Higher Education Sales Leader

Position Title: Higher Education Sales Leader

Department: Sales

Position: Exempt

Work Model: Remote or Austin, TX

About our client:

Our client is the branding, marketing, and digital agency for mission-driven organizations. We believe in thinking deeply, experimenting often, and hitting the mark every time. We help nonprofits, associations, universities, and government agencies more deeply connect with their audiences, increase their revenue and relevance, and improve their communities.

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Manage and execute the entire sales process with prospective clients including prospecting, pre-qualification, needs analysis, proposal writing, presenting, closing, contracting, and hand-off to the production team.
• Create Urgency to act.
• Prospect to Identify and Qualify Decision Makers
• Uncover budgets.
• Respond to formal Requests for Proposal (RFPs) as needed.
• Improve the existing agency sales process and introduce new sales concepts and processes.
• Uncover needs / pain.
• Influence Decision-Making Timeline
• Participate in company strategy sessions to influence business strategy and decisions, including. significant involvement in creating the annual sales and marketing plan.
• Network to meet potential clients and partners, including attending conferences.
• Create Champions / Advocates within Targeted Organizations
• Attending and Managing variety of events including trade show exhibitions, conferences, and educational events; share your knowledge by speaking at events.
• Continually improve and adapt the sales process to result in increasing closing % and revenue.
• Gain rapport and trust while building relationships with connections.
• Other tasks as necessary to make you and the company more successful.
• Continually use networking, word of mouth marketing, speaking engagements, and outreach to build.
• Work collaboratively with the marketing team to understand and influence company marketing strategy
• Relationships, and increase brand awareness and partnership opportunities.
• Other tasks as necessary to make you and the company more successful.
• Effectively listen, ask compelling questions, and understand client’s specific challenges.
• Regularly initiate and execute direct lead generation activities such as outreach by phone, email, and social media
• Develop Customized Solutions

Qualifications and Education Requirements:

Unless specifically noted, not every expectation is required to be qualified for this role. We are looking for a combination for this skill set. If you have many of these skills, but not all of them, please feel free to apply.

• High level of organization to keep track of opportunities, pipeline stages, deadlines for submission, etc.
• Driven to succeed.
• Strong resiliency and character to persist in a fast-paced environment.
• Ability to read and interpret documents such as project scopes, project proposals, and contracts.
• An extensive existing contact list and network in the higher education industry
• Great listener and storyteller; has ability to solve problems.
• Passion for delivering results.
• A bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience
• The ability to work independently and to work well with other agency departments and clients without close supervision.
• Able to occasionally work flexible hours to meet client needs.
• At least 5 years selling custom solutions or consulting for marketing, advertising, branding, public relations, or technology
• High energy, high capacity, high integrity, and self-motivated
• Excellent presentation skills have confident ability to interact on the executive level.
• The ability to communicate professionally with clients and staff in both written and verbal communication.
• The ability to manage time and complete tasks quickly and accurately, with minimal supervision.
• At least 10 years of experience selling into the higher education industry to colleges and universities.
• Ability to work independently and manage time effectively.
• Completion of a formal sales training program within the last 10 years (preferred but not required)
• Commitment to high-quality service and building strong relationships.
• Proven experience delivering measurable results to past employers.
• Experience with Microsoft Office programs and other common productivity tools such as Google Drive, HubSpot (or other CRMs), chat programs, and project management systems
• Loves to compete and has an optimistic attitude.
• Ability to speak effectively before groups of customers or employees.
• Excellent written communications and experience writing formal proposal responses.

PREFERRED SKILLS

• Ability to manage time and complete tasks quickly and accurately, with minimal supervision.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• A positive attitude with team members and customers.
• Willingness to jump in on any task to help the team.
• A history of successfully managing multiple duties in a fast-paced collaborative team environment.
• Ability to travel for industry events and prospect meetings.
• Natural curiosity with an affinity for problem-solving.
• Willing to take responsibility and share ideas for improvement of agency work.
• Ability to effectively build and maintain relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Ability to speak effectively before groups of customers or employees of the organization.

BENEFITS:

• Additional PTO/ Pay at employment milestones.
• Paid time off for Volunteer work
• Flexible work schedule, including time for appointments, errands, etc.
• 4-week sabbatical as a 10-year additional benefit
• Bereavement Leave
• 401K with match
• Medical and fully paid dental, vision, and life insurance, along with short-term and long-term disability
• Individual professional development budget
• Paid Parental Leave
• Generous PTO and office closure for: MLK Day, Juneteenth, 4th of July, and all-staff winter break at end of year.

Compensation: $100,000-$150,000; does have a commission which is based on sales quota.