Grants/Contracts Specialist - Higher Ed. jobs in Washington, DC

Higher Logic exists to connect people, knowledge, and ideas to improve lives and organizations. Through our community solutions, we empower growth-stage businesses and associations to build a more engaged and meaningful relationship with their customers and members. Higher Logic serves more than 3,000 customers, representing over 350,000 online communities with greater than 200 million users in more than 42 countries worldwide. 

Our team is a thriving community of authentic people with diverse experiences and perspectives. We are honest and genuine and believe that sharing ideas and feedback openly helps us to be successful. We believe that diversity and empathy bring us #AllTogether to make us stronger. We learn from failure and successes because both help us to grow and learn. We strive to understand the why behind our actions and bring our best selves to work every day. 

JOB SUMMARY

The Sales Engineer/Senior Sales Engineer is capable of leading technical and in-depth sales presentations and product demonstrations with an aptitude for the sales process. An individual in this role has a vast understanding of industry trends, provides recommendations for future product development, and works with internal teams to assess and develop best practice applications of our products.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITES:

• Lead strategic and technical sales presentations & demonstrations (online and face-to-face), in conjunction with the Account Executive.
• Be available and engaged throughout the sales cycle to provide ongoing technical

insight and product information as required to close deals.

• Assist sales staff in assessing the potential application of company products to meet customer needs including participation in “discovery” meetings, RFP responses, and related qualification activities.
• Liaise with the Product Management and Engineering teams to communicate client needs for the development of future product and platform enhancements.
• Develop, promote, and maintain product-related tools designed for repeat use by internal and external salespeople.
• Maintain ongoing technical product knowledge of all products; keep current on company literature, competition, and market trends via attendance/participation in in-house training, travel & contact with relevant in-house and external engineering, management, industry specialists, trade journals etc.
• Assist with product training of new sales personnel.
• Remain available and in contact with both internal Account Executives and external partners post contract for ongoing sales support and to ensure a smooth customer handoff from the sales process to the Implementation team.
• Conduct all business in accordance with Higher Logic policies and procedures.
• All other duties as assigned.

KNOWLEDGE AND ABILITIES REQUIRED:

• Able to deliver polished technical presentations and demonstrate how product meets client needs
• Excellent oral and written communication skills
• Understanding of subscription-based software sales processes and procedures
• Must be organized, analytical, and possess the ability to eliminate sales obstacles through creative and adaptive approaches
• Well-rounded, business savvy professional who understands the customer relationship management market as well as Cloud- and SaaS-based software architecture.
• Able to quickly learn technologies (experience with large-scale databases and cloud-based architectures is a plus)
• Understanding of referral & reseller partner contract processes