Business Development Representative

Division & Unit Overview
The American Chemical Society (ACS) is the world’s largest scientific membership association, with a mission to “advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and its people”. 
 
ACS Publications is a Division of the ACS and has all the characteristics of a medium-large scientific and technical publishing organization. It is one of two Divisions charged with serving the dual function of generating a reliable annual surplus to support the Society’s programmatic activities, while also fulfilling a core goal of the Society in advancing knowledge in the field of chemistry and the chemical enterprise. The Division publishes 80+ high-quality peer-reviewed journals covering the breadth of chemistry and allied fields, as well as numerous other high-quality products and services of benefit to the global community. 

The Division has US-based facilities in Washington, D.C. and Columbus OH; filed offices in regional domestic territories; and global entities in a growing number of international locations under ACS International, Ltd. (ACSI) including but not limited to the UK, Singapore, China, and India.

ACS Publications is searching for an energetic and emerging professional to help us increase market share with our new Digital Learning Solutions into the academic, corporate, and government marketplace. 

The Business Development Representative (BDR) will be responsible for identifying and qualifying sales opportunities for the ACS Corporate team. This position will be a key contributor to our sales growth strategy as they will identify, contact, and nurture qualified leads for our Account Managers and Account Consultants through outbound-centered activities to include phone and email prospecting, marketing campaigns, webinars, web research and social selling. This role is designed to establish a committed resource responsible for actively seeking new business opportunities by contacting and developing relationships with both existing customers and new prospects.  This position will split time between sourcing activities and direct sales outreach and prospecting efforts. 

This position offers a unique opportunity to combine knowledge of and interest in the sciences with a passion for business and sales, and to find personal and financial rewards within a supportive, congenial work environment.  

Specific Job Accountabilities are as follows:

• Present basic Society and product information to prospects over the phone, via email and online.
• Research, gather, compile, and record valuable qualifying information from customer prospects or internal systems such as pitchbook or qlikview.
• Identify client needs and suggest appropriate products/services.
• Schedule and attend product demonstrations for Account Executives.
• Support team by adding new qualified prospects to their sales pipeline.
• Provide regular updates on customer developments, feature requests, complaints, etc. to both Sales and New Product Innovation team members.
• Update and enhance data records using Salesforce and other tools.
• Proactively seek new business opportunities in the market and help build a pipeline of sales opportunities.
• Operate with the utmost integrity and professionalism in ways that build trust and credibility.
• Report to the Manager on a weekly basis with regards to business development activities.
• Travel periodically to conferences, trade shows and sales team meetings.

These job responsibilities may be shaped further based on the skills of the successful candidate and the continuing evolution of the Society’s business priorities.
 

Required Skills:    

• 4-year college degree required. 
• Exceptional verbal and written communications skills. 
• Natural curiosity and a fervent desire to build and maintain relationships.
• Ambitious and hardworking. Ability to bounce back easily from rejection.
• Ability to understand and appreciate ACS products and how they serve our customers. 
• Ability to work under managerial direction to pursue goals and objectives that have a significant impact on revenue.
• Ability to use analysis and critical thinking to identify new areas of opportunity and to overcome competitive and market threats. 
• Ability to collaborate within the team to constantly develop skills and support team goals. 
• High level of personal computer literacy for business applications. Tele-sales experience, preferably within SaaS, STEM, or with scientific research.
• Flexibility to travel (10% maximum).

Required Experience:   

• Minimum of two years of professional sales experience, and/or experience in customer-facing communication within the STEM research community and clear people skills amenable to a business development/sales role.
• Experience with Salesforce preferred but not required.

This position is based in the Columbus, Ohio office. ACS employees work a hybrid work schedule, consisting of working onsite, three days per week. ACS employees are in the office on Tuesday and Wednesday with the third in-office day scheduled in consultation with the manager. While always welcome to work in the office, employees may work the other two days of the week from a location of their choice. New employees are immediately eligible for this hybrid work arrangement. ACS offers relocation assistance, if applicable.

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