Enterprise Account Director, Academic - Talent Solutions

About the position

The Enterprise Account Director at LinkedIn is a strategic sales role focused on the Academic sector, responsible for engaging customers with LinkedIn's Talent and Learning solutions. This position emphasizes building strong relationships, understanding customer needs, and driving growth through effective account management and solution selling. The role offers a hybrid work option, allowing flexibility in work location while ensuring collaboration with teams and clients.

Responsibilities

• Researches Customer's business and prepares thoughtful questions and insights in advance of customer meetings
• Asks layered, open-ended questions to understand and clarify Customer's objectives and challenges beyond surface-level detail
• Builds relationships with multiple stakeholders (vertically and horizontally) across the Customer's organization
• Shifts communication style and content to fit the needs of different stakeholders
• Leads with Solutions, not products, when making recommendations aligned to Customer objectives
• Sells with Integrity
• Drives customer decision making by achieving shared vision and proactively considering the value props that tie all stakeholders together
• Thinks commercially and applies business acumen when crafting & negotiating commercial agreements
• Uses data and insights to support investment recommendations or overcome customer objections
• Proactively mitigates churn risk by adopting a smart, customer-centric approach
• Engages customers throughout to confirm and clarify value and adapts a strategy when needed to optimize ROI
• Drives Customer growth by proactively identifying opportunities to deliver greater customer value
• Applies business acumen in Account Planning by considering economic, industry, and company factors with a Customer-centric lens
• Maps all key stakeholders in an account to assess the strength of the account relationship and create account outreach strategy
• Agrees to joint accountability with colleagues and cross-functional teams for optimal customer success
• Practices humility and asks for help from colleagues when faced with a challenge or unknown
• Is disciplined in Territory and Account Planning, Forecasting, and Quota Attainment
• Follows best practices when using CRM and other Sales tools in order to manage the Sales and Buyer cycles.

Requirements

• 8+ years of applicable sales experience
• Experience with HR software
• Experience in sales with the Academic sector
• BA/BS degree or equivalent in a related field
• Experience with SaaS opportunities and Salesforce.com platform
• Experience selling IT solutions
• Knowledge of software contract terms and conditions with the ability to create fair transactions
• Strong negotiation and accurate forecasting skills
• Experience carrying a revenue target with the ability to develop compelling strategies that deliver results
• Excellent communication, negotiation and forecasting skills
• Demonstrated ability to find and manage high-level business in an evangelistic sales environment
• Ability to gather and use data to inform decision making and persuade others
• Ability to assess business opportunities and read prospective buyers
• Ability to orchestrate the closure of business with an accurate understanding of prospect needs
• Ability to include multiple partners and members of the company management team using competitive selling to position company products against direct and indirect competitors.

Nice-to-haves

• Negotiation
• Relationship Building
• Account Planning
• Forecasting

Benefits

• Annual performance bonus
• Stock options
• Comprehensive health benefits
• Flexible work arrangements
• Professional development opportunities