Strategic Account Manager

Job title: Strategic Account Manager

About the Role As a Strategic Account Manager, you’ll be responsible for maintaining and expanding relationships with strategically important large customers. You’ll serve as the lead point of contact, developing a deep understanding of each client’s business processes, goals, and strategies to align Ascend Learning’s offerings and drive mutual growth and success.

What You'll Do

• Serve as the lead point of contact for strategic account matters, build and maintain strong, long-lasting client relationships, and develop trusted advisor relationships with key accounts, customer stakeholders, and executive sponsors.
• Identify and understand the roles of the clients’ stakeholders, identify champions, users, the technical team, and the economic buyers.
• Manage relationships with existing clients to ensure retention and loyalty – including annual account reviews and reporting.
• Manage and nurture the sales pipeline, ensure timely follow-ups, and progress tracking.
• Uncover clients’ objectives and pain points, build strategic roadmaps to drive positive outcomes, and provide exceptional collaboration and guidance.
• Develop account growth strategies, collaborate with category leadership, leverage market knowledge and client insights, including territory management, pipeline opportunities, and cross-sell referral activity where applicable.
• Prepare compelling sales strategies, messaging, and presentations. Negotiate and close deals, collect implementation details for client execution.
• Ensure timely and successful delivery of Ascend’s solutions according to customer needs and objectives, exceeding client expectations.
• Prepare and present regular reports on account opportunities, sales forecasts, tailwinds, and headwinds to management.
• Maintain CRM to include prospective client headcount or other category suitability.
• Stay up to date with, and share, industry trends, competitors, and market conditions to identify new business opportunities.

What We're Looking For

• Bachelor’s degree required.
• 6+ years of relevant sales experience.
• Track record of influencing stakeholders up to the executive level with proven negotiation skills.
• Skilled in delivering tailored solutions to clients and managing multiple projects with precision.
• Proficient in written communication for creating sales documents (proposals, contracts).
• Ability to build trust and proactively engage in upselling and cross-selling.
• Strong analytical abilities for sales data interpretation and strategy formation.
• Proven track record in quota-based sales with multi-year multimillion-dollar contracts.
• Nursing education industry knowledge; background in healthcare or higher education experience preferred.
• Proficient in CRM software and MS Office, especially Excel.
• Up to 50% travel.

Nice to Have

• Nursing education knowledge or healthcare/higher education experience preferred.

Compensation & Benefits

• Flexible and generous paid time off
• Competitive medical, dental, vision and life insurance
• 401(k) employer matching program
• Parental leave
• Wellness resources
• Charitable matching program
• On-site workout facilities
• Community outreach groups
• Tuition reimbursement