- Company Name
- Pearson
- Job Title
- Strategic Sales Executive
- Job Description
-
**Job title:** Strategic Sales Executive – International Higher Education
**Role Summary:**
Drive and secure multi‑year, high‑value educational partnerships with universities, ministries and enterprise clients in key global markets. Own the full sales cycle from opportunity identification to contract activation and delivery, influencing senior leadership, government procurement, and cross‑functional teams to achieve measurable revenue growth and strategic positioning.
**Expectations:**
- Fast ramp‑up: master ICPs, policy priorities and discovery scripts within 2–3 months.
- Consistently build a self‑sourced and partnered pipeline that meets or exceeds annual quota and forecast accuracy.
- Close multiple six‑figure new logos and advance 1–2 seven‑figure deals in the first year.
- Provide actionable insights that shape product roadmap, reference cases, and AI‑enhanced sales tools.
**Key Responsibilities:**
- Lead end‑to‑end institutional and government sales engagements, from prospecting through close and post‑implementation.
- Engage C‑level university leaders, ministries, and procurement bodies, establishing trusted advisory relationships.
- Develop annual account plans with revenue targets and partnership objectives, driving execution and expansion.
- Conduct discovery workshops to surface pain points, policy drivers, and translate findings into concise problem/solution narratives and proposals.
- Build and qualify pipeline through events, conferences, marketing programmes and outbound outreach (email, phone, social, AI‑driven prospecting).
- Coordinate internal resources—Product, Delivery, Legal, Finance, Marketing—to accelerate deal strategy and execution.
- Leverage RFPs and complex bids, collaborating with cross‑functional teams to deliver tailored, outcome‑focused solutions.
- Close multi‑million‑pound, multi‑year deals and deliver reference‑worthy deployments.
- Represent the organization at policy forums, sector events and senior stakeholder meetings.
- Analyze sales performance, iterate processes, and champion enhancements to tools, templates and AI workflows.
**Required Skills:**
- 8+ years enterprise closing experience (EdTech, SaaS, professional services) with proven 6‑figure wins and participation in 7‑figure deals.
- Experienced in high‑value institutional or government market negotiations.
- Strong executive presence; adept at engaging C‑level and senior government stakeholders.
- Excellent discovery, storytelling, and business‑case conversion skills.
- Familiarity with Challenger and MEDDIC qualification methodologies.
- Proven ability to manage dispersed cross‑functional teams in a matrixed environment.
- Proficiency in CRM (Salesforce or equivalent) and collaboration tools (Tableau, Jira, MS Office, G‑Suite).
- Comfortable leveraging AI for account research, prospecting, and call preparation.
- Fluency in English; additional languages an asset.
**Required Education & Certifications:**
- Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in Business, Education, Public Policy or related field.
- Certifications in sales methodology (e.g., MEDDIC, Challenger) preferred.