School Specialty is dedicated to changing education for the better. That means working closely with educators, sharing experience, and traveling into uncharted territories together. Are you ready to make a difference?

We are searching for a Learning Environment Specialist (LES) in the Great Lakes region.  The ideal candidate will be located in the Columbus, OH, Detroit, MI, or Nashville, TN market.  In this role you will work collaboratively with the inside and outside sales teams to represent a comprehensive array of products and services utilized to create a 21^st Century Safe Learning Environment.  The role requires a deep knowledge of the breadth and depth of School Specialty’s offering from furniture, equipment, educational technology, and proprietary safety and security products.  Positioning and presenting this offering is key to success within their customer base.    A critical element of this role is the ability to assess customer needs and provide the proper solutions that drive sales growth while strengthening customer relationships.  The role is expected to build and foster collaboration within Team Selling, while being accountable to meet or exceed sales forecasts. The base salary range for this role is $80K-$100K plus commission and will support MI, OH, WV, KY, & TN.

Access to education is one of North America’s first great innovations. Education has the power to elevate our entire society. It levels the playing field, providing opportunities for children from all economic and cultural backgrounds to uncover hidden talents and unlock their full potential.

Our role as the premier provider of complete learning environments is to innovate, to create amazing products and services born from bold ideas and new perspectives. We exist to equip educators with totally integrated, engaging learning environments — places where students can develop mentally, physically, emotionally, socially, and cognitively; we call this the 21^st Century Safe School.

Change is part of our daily routine, which means you have the chance to leverage your creativity and imagination every day. You’ll be encouraged to push the envelope, to lead through action, and to innovate regardless of your role. We’re striving for nothing short of greatness. These aren’t just words, this is how we work. Are you up for it?

Essential Functions

• Understand the dynamics and trends within the education market, specifically as they relate to learning environments, to promote School Specialty’s 21^st Century Safe School value proposition.   Manage sales opportunities pertaining to this proposition, from identification through post-sale support, by understanding customer, product insight, and learning environment layout and design.

• Establish and build relationships at the local level with key school districts on multiple levels to position and enable the development of key account strategies for growth/penetration and to execute sales plans/initiatives.  Including understanding customer objectives, strategies and requirements in order to present the appropriate learning environment solution. 
• Collaborate with colleagues within the context of School Specialty’s team sell model to achieve sales objectives across the entirety of the Company’s 21^st Century Safe School value proposition, utilizing the breadth and depth of SSI’s learning environment product offering to grow and penetrate accounts.

• Maximize effectiveness through the use of tools and resources (Stratum & OneForce) to focus efforts on driving business and addressing white space opportunities. The role is required to fully utilize the Company's customized version of Salesforce.com, referred to internally as OneForce.

• The role will be expected to manage a travel & entertainment budget and budgets related to other business expenses, such as: samples and trade show / conferences related costs.   All of which will done to ensure alignment with corporate strategy and budget.       
• This role will be required to successfully complete ongoing proficiency and professional development training. This training will consist of various applicable topics and include spending time in the fulfillment centers and within other departments to better understand the operational flow of the organization and other support functions.

• 2-5 years successful outside sales experience required furniture, equipment and/or education technology sales experience with the K-12 education market preferred
• Acceptable driving record, valid driver’s license and insurance in a program compliant automobile
• 4-year college degree (Business, Marketing or Education preferred) or equivalent work experience

• 3-5 years’ experience in furniture and equipment project management/sales or associated field.
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite with an emphasis on Excel and PowerPoint
• Proficiency in the use of CRM (e.g., SalesForce.com)
• Sales Process Skills – time management, territory management, financial management and question and probing skills.
• Furniture and Equipment product knowledge
• Builds networks including social media

• Customer Focus - Building strong customer relationships and delivering customer-centric solutions.
• Decision Quality - Making good and timely decisions that keep the organization moving forward.
• Financial Acumen – Interpreting and applying understanding of key financial indicators to make better business decisions.

• Action Oriented - Taking on new opportunities and tough challenges with a sense of urgency, high energy and enthusiasm
• Drives Results - Consistently achieving results, even under tough circumstances.

• Collaborates - Building partnerships and working collaboratively with others to meet shared objectives.
• Communicates Effectively - Developing and delivering multi-mode communications that convey a clear understanding of the unique needs of different audiences.

• Demonstrates Self-Awareness – Using a combination of feedback and reflection to gain productive insight into personal strengths and weaknesses.

• While performing the duties of this job, the employee is frequently required to sit, hear, use hands to type data, use a personal computer and telephone. This employee will frequently operate a vehicle and occasionally operate business machines. Specific vision abilities required in this job include close vision and the ability to adjust focus. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions
• Mental demands include multi-tasking, decision making, problem solving, comparing, copying, computing, compiling, analyzing, coordinating, and synthesizing data.

• The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and level of work being performed by people assigned to this classification. They are not to be construed as an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, duties, and skills required of personnel so classified. All personnel may be required to perform duties outside of their normal responsibilities from time to time, as needed.
• School Specialty, Inc. is a Drug Free Workplace. All applicants are subject to a drug screen and background check as a condition of employment.
• EEO/AA including Vets and Disabled
• If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please contact us by email at Opportunities@SchoolSpecialty.com and let us know the nature of your request and your contact information.