District Sales Manager - Midwest

SAGE Publishing; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Sage Publishing in Chicago is seeking a District Sales Manager to lead a 7–9 person Account Executive team and drive district revenue. You will recruit, hire, onboard, and coach reps, while collaborating with sales engineers and product specialists to close opportunities.

The role emphasizes data literacy, product knowledge, and strategic selling across higher education markets. Travel and on-site/virtual mentorship are required, with strong performance management and reporting to leadership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree with high academic achievement is required.
• At least 4 years of sales experience in education publishing.
• 3+ years of consecutive years meeting or exceeding district sales goals.
• Strong data literacy and ability to analyze sales metrics.
• Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint and CRM tools.
• Willingness to travel up to 50% and mentor teams.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop a team of 7–9 Account Executives in the district.
• Recruit, hire, and onboard new sales staff; provide ongoing coaching.
• Drive market share growth and adoption of Sage materials.
• Analyze data from MSCRM, Power BI, and other sources to guide performance.
• Coordinate with sales engineers and product specialists to close deals.
• Provide team progress reports to senior management.
• Travel up to 50% during selling seasons.
• Foster a team-selling culture and cross-functional collaboration.

Skills

Data literacy

Sales leadership

Coaching

CRM proficiency

Product knowledge

Public speaking

Education

Bachelor's degree

Tools

Microsoft Word

Excel

PowerPoint

CRM platforms

Power BI

Job description

The District Sales Manager (DSM) develops and leads a team of 7 to 9 Account Executives within an assigned district. Key responsibilities include recruiting and hiring, as well as oversight with new hire onboarding. The DSM provides strategic guidance and ensures skill development of sales team members to meet or exceed sales goals in their assigned territory. A strong candidate has command of productivity and results-based metrics, possesses strong data literacy, product, and selling skills, and ensures all sellers exceed departmental standards. Regular in-person and virtual mentorship/coaching, focused work trips on campus, and collaborative planning with all representatives is required. DSM must also coordinate activities of sales specialist parters, including Product Specialists, Sales Engineers and other internal partners to help assigned reps close business and drive district revenue.

Your New Role:

The job functions include, but are not limited to, the following:

Sales Team Effectiveness:

• Focus team's attention on driving market share growth; ensure successful adoption of new materials, digital product renewals and retention, and expansion of the current base of Sage products in district.

• Managers will ensure individual team members prospect, generate leads, follow up with inbound leads, actively run revenue through sales pipeline, and manage courseware engagement/purchase to exceed yearly district sales goals and contribute to College Division growth strategies.

• Improve efficiency by showcasing standard methodologies and ensuring team members exceed departmental expectations for sales calls, product demonstrations, database maintenance, revenue management, courseware engagement and pipeline advancement.

• Collaboratively work with assigned representatives to develop proficient data literacy, selling techniques, and practices to ensure both short and long-term success. Provide account, adoption, and territory management coaching based on individual needs of reps within the district.

• Provide ongoing coaching, verbally and in writing, during and after in person work trips and virtual selling situations to ensure continued skill development.

• Supervise pipeline progression and report on team progress during the key selling seasons at the territory and product level. Provide regular reports to senior management on progress against goal.

• Promote "team-selling" culture by coordinating the activities of internal partners that include sales engineers, product specialists and other internal partners to best support sales opportunities and training development within assigned district.

Sales Management:

• Provide training, coaching, ongoing support and strategic selling support of district sale team in a highly aligned, deliberate manner during primary selling seasons.

• Conduct 1:1 meetings with account executives regularly to review key selling activities, results, and training needs.

• Actively review and analyze all available data sources to guide performance and productivity, including MSCRM, Power BI, and our sales enablement platform.

• Coach reps to positively adapt and thrive within changing business needs and environments.

• Directly lead and coordinate recruiting, hiring and initial training of newly hired sales representatives within the department.

• Manage controllable expenses such as T&E and print sampling for the assigned district.

• Continually review and proactively direct the overall performance of all employees. Complete appraisals for team members during probationary period.

• Coach performance management to track progress with key objectives and ensure professional growth and development.

• Review progress with staff on qualitative and quantitative goals regularly. Work closely with individuals on your team, the management team, and the People & Culture department when performance improvement issues arise.

Product and Market Knowledge

• Gain and maintain market and product knowledge through internal and external communication. Communicate market feedback and product information with Sales Enablement, Editorial, Product Management, and Digital Learning Teams.

• Be well acquainted with high value customers in assigned district and assist direct sellers with support and management of their business.

• Report on market conditions and provide market intelligence on competition on a regular basis. Assist in creating critical initiatives to ensure the successful positioning of Sage materials within the marketplace.

• Proficiently demonstrate Sage technology to customers, both independently and in conjunction with reps as needed. In addition, DSM is personally responsible for documenting their own key sales interactions with customers as well as actively working open territories.

Customer & Author Relations

• Interact professionally with authors and customers.

• Provide excellent customer service when dealing with potential or existing customers by providing requested exam copies, desk and instructor resource materials, platform engagement support, and information in a timely manner.

Business Travel

• The DSM position requires regular overnight travel. This entails frequent visits to direct sellers to offer mentoring, coaching and to drive business at important and growing accounts. DSM will also be required to assist in open territory sales coverage by working solo and in tandem with other team members.

• DSM is required to attend major launch meetings (2 x annually) in addition to College Team Management and Sales Leadership meetings.

• DSM is expected to represent and act as ambassador for Sage at regional conferences and account-sponsored meetings and promotional events.

• Travel up to 50% during selling season is expected for DSM.

Additional responsibilities

The additional responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Assist Sales Management Team with special projects such as project-based task forces, cultural initiatives, evaluation of sales technology / CRM / analytical tools and training programs.

• Involvement in planning and delivering sales sessions at district, regional, and national meetings is required. DSM is heavily involved in scoping and delivering compelling sessions at Sales Kickoff, Training oriented and Closer Meetings.

• Play an active role in the College Managers Group and help drive essential cultural and central initiatives in Sage US College.

Can you be our new District Sales Manager?

Required:

• Bachelor's degree with evidence of high academic achievement.

• 4 years sales experience required

• 3+ years successful sales experience with consecutive years of goal achievement in higher education publishing required.

• Consistent and proven track record of securing unit and committee adoptions within highly competitive introductory courses. Demonstrated ability to sell digital products, both in person and virtually

• Dedicated work ethic (workload regularly exceeds 50 hours/week during peak selling seasons)

• Must possess strong computer application skills and strong solid understanding of Microsoft Word, Excel, database applications and PowerPoint. Must have high level of proficiency working with CRM applications with experience analyzing sales pipeline data.

• Excellent written and oral communication skills including excellent public presentation skills and ability to demonstrate technology/print products in person or electronically via applications such as Microsoft Teams and Zoom.

• Superior time management and organizational skills with strong attention to detail

• Creative, competitive, strategic and persistent sales demeanor

• Ethical and honest in all business relations

Preferred:

• Previous experience working in a direct supervisory of sales staff within higher education is highly preferred. Experience as a sales specialist working with a team assisting direct sales efforts will be considered in lieu of direct managerial/supervisory experience.

• Experience working with learning management systems, artificial intelligence and other digital platforms within the higher education space is preferred.

If you have a disability and you need any support during the application process, please contact [e-mail].

Pay Transparency & Benefits Package:

Compensation at Sage is influenced by several factors, including but