Account Development Representative (Fed)

KONG; Richmond (VA); On-site; USD 55,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is seeking an ambitious sales professional to join our team in Richmond, VA. You will drive inbound and outbound campaigns, engage decision-makers via phone, video, LinkedIn, and email, and manage activities in Salesforce.

You’ll work with Marketing and Account Executives to accelerate pipeline and exceed ramp quotas. Ideal candidates have 1–2+ years of sales or customer-facing experience, a hunter mindset, and a passion for learning and collaboration.

Qualifications

• 1-2+ years of strong sales or customer-facing experience.
• Self-starter with a track record of hitting and exceeding goals.
• Hunter mentality—comfortable prospecting, cold-calling, and following up on leads.
• Ability to learn quickly and share lessons across the organisation.
• Open to feedback and can apply to daily workflow.
• Outstanding communication skills on phone and written; active listening.
• Driven, high work ethic, curious by nature, and goal-oriented.
• Time leadership skills and ability to work independently.

Responsibilities

• Develop inbound and outbound campaigns from idea generation through to qualified call.
• Interact with IT and business decision-makers via telephone, video, LinkedIn, and email.
• Update lead and prospect activity in Salesforce to ensure effective lead management.
• Set qualified introductory meetings for the Sales team.
• Nurture early phase opportunities for future pipeline potential.
• Exceed monthly and quarterly opportunity quota.
• Build strong relationships with marketing and Account Executives to maximize wins.
• Invest in self-development and adapt to evolving needs.

Skills

Sales experience

Prospecting

Cold-calling

CRM Salesforce

Communication skills

Team collaboration

Self-starter

Tools

Salesforce

LinkedIn

Job description

Are you ready to unlock intelligence?

About the Role:

• Work with the Sales team to develop and lead inbound and outbound campaigns from idea generation through to qualified call


• Develop strong sales and product knowledge and interact with IT and business decision-makers via telephone, video, LinkedIn, and email


• Update lead and prospect activity in Salesforce to ensure effective lead management


• Set qualified introductory meetings for the Sales team


• Nurture early phase opportunities for future pipeline potential


• Exceed monthly and quarterly opportunity quota


• Build strong relationships with our marketing team and Account Executives, where we pull together to maximize the win for our business


• Invest in your self-development, focusing on the skills and attributes that will make you successful in your core role and get you set for future success


• And any additional tasks required by the manager

What You'll Do: Your First 90 Days

By the end of month 1, you will:

• Have met your new team and had fun playing with some new tools


• Become a part of the wider Kong family


• Have had a successful sales boot camp training


• Have a good understanding of what makes Kong's product offerings so special


• Understand how our Account Development, Marketing and Account Executive teams all work together

By the end of month 2, you will:

• Be comfortable talking to clients on the phone about Kong


• Have worked with our Account Executive team on your first opportunity


• Have shadowed a ton of calls and practiced several role plays


• Started delivering your ramp quota

By the end of month 3, you will:

• Know our sales funnel inside and out, and feel confident to add value to our sales org


• Show clear delivery of our sales methodologies


• Provide insights to both our Account Development and marketing organizations to help us to continue to iterate and improve


• Delivered against your ramp quota

What You'll Bring:

• 1-2+ years of strong sales or customer-facing experience


• A self-starter with a track record of hitting and exceeding goals


• A 'hunter' mentality - comfortable prospecting, cold-calling, and following up on incoming leads and a strong desire to win.


• Ability and willingness to learn, react to and share lessons learned across the organisation.


• Open to feedback and can apply to your daily workflow.


• Outstanding communication skills including both phone and written communication as well as active listening


• An extraordinary character with an incredible drive for success, high work ethic, curious by nature, and obsessed with smashing sales goals


• Validated time leadership skills and ability to work independently and through coaching


• Desire to work in a driven and fast-paced environment

#LI-JS2

About Kong:

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is building the connectivity layer of AI. Trusted by the Fortune 500® and AI-native startups alike, Kong's unified API and AI platform enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic - on any model, any cloud. For more information, visit www.konghq.com.