Director of SMB Sales
JELLYVISION NEEDS A DYNAMIC LEADER TO BE OUR DIRECTOR OF ALEX EXPRESS (SMB) SALES
Founded by the creator of the YOU DON'T KNOW JACK® game series, The Jellyvision Lab, Inc. creates virtual teachers, advisors, and salespeople who make online learning and decision making delightful. In all that we do, our goal is to make complex topics simple and boring material interesting, using a combination of great design, unexpectedly funny content, and serious technology.
Of all the virtual people Jellyvision has created, the tallest and least afraid of bears is ALEX® (www.meetalex.com). ALEX helps companies talk their employees through the tricky choices they’ll have to make, like picking a health insurance plan, deciding how much to put in the 401(k), or whether they might want extra life insurance. Our customers love ALEX because he helps their employees figure out what’s best for their personal situations, which, in turn, saves our customers a boat-load of time and money - everybody wins! As we sell more and more of ALEX, we need more and more non-virtual (i.e., real life) people to keep the virtual ones amazing. That’s where you come in.
THAT’S LOVELY, BUT WHAT’S THE JOB?
Working closely with and reporting to the VP of Sales, you will contribute to the growth of ALEX by leading, managing and expanding a team of ALEX Express Account Executives. The target market for ALEX Express clients is small to medium sized employers with fewer than 2,000 benefits-eligible employees nationwide. At the Express level, ALEX is configurable to create a unique ALEX experience for each client, while also turnkey with a much shorter implementation time than our customizable Enterprise product. The Account Executives on the Express Sales Team work hard to navigate the short but complex sales process inherent in selling SaaS software into HR departments in the SMB space. In the Director of Sales for this team, we need someone skilled at managing a high-performing sales team with a combination of humor, high expectations, coaching, organization, accountability, flexibility, and respect and care for each member of the team.
Jellyvision is at a really exciting place in its history as a company – growing like crazy and with serious goals for future growth. As we expand our sales team, we need to add a leader with significant experience coaching high performing teams through a consultative sales process, increasing conversion rates and closing deals left and right. We’ve got a great team of Account Executives (AEs) already in place, with plans to double our salesforce this year. So we’re looking for someone with experience hiring and training early-career sales professionals – and then leading them to tremendous success closing deals. The AEs are supported by a rock solid team of inside appointment setters – our Business Development Representatives (BDRs) – who prospect, cold call, and set appointments for AEs to speak with interested companies. And the BDRs will be fertile hunting ground for your next hires in the Express AE role, as we’re very invested in creating a training culture and promoting from within.
And what specifically would I do leading this rock star team? Our Director of Express Sales will be responsible for:
- Managing performance and coaching your team.
- You’ll meet with your Account Executives one-on-one weekly to review their pipeline, process compliance, and progress towards goals. You’ll be responsible for mentoring your team and identifying coachable moments, helping each AE diagnose and correct approaches that are holding them back, and reinforcing effective strategies and behavior.
- You’ll routinely attend pre-qualifying calls and follow-up meetings with each of your Account Executives to understand their selling techniques and gain insight into coachable moments.
- Working with other sales leaders, you’ll participate in and lead team meetings and daily stand-ups.
- Building a rock star team.
- As we continue to grow, you’ll be involved heavily in the hiring process for your team: interviewing, participating in auditions (an important part of Jellyvision hiring) and helping us make the right decisions about new talent to hire.
- To set up your new hires for success, you’ll share your ideas for refining and expanding our AE training and on-boarding program – we welcome thoughts on how best to get new hires up to speed on Jellyvision’s sales process, learn the ins and outs of ALEX, most effectively shadow other Account Executives, etc.
- And once folks are on board, you’ll provide continuous training and feedback to all team members.
- Developing strategy and direction of strategic Express partnerships and product.
- We partner and work closely with many of the leading brokers and consulting companies in the benefits space. You’ll be responsible for the interplay between Jellyvision and these strategic partners, helping your team work closely with them to prospect and close deals.
- Your team will receive product feedback from customers as well as partners. You’ll be responsible for getting this feedback to the product team, ensuring we’re staying current on market trends in the SMB space and evolving the Express product specifically for this market.
- Maintaining a close eye on team dynamics.
- Each Jellyvision salesperson calls into a specific territory. Working closely with the VP of Sales, you’ll work to manage the territory split for a growing team of salespeople.
- You’ll manage the relationships between your AEs and the BDRs they work with to increase their efficiency and productivity.
- Close communication with the VP of Sales and Executive team.
- Each week, you’ll provide an accurate forecast of sales progress for your team.
- Each month, you’ll report on individual and team dynamics and performance.
SO WHAT KIND OF FOLKS ARE YOU LOOKING FOR?
While we’re big believers that the right “DNA” and cultural fit are what makes for a successful hire, we’ll take an early shine to candidates with the following background, skills, and experience:
- Proven management experience. Ideally, 6+ years of experience managing employees in a new business sales environment, preferably in the HR or SaaS Sales Industry. We’re looking for managers who love working with people and coaching their team members to perform to the best of their abilities.
