Job Description
Job Description: Ceres is seeking a Software Sales Associate for our innovative genomics application, Persephone™. The Software Sales Associate will have the opportunity to play a significant role in the success of our SaaS edition. As part of our dynamic and growing team, the Software Sales Associate will be responsible for generating leads, conducting web-based and in-person demonstrations, developing relationships with prospects, and driving new business within the academic and commercial life sciences industry focused on SaaS subscribers. This position will be a part of the Persephone sales team and will report to the Sr. Manager, Business Development – Persephone software. The ideal candidate will have a genuine passion for innovative technology with a record of success closing transactions in the SaaS business model. Product Background: Driven by dramatically lower costs, DNA sequencing is one of the most commonly used technologies in biological & medical research laboratories. Sequencing an entire genome now costs less than an MRI scan. This explosion of sequence data is being stored across a number of both private and public databases, many of which are poorly organized or curated. This creates a major hurdle in the efficient organization, analysis and interpretation of what has become an overload of data. Persephone has been developed to eliminate this bottleneck by enabling the rapid and easy visualization of large amounts of genomics data by experts and non-experts alike, in a manner that is intuitive, scalable and actionable. Specifically, Persephone has been designed with a number of optimizations to quickly fetch and render very large datasets. These include, optimized database schema and compression, relational infrastructure, API and client caching, intuitive user interface and proprietary data management algorithms. Company Background: Ceres, Inc. is a leading agricultural biotechnology company based in Thousand Oaks, California. We use a combination of advanced plant breeding and biotechnology to develop seed products that we believe address the limitations of first-generation bioenergy feedstocks, increase crop productivity, reduce crop inputs and improve cultivation on marginal land. We also license our genetics technology, software and biotech traits to other organizations.
What You Will Do: • Prospect through cold calling, email, in person communications and respond to incoming leads to build and maintain a pipeline that will exceed quotas. • Networking within Universities to establish community interest in software • Demonstrate key elements of software to prospective customers through online and in-person demonstrations and answer feature and functional questions. • Represent the Persephone product at conferences and exhibits. • Set up meetings as needed for Sr. Manager for new customer accounts. • Must be a team player and have the ability to build relationships with clients and staff. What We Are Looking For: • Bachelor’s degree (preferably in the life sciences) • =1 year of SaaS sales experience. • Salesforce.com experience preferred. • Superb written and verbal communication skills. • A passion and proven track record for driving SaaS sales. • High customer orientation and self-motivation. • Must be detail oriented with the ability to multi-task. • Experience with social media platforms. • Ability to demonstrate a polished and professional demeanor at all times. • Additional responsibilities as requested and required
