Higher Ed - Business Development Associate
Vista Higher Learning is a company focused on developing culturally authentic language learning products for K-12 schools and universities. They are seeking a Business Development Associate to accelerate growth and course adoption in higher education segments by engaging with faculty and managing projects in collaboration with marketing and sales teams.
Responsibilities
- Proactively, effectively and reliably identify and engage faculty and program leads in underserved or high-potential markets
- Initiate contact through telephone calls, emails, and digital outreach to engage faculty and program leads
- Converts initial contacts into meaningful conversations that advance the sales cycle and conduct structured discoveries and needs analysis with prospects
- Qualify prospects through structured discovery, needs analysis, and consultative conversations, ensuring all activity and outcomes are accurately documented in Salesforce
- Own the early-stage pipeline for smaller opportunities, progressing them through to close; for larger opportunities, ensure seamless, well-documented handoff to sales team
- Qualify leads based on clearly defined criteria, and document progression in Salesforce
- Facilitate organized and well-documented transitions of qualified opportunities to sales reps, providing thorough engagement summaries and suggested next steps
- Execute regional sampling programs: distribute trial access and courseware, track engagement, gather feedback, and report actionable insights to relevant stakeholders to inform product strategy and drive adoption
- Partner with Marketing to follow up on campaigns and events, respond promptly to all marketing-generated leads, and advance opportunities through the pipeline
- Support retention and base business by aligning outreach with marketing and customer success messaging, leveraging data (e.g., Course Tech Usage, Student Buying Behaviors) to secure new edition adoptions
- Maintain meticulous records of all outreach, sampling, and qualification activities to ensure data accuracy, transparency, and compliance with VHL standards
- Demonstrate creative problem-solving and resourcefulness in overcoming access barriers and penetrating niche segments, while upholding VHL’s values and compliance standards
- Provide regular updates activity volume, pipeline status, sampling feedback, and results
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams (marketing, product, business operations, account management) to review pipeline quality, handoff effectiveness, identify opportunities for continuous improvement and align solutions with client needs
Skills
- Bachelor's degree minimum
- 1+ years' experience in sales support, business development, project coordination, or customer success
- Relationship building, interpersonal and communication skills to effectively and appropriately speak with potential customers and team members in a professional and meaningful way
- Experience using a CRM or similar sales tools to manage sales activities
- Willingness to travel up to 10% of time
- Experience in the education technology (ed-tech), higher education, language learning or publishing industry
- Experience using Salesforce.com
Benefits
- Life/health/dental/vision insurance
- 401(k)
- Educational assistance
- Commuter pass subsidies
- Generous employee referral bonuses
- PTO
- Paid holidays
Company Overview