UK

United Kingdom · Sales · Principal/Manager (12-16 years)

Manager, Solutions Consulting

Here is the whole job, in plain words. What it is, what you decide, how you're judged, how people get here and where they go next. Then the part no course gives you: twelve AI tutors who learn your work.

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One email: what AI is changing in this job, and where to start free. With a link back here. Nothing else follows unless you confirm your address.

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  • Experience bandPrincipal/Manager (12-16 years)
  • Direct reports6-10 reports
  • Reports toDirector, Solutions Consulting
  • UK framework levelUsually a manager, or the deepest specialist in a team

Also advertised as Solutions Engineering Manager · Head of Pre-Sales (Mid-Market) · Technical Sales Manager · Principal Solutions Consultant (with leadership focus)

Built on 43,079 real UK job descriptions we analysed · grounded in qualifications employers recognise

Two short quizzes about you

1From this job to a course

The qualifications matched to this job

Level 5 Award in Managing Sales Technology Systems Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 5 · covers 2 of 4 standards
Level 5 Certificate in Professional Sales Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 5 · covers 2 of 4 standards
Level 5 Diploma in Professional Sales Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 5 · covers 2 of 4 standards
City & Guilds Level 4 Diploma For ICT Professionals (Systems and Principles) City & Guilds Limited · Level 4 · covers 1 of 4 standards
ISP Level 2 Certificate in Professional Sales Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 2 · covers 2 of 4 standards
ISP Level 2 Diploma in Professional Sales Institute of Sales Professionals · Level 2 · covers 2 of 4 standards

Matched from the standards this job is measured against: a suggestion, not an official ruling.

The units you would start with

Manage Sales Technology Systems Level 5 Award in Managing Sales Technology Systems
IT Consulting Skills City & Guilds Level 4 Diploma For ICT Professionals (Systems and Principles)
Understand Sales Digital Technology Systems ISP Level 2 Certificate in Professional Sales

The future skills this job leans on

AI Fluency working with AI as a thinking partner
Data Fluency turning numbers into a decision
AI Governance Fluency using AI responsibly
Foresight Fluency seeing round the corner
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Your Plan Illustration

Built for Manager, Solutions Consulting

3 units that map to this job, from the qualifications that cover it.

  1. Manage Sales Technology Systems Institute of Sales Professionals · covers 2 of 4 standards Level 5
  2. IT Consulting Skills City & Guilds Limited · covers 1 of 4 standards Level 4
  3. Understand Sales Digital Technology Systems Institute of Sales Professionals · covers 2 of 4 standards Level 2
These are the real units behind this job, in the order they rank for it. Nothing here is marked done, because this plan has not been started by anyone yet. Yours would fill in as you go.

2AI and this work

Will AI change your work as a Manager, Solutions Consulting?

Nobody can say exactly how. Here is what this job is being asked for next, and where to start.

The new skills this role is being asked for

  • AI-Driven Sales Enablement & Coaching
  • Advanced Data Storytelling for Leadership
Why each one is rising

The future skills this job leans on

We'll only ever tell you what we can actually back up. No hype, no scare tactics.

What happens when you start

Next, a free account. We build your Manager, Solutions Consulting plan as you set up, starting with a Future Fluency module on using AI in your job. No card.

Your first Future Fluency module is free. After that, your AI tutor is £70 a month.

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3What this role really is

This job is about leading a team of solutions consultants, making sure they are sharp, supported, and winning technical evaluations. It combines direct coaching with strategic oversight. You balance individual performance with team development, while keeping track of how the team's work turns into revenue.

4What you'd actually use

The tools this job runs on, and how well you'd need to know each one.

Salesforce (Lightning) Strategic

Designing custom objects and workflows with RevOps to track POCs, product gaps, and SE workload. Analysing org-wide data for capacity planning and team performance metrics. Ensuring your team's data hygiene.

Seismic / Highspot (Sales Enablement) Architect

Leading the selection and implementation of enablement platforms for technical content. Defining the entire technical content strategy and taxonomy for your team and contributing to the wider sales organisation.

AWS/Azure/GCP (POC Environments) Strategic

Developing the organisation's overall demo strategy (e.g., interactive vs. live, cloud-hosted vs. local). Managing the cloud budget for your entire pre-sales function and ensuring cost-effective use of resources.

Jira / Confluence Strategic

Designing the cross-functional workflow between Sales, Product, and Engineering using Jira/Confluence integrations. Ensuring effective communication and tracking of technical feedback and product gaps from your team.

