Are you looking for more than just a job and do you want to make a difference? If so, then join the National Student Clearinghouse talent community and discover your impact today!
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 Clearinghouses 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 Specialist II, Secondary Education Relationships is responsible for promoting the use of Clearinghouse offerings to educational organizations that have a need to access the companys data about post-secondary progress, state education organizations charged with oversight of the public schools, the countrys largest school districts, and outreach organizations committed to ensuring student success. These organizations include governmental and other entities with a legitimate reason to use Clearinghouse data to monitor student progress or to examine trends that impact public policy. You will support the national approach to sustain and grow the Clearinghouses services to educational organizations and support efforts to retain and grow business with all states and school districts.
In this role, you will manage the overall relationship with the Clearinghouses state education departments and/or secondary education institution clients and optimize their services. You will also support the field efforts related to business development and sustainability with states and large school districts.
You will be the ideal candidate if you have a robust understanding of how verified data informs educational policy and program analysis, and you understand the importance and how this role feeds to the success of the organization. Traveling nationally (up to 10% of the time) is not a concern and you enjoy meeting 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:
Demonstrate the Clearinghouse's core competencies: Customer Focus, Optimizes Work Processes, Collaborates, Communicates Effectively, and Be Open and Authentic.
Responsible for the for the full-cycle account management of existing state, district, and educational organization clients.
Work with prospective clients to define, and existing clients to increase, utilization of Clearinghouse services
Conduct regular account reviews and training with states and districts to ensure clients are satisfied with their service and ensure they are maintaining all necessary information to get the most out of their accounts e.g. ensuring contact lists are accurate, graduate files are complete, and any questions regarding reports are addressed.
Use a structured approach to understand client motivation, buying criteria, selection processes and solution preferences.
Use a disciplined approach to prepare, set meeting objectives, dialog, position, handle objections, close and follow-up to calls.
Demonstrate proficiency in relating, questioning, listening, positioning, and checking to determine client needs and concerns.
Serve as a strategic partner to build, grow, and maintain profitable and long-lasting relationships with key accounts.
Participate in major national and regional industry association and themed conferences.
Build and execute a cadence of client value account reviews.
Use opportunity management practices to prospect, qualify, propose, negotiate, contract, and provide ongoing support to clients.
Recognize how new processes can help make the support of secondary / state clients more successful and willingly provides input.
Accurately record activities within Salesforce and other Clearinghouse systems.
Support both teams as needed to help reach team goals.
Regularly partner with others across the organization (e.g. product teams, implementation, legal, finance) to ensure shared objectives are met in growing/retaining a client.
Identifies and negotiates client requested changes and works with Legal to modify standard terms, as appropriate.
Ensure open dialog to determine how each partys interest can be considered in the development of a solution.
Bring an outward mindset towards including others in solutioning while maintaining ones 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.
Develop and maintain relationships with state key clients to improve client satisfaction.
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.
Use persuasive techniques to overcome objections and demonstrate how perceptions are shared.
Regularly elicit feedback and confirm agreements or need for further clarity.
Demonstrate openness to new perspectives and ideas.
Build trust with internal and external stakeholders by demonstrating consistency between words and actions.
Seeks to understand others interests and needs through thoughtful questioning and listening.
Face difficult issues and tackles them with optimism and confidence; confident delivering all messages to internal and external stakeholders.
Understand 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 accommodations will be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform these essential functions.
What You Bring to the Table:
Bachelors degree. A combination of education and experience including military service will also be considered.
3 years of experience with managing or supporting strategic client accounts and/or supporting a business development/sales team.
Experience using a Client Relationship Management (CRM) tool, such as Salesforce.
Highly customer centric, resilient, personable, productive, and professional.
Demonstrated ability to:
Effectively build relationships at all levels of the organization.
Work independently, on a team, and
