Director of Sales

Description

The Director of Direct Sales is a frontline sales leader responsible for the day-to-day performance, coaching, and development of Sales Account Executives, Inside Sales Representatives, Relationship Account Managers, and Quoting Representatives supporting the western region.

This leader translates Capstone's revenue strategy into team and individual execution plans, owns the team forecast, and drives new-business growth, account expansion, customer retention, and renewals. Success requires active performance management, hands‑on coaching, strong analytical judgment, and close cross‑functional collaboration.

Our preference is for this role to be based out of either our North Mankato, MN or Edina, MN locations (hybrid work schedule of a minimum of 2 days per week in office). Fully remote work may be considered.

Your work will directly impact an innovative company whose mission is to improve the educational experiences of children and the educators who serve them. Capstone is a fast-paced growth company committed to cultivating a love of reading and learning. We know that Learning is for Everyone.

For more than 30 years, Capstone has been a national leader in K-5 educational content including digital products (Pebble Go, Pebble Go Next, Capstone Interactive, Capstone Create) and award‑winning books. We combine a passion for helping foster a powerful love of reading and learning with the talent to create amazing content.

We are a mission‑driven company that provides opportunities for professional learning and development and a culture of inclusion and belonging.

• Lead, motivate, and manage the daily performance of the West sales team.
• Establish clear team and individual goals aligned with Capstone's revenue, renewal, retention, and customer‑growth objectives.
• Conduct regular one‑on‑one meetings, team meetings, performance reviews, and development conversations.
• Recognize strong performance and address performance gaps promptly through clear expectations, coaching, and improvement plans.
• Recruit, onboard, develop, and retain high‑performing team members.
• Foster an accountable, collaborative, and customer‑focused team culture.

• Own the team's new‑business and renewal forecast, ensuring timely, accurate, and evidence‑based projections.
• Conduct regular pipeline, opportunity, and renewal‑risk reviews.
• Hold team members accountable for accurate and timely updates.
• Identify pipeline gaps, forecast risks, upside opportunities, and at‑risk renewals; develop action plans with individual team members.
• Communicate forecast changes, business risks, and recommended actions to the VP of Direct Sales.
• Monitor pipeline coverage, conversion, retention, productivity, and other key performance indicators.

• Translate Capstone's revenue strategy into clear team, individual, customer‑segment, and account‑level execution plans.
• Develop and execute plans for new‑customer acquisition, account growth, customer retention, and renewals.
• Establish priorities for prospecting, pipeline development, customer engagement, renewal preparation, and at‑risk customer recovery.
• Assign and balance accounts, opportunities, and workload to maximize coverage and productivity.
• Use performance data, customer insight, market conditions, and competitive activity to adjust team priorities and execution.
• Provide sales leadership and cross‑functional partners with insight into customer needs, market trends, competitive activity, and barriers to growth.

• Provide consistent, hands‑on coaching focused on seller performance, execution, skill development, and career growth.
• Observe customer calls and sales interactions and provide timely, specific, and actionable feedback.
• Coach team members on prospecting, discovery, solution positioning, account planning, opportunity advancement, renewals, negotiation, objection handling, and closing.
• Assess individual and team capability gaps and establish development priorities.
• Create individual coaching and development plans with clear actions, milestones, and…