[Hiring] Account Executive @Acquia

Role Description

As the Account Executive, Higher Education, you will help institutions modernize their digital experience and get more from their investment in Drupal and Acquia.

• Own new business and expansion across an assigned territory of colleges, universities, community colleges, and university systems in the United States and Canada.
• Identify new opportunities, manage, and close deals across Acquia's higher education customer and prospect base.
• Run every opportunity using MEDDICC:
  • Qualify and progress deals by defining Metrics.
  • Engage the Economic Buyer.
  • Shape Decision Criteria.
  • Map the Decision Process.
  • Identify Pain.
  • Develop a Champion.
  • Understand the Competition.
• Maintain complete, current MEDDICC qualification in Salesforce and use it to drive accurate forecasting, deal reviews, and pipeline inspection with leadership.
• Build mutual action plans with customers that map the full institutional decision and procurement process, from first meeting to signature.
• Engage senior campus leaders, including CIOs, CMOs, Vice Presidents of Marketing & Communications, Enrollment Management, and Advancement, as well as central web, IT, and digital teams.
• Navigate decentralized campus environments, building consensus between central IT, university marketing, and individual colleges, schools, and departments, and identify and coach champions across them.
• Quantify business value for institutions and tie it to the economic buyer's priorities.
• Manage public and institutional procurement processes, including RFPs, cooperative purchasing agreements and consortia, and multi-stakeholder approvals.
• Stay current on competitor offerings in the higher education CMS and DXP market.
• Turn client feedback into meaningful strategies to drive new business and address competitive risks.
• Influence client decisions and advocate for client needs to broker win-win solutions.
• Work closely with Account Management, Renewals, Solutions Consulting, Product, and Professional Services teams.
• Handle full-life-cycle sales in an individual contributor role.
• Engage with implementation and channel partners who serve the higher education market.
• Represent Acquia within the higher education and Drupal communities.
• Work cross-functionally with demand generation and marketing teams to cultivate pipeline through targeted higher education campaigns.
• Collaborate efficiently across internal teams and nurture an atmosphere of trust and open communication.
• Travel to campus visits, client meetings, and industry events across the US and Canada as needed.

Qualifications

• A genuine interest in higher education and the role digital experience plays in an institution's mission.
• A believer in sales process and qualification discipline.
• Intellectual agility and an entrepreneurial attitude.
• Patience and persistence for longer, consensus-driven sales cycles.
• Ability to learn and absorb new products quickly.
• Smart, results-oriented, upbeat, and a track record of out-performing peers.
• Looking for aggressive career growth.
• Passion, drive, and creativity.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.
• Demonstrated mastery of the MEDDICC sales methodology.
• Strong sales and new-business origination experience in enterprise software.
• Experience selling into higher education institutions.
• Familiarity with higher education procurement processes.
• Experience negotiating large strategic deals.
• A proven ability to build and coach internal champions.
• Consistent forecast accuracy and strong CRM hygiene.
• Working knowledge of issues that matter to campus digital leaders.
• Strong understanding of the SaaS business model for solutions delivery.
• Experience in a fast-paced technology environment.
• Confident presentation skills and presence in front of senior campus leadership.
• French language proficiency is a plus.

Benefits

• Competitive healthcare coverage.
• Wellness programs.
• Take-it-when-you-need-it time off.
• Parental leave.
• Recognition programs.
• And much more!