Sally Atkinson

"Sally describes herself as a self-motivated, conscientious and reliable person, which is important as she organises her own workload to meet any deadlines and obligations. She suits the ‘Innovator’ and ‘Developer’ types as she is always looking for and approaching new opportunities. She must also be happy selling a partnership to a prospective partner, which matches well with the ‘Service provider’ type. She believes that the most important part of building strong, trusted relationships with people is to be accountable and deliver what you have promised, representing your company and providing a consistently great service to maintain confidence in the partnership."

"Sally is responsible for identifying and recruiting technology companies across Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa to become partners for her company who lead on computer processor innovation.As a Business Development Manager, Sally identifies, researches and targets prospective partners, and responds to their enquiries. She provides them with a high-level overview of her company’s technology platform, either in person or via a Skype presentation, and finds out more about their company to see if there is potential to partner together. She also coordinates technical sessions for prospective partners with her colleagues to assess the technical fit. She is responsible for keeping internal systems up to date so that management can see which partners she is in discussions with and when agreements will be signed.When Sally is working from home or the office, she checks her emails and diary for the day and prepares for any calls or presentations to prospective partners. Her day is then usually a mixture of internal and external calls. Between calls, she will either be searching out and researching partners or carrying out follow-up activities from the calls. If she is travelling to a client, her day will be a mixture of presentations, discussions and technical workshops. Sally uses technical skills to understand products and other companies’ technologies, and her communications skills to develop partnerships."

"Sally has had an unusual career path, but it has always been interesting! She enjoyed science at school and studied Chemistry at university because she had heard that the skills gained in a science degree are transferrable and valuable. After that, she did a master’s degree in Bioinorganic Chemistry and then a PhD in the same lab. Sally also waitressed alongside her studies, and whilst working in a café met someone recruiting for IT companies who offered her a role as an account manager, giving her the opportunity to manage clients and learn about marketing, with a starting salary of £20,000. She later spent a year working in her family's confectionery business, selling and marketing sweets!She was then contacted by a global software vendor she had worked with, who asked her to apply for their UK Partner Account Manager role. She then worked as a Territory Manager for a start-up, helping to build a partner landscape. Her next role was selling software to legal firms across the UK, but she was looking for more of a challenge and her current role was the perfect move. "

"Sally loves cooking and eating out. Having friends and family round for a good meal and lots of conversation is her favourite thing! She has always been a big reader, from classic novels to modern literature, to popular science and psychology. She is lucky to live by the coast and she and her husband love walking on the beach. She also enjoys the gym and being outdoors, and has completed a ‘Tough Mudder’ race without even breaking a nail!Through her job, Sally has the opportunity to travel and she has had trips to Germany, Sweden, Finland and Denmark, as well as going to Miami for a company conference. In the future, Sally would love to one day manage a team of partner business development managers like herself, but beyond that she has learned that it's not a bad thing to have no fixed idea of what your future will look like!"