Business Development Executive (BDE) - Higher Education (Northeast Region) - National Student Clearinghouse

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We are a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization and the leading provider of educational reporting, data exchange, verification, and research services. Serving the education, workforce and learner communities has been at the heart of our mission for over 30 years. Our work — performed in a trusted, secure, and private environment — provides numerous time- and cost-saving benefits to students, schools, administrators, and requestors. Education leaders rely on the Clearinghouse’s unique national student data resources to better understand student pathways and outcomes in order to help students succeed, and our research better informs practitioners and policymakers about student educational pathways and enables informed decision making.

About the Role:

The Senior Specialist, Higher Education Relationships (a.k.a. Business Development Executive (BDE)) will be responsible for identifying, engaging, and closing new business opportunities across the higher-ed enterprise, including but not limited to, the college of admissions, registrar’s office, central IT, continuing education and workforce development. The BDE will leverage their higher-ed subject matter expertise to understand the unique challenges faced by educational institutions and present compelling and tailored solutions. The ideal candidate will have a technical background, deep understanding of the higher education sector, and a proven track record of achieving sales goals. This role requires regional travel (up to 50% of the time) to meet current and prospective customers virtually and face-to-face.

Currently, this is a remote-first position, and this position may be required to periodically work on-site at our office and the frequency would depend on the department/division's requirements. Therefore, candidates must either reside within a reasonable distance to commute to our office or be willing to travel to our office in Herndon, when required.

How You Contribute:

Customer Focus:

Business Development Strategy:

• Develop and execute a strategic plan to target new business opportunities across the higher-ed enterprise.
• Identify high-potential leads and maintain a robust pipeline of prospects.
• Build and manage a pipeline of opportunities as defined.
• Conduct detailed sales presentations and product demonstrations – tailoring the content to the specific audience, emphasizing the benefits and ROI of our solution.

Optimizes Work Processes:

Relationship Management and Contract Negotiations:

• Build and maintain strong relationships with key decision makers, including college admissions directors, registrars, provosts, IT managers, and other stakeholders.
• Address complex questions and provide customized solutions to meet the needs of our customers.
• Lead contract negotiations ensuring mutually beneficial terms and conditions.
• Collaborate with legal and finance teams to finalize agreements.

Product and Industry Expertise:

• Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of our technical solutions, including transcript ordering, PDF-2-Data conversion, Slate integration, Custom Research and Data as a Service, (DaaS) offerings.
• Articulate the technical benefits of our products and how they align with the operational needs of colleges and universities.
• Stay current on industry trends, technology advancements, and regulatory changes in the higher education sector. Use this information to guide sales strategies and advise clients on best practices.

Collaborates:

• Partner with others across the organization (e.g. product teams, implementation, legal, finance) to ensure shared objectives are met in serving a client.
• Ensure open dialog to determine how each party’s interest can be considered in the development of a solution.
• Bring an outward mindset towards including others in solutioning while maintaining one’s own personal interests – demonstrates balance of self-awareness and self determination to create better results.
• Demonstrate problem solving skills including brainstorming options, evaluation of alternatives, enlarging the potential benefits, building reciprocity, and employing objective standards.

Communicate Effectively:

• Bring energy, curiosity, and conviction to conversations; Effective in a wide range of settings, from one-on-one meetings to presentations.
• Build rapport by relating to others, acknowledging, and empathizing; listen to understand the business issues, and for emotional content.
• Craft questions that convey expertise, elicit information, and drive deeper to ensure needs and ideas are explored fully.
• Maintain accurate records of sales activities, revenue forecasts, and deal status in Salesforce.com.

Be Open and Authentic:

• Demonstrate openness to new perspectives and ideas.
• Seeks to understand others’ interests and needs through thoughtful questioning and listening.
• Build trust with internal and external stakeholders by demonstrating consistency between words and actions.
• Faces difficult issues and tackles them with optimism and confidence; confident delivering all messages to internal and external stakeholders.
• Understands which issues to tackle and demonstrates a willingness to develop tactics to address concerns.

Position may be required to perform other duties as required. These essential functions are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the job. Reasonable accommodation will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.

