Head of Sales / Business Head : K-12 publishing

Location: Hyderabad / Chennai / Bangalore

Contact: Interested candidates must contact S Krishnan at 8309618146

Experience: 12 - 18 years

Industry: K-12 Education / Publishing / EdTech / Institutional Solutions

Reporting to: CEO / Founder

About Our client:

Our client works with schools to create customised curriculum and learning solutions. The business is not simply about selling books; it involves helping schools make confident decisions about changing curriculum, learning material and, in some cases, classroom implementation.

We are looking for a Head of Sales / Business Head who can build and lead this business with an entrepreneurial mindset.

The Role:

We are looking for an Account Entrepreneur someone who can understand a school deeply, identify what is stopping it from moving forward, mobilise the right internal resources and convert uncertainty into conviction.

The person should be able to walk out of a school meeting understanding not only what the school said, but what is actually preventing the school from taking the next step.

Every interaction should create a reason for the school to meet us again.

Key Responsibilities:

1. Build and Drive the Sales Business:

- Own the overall K-12 institutional sales strategy and revenue target.

- Develop relationships with promoters, trustees, principals, academic heads and other key decision-makers.

- Build a strong pipeline of school opportunities and drive them from entry to closure.

- Personally lead important and strategic accounts.

2. Consultative / Solution Selling:

- Understand the school's philosophy, academic priorities, learner profile and existing curriculum/material.

- Identify the unspoken concerns and uncertainties behind the customer's hesitation.

- Translate those concerns into meaningful next steps rather than conventional follow-ups.

- Use insights, diagnostics, curriculum comparisons, customised chapters, assessments, teacher-support solutions and POCs to move opportunities forward.

3. Own the Opportunity End-to-End:

- Act as the voice of the school inside Our client.

- Convert customer conversations into clear briefs for Academic, Editorial, Design and Production teams.

- Ensure internal teams understand who needs to be convinced, what needs to be proved and what decision the POC should unlock.

- Take ownership of the response back to the school and drive the next interaction.

4. Qualify with Commercial Judgment:

- After meaningful interactions, assess whether an opportunity is:

1. This Year: genuine need, engaged stakeholders and a visible decision path.

2. Next Year: genuine interest but timing, budget or readiness is not right.

3. Low Priority: limited movement, weak stakeholder engagement or no clear decision path.

5. Build and Lead the Sales Team:

- Hire, coach and develop high-quality institutional sales professionals.

- Establish a culture of curiosity, preparation, commercial discipline and ownership.

- Coach the team to move away from mechanical follow-ups towards value-led interactions.

- Review key opportunities and help salespeople decode stakeholder concerns and determine the right next action.

What We Are Looking For:

Mandatory Experience:

- Strong K-12 / institutional sales experience.

- Proven experience selling to schools and engaging promoters, principals and academic leadership.

- Strong conceptual / solution-selling capability.

- Experience selling products or solutions involving curriculum, education, learning content, publishing or related institutional offerings.

- Strong individual contribution and hands-on involvement in important accounts.

- Commercial ownership with a demonstrated ability to deliver revenue.

- Ability to work closely with Academic, Editorial, Design and Production teams.