Strategic Account Manager

Lightspeed Systems has been building solutions to help K-12 IT departments keep the technology students and teachers use safe and easily managed for twenty years, but we don’t stagnate; our solutions keep getting better. Our growing company is searching for a Strategic Account Manager (SAM) who is passionate about maximizing client value and serving as the primary point of contact for our largest district partners in an assigned territory. Within this role, the SAM will be expected to become an entrenched thought partner tasked with managing and growing relationships with our strategic accounts, particularly as it relates to securing contract renewals and cross-sell opportunities in pursuit of meeting or exceeding annual retention and growth targets. 

ABOUT THE ROLE

Note: This position requires a minimum of 50% travel. The following are the essential functions of the position. It is not an exhaustive list.

• Manage numerous accounts concurrently and strategically 
• Foster teamwork and a supportive departmental culture with an emphasis on ensuring exceptional client service 
• Drive adoption and expansion in a defined set of accounts to meet or exceed revenue targets 
• Develop and implement effective business process improvements specific to your clients and applicable to the account management team. 
• Create and articulate compelling value propositions around Lightspeed Systems 
• Analyze sales data from your accounts to help evolve your strategy 
• Accelerate customer category adoption through education and engagement 
• Build deep relationships with strategic client partners through a consultative approach to fully understand client objectives, goals, and desired outcomes 
• Establish a high level of rapport and trust with clients, while demonstrating a deep understanding of district needs and initiatives 
• Leverage strategic district partner insights to manage expectations and motivate clients to unlock and maximize the full potential of Lightspeed Systems’ products 
• Lead strategic planning meetings with key district stakeholders and serve as a thought-partner should a client express interest in rolling out new modules or features 
• Develop long-term strategic relationships within accounts with multiple senior stakeholders across the organization  
• Support and manage client requests, issues, escalations, and feedback 
• Anticipate client needs and proactively mitigate risk throughout the client life cycle, ensuring a frictionless renewal and negotiation process to ultimately position accounts for growth 
• Complete renewal lifecycle management, including all commercial tasks such as obtaining Purchase Orders, quoting, contract negotiation, and order creation and submission 
• Partner with resellers to assist with renewals and cross-sell opportunities 
• Navigate, interpret, and leverage internal tools to measure and report on client experience, account health, product utilization, consumed content, and realization of value drivers 
• Take corrective actions in a timely manner based on this visibility and make strategic recommendations to help clients be more successful 
• Thought partner with clients to drive adoption of best practices for successful implementation 
• Prepare and facilitate business review meetings, trainings, webinars, demos, and other strategic and supportive interactions to ensure a seamless renewal 
• Synthesize client expectations and preferences for Product and Development Teams to make product enhancements 
• Identify, negotiate, and close opportunities for expansion and cross-sell, tracking all stages of the process in the CRM 
• Maintain accurate data in CRM, such as client contact information, subscriptions, licenses, pricing, special agreements, and more 
• Mitigate client cancelation requests and coordinate with necessary cross-functional teams to identify opportunities to save the renewal, resolve client issues, and help drive retention 
• Perform additional duties and projects as assigned  

ABOUT YOU 

The following knowledge, experience, skills, abilities, and key behaviors are preferred or required to perform this job: 

• Four-year degree preferred, minimum 7 years of client service experience or equivalent education and experience
• Client-obsessed; seeks to develop deep relationships with key client stakeholders to become a strategic thought-partner
• Exceptionally strong verbal and written communications skills, both with internal teams and external entities
• Effectively operates with high-energy and flexibility in a fast-paced, constantly evolving team environment
• Confident identifying areas of expansion through cross-selling, navigating conversations around budget, and closing business 
• History of managing complex client organizations with multi-threaded stakeholder management
• Analytical thinker with a talent for decomposing problems and generating scalable solutions
• Capable of ingesting and synthesizing complex data down to the key story elements to compel and sell to key stakeholders
• Ability to deal with ambiguity and execute in gray areas not completely defined by the role 
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite
• Experience with Salesforce preferred
• Knowledge about SaaS industry sales preferred 
• Able to travel ~50% of the time.

ABOUT US 

For over 20 years, Lightspeed Systems® has been a leader in the ever-changing landscape of K-12 learning technology. Lightspeed Systems works with tens of thousands of schools to maximize the safety, mobility, and effectiveness of their students’ learning experience. Every device can be covered with the most effective web filter, student safety monitor, classroom management software, device management tool, and analytics program available. Learn more at www.lightspeedsystems.com. 

We love our employees, and we show it. A sneak peek into our BENEFITS & PERKS include: 

• Health-- Medical, dental and vision insurance with healthy company contribution toward premiums. Lightspeed kicks cash into your HSA if you participate our HDHP. 
• Wellness-- Paid parental leave. Healthy holiday and PTO policy, including Christmas to New Year’s Day break. 
• Retirement-- 401(k) matching up to 6% 
• Other -- Work from where it makes sense. Pet insurance. 

ABOUT OUR ATX HQ 

If “work from where it makes sense” includes being onsite for you some or all the time, you will LOVE being at the ranch. Our uniquely Lightspeed (and totally Texas) corporate headquarters has everything Lightspeeders need to get the job done – and a whole lot more. 

• 15,000 sq. ft. of open work area, offices, and huddle rooms 
• A private chef serving up breakfast & lunch Tuesday through Thursday every week 
• A state-of-the-art fitness center (with outfitted locker rooms)
• Physical therapist onsite regularly  
• Indoor and outdoor casual collaboration spots 
• Pet-friendly office environment 
• A golf simulator, go-carts, shuffleboard, corn hole, and MORE fun 

All within 31 sprawling acres of Live Oak trees that foster a natural habitat for local wildlife. It is not uncommon to be greeted daily by whitetail deer. (Maybe it wants to join your meeting?)