What You Bring to the Table:

• Bachelor’s degree, or a combination of education and experience including military service will also be considered.
• 5+ years of professional experience in the education industry, business development and/or sales.
• Experience working in or selling into higher education, state educational agencies, school districts or educational organizations.
• A history of consistently meeting or exceeding annual sales/business development targets.
• Proven track-record of developing positive relationships with internal and external stakeholders.
• Demonstrated ability:
  • Working on multiple initiatives simultaneously.
  • Lead complex business development opportunities that are win-win for the client and the organization.
• Strong negotiating skills.
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office Suite and Salesforce and willingness to learn new applications.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to communicate effectively with all levels of staff.
• Must live within a commutable distance to Herndon, VA (preferred), or reside in one of the following states and live within a reasonable commutable distance to a major airport:
  • Maryland, Maine, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Virginia, West Virginia, and District of Columbia.
• Must be at least 18 years old.

Additional Desired Requirements:

• Advanced degree.
• Familiarity with working on RFPs in the higher education industry.
• Familiarity with marketing big data and/or data-related services.
• Experience in education administration or previous knowledge of the features and benefits of Clearinghouse services.
• Experience with Salesforce.

Physical Demands:

• Use of a computer for 8 or more hours a day.
• Use of a copy machine and telephone.
• Frequently required to sit for 7 or more hours per day. When at HQ, required to work in close proximity to others in an open office environment.
• Occasionally required to use hands and fingers to operate, handle, and reach.
• Vision abilities include close vision and the ability to adjust focus.
• Occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 pounds and use hands and fingers to operate, handle, and reach.
• Must be able to hear, speak, read, and concentrate.
• Stand for extended periods of time, up to 3 hours at a time at conferences or while making presentations.
• Must be flexible to perform out-of-town assignments and travel via car, travel, train, regionally 50% or more of the time including evening and weekends when needed.

Benefits and Related Information

The National Student Clearinghouse provides a robust benefit program designed to help meet the needs of each employee and their family, both now and in the future. We offer comprehensive medical, dental, and vision insurance, as well as life and disability insurance benefits, for employees and their qualified dependents. Health care, dependent care, and limited purpose flexible spending accounts, as well as a health savings account, are options available for employees to set aside pre-taxed dollars for certain qualifying expenses. We offer a very generous 401k matching contribution program with the opportunity to defer pre-tax and Roth contributions, as well as catch-up contributions for those who are eligible! We are proud to offer a competitive paid leave program consisting of vacation, sick, and personal time, as well as paid holidays and up to 3 weeks of paid parental leave during a 12-month period. Vacation time will accrue based on length of service, and new full-time hires can accrue up to 13 days of vacation and up to 10 days of sick time per year. On an annual basis, new employees may use up to 32 hours of accrued sick time as personal time. Additionally, the Clearinghouse observes at least 11 paid holidays per year.

Another perk is that employees have the option to get reimbursed for basic wholesale company and roadside assistance memberships (e.g., Costco and AAA) and to request a buy back on portions of unused accrued vacation based on tenure and certain other qualifications. Employees can further their education and professional development by using our Employee Education Assistance Program, which establishes reimbursement for qualified education expenses upon successful completion of the program, and leveraging the enterprise-wide LinkedIn Learning subscription. There are additional employee benefits too, including but not limited to, mental health and wellness benefits. To find out more, please request a copy of our Benefits at a Glance!

Additionally, we reasonably believe that the salary range for this position is between $90,900 and $120,000 and is eligible for incentive compensation.

The requisition will be open for a minimum of three days, and applications will be accepted on an ongoing basis the position is filled.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities: The National Student Clearinghouse is proud to be an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer that does not discriminate on the basis of actual or perceived race, creed, color, religion, alienage or national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, age, disability or handicap, sex, marital status, veteran status (or known to have a spousal, family, business, social or other relationship or association with a protected veteran), sexual orientation, genetic information, arrest record, natural hairstyle, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state, or local laws. Our management team is dedicated to this policy with respect to recruitment, hiring, placement, promotion, transfer, training, compensation, benefits, employee activities and general treatment during employment.

Pay Transparency Notice: The National Student Clearinghouse is a federal contractor that abides by all applicable equal opportunity laws and regulations. Under these laws, companies doing business with the federal government must provide applicants and employees with certain policies, including the following information. 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)