Account Executive

Sage; Birmingham (AL); On-site; USD 70,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

401(k) matching

Education benefits

Hybrid/Remote work (role dependent)

Job summary

Sage Publishing is seeking an Account Executive - College to drive new business with higher education faculty across a defined geographic territory. The role demands a hunter mentality, in-person and virtual sales, and the ability to demonstrate Sage technology and digital content like Sage Vantage and myBusinessCourse.

This field-based position covers the greater Birmingham, AL area with overnight travel. You will manage the pipeline in MS CRM, build relationships with faculty and departments,

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required with evidence of high academic achievement.
• 2 to 4+ years sales experience in higher education or SAAS/tech environments.
• Hunter mentality, self-starter, and ability to travel.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills.

Responsibilities

• Conduct well-structured consultative sales calls and demonstrate Sage technology.
• Establish relationships with faculty and other customers to gain new business and grow revenue.
• Maintain accurate CRM records and manage the territory pipeline in MS CRM.
• Travel to campuses and conduct in-person and virtual sales activities to meet targets.

Skills

Hunter mentality

Consultative selling

Relationship building

Strategic account development

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

MSCRM

PowerPoint

MS Excel

Job description

The Account Executive - College sells to Higher Education faculty within a designated geographical territory. With a hunter mentality, their objective is to grow market share by successfully establishing new business with Sage Vantage, myBusinessCourse, and other digital or print content that meets course needs. Ideal candidate is an independent, self-starter whose responsibilities include conducting well-structured consultative sales calls, persuasively demonstrating technology product capabilities, establishing relationships with faculty members and other customers to gain new business and grow revenue. With a strong drive, ample product knowledge, and active listening skills, this person is confident and persuasive when interacting with customers. The ability to systematically run a large geographic territory through employing in person and virtual sales techniques is a daily requirement. Sage Account Executives maintain our sales database (MSCRM), which allows them to juxtapose account growth outreach with maintenance activities, resulting in successful adoption of new materials, digital product renewals and retention and/or expansion of the current base of Sage products. This position is field based in the greater Birmingham, Alabama area and will have overnight travel of 15-20% during the prime selling season.

Your New Role

Sales

• 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 departments and business schools 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.

Product and Market Knowledge

• 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.

Planning, Reporting, and Database Maintenance

• 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.

Conference Attendance/Business Travel

• 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 meetings and other company-wide meetings.

Customer/Author Relations

• 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.

Can you be our New Account Executive?

Required

• 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.

Preferred

• 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.

Pay Transparency & Benefits Package

Sage Publishing is committed to being an inclusive employer where all individuals are treated with fairness and respect. Sage is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace and is an affirmative action employer.

Compensation at Sage is influenced by several factors, including but not limited to skill set, nature and level of experience, qualifications, and other relevant considerations. Please note that the compensation details listed in U.S. role postings reflect the base salary only and do not include bonuses or benefits.

In addition to compensation, Sage offers a highly competitive and comprehensive PPO medical, dental, and vision care benefits package with SAGE covering most of the premium costs. Unique program benefits that support a healthy life, a company-sponsored anniversary trip every 5 years, a 401(k)-matching program of 100% up to 5% of pay, and other significant meaningful benefits. In alignment with our value for education, Sage offers financial support for bachelor's and graduate-level degree programs as well as learning for personal interest.

Sage offers freedom and autonomy in your day-to-day with hybrid or remote work, depending on the role. Join the nearly 2,000 Sage employees worldwide who deliver products and services that serve to fulfill our noble goal of education and dissemination of knowledge globally. We’d love to meet you!

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Sage Publishing is committed to being an inclusive employer where all individuals are treated with fairness and respect, regardless of age, disability, gender identity, marriage and partnership status, pregnancy and parental responsibilities, race, religion and belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

We believe that diversity is a cornerstone of a vibrant culture. We want Sage to be an organization where the most talented staff and high-potential staff are recruited, have the opportunity to grow, and want to work. We strive to achieve a better representation of diverse talent at all levels, including leadership, across our workforce.

Sage is a global academic publisher of books, journals, and library resources with a growing range of technologies to enable discovery, access, and engagement. Our mission is building bridges to knowledge - supporting the development of ideas through the research process to scholarship that is certified, taught, and applied.

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Sage is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified applicants. Accommodations will be made for any part of the interview process.