About Kudos
An exciting opportunity to join a small but rapidly expanding team focused on providing an innovative communications service for academic researchers, research groups, institutions, publishers, societies and funders.
Kudos provides tools for planning and managing research dissemination to accelerate and maximize reach and impact. This multi-award-winning service has a global client base, including major publishers and institutions (such as Taylor & Francis, Wiley, SAGE, the Universities of Manchester, Helsinki, Stockholm and ETH Zürich), and 250,000+ researchers and academics.
About this role
You will be responsible for sales of our new communications management service for research groups, which provides tools and insights to help departments, schools, units of assessment and research groups use their resources and budgets most efficiently as they pursue accelerated research engagement and impact. You will work closely with our Sales Director and team to build opportunities, and be responsible for developing and closing those opportunities to meet annual sales targets. The role is based in the main Kudos offices in Wheatley, Oxford, though some remote working will be considered for the right candidate; evening / weekend work and travel will be required.
About you
You will have proven experience of developing new business, ideally for a research-oriented service. You will be organized, driven, productive and can-do. You’ll be genuinely interested in keeping pace with new developments in scholarly communication and research assessment, and enthusiastic about connecting with researchers and the research management community. You will be a people person, focused on developing strong and honest relationships, a confident yet empathetic communicator (for example, comfortable with rigorous phone follow up, while sensitive to others’ communications preferences). You will be self-motivated and results-oriented.
Job purpose
- Building a robust network of relationships with budget holders in the research community: principal investigators, impact leads, heads of departments / schools
- Understanding the dissemination goals and needs of this community, and guiding development of Kudos’ product proposition and messaging to align with those needs
- Promoting and securing sales via this relationship-based, solution-sales approach
- Connecting with prospective customers via telephone, web conferences, event-based meetings and in-person visits
- Demonstrating our products and services to potential customers, and discussing them in the context of customers’ needs
- Developing clear and effective written proposals / quotations for prospective customers
- Providing regular pipeline reporting to colleagues, and maintaining contact / opportunity data (etc) in SalesForce
- Analyzing market potential and determining prospective customers’ value to Kudos
- Researching sources for identifying and prioritizing prospective customers
- Coordinating sales efforts and intelligence with colleagues in related business functions including marketing, product management, client management and accounting
- Identifying advantages and comparing our products / services with other market offerings
- Keeping abreast of product applications, technical services, market conditions, competitive activities, advertising and promotional trends through the reading of pertinent literature and consulting with marketing and technical service areas
- Supplying directors with oral and written reports on customer needs, problems, interests, competitive activities, and potential for new products and services
- Participating in industry shows and conventions.
The role will involve travel, which is estimated at 25% of your time.
Qualifications
- 3+ years’ business development experience, preferably in a research / scholarly information or services organization
- Demonstrated ability to communicate, present and influence credibly and effectively at all levels of an organization
- Ability to determine solutions for customers (consultative sales approach)
- Enthusiasm for and understanding of new media, metrics and technologies (particularly those that relate to Kudos)
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills
- Ability to travel on a regular basis.
Benefits
- Competitive salary (£35-£47k basic plus bonus)
- 25 days’ annual leave
- Company pension plan
- Cycle to Work scheme
- Based in beautiful Oxfordshire, close to Oxford and the M40
- Good public transport links and easy parking
- Monthly pizza lunches
- Free fruit
How to apply
To apply, please send your CV together with a covering letter outlining why you’re right for this role, to:
Charlie Rapple
Sales & Marketing Director • Co-Founder
charlie.a.rapple@growkudos.com
Closing date for applications is 27 January 2019.