Tableau / Power BI Expert

Building and presenting executive-level dashboards on your team's performance, SE impact on revenue, and product-deal correlation for Quarterly Business Reviews (QBRs). Using data to drive strategic decisions.

Anaplan / Clari (Capacity Planning) Advanced

Using planning tools to model SE:AE ratios, forecast hiring needs based on sales pipeline, and allocate your team's resources to strategic territories or verticals. Optimising team coverage.

5What you get to decide, and how that grows

Power in a job isn't your title. It's what you're allowed to decide. Here's how it grows as you move up.

The choiceComing in Where you are nowThe step above
Team Hiring & Onboarding No authority; provides feedback on candidates. No authority; participates in interviews and provides feedback. Recommends candidates, participates in final interviews, helps define onboarding plan.
Resource Allocation (Team Coverage) Follows assigned coverage model. Manages own deal assignments, escalates conflicts. Prioritises own workload across complex deals, advises AEs on best practices.
Technical Sales Strategy & Process Executes defined processes. Identifies process inefficiencies, proposes minor improvements. Designs and implements improvements to specific technical sales processes (e.g., POC templates).

6How you'll be judged

The scoreboard, and what is not on it. The hard targets, how often each is actually looked at, and the quiet signals that never reach a dashboard.

Team Technical Win Rate
Percentage of qualified opportunities where your team secured the 'technical win' (prospect's technical team confirms our solution is preferred).
Target · 80%+ across your team's supported deals

If your team supported 50 technical evaluations in a quarter and secured the technical win in 42, that's an 84% technical win rate. We'll track this closely.

Team Revenue Influence
The total closed-won ARR (Annual Recurring Revenue) that your team directly influenced through their technical engagement.
Target · £5M-£10M+ per quarter, depending on segment

Your team helped close 5 deals totalling £6M ARR in Q2. This metric shows the direct financial impact of your team's technical expertise.

SE:AE Ratio Optimisation
Maintaining an optimal ratio of Solutions Consultants to Account Executives to ensure adequate technical coverage without overspending.
Target · 1:3 to 1:5, depending on deal complexity

You manage 8 SCs supporting 30 AEs, which is a 1:3.75 ratio. We're looking for you to balance this to maximise coverage and efficiency.

Team POC Success Rate
Percentage of Proof of Concepts (POCs) that meet their mutually agreed-upon success criteria and lead to a closed-won deal or clear next steps.
Target · 90%+ success rate

Out of 10 POCs your team ran, 9 met their criteria and progressed to contract. That's a 90% success rate, showing effective scoping and execution.

Team Member Development & Retention
How effectively you coach, mentor, and develop your team members, leading to promotions and low regrettable attrition.
  • Evidence includes individual development plans (IDPs) with clear progression, successful internal promotions (e.g., L2 to L3), positive 360-degree feedback from your direct reports, and a low voluntary turnover rate within your team. We'll also look at how you handle performance management—it's not always easy, but it's essential.
Cross-functional Collaboration & Influence
Your ability to build strong working relationships with Sales, Product, and Engineering, ensuring smooth handoffs and effective feedback loops.
  • You're regularly invited to Product roadmap meetings, your team's feedback drives specific feature enhancements, and Sales leadership consistently praises your team's support. We'll also look for examples of you proactively resolving inter-departmental issues before they become major problems. Are you seen as a trusted partner, or just a resource?
Process Improvement & Efficiency
Your contribution to optimising the pre-sales process, making it more efficient, scalable, and effective.
  • You've introduced new demo best practices that reduce prep time, streamlined our RFP response process, or implemented new tools that save your team hours each week. We'll look for tangible examples of you identifying bottlenecks and implementing solutions, not just complaining about them.

7Would you like it

Both sides. What people enjoy, and what grinds them down.

What people enjoy
Developing and Growing People

You'll spend a good chunk of your day in 1:1s, coaching sessions, or helping your team prepare for complex customer engagements. You get a real buzz from seeing one of your SCs nail a demo they've been struggling with, or successfully close a technical win on a challenging account.

One of your junior SCs lands their first major technical win after weeks of coaching on discovery calls. That's your victory too.

Strategic Impact on Revenue

You're constantly looking at the bigger picture—how your team's efforts contribute to the overall sales targets. You'll work closely with Sales Directors to align on strategy, identify key accounts, and ensure your team is deployed where they can have the most impact. Seeing your team's influenced revenue numbers climb is a big win for you.

