Account Executive, US College Sales

Sage is a leading publishing company focused on education and knowledge dissemination. They are seeking a Mid Level Account Executive to sell to Higher Education faculty, grow market share, and establish new business through consultative sales techniques. The role involves conducting sales calls, maintaining relationships with faculty, and managing the sales database.

Responsibilities:

• Being highly visible to customers, persuasively conducting quality sales calls, and gaining Vantage demonstrations through employing professional selling techniques
• Successfully positioning self and Sage as a strategic business partner within social science and business departments across campus by actively listening to customer needs
• Traveling to assigned campuses during selling seasons is required with geographic travel and overnights outlined in advance; often requiring an excess of 40+ hours per week
• Conducting effective sales calls to grow new revenue via well-planned campus appointments and/or schedules, video calls, telephone, and email exchanges with the goal of progressing the territory pipeline and taking new market share
• Identifying and dynamically qualifying new sales leads in assigned territory; assertively selling to those identified targets while growing existing business by placing it into recurring revenue models to meet set sales goals
• Effectively deploying key sales tools within the course of daily selling and nimbly using the insights that the tools provide to accelerate pipeline movement
• Growing market share at the territory and key title level each selling season through strong internal partnerships, as well as through personal drive and resilience to achieve success
• Confidently and successfully demonstrating Sage technology and employing sales enablement tools in sales calls
• Ensuring data within the CRM system is accurate by maintaining and updating the sales pipeline daily
• Overall, a Sage Account Executive is innovative, persuasive, and resilient in meeting the needs of prospects and customers. They are well established in their market, persistent and purposeful in growing their Sage business
• With a well-established presence in their territory, the Sage rep collects and communicates market feedback and product information to Product, Technology, and Sales Management Teams
• Develops deep product knowledge through learning programs to be able to persuasively articulate value proposition of products in a competitive landscape
• Successfully addresses objections and misconceptions while answering questions of prospective customers effectively either independently or through collaboration with internal team members and specialists
• Provides Product Teams with market development leads, faculty advocates, and potential textbook authors
• Strategically performs and completes Lead Generation (identifying courses, decision makers, enrollments, and product-in-use information) for targeted course markets at accounts identified within assigned territory
• Strategically works sales opportunities in CRM to prioritize pipeline and optimize revenue
• Strategically plans campus outreach via campus trips/video calls/phone calls
• Completes expense reports on a timely basis, handles annual travel and expense budget effectively
• Daily full day and overnight travel to customers 2+ hours away is required to key accounts during active selling times
• Required to attend bi-annual sales meeting and other company-wide meetings
• Provides excellent customer service when working with potential or existing customers by providing information, resources, and troubleshooting in a timely manner
• While engaging with customers and authors, takes appropriate actions to ensure they have a positive experience and image of the company
• Effectively works with current customers to cross-sell and referral sell when working with installed base of business

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree required with evidence of high academic achievement
• Demonstrated record of success in academic and professional background
• 2 to 4+ years sales experience required, along with a creative, persuasive, strategic, and persistent sales demeanor
• Hunter mentality, self-reliant and success oriented
• Strong technology demonstration skills
• Dedicated work ethic (workload regularly exceeds 40 hours/week during peak selling seasons and must be willing to work hours needed and to travel based upon assigned geography)
• Must be equally adept at working independently and within a team
• Proficient in PC environment and experienced with Microsoft Word, Excel, database applications and PowerPoint
• Excellent written, oral, and presentation skills
• Outstanding time management and organization, with excellent attention to detail
• Ability to be flexible and adapt quickly and creatively to changing business needs
• Field-based sales experience strongly preferred for remote based sales positions
• Sales experience in the publishing industry or related SAAS/technology industries is a plus
• Familiarity and ability to work with CRM systems
• Familiarity with other sales technology programs and video conferencing experience