Business Development Executive (Central Region)

National Student Clearinghouse • Herndon, VA

4d • Remote

About The Position

The National Student Clearinghouse is seeking a Business Development Executive for the Central Region. This role is responsible for promoting the use of Clearinghouse offerings to educational organizations that need to access the company's data about post-secondary progress. This includes state education organizations, large school districts, and outreach organizations focused on student success. The executive will serve as the primary relationship manager for these organizations and support business development efforts with states and large school districts. The goal is to develop and execute a national strategy to sustain and grow the Clearinghouse's services to educational organizations, retaining and growing business with states and leading school districts. The ideal candidate will have a strong understanding of how verified data informs educational policy and program analysis and recognizes its importance to organizational success. This is a remote-first position with up to 50% or more travel required nationally. Candidates must reside within the specified region and approved states.

Requirements

• Bachelors degree in business, marketing, or any related field. A combination of education and experience including military service will also be considered.
• 5 years of professional experience in the education industry, business development and/or sales.
• Experience working in or selling into state educational agencies and/or school districts or educational organizations focused on measuring student success and/or guiding student pathways into college.
• A history of consistently meeting or exceeding annual sales/business development targets.
• Proven track-record of developing positive relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability to work on multiple initiatives simultaneously in a time-critical environment.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex business development opportunities that are win-win for the client and the organization.
• Strong negotiating skills.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and Salesforce and willingness to learn new applications.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively with all levels of staff.
• Demonstrates the Clearinghouse's core competencies: customer focus, optimizes work processes, communicates effectively, collaborates, and is open and authentic.
• Candidates must reside in one of the Clearinghouse's approved States for hiring purposes located East of the Mississippi River.
• Must be currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.
• Must be at least 18 years old.

Nice To Haves

• Master's degree in business, marketing, or related field.
• Familiarity with commercializing big data and/or data-related services.
• Familiarity with the problems, issues, and methods of states and secondary education institutions.
• Experience in education administration or previous knowledge of the features and benefits of Clearinghouse services.
• Experience with Salesforce and/or Pardot.

Responsibilities

• Promote the use of Clearinghouse offerings to educational organizations.
• Serve as the primary relationship manager for the Clearinghouse's work with outreach and educational organizations.
• Support field efforts related to business with states and large school districts.
• Develop and execute a national approach to sustain and grow Clearinghouse services to educational organizations.
• Support efforts to retain and grow business with all states and leading school districts.
• Demonstrate a structured approach to opportunity planning to understand customer motivation, buying criteria, selection processes, and solution preferences.
• Use a disciplined approach to prepare, set meeting objectives, dialog, position, handle objections, close, and follow-up to calls.
• Conduct regular client satisfaction visits with accounts throughout the year on site, virtually, and at conferences and events.
• Serve as a strategic partner to build, grow, and maintain profitable and long-lasting relationships with key accounts.
• Accurately record activities within Salesforce.
• Participate in major national and regional industry association and themed conferences.
• Build territory, account, and opportunity plans to focus activities based on Education Solution's mission and product priorities.
• Use information from Clearinghouse sources to help clients understand how to better use the company's products and solutions.
• Employ opportunity management practices to prospect, qualify, propose, negotiate, contract, and provide ongoing support to clients.
• Recognize how new processes can help make the department more successful and willingly provide input to measure success.
• Partner with others across the organization (e.g., product teams, implementation, legal, finance) to ensure shared objectives are met in serving a client.
• Ensure open dialog to determine how each party's interest can be considered in the development of a solution.
• Demonstrate problem-solving skills including brainstorming options, evaluation of alternatives, enlarging potential benefits, building reciprocity, and employing objective standards.
• Build rapport by relating to others, acknowledging, and empathizing; listen to understand business issues and emotional content.
• Craft questions that convey expertise, elicit information, and drive deeper to ensure needs and ideas are explored fully.
• Use persuasive techniques to overcome objections and demonstrate how perceptions are shared.
• Regularly elicit feedback and confirm agreements or need for further clarity.
• Demonstrate openness to new perspectives and ideas.
• Seek to understand others' interests and needs through thoughtful questioning and listening.
• Build trust with internal and external stakeholders by demonstrating consistency between words and actions.
• Face difficult issues and tackle them with optimism and confidence; confident delivering all messages to internal and external stakeholders.
• Understand which issues to tackle and demonstrate a willingness to develop tactics to address concerns.
• Perform other duties as required.

Benefits

• Comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Life and disability insurance benefits
• Health care, dependent care, and limited purpose flexible spending accounts
• Health savings account with annual employer contributions
• Voluntary supplemental health plans for Accident and Hospital Indemnity coverage
• Infertility coverage
• Generous 401k matching contribution program with the opportunity to defer pre-tax and Roth contributions, as well as catch-up contributions
• Competitive paid leave program consisting of vacation, sick, and personal time
• Paid holidays
• Up to 3 weeks of paid parental leave during a 12-month period
• Up to 5 days of paid military leave per calendar year
• Reimbursement for basic wholesale company and roadside assistance memberships
• Option to request a buy back on portions of unused accrued vacation
• Employee Education Assistance Program
• LinkedIn Learning subscription
• Mental health support with up to eight free therapy sessions for employees and their family members
• Well-being reward benefits
• Eligibility for service credit towards the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program (PSLF)

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Senior