You implement a new technical qualification process that reduces wasted POCs by 20%, directly improving your team's efficiency and focus on high-value deals.

Solving Complex Organisational Challenges

Beyond individual deals, you'll be tackling challenges like improving the SC:AE ratio, refining our demo strategy, or building better feedback loops with Product. You enjoy figuring out how to make the entire pre-sales engine run more smoothly and effectively.

You champion and implement a new internal knowledge base for technical answers, cutting down RFP response times for your entire team.

What frustrates people
  • Dealing with underperforming team members and the difficult conversations that come with it.
  • Resource constraints – having to say 'no' to an AE because your team is stretched too thin.
  • The constant pressure from sales leadership to hit targets, even when external factors are challenging.
  • Product gaps or bugs that repeatedly derail your team's demos, and the slow pace of getting them fixed.
  • The political dance between Sales, Product, and Engineering to get things done.
  • Having to justify your team's value and impact with data, especially when budgets are tight.
What this role does not give you
  • The opportunity to be a full-time, hands-on technical architect on every deal.
  • A quiet, predictable work environment with minimal interruptions.
  • The ability to completely avoid administrative tasks and reporting.
  • An environment where every decision is clear-cut and universally agreed upon.

8Who you work with

This role directly influences our technical win rates and the efficiency of our sales cycle. You're responsible for ensuring our technical solutions are not just understood, but truly valued by our prospects. Your team's ability to articulate complex technical concepts in a simple, business-relevant way can be the difference between winning and losing a major deal. You'll also play a critical part in shaping our product roadmap by feeding back crucial customer insights from the field. Frankly, without a strong Solutions Consulting team, our AEs would struggle to close complex deals, making your role absolutely central to our revenue goals.

Inside the business
  • Sales Directors and Account Executives (AEs)
  • Product Management and Engineering Leads
  • Sales Operations and Enablement
  • Customer Success Managers
Outside the business
  • Customer CTOs, IT Directors, and Technical Architects
  • Key business stakeholders during POCs and solution design
  • Industry partners and integrators

9What you need before you start

Not a wish list. The things you would be expected to already have.

  • Proven experience (at least 5-8 years) as a Senior Solutions Consultant or Sales Engineer, consistently achieving high technical win rates and revenue influence.
  • Demonstrable experience coaching or mentoring junior team members, with a clear passion for developing others.
  • Strong understanding of the entire sales cycle, from prospecting to close, and the critical role of technical pre-sales at each stage.
  • Experience managing complex Proof of Concepts (POCs) and delivering highly customised technical demonstrations.
  • A track record of building strong relationships with both internal (Sales, Product) and external (customer technical leadership) stakeholders.
  • Excellent communication and presentation skills, capable of explaining complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical audiences.

10What to practise next

Where the job is going, and what to do about it starting this week.

Platform Ecosystem & Integration Strategy

Customers increasingly buy integrated solutions, not just point products. You'll need to coach your team on how our product fits into broader customer ecosystems and how to articulate the value of integrations.

API-First Architectures · Data Orchestration & ETL · Cloud Native Integration Patterns · Partner Ecosystems

  • This month: Review our product's API documentation and common integration patterns.
  • Next quarter: Shadow a Product Manager or Solution Architect on a call discussing integration strategy.
  • Month 4-6: Develop a training module for your team on how to position our product within a broader customer ecosystem.
  • Month 7-9: Lead a session with Product on identifying key integration gaps based on customer feedback.

Quick win: Ask your team about the most common integration questions they get from customers. This will highlight areas for your own learning and team coaching.

11Staying current once you are in

What people here do to keep up
  • Regularly attending industry conferences and webinars (e.g., SaaStr, Dreamforce) to stay current on sales trends and technologies.
  • Participating in leadership development programmes or executive coaching to refine your management and strategic skills.
  • Actively engaging in online communities or forums for Solutions Consulting leaders, sharing best practices and learning from peers.
  • Reading relevant books and articles on sales leadership, team development, and emerging technologies (e.g., AI in sales).
  • Seeking out opportunities to mentor junior professionals, even outside of your direct team, to hone your coaching abilities.

12The rising capability

The rising capability

Zavmo analysis

What's rising in its place

This is where the work is heading, and the higher pay with it. Get fluent here and the shift stops being a threat and starts being your edge.

AI-Driven Sales Enablement & Coaching

AI is rapidly changing how we coach, train, and enable sales teams. Managers who can effectively use AI tools to analyse team performance, identify skill gaps, and deliver personalised coaching will have a significant advantage in building high-performing teams.

