Sales Consultant

Zaner-Bloser is an educational solutions company specializing in delivering instruction focused on developing foundational skills for PreK–6 students in ELA & Math. Our programs include Superkids, Building Fact Fluency, Kickstart Number Sense, Spelling Connections, Zaner-Bloser Handwriting, and more. As a member of the Highlights Family of Companies, we strive to always do what's right for children and make a significant contribution to their education.    

Position Summary: 

Zaner-Bloser is seeking a sales professional that has a passion for educational solutions and a mission of helping every student become their best selves. The Zaner-Bloser Sales Consultant will build strong relationships with educators to grow new business for our supplemental solutions and achieve revenue targets in the states of Ohio and Michigan. The successful candidate will be self-motivated, ambitious, and willing to engage within a team environment. 

Essential Duties and Responsibilities: 

• Achieve annual revenue goals.
• Ability to manage complex sales cycles (3-9+ months) and multiple buying personas across an account.
• Manage all aspects of the new business sales cycle (lead generation, presentation, commitment, etc.)
• Utilize all forms of lead-generating practices (cold-calls, referrals, networking, etc.) and effectively qualify viable new business opportunities. 
• Develop a strong knowledge of Zaner-Bloser products and their capabilities along with an understanding of competitive products.
• Uncover prospect needs and goals to deliver a solution that aligns with their needs.
• Create strong relationships with all stakeholders throughout strategic accounts.
• Collaborate frequently with colleagues throughout the organization.
• Develop and manage a sales pipeline that leads to closed revenue and quota attainment.
• Demonstrate a hunter-mentality while building strategic partnerships.
• Ability to travel 65% of the time

What you should show up ready to teach anyone on your first day: 

• Knowledge about, and passion for, PK-5 needs in the marketplace.
• Ability to nurture long-term relationships in strategic accounts, understanding needs and continuing to build business partnerships and having strong communication skills with both customers and colleagues.
• Develop and execute a strategic territory plan to achieve new business revenue targets (drive to win mentality)
• Demonstrate business acumen including lead generation, pipeline management, and forecasting. 
• Lead with positive intent and curiosity. 
• Superior presentation skills 

Within your first month, you’ll: 

• Learn how Zaner-Bloser’s suite of supplemental solutions enables impactful, joyful learning
• Build understanding of our sales cycle and pipeline accuracy using Salesforce
• Identify educational market conditions, including competitive intelligence, and apply this knowledge to your territory sales strategy and tactics
• Establish a cadence of communication with your sales and professional learning team members.
• Meet colleagues in cross-functional departments to build relationships.
• Begin prospecting and lead follow-up.

Within your first year, you’ll: 

• Actively work towards achieving your territory new business revenue target 
• Deepen your product knowledge to uncover customer need and deliver customer-centric presentations to win new business.
• Meet with current customers to establish relationships in strategic accounts.
• Gain referrals to strategic prospects.
• Develop and execute strategic and effective territory planning based on data and market conditions that bridge to financial goals.
• Foster alignment by working collaboratively and cross-functionally to meet revenue and leadership goals. 
• Work within a territory budget for samples, customer events, conferences, marketing requests, and travel for maximum effectiveness.

Supervisory Responsibilities: 

None. 

Qualifications: 

• Bachelors’ Degree 
• Minimum 5 years’ experience selling educational solutions to K-12 schools and districts.
• Demonstrated knowledge of K-12 sales cycle and market trends
• Proven track record of consistently achieving new business revenue targets. 
• A customer-centric, solution-selling mindset with demonstrated success in driving the highest levels of customer experience.
• Entrepreneurial spirit: Drive, Initiative, persistence, flexibility, and resilience
• Excellent collaboration and communication skills 
• Experience with Customer Relationship Management Tools (Salesforce preferred)
• Experience with strategic territory planning
• Excellent time-management and organizational skills
• Preference for candidates with well established relationships

Physical Requirements:  

• Prolonged periods sitting at a desk and working on a computer. 
• Must be able to lift including up to 15 pounds at times.

Highlights for Children provides reasonable accommodation to qualified individuals with disabilities. Please tell us if you require a reasonable accommodation to apply for a job or to perform your job. Examples of reasonable accommodation include making a change to the application process or work procedures, providing documents in an alternate format, using a sign language interpreter, or using specialized equipment.