to do with the customer and validates the solution that the sales team has designed."
His team members often attend customer meetings in a sales process that can last anything from two months to two years. "My role is 50 per cent internal finance and 50 per cent outward facing, trying to optimise value for both Dell and the customer," he says.
The pricing team is intrinsic to making successful deals, says Rhymes. He believes that the net financial gain from the input of his business development team could be 10 per cent or more. "If you are looking at $50m-$100m deals, you are talking about millions of dollars of gain being brought to the table." He says that before his arrival in 2006, clarity on deals, win rates and profitability was lacking, or inconsistent.
Rhymes, who joined Dell from investment bank UBS, says that the CIMA qualification was invaluable in preparing him for this role.
"It completely matches the CIMA syllabus when you look at the areas of understanding that the qualification creates in contract law, systems, management accounting and financial and commercial strategy. I can't think of a job outside of complex pricing that relates so closely to the qualification."
Name: Jon Rhymes
Role: EMEA service business development finance director, Dell
Industry: Technology
Location: London and Bracknell. UK
Qualified: 2002
(c) 2012 Chartered Institute of Management Accountants
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