Account Executive

Field-based in the greater Birmingham, Alabama area with 15-20% overnight travel during prime selling seasons.

About the role

As an Account Executive - College, you will sell to Higher Education faculty within a designated geographical territory. With a hunter mentality, your objective is to grow market share by establishing new business with Sage Vantage, myBusinessCourse, and other digital or print content that meets course needs. You will conduct well-structured consultative sales calls, persuasively demonstrate technology product capabilities, and establish relationships with faculty members to gain new business and grow revenue.

Responsibilities

• Follow a strategic territory selling plan to grow Sage’s presence and establish new products by being highly visible to customers, conducting quality sales calls, and gaining Vantage demonstrations.
• Position Sage as a strategic business partner within social science departments and business schools by actively listening to customer needs.
• Travel to assigned campuses during selling seasons, often requiring more than 40 hours per week.
• Conduct effective sales calls via campus appointments, video calls, telephone, and email to progress the territory pipeline and capture new market share.
• Identify and qualify new sales leads in your territory while growing existing business through recurring revenue models to meet sales goals.
• Deploy key sales tools and use insights to accelerate pipeline movement.
• Grow market share through strong internal partnerships, personal drive, and resilience.
• Confidently demonstrate Sage technology and employ sales enablement tools in sales calls.
• Maintain and update the sales pipeline daily in MSCRM to ensure data accuracy.
• Collect and communicate market feedback and product information to Product, Technology, and Sales Management Teams.
• Develop deep product knowledge to persuasively articulate the value proposition in a competitive landscape.
• Address objections and answer customer questions independently or through collaboration with internal teams.
• Provide Product Teams with market development leads, faculty advocates, and potential textbook authors.
• Strategically perform lead generation for targeted course markets in your territory.
• Prioritize and optimize revenue opportunities in the CRM system.
• Plan campus outreach via trips, video calls, and phone calls.
• Complete expense reports on time and manage the annual travel and expense budget effectively.
• Attend bi-annual sales meetings and other company-wide meetings.
• Provide excellent customer service, troubleshoot issues, and ensure a positive experience for customers and authors.
• Cross-sell and referral-sell to the existing customer base.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree with evidence of high academic achievement.
• 2 to 4+ years of sales experience with a creative, persuasive, strategic, and persistent sales demeanor.
• Hunter mentality, self-reliant, and success-oriented.
• Strong technology demonstration skills.
• Dedicated work ethic with the ability to work more than 40 hours per week during peak selling seasons and travel as needed.
• 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, organization, and attention to detail.
• Ability to adapt quickly and creatively to changing business needs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Field-based sales experience for remote-based sales positions.
• Sales experience in the publishing industry or related SAAS/technology industries.
• Familiarity with CRM systems.
• Experience with other sales technology programs and video conferencing.

Benefits

• Highly competitive and comprehensive PPO medical, dental, and vision care benefits with Sage covering most of the premium costs.
• Company-sponsored anniversary trip every 5 years.
• 401(k)-matching program of 100% up to 5% of pay.
• Financial support for bachelor's and graduate-level degree programs, as well as learning for personal interest.
• Hybrid or remote work options, depending on the role.