Sales Development Representative (sdr) - Chicago

Are you ready to power the World's connections?About the role:Role Overview & Key Responsibilities:• Work with the Sales team to develop and lead inbound and outbound campaigns from idea generation through to qualified call• Develop strong sales and product knowledge and 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 managerWhat you'll be doing: Your First 90 DaysBy 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 Account Development, Marketing and Account Executive teams all work togetherBy 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 quotaBy 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 Account Development and marketing organizations to help us to continue to iterate and improve• Delivered against your ramp quotaWhat you'll bring:• 1-2+ years 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 organization.• 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, 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 quicklyWhy should you want to work at Kong?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? APIs have been enabling innovation for decades!Strong VC team, Series D, 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 - “We are the Cisco of L4 and L7” - CUBE Conversation, March 2021We are the leading innovator in the connectivity space!Amazing Team & Culture - Come be a "Konger" and find out what we mean.Great Place to Work Certified in 2020 & 2021Kong employees exemplify our culture at our 2022 Sales Kickoff2022 Forbes Cloud 100 HonoreeBuilding Great Products - Learn why the world's largest companies love our tech!Kong Named a Leader in the 2021 Gartner Magic QuadrantOver 250m+ downloads of our open source API gateway! Over 40k+ stars on Github between Kong API and Kong Insomnia!#LI-MC1