New Markets Director - Forwardplatform

New Markets Director

Application Deadline: 30 November 2024

Department: Marketing

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: Chicago, Illinois

Reporting To: Aja Brown

Compensation: $140,000 - $190,000 / year

Description

At FORWARD, we strive to be a trusted partner accelerating opportunity and access in the communities we serve. The New Markets Director plays a key role in the success of our company and the programs we strive to support. This position will drive revenue in new markets through partnership and development of programs with local and state governments. The New Markets Director is responsible for developing strategies and designing solutions to serve our customers while managing relationships within an assigned geographical region and market segment.

The New Markets Director will represent FORWARD, demonstrating relentless customer focus while managing all aspects of the sales process and customer relationship from account planning, lead qualification, and management through negotiation and closing, and will play an integral role in the success of the overall Impact team.

What would be achieved?

• Build high-trust customer relationships, that result in closed business to achieve individual and team revenue goals
• Develop strategies and design solutions for our customers to serve their communities through the unique technical solution that FORWARD offers. This is a modular platform this position must fully understand and deploy to the unique needs of our customers
• Bridge the gap between the program needs of our Partners and technical implementation to ensure design solutions are efficient, scalable and secure
• Contribute to the ongoing customer satisfaction and loyalty to FORWARD
• Collaborate with internal stakeholders to ensure they understand the program requirements and are positioned to deliver high quality customer service.

Responsibilities

• Meet and exceed sales goals through prospecting, qualifying, managing, and closing sales opportunities within the assigned territory.
• Create and execute effective territory and account plans for the specified region/customer base
• Achieve sales objectives by evaluating overall opportunities, aligning with customer business priorities and anticipated changes, and leveraging our unique product capabilities and value proposition.
• Lead/leverage a matrix account team of FORWARD Account Development, Partner Management, Client Services, Business Development, Technical Pre-sales, Marketing, and Sales Operations Support, to develop and manage sales pipeline and enhance customer relationships and value.
• Build and leverage strategic partner alliances and relationships as part of the fully integrated account and territory plan.
• Provide regular and accurate reporting of pipeline and forecast through the CRM system.
• Nurture and expand the company’s relationship with customer accounts of various sizes and missions.
• Drive customer success by developing and maintaining a deep understanding of customers’ mission and industry challenges, market competition, competitive issues, and products.
• Practice effective, excellent communication with leadership, customers, and extended team and partners.
• Participate in team‐building and company‐growth activities including strategic planning, sales training, customer marketing efforts, and customer care.
• Travel to customer locations in support of sales efforts.
• Recruitment: FORWARD hires company builders; employees are expected to be constantly looking for the best talent to bring on board, helping FORWARD continue to build one of the best companies in the world.
• Identify and propose pilot programs for customers, stand up new pilot programs, design a playbook for successful programs, and facilitate a smooth handoff to the Operations Team

Qualifications

• 7+ years of field‐based, face-to-face business development experience working with government and non-profit customers. This experience should include having also worked with systems integrators, hyperscale cloud, contract vehicles, lobbyists, and other partners that make up the government sales channel ecosystem.
• Demonstrated strong presence and relationships in the geographic market assigned to this role.
• Strong knowledge of public administration principles and practices
• Demonstrable experience managing relationships with senior decision-makers and stakeholders, including Agency Directors and VP’s, practice managers, CIOs, and elected officials
• Successful experience selling business service applications or similar background/experience.
• Adaptable, able to thrive in a fast-moving organization; reactive and open to new ideas and challenges.
• Strong business acumen and understanding of procurement pathway within government systems from start to finish
• Exceptional presentation skills with the ability to clearly communicate complex ideas, value propositions, and product benefits to diverse audiences, including senior executives and key stakeholders.
• Bachelor's Degree with public administration or business focus preferred

Additional Information

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.

We offer a full range of employee benefits for our regular full-time employees including:

• Fully remote position
• Unlimited PTO
• 100% Employee paid medical and dental insurance
• Stock Options
• 401K Plan