Manager, Academic Sales

The National Restaurant Association and National Restaurant Association Educational Foundation are proud to be part of a highly respected industry, providing hospitality, opportunity and quality of life. Much like the industry we represent, we have a dynamic, diverse and inclusive culture, grounded in trust, hospitality, collaboration and innovation. These are the core values that inspire our work, and what we're looking for in a Manager, Academic Sales, for our industry-leading hospitality training products focused on lodging.

The learning products offered by the National Restaurant Association reach nearly two million students a year, providing our global audience with innovative, engaging training across multiple platforms, from textbooks to online resources to mobile applications, with a focus on both compliance-driven and career-development suites.

As the Manager, Academic Sales you will be responsible for the design, implementation and execution of sales strategies, plans and initiatives for our AHLEI portfolio of Hospitality and Tourism instructional materials and industry recognized credentials. As an experienced educational sales leader and coach, you will manage a team in achieving and maintaining territory sales, brand mix goals, and profitability targets within the academic market, consisting of post-secondary accounts in addition to K-12 Career and Technical Education programs. You will ensure your team possesses strong consultative sales skills in addition to solid product, platform, and market knowledge in order to successfully sell a wide variety of print and digital products.

We're looking for a proven, strategic sales management professional and an inspiring, results-driven leader. The successful candidate will bring deep knowledge and understanding of selling to academic accounts at the post-secondary and/or K-12 level. Position requires highly effective communication, management and analytical abilities, and strong command of the Microsoft Office suite and Salesforce.

This is a remote position, however, ideally looking for candidates based in Michigan, Ohio, Illinois or Indiana, to facilitate travel to our offices in Lansing, MI and Chicago, IL.

Please include a cover letter with your application.

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for managing and developing the academic sales team to reach or exceed sales goals.
• Work with Channel Vice President, Academic Markets to develop overall department strategy and sales planning to achieve and/or exceed monthly, quarterly and yearly sales quotas.
• Provide leadership and clear direction to a team of sales professionals. Provide guidance and tactical involvement in all aspects of the sales process on a daily basis to help team members reach assigned goals.
• Work with team to develop comprehensive territory plans and strategies to obtain new business and retain existing business.
• Responsible for ensuring completion of RFPs and contracts for the assigned markets.
• Responsible for coaching, product training and ensuring team members have the proper sales tools.
• Manage use of Salesforce by the sales team and use data such as opportunity pipelines to inform sales activities and revenue forecasting.
• Support Academic marketing and sales initiatives by creating, executing, and managing strategic sales plans.
• Gather and report on observed industry market and product trends, competitive analysis and customer feedback.
• Team with technical, product development, marketing, certification and support departments as needed to ensure end-to-end customer sales and satisfaction in assigned academic markets.
• Identify areas that require improvement and clearly articulates issues to help drive to resolution.
• Travel as required to major accounts, events, and academic exhibits, estimated at 10-20% post-COVID.
• Works as part of AHLEI and National Restaurant Association Solutions teams to accomplish Association, revenue, and service goals.
• Support all internal team members and departments following the Association mission and values while promoting Association culture.
• Works on special projects and other duties as required helping to promote department's success.

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in Business or related field.
• Minimum of 5 years successful experience within post-secondary and/or K-12 educational sales.
• Minimum of 2 years of experience developing and managing an education-focused sales team, including leveraging a CRM platform, preferably Salesforce.com.
• Experience implementing a consultative driven sales culture.
• Demonstrated capacity to develop and build relationships, effectively present and demonstrate products, negotiate effectively, closes sales and cultivate partnerships and alliances.
• Proven coaching and customer-centric leadership skills; ability to mentor, motivate and deliver results.
• Demonstrated track record of setting and exceeding revenue goals.
• Ability and knowledge to negotiate and fulfill client's training needs regarding adopted programs.
• Strong business acumen and sound decision-making abilities.
• Thoughtful interpersonal and diplomacy skills; ability to interact and communicate effectively at all levels of organization.
• Mastery of Microsoft Office programs, such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook. Ability to learn other software programs as needed.
• Strong organizational, time management, priority-setting and problem-solving skills.
• Effectively manage multiple priorities in a fast-paced, change oriented environment.
• Demonstrative abilities in collaborative team building and consensus.
• Demonstrated and proven ability to provide superior client service in demanding, deadline-driven situations.
• Strong strategic vision in areas of business.
• Knowledge of lodging and restaurant industry a plus.
• Exceptional analytical and critical thinking skills and the use of Excel to track and manage sales efforts.
• Possess strong work ethic and high degree of integrity.
• Significant business and stakeholder relationship building experience.
• Highly adaptable; ability to work well under pressure, within fast-paced and fluid environment.
• Strong writing and presentation skills.
• Ability to work as part of a team and to work independently; a self-initiator, versatile and assumes risk with responsibility.

We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or national origin, age, disability status, genetic information and testing, family and medical leave, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We strongly encourage women, minorities, people with disabilities and veterans to apply for our job openings. This commitment supports our policy of developing and capitalizing on the abilities of all our team members, as well as selecting, developing and promoting those who are best qualified.

• Bachelors or better in Business Administration or related field

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities

The contractor will not discharge or in any other manner discriminate against employees or applicants because they have inquired about, discussed, or disclosed their own pay or the pay of another employee or applicant. However, employees who have access to the compensation information of other employees or applicants as a part of their essential job functions cannot disclose the pay of other employees or applicants to individuals who do not otherwise have access to compensation information, unless the disclosure is (a) in response to a formal complaint or charge, (b) in furtherance of an investigation, proceeding, hearing, or action, including an investigation conducted by the employer, or (c) consistent with the contractor's legal duty to furnish information. 41 CFR 60-1.35(c)