Strategic Account Manager

Ascend Learning; Burlington (MA); Remote; USD 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking company as a Strategic Account Manager for Cybersecurity and IT, where you'll play a crucial role in enhancing educational outcomes. This position offers the opportunity to work remotely while engaging with key clients in Higher Education. You'll be responsible for building strong relationships, identifying new business opportunities, and delivering tailored solutions to meet client needs. With a commitment to innovation and a people-first culture, this role is perfect for passionate professionals ready to make a difference in the educational landscape. Seize this chance to contribute to meaningful change while enjoying competitive benefits and a supportive work environment.

Benefits

Flexible paid time off

Medical, dental, and vision insurance

401(k) employer matching

Parental leave

Wellness resources

Charitable matching program

On-site workout facilities

Community outreach groups

Qualifications

• 3+ years of experience in Higher Education sales.
• 6+ years of solutions sales experience with a focus on curriculum.
• Proven negotiation skills with stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain strong, long-lasting client relationships.
• Uncover new business opportunities in the higher education market.
• Manage and nurture the sales pipeline for strategic accounts.

Skills

Stakeholder Engagement

Negotiation Skills

Sales Strategy Development

Analytical Skills

CRM Software Proficiency

Project Management

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Higher Education Industry Knowledge

Tools

MS Dynamics

Salesforce

Zoho CRM

HubSpot

MS Office

Job description

Burlington MA Office
25 Mall Rd
6th Floor
Burlington, MA 01803, USA

Burlington MA Office
25 Mall Rd
6th Floor
Burlington, MA 01803, USA

We Impact Lives Through Purpose-Driven Work in A People First Culture

Ascend Learning is the connection between a powerful portfolio of brands serving students, educators, and employers with outcomes-based, data driven solutions across the lifecycle of learning.

Our values-driven culture unifies our teams and inspires a mindset of action, innovation, and collaboration, with a relentless focus on customers.

We're always looking for talented, passionate professionals to join us in our mission to help change lives. If this sounds like an environment where you'd thrive, read on to learn more.

Ascend Learning leads the way in innovation and solution creation to improve outcomes and deliver results for students and educators. As a leader in the course materials, we’re leading the way in providing an innovative hands-on learning experience for students to learn the technical skills necessary to excel in the computer science, IT and cybersecurity industry.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

As a Strategic Account Manager for Cybersecurity + IT, you’ll be responsible for maintaining and expanding relationships with strategically important large customers in Higher-Education. Assigned to some of our highest-value educational clients, the Strategic Account Manager is tasked with building a deep understanding of the clients’ academic and business processes, goals, and strategies to align our offerings and drive mutual growth and success.

WHERE YOU’LL WORK

This position will work remote in the United States.

HOW YOU’LL SPEND YOUR TIME

• Serve as the lead point of contact for all strategic account matters, build and maintain strong, long-lasting client relationships, develop trusted advisor relationships with key accounts, customer stakeholders, and executive sponsors
• Uncover new business opportunities within the higher-education market to promote and sell Cybersecurity+IT curriculum solutions to win new accounts
• Identify and understand the roles of the clients’ stakeholders, identify champions, users, the technical team, and the economic buyers
• Manage relationships with existing clients to ensure their retention, and customer loyalty – including annual account reviews and utilization reporting
• Manage and nurture the sales pipeline, ensure timely follow-ups, and progress tracking
• Uncover clients' objectives and pain points, build strategic roadmaps to drive positive outcomes and solutions to meet client needs while providing exceptional customer collaboration and guidance
• Develop account growth strategies, collaborate with category leadership, leverage market knowledge and client insights, including territory management, pipeline opportunities, and cross-sell opportunity referral activity where applicable
• Prepare compelling sales strategies, messaging, and presentations. Negotiate and close deals, collect implementation details for client execution
• Ensure timely and successful delivery of Ascends solutions according to customer needs and objectives, exceeding client expectations
• Prepare and present regular reports on account opportunities, sales forecasts, tailwinds, and headwinds to management
• Stay up to date with, and share, industry trends, competitors, and market conditions to identify new business opportunities

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

• 3+ years of relevant work experiencewithin the Higher Education vertical
• 6+ years of relevant solutions sales work experience. Strong preference to educational curriculum experience
• Prior track record of influencing stakeholders up to the administrative/executive level, with proven negotiation skills for securing advantageous agreements
• Skilled in delivering tailored solutions to clients and managing multiple projects with precision
• Proficient in written communication for creating sales documents (proposals, contracts)
• Ability to build trust and proactively engage in upselling and cross selling
• Strong analytical abilities for sales data interpretation and strategy formulation
• Proven track record of delivering results in a quota-based sales environment with multi-year multimillion-dollar contracts
• Higher education industry knowledge, background in EdTech/course curriculum or higher education experience preferred
• Proficient in CRM software (e.g., MS Dynamics, Salesforce, Zoho CRM, HubSpot) and MS Office, especially Excel
• Up to 10% of travel.

BENEFITS

• Flexible and generous paid time off
• Competitive medical, dental, vision and life insurance
• 401(k) employer matching program
• Parental leave
• Wellness resources
• Charitable matching program
• On-site workout facilities (Leawood, Gilbert, Burlington)
• Community outreach groups

Fostering A Sense of Belonging

We seek out and celebrate all people and perspectives and cultivate an inclusive culture where everyone can thrive, feel valued and be their authentic selves. Our culture is firmly rooted in the belief that by embracing our differences and drawing on diverse perspectives, we are a stronger, more innovative, and more successful organization where employees experience a sense of belonging.

About Ascend Learning

As a tech-enabled services company, Ascend Learning is a national leader in developing and delivering data-driven online educational content, software, assessments, analytics, and simulations serving institutions, students and employers across healthcare, fitness and wellness, public and workplace safety, skilled trades, insurance, financial services, cybersecurity, and higher education. We're committed to accelerating the learning pathways that can move people into careers where they have the knowledge and skills to have an impact and help change lives in the communities they serve. Headquartered in Burlington, MA with additional office locations and hybrid and remote workers in cities across the U.S., Ascend Learning was recognized by Newsweek and Plant-A Insights Group as one of America's 2023 Greatest Workplaces for Diversity.

Ascend Learning, LLC is proud to be an equal opportunity employer (M/F/Vets/Disabled). No agency or search firm submissions will be accepted. Applications for U.S. based positions with Ascend Learning, LLC must be legally authorized to work in the United States and verification of employment eligibility will be required at the time of hire.

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Equal Opportunity Employer
This employer is required to notify all applicants of their rights pursuant to federal employment laws.For further information, please review the Know Your Rights notice from the Department of Labor.