Sales Manager

We believe in the power and joy of learning

At Cengage, our employees have a direct impact in helping learners around the world discover the power and joy of learning. We are bonded by our shared purpose – driving innovation that helps millions of learners improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

Position Summary

Infosec is seeking a hands-on Mid-Market Sales Manager to lead and develop a team of inbound and outbound sales representatives focused on accomplishing revenue growth through our cybersecurity training solutions. This leader will be responsible for building and implementing two distinct but complementary sales approaches: increasing conversion of inbound opportunities and actively generating new business via outbound prospecting.

Key Responsibilities

Sales Leadership & Team Development

• Lead, mentor, and grow a team of inbound and outbound mid-market sales representatives to consistently reach individual and team revenue goals.
• Establish a culture of accountability, continuous improvement, collaboration, and high performance.
• Conduct regular one-on-one coaching sessions, pipeline reviews, deal strategy discussions, and performance evaluations.
• Develop representatives' capabilities in prospecting, discovery, objection handling, consultative selling, negotiation, and closing.
• Recognize areas of underperformance and apply focused coaching and growth strategies.
• Participate in recruiting, hiring, onboarding, and ramping new sales talent.

Inbound Sales Management & Conversion Optimization

• Own the performance of the inbound sales motion, ensuring timely lead engagement, effective qualification, and strong conversion rates.
• Define and maintain clear expectations regarding lead response times, follow-up intervals, opportunity management, and sales actions.
• Observe and optimize critical conversion metrics, including lead-to-opportunity, opportunity-to-close, win rates, and average deal size.
• Collaborate closely with Marketing to assess lead quality, campaign effectiveness, lead volume, and conversion opportunities.
• Implement consistent sales processes that improve revenue from inbound demand.
• Support representatives in uncovering extra customer needs, growing deal value, and boosting overall customer experience.

Outbound Sales Execution & Pipeline Generation

• Establish and direct a forward-thinking outbound sales process targeting the acquisition of new business in assigned mid-market zones.
• Set clear expectations for prospecting efforts, account targeting, pipeline development, and opportunity identification.
• Coach representatives on effective multichannel prospecting strategies, including phone, email, social selling, and personalized outreach.
• Ensure representatives develop territory and account plans that prioritize high-potential prospects and industries.
• Maintain steady pipeline growth to meet revenue goals and decrease reliance on inbound demand.
• Track outbound success by assessing activity levels, meaningful customer conversations, qualified opportunities, pipeline created, and revenue generated.

Revenue Performance, Forecasting & Sales Operations

• Own overall mid-market revenue performance, quota attainment, pipeline health, and forecast accuracy.
• Establish measurable benchmarks appropriate to the different inbound and outbound sales motions.
• Conduct weekly pipeline and forecast reviews to assess deal progression, identify risks, and improve close rates.
• Use Salesforce dashboards and reports to assess individual and group performance.
• Ensure strong CRM field, including accurate opportunity management, next steps, close dates, and forecasting.
• Detect trends and performance gaps and carry out actionable improvement plans.
• Drive consistent execution against monthly, quarterly, and annual revenue objectives.

Sales Strategy & Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Complete the mid-market go-to-market strategy aligned with Infosec's overall growth objectives.
• Work alongside Marketing to boost inbound lead generation, lead quality, campaign effectiveness, and sales conversion.
• Work together with Sales Enablement to strengthen sales approaches, onboarding, training, and continuous development.
• Work closely with Revenue Operations to optimize territories, lead routing, sales processes, reporting, and performance measurement.
• Partner with Customer Success and other sales teams to ensure effective account transitions and identification of growth opportunities.
• Provide market and customer feedback to help refine messaging, competitive positioning, and sales strategies.
• Continuously identify ways to boost sales productivity, efficiency, and scalability.