- Experience cold-calling, hunting, and closing new business. The wisdom you’ll share with your team to make them better salespeople will come from lessons you learned and knowledge you gained from years of being a successful salesperson yourself, one who constantly meets and exceeds sales targets.
- Organization and time management skills in spades. Sales at Jellyvision is fast-paced. This role will require you to excel at the tasks directly in front of you, while also keeping your eye on the big picture. Serious organizational chops are required to manage all of that in a company growing as quickly as ours – and it’s an important thing to model for your team.
- Creative problem-solving skills. When your Account Executive hits a roadblock, you’ll want to get involved and come up with solutions to keep the process moving towards a deal.
- You must be a relationship builder– trust and communication are the pillars of any relationship. And you need to be skilled at building authentic, trusting relationships both internally and externally. Having mad people skills and developing a rapport with everyone on your team will contribute to your success as the leader of a hungry, hard-working, and driven Account Executive team.
- You should also be able to challenge people in a charming way. Giving advice and constructive criticism is a fine art. You should know each of your individual team members well and adapt your approach to each of them in a way that brings out the best in them every day.
- A good eye for talent. As our sales team continues to grow, you’ll be responsible for helping to find and identify the next great Jellyvision salespeople. We’re looking for smart, driven people interested in sales who have hustle and are great culture fits for the team. And once those folks are on board, you’ll need to…
- …Be able to lead by example and maximize the talent of your team. To gain insight into how each of your Account Executives are doing, each month you’ll attend 2 pre-qualifying calls and one follow-up meeting per each rep.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills– the ability to talk and write with confidence, charisma, and competence for a wide variety of audiences.
- Ability to play well with others. Sales at Jellyvision is a team effort. You’ll work closely with the other sales team members, the marketing team, and members of the legal, creative, engineering, and implementation staffs.
- A phenomenal sense of humor. Yes, it will make you more effective. It’s also a job requirement at Jellyvision.
Well, what do ya know! We asked a few of our Account Executives on your behalf. Check it out here: http://bit.ly/21tOZE5
I'M INSPIRED. I WANT TO HEAR MORE.
We knew you'd say that. Here are a few more specific videos from the team:
David shares his favorite client success story: http://bit.ly/1LoZnv1
Jessica shares why she loves to demo at Jellyvision: http://bit.ly/1nM3WnB
Omar shares his definition of “sales” and his approach to the sales process: http://bit.ly/1prXV1c
ANYTHING ELSE?
Yes. We only hire nice, bright, funny people who are willing to work hard. Jellyvision is a group effort and our Sales folks must be capable of working collaboratively with creative, technical, and project management types. Everyone at Jellyvision shares a commitment to excellence and a desire to work in a comfortable, friendly atmosphere.
ARE THERE ANY PERKS? Yes, we love perks.
- Competitive pay, stock options and benefits. 401(k) with matching. And we pay 100% of the cost of premiums for medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance for our employees (as long as you qualify for our tobacco-free discount; if you’re a tobacco user, your medical premiums will be higher than $0). We also cover a really nice chunk of the cost of premiums for spouse/partner/dependent medical, dental and vision insurance.
- Casual dress and a flexible schedule. Come in a sweatshirt, jeans, whatever, like everyone else here.
- Creative work environment. We are lucky to work in a place that is full of intelligent, talented and innovative folks. Although most hours the place is deathly quiet (we're a focused bunch), this is punctuated with hilarious outbursts and general merriment, which makes a nice way to spend the day.
- Easy transportation. We’re really close to the "L" and the Halsted (#8) bus (right by the new Apple Store and Mega Whole Foods if that’s your kind of thing), and we have a transit FSA that allows you to dedicate pre-tax dollars to public transportation expenses. Since a number of our employees like to bike to work, we also have showers and lockers in the office.
- Did we mention our yoga class? We bring a pro instructor right to the office. Fully subsidized by Jellyvision and fully optional, btw.
- Oh! And you should know that we have a massage chair. And not just any massage chair, my friend. It’s the HumanTouch HT 5320 WholeBody™ Massage Chair. Feeling a little stiff? Sit down. Relax. Feel better? Good. Okay, back to work.
- Free food. Every week, we stock our kitchen with free healthy snack foods, and we have a “hot lunch” catered once a week to give people a reason to hang out and eat together.
INTERESTED? GREAT! HERE’S HOW TO APPLY:
We need:
- Your resume.
- A cover letter that highlights 3 reasons you think you’d be great for the gig, along with the best piece of feedback you’ve ever received (you know, one that was hard to hear but helped you grow and taught you a lot about how important it is to give feedback to the folks you manage). Writing is key to all that we do, and we weigh cover letters heavily.
You should receive an auto-reply confirming that we’ve received your application.
NO PHONE CALLS OR FOLLOW-UP EMAILS, PLEASE. If you do decide to apply, please know that every complete application will be carefully reviewed. Seriously! We know it is a time commitment to prepare an application. We will respect that effort by thoughtfully reviewing every single complete application and responding one way or the other, and we are truly grateful for your interest.
Thank you for your interest in Jellyvision!