Trade Advisor, Inside Sales (12 months) – Export Development Canada

Company: Export Development Canada (EDC)

Position: Trade Advisor, Inside Sales (12 months)

Location: Ottawa, ON

Company Description:

EDC is Canada’s export credit agency, offering innovative commercial solutions to help Canadian exporters and investors expand their international business. EDC’s knowledge and partnerships are used by more than 8,400 Canadian companies and their global customers in up to 200 markets worldwide each year.

EDC is financially self-sustaining, and is a recognized leader in financial reporting and economic analysis.

Job Description:

With support from senior colleagues, the primary objective of the Trade Advisor is to generate basic qualified leads with small and medium-sized prospective customers at the early-to-middle stages of the buying cycle in order to increase the quality, size and velocity of the sales pipeline for the Commercial Markets & Small Business segment.

The Trade Advisor also plays a crucial role in increasing brand understanding with Canadian Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) and sharing EDC’s trade/market knowledge and extensive network with prospective business customers to help them achieve their international business goals.

This is done through a combination of inbound and outbound efforts where the Inside Sales team serves as the main point of contact.

This role reports to the Manager, Inside Sales.

Key Responsibilities:

• Follows all defined prospecting and selling techniques/scripts for assessing a prospective customer’s export financing, risk management or other needs to determine how EDC’s products and services value proposition will address those needs.
• Qualifies and scores a prospective customer against established Sales-Ready Leads (SRLs) criteria
• Follows all prescribed procedures related to managing and responding to straightforward/basic inbound trade-related inquiries (via various marketing channels including phone, email, web, chat, social media-based channels, events and on occasion face-to-face)
• Connects prospective or current clients with EDC colleagues and/or external/internal partners
• Follows-up with contacts identified by EDC’s customer-facing staff and EDC’s telesales vendors that have requested to speak with an EDC representative
• Completes straightforward direct sales of smaller opportunities for web-based credit insurance solutions and proactively engages with these buyers to assess growth/cross-selling opportunities
• Builds and cultivates internal relationships and works closely with appropriate business teams to ensure timely service and that the prospective customers’ needs are met
• Engages in social media communities as a trade expert to grow business network
• Establishes, builds trust & rapport and nurtures relationships over time with contacts in his/her portfolio of prospective customers to convert Inquiries (INQs) and Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) into Sales-Ready Leads (SRLs)
• Learning to understands where prospective customers are in their buying process and provides accurate quarterly forecasts
• Participates in preparing and analyzing sales pipeline reports and dashboards

Screening Criteria

• Bachelors Degree in business or an equivalent combination of education and experience
• Minimum of 2 years of financial services and business development experience
• Experience working in a fast paced customer service position
• Excellent communication skills in English and French (written, verbal, presentation)

Skills & Knowledge

• Ability to perform prospect, account research to prepare for calls and recognize sales opportunities
• Strong client service and networking skills with  the ability to build trust and rapport inside and outside the organization over the phone, web and social media based channels
• Strong communication skills (written, verbal, presentation) with the ability to articulate concepts over the phone
• Influencing and negotiating skills (external and internal)
• Understanding of EDC’s value proposition and able to explain it and apply EDC’s full range of solutions to meet prospective client’s needs
• Displays basic working knowledge of international trade, financial terms, company financial statements and commercial lending practices, including EDC’s credit risk standards and practices
• Knowledge of EDC’s mandate, the organization and function of EDC’s teams and of external trade-related organizations
• Basic knowledge of financial, insurance and bonding products offered in the market by private companies in Canada
• Technical competence (CRM, web chat, phone, automation platform, social media, web conferencing and telepresence)

Asset

• Certified International Trade Professional/FITT International Trade Professional (CITP®|FIBP®) Designation

Salary Range

• $54,400 – $73,600

How to apply

Only candidates selected for an interview will be contacted.

Application deadline: February 12, 2016, 11:59 p.m. EST on www.edc.ca/careers.

Apply now