Strategic Partnerships Manager

Job Title: Strategic Partnerships Manager

Location: London, Hybrid (min. 2 days per week in the office)

Full time, Permanent

About Springer Nature Group

Springer Nature opens the doors to discovery for researchers, educators, clinicians and other professionals. Every day, around the globe, our imprints, books, journals, platforms and technology solutions reach millions of people. For over 175 years our brands and imprints have been a trusted source of knowledge to these communities and today, more than ever, we see it as our responsibility to ensure that fundamental knowledge can be found, verified, understood and used by our communities – enabling them to improve outcomes, make progress, and benefit the generations that follow.

Short Summary of the Team

The Strategic Partnership team forms part of the Commercial Partnerships division at Springer Nature and provides research organisations all over the world with highly effective solutions designed to support their research endeavours as well as help them create, communicate and amplify their thought leadership across all scientific disciplines. 

Purpose of Role

Are you successful in selling innovative solutions to Research Leaders?

In July 2022 we launched our Nature Research Intelligence Portfolio (www.nature.com/research-intelligence) which has introduced new solutions such as Nature Navigator and Nature Strategy Reports that offer Research Intelligence and Insights to research based organisations.

As a Strategic Partnership Manager, you will be consultative and have the confidence to engage with research management at universities and research institutions, identify their key challenges and advise them on how our Nature Research Intelligence solutions can help them solve their pain points and support their goals. Typical roles that you will prospect are:

Research Office, Research Administration, the Vice Provost for Research, Director Research Strategy & Development and other leaders that are involved in developing research strategies for their organisations.

You will also collaborate with sales colleagues from other teams on shared accounts and complement their existing client relationships with your sales and product competences by presenting the Nature Research Intelligence portfolio where appropriate. During the solution evaluation phase, you will be supported by product management and a team of research intelligence consultants. The position will report to the Commercial Director, Reputation Solutions. 

Responsibilities:

• Acquire meetings and establish relationships with research leaders in the academic and government sectors in your territory.
• Identify customer needs and generate opportunities to actively pitch Nature Navigator and Nature Strategy Reports
• Meet annual revenue targets.
• Develop a thorough understanding of how customers are using products such as Scopus, Web of Science, Incites, SciVal for competitive selling.
• Demonstrate our product capabilities, overcome objections and create a customer specific buying vision.
• Provide feedback to product management and marketing to inform their roadmap and campaign planning
• Actively collaborate with other sales colleagues on shared accounts
• Professional territory, pipeline and opportunity development and management with regular status reporting and updates to commercial management and product partners

You are awesome at:

• Understanding the roles of key stakeholders involved in research strategies at universities and research institutions.
• Consultative, strategic and competitive selling
• Selling new solutions to customers and closing significant six-figure deals
• Building rapport and securing meetings with senior decision makers/Economic Buyers
• Collaborating across teams and with internal stakeholders

Experience and Skill requirements:

• Significant commercial experience, preferably within a B2B environment.
• Proven track record of strategic and solutions selling.
• Sales experience in academic, non-profit, government sectors and corporate institutions, with senior decision makers.
• Experience of selling a wide portfolio of insights and analytics solutions, digital, print and offline products
• Effective pipeline management and financial forecasting.
• Experience in CRM systems.

Skills and Knowledge

• Deep familiarity with the academic and research marketplace with a focus on Europe
• Strong personal presence and influencing skills; ability to quickly establish rapport and productive relationships with senior-level institutional executives.
• In-depth understanding of the scientific publishing process.
• Understanding of structures and decision-making process within academic institutions.
• Knowledge of CRM systems best practice.
• Proficient public speaking and presentation skills.
• Ability to collaborate within a complex team environment to close commercial projects.
• Excellent verbal and written communication and relationship building skills.
• Proven ability to achieve and exceed sales quotas.
• Willingness to travel within territory for client meetings and events.
• Fluent English language skills. One other EU language would be a bonus, but not a necessity.

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Springer Nature is a Disability Confident Committed Employer and we encourage applications from candidates with disabilities. If you consider yourself to have a disability or learning difficulty and wish to submit your application in an alternative format or would like to discuss reasonable adjustments during the application and interview process, please get in touch either by phone on +44 (0)207 014 4020 or by email [email protected] so we can make any necessary arrangements.

At Springer Nature we value the diversity of our teams. We recognize the many benefits of a diverse workforce with equitable opportunities for everyone. We strive for an inclusive workplace that empowers all our colleagues to thrive. Our search for the best talent fully encompasses and embraces these values and principles. Springer Nature was awarded Diversity Team of the Year at the 2022 British Diversity Awards.