Required Qualifications

• 5+ years of B2B sales experience, including at least 3 years of sales management experience leading quota-carrying sales representatives.
• Demonstrated success managing teams responsible for both inbound lead conversion and outbound new business development.
• Proven track record of consistently achieving or exceeding team revenue and quota targets.
• Experience selling into mid-market organizations, preferably within cybersecurity, technology, professional training, or B2B services.
• Strong understanding of inside sales, transactional and consultative sales methodologies, and high-velocity sales environments.
• Demonstrated ability to coach and develop sales representatives through structured feedback, call reviews, deal coaching, and performance management.
• Experience establishing or advancing outbound prospecting efforts and ensuring continuous pipeline creation.
• Strong analytical skills with the ability to interpret sales activity, conversion rates, pipeline metrics, and revenue performance.
• Proficiency with Salesforce or a comparable CRM platform, including pipeline management, forecasting, and reporting.
• Strong communication, leadership, organizational, and problem-solving skills.
• Ability to balance long-term planning with hands-on coaching and day-to-day sales execution.
• Experience partnering with Marketing, Revenue Operations, and Sales Enablement to boost sales effectiveness.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience leading sales teams through a transition from reactive, responding-to-inquiries selling to proactive outbound prospecting and consultative selling.
• Experience selling cybersecurity training, IT certification programs, workforce development, or professional education solutions.
• Experience directing distinct inbound and outbound sales units with diverse activity objectives, conversion measures, and sales methods.
• Familiarity with sales engagement and prospecting platforms such as Salesloft, Outreach, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, or similar tools.
• Experience implementing structured sales methodologies and coaching programs.
• Demonstrated success improving lead conversion, sales productivity, forecast accuracy, and quota attainment.
• Experience operating in an evolving sales organization where processes, roles, and go-to-market strategies are being refined.

Key benchmarks

The Mid-Market Sales Manager will take charge of boosting performance in both inbound and outbound activities, with separate indicators of achievement for each.

Performance Area | Primary benchmarks |

| Overall Team | Revenue attainment, percentage of reps achieving quota, forecast accuracy |

| Inbound Sales | Lead response time, lead-to-opportunity conversion, opportunity win rate, revenue per lead |

| Outbound Sales | Prospecting efforts, engaging discussions, qualified leads developed, pipeline built |

| Pipeline Management | Pipeline coverage, pipeline velocity, opportunity progression, win rates |

| Sales Productivity | Revenue generated per representative, typical deal amount, duration of sales cycle |

| People Development | Rep ramp time, coaching effectiveness, performance improvement, retention |

Ideal Candidate Profile

We are looking for a builder, coach, and operator who understands that inbound and outbound sales need different approaches for success. This leader must be comfortable managing a fast-paced sales environment while developing the prospecting skills, business insight, and consultative selling abilities required to drive lasting growth. Success in this role requires someone who can set clear expectations, use data to guide decisions, train representatives to boost performance, and foster a culture where steady sales actions lead to measurable pipeline and revenue outcomes.

Cengage is committed to working with broad talent pools to attract and hire strong and most qualified individuals. Our job applicants are considered regardless of any classification protected by applicable federal, state, provincial or local laws.

Cengage is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with disabilities including during our job application process. If you are an applicant with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in our job application process, please contact us at accommodations.ta@cengage.com.

About Cengage

Cengage, a global education technology company serving millions of learners, provides affordable, quality digital products and services that equip students with the skills and competencies needed to be job ready. For more than 100 years, we have enabled the power and joy of learning with trusted, engaging content, and now, integrated digital platforms. We serve the higher education, workforce skills, secondary education, English language teaching and research markets worldwide. Through our scalable technology, including MindTap and Cengage Unlimited, we support all learners who seek to improve their lives and achieve their dreams through education.

Compensation

At Cengage, we take great pride in our commitment to providing a comprehensive and rewarding Total Rewards package designed to support and empower our employees. Click here to learn more about our Total Rewards Philosophy.

The full base pay range has been provided for this position. Individual base pay will vary based on work schedule, qualifications, experience, internal equity, and geographic location. 

In this position,  you will be eligible to participate in the company’s variable Sales incentive compensation program.

Target Variable Compensation:

annually

Actual incentive earnings are not guaranteed and may be more or less than the target amount based on achievement of performance goals and the terms of the applicable incentive compensation plan.