Deal Desk Analyst

About Certinia

Certinia (formerly FinancialForce) delivers a Services-as-a-Business platform that powers and connects all aspects of services operations, from services estimation and delivery to customer success management and financial planning and accounting. The company’s Professional Services Automation (PSA), Customer Success, and Financial Management solutions—delivered on Salesforce’s leading cloud platform—provide the ability to run a connected services business, deliver with intelligence, and achieve business agility. Headquartered in Austin, TX USA with offices around the world, Certinia is backed by Haveli Investments, General Atlantic, TA Associates, and Salesforce Ventures. For more information, visit www.certinia.com.

THE ROLE

The Deal Desk Analyst will partner with Deal Desk management and other Deal Desk Analysts to execute and maintain Certinia’s controlled process for pricing and deal structuring, order form creation, renewal preparation, and contract management. The analyst also will support strategic and operational decision-making. The Deal Desk Analyst will collaborate with the team to bridge the relationship between Field Sales, Finance, Legal, and Partners on deal structure and approvals. This role will report to a Deal Desk Manager, with the team operating in the Commercial and Finance Operations (CFOps) team as part of Certinia’s CFO organization.

At the core of the role are three competencies:

• Governance process management
• Ongoing approval and deal flow support
• Deep understanding of deal structure, revenue, and margin optimization

The focus of this role will be to support Certinia’s sales organization with operational efficiency and deal strategy. Success in the role requires an individual who is process-oriented, and who applies creative and original thinking to proactively support structuring deals. The person must have the ability to work across multiple departments as a trusted advisor and support the information and compliance requirements of Finance, Legal, Product, and others.

This role is responsible for ensuring that quotes are accurate and that commercial term documents are consistent and yield the most mutually beneficial agreements for our customers and for Certinia.

WHAT YOU WILL DO IN THIS ROLE

• Document and optimize rules for end-to-end flow from creation of quote through order form to sign off by all parties
• Ensure compliance with the corporate approval and signature matrix for all deal and related document approvals
• Participate in delivering end-to-end deal training across all participating organizations as needed
• Participate in improvement efforts with IT to improve Certinia’s Configure Price Quote (CPQ) tool in Salesforce CRM as needed
• Review all standard contracts submitted by sales (inclusive of contractual commitments and terms and conditions)
• Collaborate with sales Account Executives in creation of all custom (non-standard) contracts
• Provide pre-sales internal support and guidance on contract matters to sales and account managers
• Conduct initial contract renewal background research, confirm system-generated quote accuracy, and deliver a pre-defined content packet for Sales to execute with the customer. Serve as an internal strategic partner throughout the renewal process
• Work with Sales to restructure existing contracts in a manner that optimizes margins and growth
• Oversee Service Level Agreement Compliance across different stakeholders (Deal Desk, Legal, Finance, Sales, Partners, etc.)
• Ensure all approved requests have been properly documented in accordance with documented sales operation processes, escalated to the appropriate approval level, and resolved within SLA
• Work on projects within the CFOps team to support ongoing process improvement, automation and new initiatives
• Process and Governance: Share best practices with and provide training for sales team, peers, and partners to enhance the quality and efficiency of contracting processes
• Ensure that signed agreements are communicated to all relevant parties to provide visibility to contractual obligations

WHAT YOU NEED TO BE SUCCESSFUL IN THIS ROLE

• 2+ years total experience in a sales operations/deal support/renewal role
• Bachelor's degree or equivalent combination of education and experience
• Experience in Cloud/SaaS with subscription model
• Strong communication and presentations skills
• Ability to work with Field Sales and Senior Management
• Comfortable partnering and engaging with cross-functional teams to ensure the best possible support for the sales teams & deal cycles

OTHER EXPERIENCE OF INTEREST

• Knowledge of the Quote-to-Cash lifecycle
• Ability to proactively analyze and recommend the best course of action for complex pricing and licensing situations within a sales cycle
• Ability to interpret, clearly articulate, and handle objections related to pricing and licensing policies, and commercial terms
• Experience defining and implementing attribute-based workflows for deal approvals including complex approval hierarchies and thresholds
• Knowledge of Salesforce and/or CPQ tool, including reporting
• Familiar with Salesforce platform/ecosystem with CRM/ERP domain experience
• Knowledge of spreadsheets (VLOOKUP, pivot tables, advanced formulas)
• Extreme attention to detail
• Strong critical thinking skills
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills (both verbal and written) with willingness to appropriately and professionally debate on difficult issues
• Ability to excel in a fast-growing/fast-paced environment delivering accuracy while managing to deadlines where adaptability is imperative

Salary Range: $116,900 - $146,100

Certinia annually assesses our compensation and benefits strategies to ensure a best-in-class total rewards package. New hire base pay is dependent on job-related, non-discriminatory factors such as experience, tenure, growth potential, team parity, geo, etc. Base pay is one part of the Total Rewards that Certinia provides to compensate and recognizes employees for their work. Certinia provides other elements including best-in-class benefits, variable pay offerings, remote work opportunities, flexible time off, parental leave, 401(k), HSA and FSA plans, and more.