Head of Institutional Sales
Answers.Ai is blazing a trail to help millions of students learn faster and more efficiently.If you are proven sales leader and excited about shaping the future of AI in education, we would love to hear from you!
Amassing 300,000 student users and having provided thoughtful and accurate responses to over 1 Million questions.
As the Head of Institutional Sales, you are responsible for growing new business and the overall institutional revenue of our platform. You will identify, qualify, and close new college and university partnerships, working collaboratively with AnswersAi’s leadership team. You are an ambitious self-starter with a demonstrated record of tenacity in a fast-paced and high pressure environment. You are capable of operating independently and are comfortable working in ambiguity to drive tangible sales outcomes. You have excellent communication and interpersonal skills to foster strong relationships and a proven track record of consistently exceeding sales goals. You have preexisting relationships in higher education, especially with Provosts, Vice Presidents of Academics, Deans, and enrollment leaders.
We are looking to onboard an achievement-driven, performance-oriented, agile, high-caliber sales and partnership focused professional who brings positivity, a growth mindset, and an insatiable appetite for team success. Our commitment to supporting students is core to our mission, and we look forward to meeting you!
This role demands knowledge of higher education, prior experience in EdTech or SaaS sales, enthusiasm for our generative AI platform, a high propensity for teamwork, a growth mindset, and strong customer facing and communication skills.
Key Responsibilities:
- Develop and execute a comprehensive strategy for identifying, qualifying, and closing new college, high school and university partnerships.
- Work closely with leadership at AnswersAi to communicate sales strategy, hiring needs, sales resources, and the budget necessary to accomplish sales objectives.
- Collaborate with AnswersAi to establish quarterly OKRs & KPIs based on company growth objectives and sales ecosystem.
- Build a robust pipeline of sales prospects to expand AnswersAi’s institutional customer base.
- Organize and manage AnswersAi’s sales CRM and provide daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly updates on sales progress against growth OKRs & KPIs. Develop an established sales process and lead scoring framework.
- Evaluate opportunities to expand scope of current partnerships.
- Co-develop investor presentations to provide updates on sales activities and progress in building out the sales infrastructure as well as OKRs and KPIs for AnswersAi.
- Leverage consultative sales techniques to build trust, educate prospective partners on our platform, and navigate the sales cycle effectively and efficiently.
- Demonstrate and maintain deep knowledge of the AnswersAi platform, our value propositions, and sales processes.
- Develop and maintain strong relationships with key institutional decision makers to understand their goals or challenges to adopting AnswersAi. Document and provide feedback from customers to the design and product team for continuous improvement.
- Prepare and deliver compelling and high quality pitch presentations.
- Compose concise and persuasive written communications that amplify our product offerings and value propositions.
- Maintain consistent activity to achieve KPI’s and meticulously track pipeline engagements and outreach communications with accuracy, efficiency, and on-time.
- Leverage the platform analytics, new information, and student user behavior data to inform presentations and create value propositions for prospective partners.
- Build and refresh all sales materials and tools to ensure we communicate our value proposition consistently and effectively.
- Attend conferences and related events to deliver presentations and expand our college and university partnerships.
- Demonstrate a deep understanding of higher education, EdTech, and the college and university academic and tutoring landscape.
- Proactively track competitor insights and industry trends to inform product innovation and revenue growth opportunities.
- Work collaboratively across teams, including Operations, Product, and Marketing.
- Resourceful and budget conscious in executing sales, including travel, customer engagements, conferences, and related expenses.
Requirements & Qualifications:
- Proven experience of exceeding goals in a full cycle sales role (8+ years) selling into higher education, EdTech, or Saas.
- Proven record of consistently ranking #1 or #2 individual contributor in your sales organization(s). Capacity to build sales teams and lead by example as a top sales team member at AnswersAi. Strong references to verify top performance will be required prior to hiring this position.
- Demonstrated capacity to succeed in a high rejection environment.
- Excellent business development, negotiating, and closing skills. Experience in consultative sales and engaging with all levels of teams within an organization.
- Strong organizational, strategic, and analytical skills. Data driven and detail oriented. Ability to analyze data to drive pipeline expansion and sales.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills, including outstanding persuasion and presentation skills. Elite decision-making and problem-solving skills. High emotional intelligence. Excellent active listener, ability to cultivate, grow, and foster meaningful relationships at all levels.
- Exceptional capacity to communicate AnswersAi’s progress in business channels on LinkedIn and other media outlets to drive customer conversions.
- Coachable, mission driven, and goal oriented. Self–motivated, competitive, and a team player. The best team players find a way to win and bring others with them.
- Proficient in navigating CRM systems and other digital tools, and the ability to adapt to new technologies and embrace digital transformation.
- Willingness and ability to travel up to 50% of the time.
- Valid driver’s license.
- Minimum of a bachelor's degree.
- Must currently be authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.
Preferred:
- Prior experience selling into high schools, colleges and universities at the “C” level, Vice President level, Director level within higher education.
- An understanding and demonstrated knowledge of higher education and EdTech sales.
- Prior experience working in early stage and/or growth stage companies.
- Capacity to successfully build and lead sales teams by example.
- Experience in EdTech markets or experiences with tutoring as a teacher
Attach a cover letter & resume with your application.
Location:
Hybrid with travel. San Francisco Bay Area preferred.
AnswersAi Principles:
Relentless Focus on Institutional Success * Comfort with Ambiguity * Team Player * Ownership * Initiative * Intellectual Curiosity * Goal Oriented * High Standards * Results Driven * Earned Trust * Ambitious * Conviction * Data Driven * Active Listening * Strong Communication
Disclosure
AnswersAi is a diverse and inclusive workplace that reflects our students and academic partners and the world we live in. We encourage people from all backgrounds, ages, abilities, and experiences to apply for our roles. We are an equal employment opportunity employer. We do not discriminate based on race, color, ancestry, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital or family status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, pregnancy or caregiver status, veteran status, or any other legally protected status.