Born from a tradition of journalism and deeply engaged in innovative digital ventures, The Chronicle is powered by an essential mission: to inform, empower, and connect the people and institutions that work to improve society. Today, The Chronicle serves the higher-education community through the industry-leading news and information resource: The Chronicle of Higher Education.

The Specialist, Sales Operations, works in partnership with the Sales, Ad Operations, and Client Services teams to fulfill and improve sales processes that enable The Chronicle to drive advertising revenue. The primary focus areas of this role are to support the sales team, manage and distribute leads, track competition, develop proposals, insertion orders, and campaign reports, and provide other pre- and post-sale support that facilitates sales of Chronicle of Higher Education advertising products.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Assist the sales team with RFP's and the development of proposals for large opportunities.
• Create insertion orders for advertising programs.
• Distribute closed won contracts and program details to internal stakeholders.
• Enter and update client and opportunity information in The Chronicle’s CRM and in our inventory management system.
• Provide wrap-up decks and other ongoing campaign management support that enable The Chronicle to fulfill advertising contracts and to renew and expand client relationships.
• Track product trends and client/prospect activity with competitors, and surface relevant opportunities and insights for the sales team.
• Update sales collateral with appropriate product stats.
• Develop and maintain a strong understanding of The Chronicle’s media products.
• Document and organize the database of Chronicle Intelligence abstracts for the sales team.
• Participate in recurring internal team meetings.
• Maintain communications with the sales representatives and clients about previous, ongoing, and completed sales campaigns.
• Research and identify prospective contacts for the sales team, and manage inbound leads by organizing, tracking, and entering lead and prospect information into the CRM.
• Qualify and distribute leads to sales team, and track outcomes over time.
• Assist in qualifying prospects based on predefined criteria such as budget, timeline, and alignment with product offerings.
• Help prioritize leads by researching target accounts and preparing background materials to inform outreach strategies.
• Support efforts by marketing to measure the success of demand generation campaigns that attempt to drive leads for the sales team.
• Manage the digital communications channel and recurring meeting between the sales and Chronicle Intelligence editorial teams.
• Utilize several software programs, such as MS Office Suite, Sharepoint, Wrike, Boostr, Slack, Zoom, ZoomInfo, LinkedIn

EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS:

A Bachelor’s degree or equivalent required and at least one year of relevant experience in business development, sales, sales support, or marketing, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES:

• Knowledge of customer relationship management to help optimize the Sales team’s performance.
• Strong verbal and written communication skills and excellent interpersonal skills.

• Great attention to detail, organizational and time management skills.
• Proactive problem-solving skills with strong ability to collaborate and work across teams.

• Proficiency with the MS Office Suite and other digital systems.
• Ability to multi-task and function well under pressure and tight delivery timeframes.

• Ability to take initiative and perform required tasks with minimal supervision.
• Strong customer service skills with ability to interact with customers.

WORK ENVIRONMENT & PHYSICAL DEMANDS:

• Ability to perform work indoors in climate-controlled private work area with minimal noise, performing primarily sedentary work with limited physical exertion and lifting of up to 10 lbs.
• Ability to routinely perform work on computer for an average of 4-6 hours per day, when necessary.
• Ability to work extended hours whenever required or requested by management.
• Ability to travel on overnight and extended trips domestically and internationally. Ability to travel by commercial airlines, rental vehicles, and in public transportation. Ability to lodge in public facilities in foreign locations which may or may not have handicapped accommodations.