Job Description:
The Academic Commercial Director will be responsible for executing Pluralsight's sales strategy for an Academic focused sales team. This leader will assume responsibility for the Academic sales team to help find new business in the Academic space. This leader will need to demonstrate a proven track record of success in software sales using a value-driven sales approach. The ideal candidate will possess strong sales leadership experience, having sold software solutions to commercial and enterprise companies at the Director, VP and C level. The leader must be a sales practitioner and have significant and relevant experience in the following areas: prospecting, territory alignment, account mapping, account penetration, sales motion creation, close plans, negotiation, forecasting and ultimate delivery of the sales revenue target. This position will report to the VP of Renewal, State & Local and Academics.
Who you are:

• You use data, empathy and good judgement to approach business and people opportunities
• You are an amazing communicator and effective influencer. People trust and follow you.
• Persistent Problem-Solver- You know where we want to be and as the business changes, you find ways to create solutions along the way that get us closer to our ultimate goal
• You have extreme ownership of your business
• You are competitive with yourself, yet collaborative with other team members up, down, and across the business
• You use data, empathy and good judgement to approach business and people opportunities
• You are an amazing communicator and effective influencer. People trust and follow you.
• Persistent Problem-Solver- You know where we want to be and as the business changes, you find ways to create solutions along the way that get us closer to our ultimate goal
• You are a team player, able to handle ambiguity, anticipate and react to changes in a rapidly evolving environment
• You have the ability to listen, think logically, strategically, and tactically to solve complex problems
• You are self-motivated, demonstrating an ability to assume responsibility and work autonomously

What you'll own:

• Meet and exceed sales quotas - Guide your team to close customer contracts ranging in size from $100k to $150k a year in ARR with 6,9,12 mo. average sales cycle, build and grow pipeline, accurately forecast, cold call and prospect account base for new opportunities, identify and win new business accounts. Maintain key customer relationships, develop and implement strategies for expanding Pluralsight's customer base. Support business development efforts by attending industry conferences and events.
• Own your business: Increase sales, develop leads, and close opportunities - Develop territory strategy plan and specific account plans, expand install base and acquire net new customers, create and execute demand generation plans within territory, be accountable for all aspects of taking down the number, as if you truly owned Pluralsight. Manage and take accountability for negotiated non-standard contractual terms and conditions. Set and execute an aggressive customer acquisition strategy to generate annual growth in revenue and bookings for the region. Provide detailed and accurate sales forecasting and reporting on all aspects of the business to Sales Leadership. Create and execute effective presentations, including corporate and solution capabilities, prospective client proposals, bid defense and business case/justification. Plan and execute marketing events in territory. Travel up to 50%
• Establish yourself as a trusted advisor through being assertive, present, and relevant - Build relationships with customers through all phases of the life cycle, identify and care for customer needs, maintain accuracy in Salesforce, develop process for meaningful customer experience, Prospecting, developing, managing, and executing a territory plan to support lead generation, full sales cycle management.
• Leverage internal and external tools to maximize customer information - Maximize success with world class SaaS toolkit (access to Salesforce, Outreach, Discover.org, CPQ), provide feedback on pre-sales issues and competitive trends, use sales tools to identify and profile, quote, invoice, and collect revenue from customers, curate customer testimonials. Plus, organize your daily execution, keeping 12 mission-critical plates spinning at once.
• Leadership - Coach, develop and mentor up to 10 Academic Account Executives including: recruiting, hiring, onboarding, training, and professional development of individual team members. Support your team by participating and leading in client and prospect meetings and engaging other corporate resources. Conduct weekly forecast meetings & one-on-one reviews with team members. Monitoring and tracking the sales activity at team and individual levels. Lead the team's sales process, manage appropriate metrics/KPI's for sales funnel management. Plan and manage at both the strategic and operational levels. Have a proven track record of recruiting, training/developing and retaining high-performing sales talent