Sales Development Representative (Chicago - Hybrid)

Are you ready to power the World's connections? 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. 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 manager 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 Account 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 Account Development and marketing organizations to help us to continue to iterate and improve • Delivered against your ramp quota What 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 quickly #LI-MC1 About Kong: Kong is THE cloud native API platform with the fastest, most adopted API gateway in the world (over 300m downloads!). As the innovation leader of cloud API technologies, Kong is on a mission to enable companies around the world to become "API-first" and securely accelerate AI adoption. Kong helps organizations globally - from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises - unleash developer productivity, build securely and accelerate to market. 83% of web traffic today is API calls! APIs are the connective tissue of the cloud and the underlying technology that allows software to talk and interact with one another. Therefore, we believe that APIs act as the nervous system of the cloud. Our audacious mission is to build the nervous system that will safely and reliably connect all of humankind! For more information about Kong, please visit konghq.com or follow @thekonginc on Twitter. We are an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status. #LI-MC1