Summary Description:

The Sales Manager is a direct sales role and will be responsible for closing business with new clients. This individual contributor position will perpetually be on the pursuit of new opportunities with smart hand-offs to our Account teams for ongoing client nourishment and growth.  The Sales Manager will need to make smart prospecting choices, establish credibility, expand an intra-client network, productively challenge prospects, and work collaboratively with our Marketing and Solutions teams to put forth strong value propositions of Ardent’s service offerings.  

In This Role You Will Provide:

Prospecting and Pipeline Management (70% est.)

• Maintain solid alignment with Marketing ensuring a firm understanding of our go to market strategy
• Design a strong follow up strategy that ensures all leads received are touched in a timely manner, with the right number of attempts and that the CRM is managed so all reports and marketing efforts function as expected
• Reach out to and build relationships with influencers and buying decision makers within various industries, zeroing in on the learning and development needs of corporate, regional and local environments
• Tackle the known and obvious opportunities, while creating opportunities by listening to clients to identify latent problems that Ardent can solve
• Amplify Ardent’s capabilities and reputation with prospects and clients to greatly reduce the chance that we are overlooked for good-fit opportunities
• Organize and communicate new business opportunities with a strong understanding for the importance of accurate and thoughtful forecasting
• Surpass assigned financial targets
• Ensure Ardent is always aware of emerging opportunities with targeted prospects and clients by establishing that we have preferred vendor status or are included on RFP distribution lists at a minimum

Proposal Creation and Stand-Up Delivery (10% est.)

• Harness Ardent’s best and empower all of our teams by effectively communicating detailed information and knowledge of the prospect or client back to the organization
• Collaborate with Ardent's Solutions team and other internal leadership to develop compelling proposals that effectively address the prospects identified needs and budgetary targets
• Comfortable and capable of presenting to various job roles and levels of leadership, both in-person and virtually

Solutions Collaboration (10% est.)

• Set Ardent up for success by effectively selling our core solutions, engaging conversations around what is a stretch but possible, and intelligently traversing requests to deliver solutions outside of our desired area of expertise
• Share detailed situational information and feedback that generates opportunities for Ardent to develop impactful solutions that hit the mark and delight our clients

Client Support (10% est.)

• After a new client has been onboarded, stay engaged with the Account team to ensure the human side of the relationship continues to strengthen, initial promises are fulfilled and opportunities for intra-account growth persist

• Other duties as assigned

Education & Experience:

• Experience selling the value of Learning and Development preferred
• Bachelor’s Degree in Business Management, Finance, Communications or related field or equivalent years of experience
• 7 – 10+ years’ experience driving the full lifecycle sales process including prospecting, lead follow up, positioning for proposal, closing business and proper handoff to Account Management team
• Demonstrated experience building and maintaining a healthy sales pipeline
• Ability to travel up to 40%

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities:

• Demonstrated experience selling services in various industries
• 'Hunter' mentality in seeking out new business
• Energy and desire to make numerous connections (emails, phone calls) daily
• Ability to build strong personal relationships with prospects, customers and partners
• Prior experience working with CRM systems; HubSpot experience preferred
• Comfortable prospecting at the C or VP level
• Ability to interact with clients, employees and vendors at all levels
• Outstanding leadership and organizational skills
• Experience in strategic planning and risk management
• Theoretical and practical project management knowledge
• Microsoft Office proficiency
• Excellent interpersonal skills and relationship building skills
• Strong problem-solving skills
• Excellent communication skills both verbal and written

Our Culture: 

We are not a typical learning company. Our team is truly passionate about changing lives. We want everything we do — our work, our conversations, our interactions — to be genuine, true, and unique. Our team strives to Elevate and Evolve in all that we do. 

We're always on the lookout for innovative, curious, and passionate people who can help us achieve our goals. So, if you want to work for a friendly and growing company, we'd love to meet you! 

What We Offer

We value and support our employees in many ways and are proud to offer an excellent salary and benefits package, including:

• Unlimited PTO. We trust our employees and want them to establish an ideal work-life balance.
• Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance. We offer excellent benefits for the health of our team and their families.
• 401K Plan. We support our employees in setting up a comfortable future.
• Professional Development Fund.  We give our employees the opportunity to enhance their skills.
• Remote First. We have a fully remote team spread across the US and Canada.  
• Cell Phone Reimbursement. We got you covered.
• Company Paid Community Service Time. We encourage employees to give back to their communities.
• Company Paid Parental & Adoption Leave. We value the importance of parents bonding with a new child.
• Company Paid Short & Long Term Disability. We help employees plan for the unexpected.

The salary range for this particular role is $85,000.00 to $115,000.00, which will ultimately take into account candidates’ level of experience, education, and geographic location. There is an additional variable compensation element associated with this role.  

Equal Opportunity Employer:

Come as you are. Ardent Learning is an equal opportunity employer.  Ardent embraces diversity and is committed to building an inclusive environment for all employees.