Director, Sales and Business Development

Graduate Management Admission Council (GMAC™) is a mission-driven organization, with a vision to be the global leader in ensuring every talented person can benefit from the best business education for them. The organization’s priority is to heighten its impact in promoting graduate management education and attracting a qualified and diverse candidate pool from around the world.

The Director, Sales and Business Development is responsible for delivering and implementing a strategic plan that achieves the organization’s growth targets for a specified suite of B2B products. The remit spans the B2B customer engagement journey from prospecting to renewal (i.e., lead generation, proposal, sales orders, revenue booking, successful delivery, and order renewal) and partners with product owners to address client success. The role is also responsible for setting and managing the goals of the Solutions sales and operations team and ensuring a strong partnership with product and regional leaders to ensure the attainment of annual targets.

Key Responsibilities

• Create and implement a business development plan in line with the organization’s overall objectives for assigned B2B product suite. Develop and implement strategies to drive new business and defend existing base (includes proactive identification of new markets, partners, vendors and sponsors of product suite). Design and assign sales territories to maximize market coverage and revenue potential. (Segment markets beyond just territories, e.g., maturity, use case, budget owner and decision cycle.)
• Define and refine Ideal Customer Profiles (ICPs) across the B2B portfolio in partnership with Product and Market Development, grounded in buyer needs, purchasing behavior and willingness to pay.
• Serve as front line sales manager. Recruit, onboard, coach, and provide training for team members to achieve individual and collective goals. Lead team in developing practices for understanding the needs of business schools related to marketing, recruitment and selection and positioning GMAC as the ‘go to’ partner in fulfilling these needs. Conduct regular pipeline health evaluations with team, share best practices and guide improvement techniques. Design and manage incentive plans that reward performance, drive urgency, and align directly with revenue and profitability goals.
• Collaborate with Product and Regional leads to align strategies and resources enabling a seamless and united presentation of solutions to clients. Manage a “solutions” partner process utilizing consultative selling techniques and practices in collaboration with various product and client facing account teams across the organization.
• Track, analyze, and act on key sales metrics, including pipeline, velocity, renewal rates and average deal size. Maintain tight control over the end-to-end sales pipeline - from prospecting through close – and own accountability for timely updates, data quality, and forecast reliability. Provide regular, data-driven reporting on customer experience, bookings, revenue outlook, and performance against plan.
• Partner with key stakeholders in Product and Technology to develop new tools and collateral to be leveraged at all stages of the sales process to facilitate the communication of GMAC’s unique selling proposition.
• Systematically gather and synthesize market intelligence and competitive insights to inform go-to-market decisions and sharpen GMAC’s value proposition.
• Establish close partnerships with colleagues across the organization to prioritize focus groups accounts. Quickly build relationships to ensure excellent communication pathways, set clear expectations, accelerate deliverables, address the needs of Solutions proactively and support the efforts/initiatives of other departments that drive GMAC business.
• As needed, assist in preparing client proposals, offering strategic input and acting as a subject matter expert for products on key account calls and at relevant industry events.
• Continue to drive the adoption of Salesforce and other enablement tools among internal stakeholders to enable more accurate forecasting and make the business development process more systematic, transparent, efficient, and effective.
• Other responsibilities and duties, as assigned.
  
  

Minimum Requirements

• Advanced degree from an accredited university, preferably in business; Or equivalent combination of education, skills, and experience.
• 7 years’ experience in business development, key account management and/or relationship management, including proven consultative sales experience.
• 3 years’ supervisory experience, managing staff and resources directly or indirectly.
• Strategic thinker with a successful track record in creating and executing a business development strategy, including experience in identifying and cultivating market opportunities, planning, strategic partnerships, and conducting market, financial and business analysis.
• Proven experience building excellent client relationships, offering value added, insightful and strategic vision into their business.
• Ability to provide and garner support from colleagues based on expertise, trust and influence; Comfortable collaborating with function leaders, peers, and front-line teams.
• Experience in problem solving, market analysis, and competitor monitoring.
• Superior analytical skills and ability to leverage data to tell a story.
• Excellent listening, communication, and presentation skills; and a strong ‘service mindset’.
• Knowledge of the full life cycle of the sales process from prospecting to close.
• Experience with CRM systems; commitment to serving customers better.
• Ability to work in-office and remotely according to GMAC’s hybrid work environment.
• Ability to travel up to 20% globally.
  
  

The physical demands and work environment characteristics described are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Desired Skills/Experience

• Experience working in higher education, or with degree programs in various parts of the world.
  
  

GMAC’s value proposition offers our talented employees the ideal climate for innovation, and colleagues who are motivated and proactive, with diverse backgrounds and approaches.

As a global organization, we understand and appreciate the benefits of myriad cultural perspectives. GMAC is wholly committed to recruiting, developing, and retaining a diverse group of talented people, and providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to the basis of actual or perceived race, creed, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.

FLSA Status

Exempt

Report To

Senior Vice President, School & Industry Engagement

GMAC’s value proposition offers our talented employees the ideal climate for innovation, and colleagues who are motivated and proactive, with diverse backgrounds and approaches.

As a global organization, we understand and appreciate the benefits of myriad cultural perspectives. GMAC is wholly committed to recruiting, developing, and retaining a diverse group of talented people, and providing equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants without regard to the basis of actual or perceived race, creed, color, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, sex (including pregnancy, childbirth, and related medical conditions), marital status, veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.