  • Conversation Intelligence Platforms
  • AI-Powered Performance Analytics
  • Personalised Learning Paths
  • Ethical AI Use in Coaching

Advanced Data Storytelling for Leadership

As data becomes more abundant, the ability to not just present numbers but to craft a compelling narrative around them for senior leadership is paramount. You'll need to show the 'why' behind your team's performance and strategic decisions.

  • Narrative Structure in Data Presentation
  • Visualisation Best Practices (Beyond Basic Charts)
  • Connecting Metrics to Business Outcomes
  • Anticipating Executive Questions

13What you’ll use

What you’ll use

Skills this role draws on

Technical

  • Advanced Solution Selling & Value Engineering
  • Strategic Technical Discovery & Qualification
  • POC/POV Programme Management
  • Competitive Technical Differentiation (Strategic)
  • Requirements Gathering & Product Feedback Loop

14The pathway

The pathway

How you actually get there, here

How you become one varies far more by country than what one does. This is the UK route. Most people take one of these ways in; the right one depends on where you're starting from.

  1. 1

    Senior Solutions Consultant (L3/L4) to Manager

    3-5 years as a Senior/Lead SC

    Skills to master

    • Beyond excelling as an individual contributor, you'd need to demonstrate strong informal leadership, mentorship of junior SCs, and a clear interest in people development. Taking on project leadership roles or helping to define team processes would be key.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Consistently exceeding technical win rate and revenue influence targets.
    • Proactively mentoring 1-2 junior SCs and providing constructive feedback.
    • Leading internal initiatives to improve pre-sales processes or content.
    • Expressing a clear desire to move into management and understanding the shift in focus.
  2. 2

    Technical Lead / Architect from another department

    5-7 years in a technical leadership role (e.g., Engineering Lead, Technical Product Manager)

    Skills to master

    • This path requires a strong technical background and leadership experience, but you'd need to rapidly acquire deep product knowledge and understand the nuances of the sales cycle. Building relationships with sales leadership and learning how to translate technical concepts into business value for customers would be paramount.

    You're ready to move on when

    • Proven experience leading and managing technical teams.
    • Strong grasp of complex technical architectures and problem-solving.
    • Demonstrated ability to learn new products and industries quickly.
    • A clear passion for customer engagement and sales-driven outcomes.

15Where this role leads

The long view: This role can lead to senior leadership positions, deeper technical specialism, or a move into product management.

The ten Future Fluencies

Zavmo analysis

The credential is what you can do today. These are what keep you valuable.

A qualification proves you can do the job as it's defined today. These ten are what decide whether you're still the obvious person for it in five years. They're the capabilities employers are now writing into senior roles faster than people are learning them. Zavmo weaves them through whatever you study, so you come out with both: the credential and the fluency.

The highlighted ones are the Fluencies your role leans on hardest, from how Manager, Solutions Consulting is actually changing.

Where it leads

Roles this leads to

How you would learn this

One to one, on the work you already do

A tutor sets the task against your own job and marks the reasoning, at your pace. There is no cohort to fall behind.

A lesson from Manage Sales Technology Systems, worked against Manager, Solutions Consulting.

Manage Sales Technology Systems Level 5

Applied to your work in Manager, Solutions Consulting

This unit aims to equip learners with the knowledge of functional requirements of sales technology systems and how to support users for effective adoption. Learners will be able to monitor system effectiveness, identify areas for improvement, and ensure the effective usage of sales technology to optimise sales performance.

How the thinking builds
  1. 1 Remember
  2. 2 Understand
  3. 3 Apply
  4. 4 Analyse
  5. 5 Evaluate
  6. 6 Create
An illustration of a Zavmo lesson, built from this role’s own route. The unit, its objective and every criterion above are the awarding body’s own words, not an example.

It is £70 a month, billed monthly. Your free first module is Future Fluency, and you can cancel any time.

Start my Manager, Solutions Consulting plan, free
See Your Progress Grow Illustration
Manager, Solutions Consulting
  • Advanced Solution Selling & Value Engineering
  • Strategic Technical Discovery & Qualification
  • POC/POV Programme Management
  • Competitive Technical Differentiation (Strategic)
  • Requirements Gathering & Product Feedback Loop
This is your Mind Palace on learn.zavmo.ai. Every skill above comes from this role's own record, not an example borrowed from another job. A node lights up when you evidence it, and what you build stays yours between jobs. That is the part a course cannot do.

