Account Development Representative

**Are you ready to unlock intelligence?** If you don’t think you meet all of the criteria below but are still interested in the job, please apply. Nobody checks every box - we’re looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas, and have some interest and capabilities in others. The is a hybrid role is based in Bangalore. **About the Role:** At Kong, our Sales Development team works closely with our partners in both Sales and Marketing to build fanatical customer enthusiasm around Kong. Sales Development reps are responsible for identifying and qualifying new opportunities for our sales organization. We view our Sales Development program as the best way to turbocharge a long and successful career in sales and view our Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) as the next wave of Account Executives at Kong. To aid in this endeavor, we invest heavily in the training and development of our team. This includes a 2-week long sales bootcamp, weekly 1-1 mentorship, and global virtual group trainings. By joining our team, you are making an investment in yourself that will accelerate the rest of your sales career. Our SDRs gain an understanding of our product, community, who we sell to, why they care, and what makes us relevant. They learn how to generate a pipeline quickly and effectively as well as how to achieve a good discovery and qualification. The team is a crucial resource for sales teams across Kong to get great talent from. This helps us scale our teams, as well as ensure that we have a culture of meritocracy. Being an SDR, is often a first step to jump-starting a career in sales. At Kong, we have a culture that celebrates diversity, fosters growth and enablement, and ensures that we provide our SDRs with the tools and the confidence that they need to grow their careers. The SDR leadership team has a true understanding of where each SDR is at in their personal development process, and mentors and enables them to ensure that they have the means and opportunity to be considered for their next role. At Kong, we truly believe that if you want to earn your MBA in sales, this is the place to be. As a leadership team, we spend an exorbitant amount of time working in the trenches with our teams to help them fine hone their business and sales acumen and ramp them to productivity, success, and greater roles. **What You'll Do:** **Market Opportunity** - We are on a quest to build a $10b+ software company over the next few years and need YOUR help! [Why APIs Matter](https://systemsapproach.substack.com/p/why-apis-matter?s=r)? APIs have been enabling innovation for decades! [Strong VC team, Series D](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/konghq/company_financials), strong year over year revenue growth! **Technical Leadership** - We are recognized as the leader in innovation in the connectivity space. [Marco, our CTO/co-founder](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wd-VjsYrPMs) - “We are the Cisco of L4 and L7” - CUBE Conversation, March 2021 [We are the leading innovator](https://venturebeat.com/2021/05/17/how-the-api-economy-is-powering-digital-transformation/) in the connectivity space! **Amazing Team & Culture** - Come be a "Konger" and find out what we mean. [Great Place to Work Certified](https://www.greatplacetowork.com/certified-company/7020766) in 2020 & 2021 Kong employees exemplify our culture at our [2022 Sales Kickoff](https://drive.google.com/file/d/17a8naiP7XQdXF_XnG5FIpCbqZ8SodiuM/view) [2022 Forbes Cloud 100 Honoree](https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20220809005784/en/Kong-Inc.-Is-Named-to-the-2022-Forbes-Cloud-100-for-the-Second-Consecutive-Year) **Building Great Products** - Learn why the world's largest companies love our tech! [Kong Named a Leader in the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant](https://konghq.com/press-release/gartner-magic-quadrant-api-management-2023) Over 250m+ downloads of our open source API gateway! Over 40k+ stars on Github between [Kong API](https://github.com/Kong/kong) and [Kong Insomnia](https://github.com/Kong/insomnia)! **What you'll be doing: Your First 90 Days** - **By the end of month 1, you will:** - Have met your new team and had fun playing with some new tools - Become a part of the wider Kong family - Have had a successful sales boot camp training - Have a good understanding of what makes Kong’s product offerings so special - Understand how our Sales Development, Marketing and Account Executive teams all work together - **By the end of month 2, you will:** - Be comfortable talking to clients on the phone about Kong - Have worked with our Account Executive team on your first opportunity - Have shadowed a ton of calls and practiced several role-plays - Started delivering your ramp quota - **By the end of month 3, you will:** - Know our sales funnel inside and out, and feel confident to add value to our sales org - Show clear delivery of our sales methodologies - Provide insights to both our Sales Development and marketing organizations to help us continue to iterate and improve - Delivered against your ramp quota - **Role Overview & Key Responsibilities:** - Work with the Sales team to develop inbound and outbound campaigns from idea generation through to qualified call - Develop strong sales and product knowledge. - Interact with IT and business decision-makers via telephone, video, LinkedIn, and email - Update lead and prospect activity in Salesforce to ensure effective lead management - Set qualified introductory meetings for the Sales team - Nurture early phase opportunities for future pipeline potential - Exceed monthly and quarterly opportunity quota - Build strong relationships with our marketing team and Account Executives, where we pull together to maximize the win for our business. - Invest in your self-development, focusing on the skills and attributes that will make you successful in your core role and get you set for future success - And any additional tasks required by the manager. **What You'll Bring:** - 1 year or more of strong sales or customer-facing experience. - A self-starter with a track record of hitting and exceeding goals. - A ‘hunter’ mentality - comfortable prospecting, cold-calling, and following up on incoming leads and a strong desire to win. - Ability and willingness to learn, react to and share lessons learned across the organisation. - Open to feedback and can apply to your daily workflow. - Outstanding communication skills including both phone and written communication as well as active listening. - An extraordinary character with an incredible drive for success, a high work ethic, curious by nature, and obsessed with smashing sales goals. - Validated time leadership skills and ability to work independently and through coaching. - Desire to work in a driven and fast-paced environment. - Passionate about cutting-edge technology with the aptitude to learn new and exciting IT software products, as well as, understand business critical solutions quickly. #LI-SP1 **About Kong:** Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is building the connectivity layer of AI. Trusted by the Fortune 500® and AI-native startups alike, Kong’s unified API and AI platform enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic — on any model, any cloud. For more information, visit [](http://www.konghq.com).