Sales Development Respresentative

HYBRID - 2 days per week in Holborn office

SALARY: £40,000

Times Higher Education is the data provider underpinning university excellence in every continent across the world. As the company behind the world’s most influential university ranking, and with almost five decades of experience as a source of analysis and insight on higher education, we have unparalleled expertise on the trends underpinning university performance globally. Our data and benchmarking tools are used by many of the world’s most prestigious universities to help them achieve their strategic goals and our events series act as the home of higher education thought leadership around the world.

We are looking for a proactive and ambitious Sales Development Representative (SDR) to join our commercial team. This role is the engine of our sales growth, sitting at the very top of the funnel. Your core mission will be to engage with and qualify leads generated through our high‑profile marketing campaigns, website traffic, and events. You will act as the bridge between marketing and the sales team, transforming inbound interest into tangible sales opportunities. By understanding the unique challenges faced by university leaders, academics and administrative staff, you will identify how THE can best support their institutional mission. This is a fantastic opportunity for a commercially minded individual to launch their career in data and insights sales within a globally respected organization. This role will play a key part in improving early‑funnel quality, ensuring only well‑qualified leads enter the pipeline to increase conversion rates and support more accurate forecasting.

Key Responsibilities

• Inbound Lead Qualification (Core Focus)
• First Responder: Act as the first point of contact for inbound inquiries (demo requests, content downloads, webinar attendees), ensuring rapid response times to maximize engagement.
• Needs Discovery: Conduct high‑level discovery conversations with prospects (Vice‑Chancellors, Pro‑Vice‑Chancellors, Heads of Strategy, Library Directors) to understand their strategic goals and pain points.
• Qualification: Rigorously qualify leads using a structured methodology (e.g., BANT) to determine budget, authority, need, and timeline for our data products (e.g., THE World University Rankings data, Impact Rankings, data visualization tools).
• Pipeline Building: Successfully convert qualified leads into Sales Qualified Leads (SQLs) and schedule high‑value meetings for the Account Executive team. Maintain high qualification discipline to ensure only high‑quality leads progress to SQL, directly contributing to increased conversion rates. Ensure consistent CRM updates at each qualification step to improve funnel visibility for Sales, Marketing, and RevOps.
• Outbound Engagement & Research
• Strategic Prospecting: While the role is inbound‑heavy, you will conduct targeted research on key accounts and university prospects to identify new stakeholders or expansion opportunities within existing relationships.
• Multi‑Channel Outreach: Utilize a mix of phone, email, and LinkedIn to nurture leads that aren’t yet ready to buy or to re‑engage stale prospects with relevant content and insights.
• Collaboration & Process
• Sales & Marketing Alignment: Work closely with the marketing team to provide feedback on campaign quality and lead intelligence, helping to refine targeting for future campaigns.
• CRM Excellence: Maintain meticulous records of all prospect interactions, lead status, and intelligence within the CRM (e.g., Salesforce). Ensure data hygiene to provide accurate forecasting.
• Market Intelligence: Stay up to date on trends in global higher education to speak credibly with senior academic leaders and understand the competitive landscape. Collaborate with Revenue Operations to refine lead routing rules, qualification frameworks, and data requirements for early‑funnel stages. Participate in continuous improvement initiatives by sharing process bottlenecks, patterns, and opportunities for optimization. Uphold data hygiene standards to support reliable forecasting and improve funnel clarity across teams.

Essential Skills & Experience

• Proven Communicator: Exceptional verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to articulate complex value propositions clearly and concisely to C‑level executives.
• Resilience & Drive: A positive, "can‑do" attitude with the resilience to handle rejection and the hustle to consistently hit daily activity and meeting‑setting targets.
• Active Listener: A natural curiosity to understand client needs rather than just pitching a product. You should be consultative by nature.
• Organizational Prowess: Ability to manage a high volume of leads, prioritize tasks effectively, and follow through diligently in a fast‑paced environment.
• Tech Savvy: Comfortable learning new tools. Experience with Salesforce and Acoustic is a plus.
• Data‑driven mindset: Comfortable using dashboards, activity metrics, and lead insights to guide daily priorities.

Preferred Experience & Mindset

• SaaS/Data Experience: 0‑2 years of experience in a sales development, business development, or inside sales role, ideally within a B2B SaaS, data, or subscription‑based business.
• Academic Interest: A genuine interest in higher education, university management, or global policy is highly desirable. A bachelor’s degree is preferred but not required if experience is strong.
• Team Player: A collaborative spirit, eager to share insights with the team and learn from senior sales colleagues.
• Data‑oriented: Thrives in process‑oriented environments where workflows evolve to improve conversion rates and relationship quality.

With colleagues located around the world, we know that our individuality and diversity of experiences are our greatest strengths. That’s why we want THE to be a place where you are welcome to be who you want to be at work; where you can share whatever part of your life or self‑identity you want, without obligation or facing discrimination; and where all abilities and perspectives are recognised and accommodated.