16The detail, folded away

Everything else the record holds

The career branches in full, how AI is already showing up in the day-to-day, and the questions people ask about this job. Here when you want them, out of the way while you decide.

Where it leads next, rung by rung

Where it leads

The career path, and where it branches

Manager, Solutions Consulting is a start, not a ceiling. Each step below asks for new skills and hands back more autonomy.

  1. Director, Solutions Consulting (L6)

    3-5 years as Manager, Solutions Consulting

    Managing multiple SC teams or a larger regional team. Setting functional strategy for a business unit. Managing a larger budget and influencing GTM strategy.

    • Go-to-Market Strategy Contributing to and shaping the overall GTM strategy from a technical pre-sales perspective.
    • Global Team Management Experience managing diverse teams across different geographies and cultures (if applicable).
    • M&A Due Diligence Involvement in technical pre-sales due diligence for potential acquisitions.
Working with AI on the job

Working with AI

Where AI is starting to help

As a Solutions Consulting Manager, your time is precious. You're balancing team development, strategic planning, and jumping into complex deals. What if you could free up significant time for yourself and your team, allowing you to focus on high-impact coaching and strategic initiatives? That's where AI comes in.

We're building an AI Productivity Hub specifically for our Sales teams, and for Solutions Consulting Managers, it's a game-changer. Imagine AI handling the grunt work, giving you and your team more bandwidth for what truly matters: understanding customers, crafting brilliant solutions, and winning deals. This isn't about replacing people; it's about making our people exponentially more effective.

AI-Powered Performance Insights

AI analyses CRM data (technical win rates, demo feedback, POC progress) to highlight coaching opportunities and identify top performers or areas needing support within your team. No more digging through reports; the insights come to you, ready for your 1:1s.

Automated Team Meeting Summaries & Action Items

AI records and transcribes team meetings, then automatically generates concise summaries, identifies key decisions, and assigns action items to relevant team members. You'll spend less time on admin and more time on follow-up and coaching.

Intelligent Content Gap Analysis

AI reviews customer questions, RFP responses, and product feedback from your team, then identifies gaps in our existing technical content (demos, battle cards, whitepapers). This helps you direct your team's content creation efforts strategically, ensuring they build what's actually needed.

AI-Assisted Coaching Prompts

Based on recorded customer calls and team member performance data, AI can suggest targeted coaching prompts for your 1:1s. For example, 'Consider coaching [SC Name] on handling competitor X's new feature objection, as it came up in 3 calls this week.' This makes your coaching more precise and impactful.

Common questions

Common questions

How do you become a Manager, Solutions Consulting?

Common routes in include Senior Solutions Consultant (L3/L4) to Manager (3-5 years as a Senior/Lead SC) and Technical Lead / Architect from another department (5-7 years in a technical leadership role (e.g., Engineering Lead, Technical Product Manager)). Times vary with prior experience.

Where can a Manager, Solutions Consulting progress to?

This role can lead on to Director, Solutions Consulting (3-5 years as Manager, Solutions Consulting), depending on the skills you build.

What new skills matter most for a Manager, Solutions Consulting?

Increasingly, AI-Driven Sales Enablement & Coaching and Advanced Data Storytelling for Leadership. These are the skills our record of this role lists as growing.

Free tools

Want a read on where you stand?

Three free tools, no account needed. Each one ends with a role, a level and a way in.

Read the Zavmo manifesto to understand how you will be taught Meet your tutors

Or try another one

17Where to go from here

Other roles at Level 5

Same depth of qualification, different job. Useful if the work appeals but this particular role does not.

 More jobs in sales

Stay in the field you know and move sideways rather than up.
If you leave this industry

The skills built in this role, technical leadership, sales strategy, people development, and cross-functional influence, apply across many sectors. This can lead to broader sales leadership roles, product management, or setting up an independent venture. The ability to connect technical solutions with business value is useful in many fields.

This role profile is © 2026 Growth Engineering Technologies Ltd. Built from UK occupational standards and regulated qualification data, and written for Zavmo.

You're not behind. You're right on time. The shift is only just beginning. Your role won't look the same in two years. Be the one who leads the change, not the one it happens to. Start my Manager, Solutions Consulting plan, free What happens next: a free account, then we build your plan as you set up. No card. Build your plan, see your roadmap and meet the twelve tutors matched to you. All free. When you're ready to start learning, it's £70 a month, billed monthly. Cancel any time and billing stops.