Sales Development Respresentative

Sales Development Representative
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.

• 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 Rev Ops.

• 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 Linked In to nurture leads that aren't yet ready to buy or to re‑engage stale prospects with relevant content and insights.

• 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.