Capstone

The Director of Direct Sales is a frontline sales leader responsible for the day-to-day performance, coaching, and development of Sales Account Executives, Inside Sales Representatives, Relationship Account Managers, and Quoting Representatives supporting the western region.

This leader translates Capstone's revenue strategy into team and individual execution plans, owns the team forecast, and drives new-business growth, account expansion, customer retention, and renewals. Success requires active performance management, hands-on coaching, strong analytical judgment, and close cross-functional collaboration.

Our preference is for this role to be based out of either our North Mankato, MN or Edina, MN locations (hybrid work schedule of a minimum of 2 days per week in office). Fully remote work may be considered.

Why You’ll Want To Join Capstone

Your work will directly impact an innovative company whose mission is to improve the educational experiences of children and the educators who serve them. Capstone is a fast-paced growth company committed to cultivating a love of reading and learning. We know that Learning is for Everyone.

For more than 30 years, Capstone has been a national leader in K-5 educational content including digital products (PebbleGo, PebbleGo Next, Capstone Interactive, Capstone Create) and award-winning books. We combine a passion for helping foster a powerful love of reading and learning with the talent to create amazing content.

We are a mission-driven company that provides opportunities for professional learning and development and a culture of inclusion and belonging.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES Sales Leadership and Performance

• Lead, motivate, and manage the daily performance of the West sales team.
• Establish clear team and individual goals aligned with Capstone's revenue, renewal, retention, and customer-growth objectives.
• Conduct regular one-on-one meetings, team meetings, performance reviews, and development conversations.
• Recognize strong performance and address performance gaps promptly through clear expectations, coaching, and improvement plans.
• Recruit, onboard, develop, and retain high-performing team members.
• Foster an accountable, collaborative, and customer-focused team culture.

Forecasting and Sales Execution

• Own the team's new-business and renewal forecast, ensuring timely, accurate, and evidence-based projections.
• Conduct regular pipeline, opportunity, and renewal-risk reviews.
• Hold team members accountable for accurate and timely updates.
• Identify pipeline gaps, forecast risks, upside opportunities, and at‑risk renewals; develop action plans with individual team members.
• Communicate forecast changes, business risks, and recommended actions to the VP of Direct Sales.
• Monitor pipeline coverage, conversion, retention, productivity, and other key performance indicators.

Strategy and Growth

• Translate Capstone's revenue strategy into clear team, individual, customer‑segment, and account‑level execution plans.
• Develop and execute plans for new‑customer acquisition, account growth, customer retention, and renewals.
• Establish priorities for prospecting, pipeline development, customer engagement, renewal preparation, and at‑risk customer recovery.
• Assign and balance accounts, opportunities, and workload to maximize coverage and productivity.
• Use performance data, customer insight, market conditions, and competitive activity to adjust team priorities and execution.
• Provide sales leadership and cross‑functional partners with insight into customer needs, market trends, competitive activity, and barriers to growth.

Coaching and Capability Development

• Provide consistent, hands‑on coaching focused on seller performance, execution, skill development, and career growth.
• Observe customer calls and sales interactions and provide timely, specific, and actionable feedback.
• Coach team members on prospecting, discovery, solution positioning, account planning, opportunity advancement, renewals, negotiation, objection handling, and closing.
• Assess individual and team capability gaps and establish development priorities.
• Create individual coaching and development plans with clear actions, milestones, and follow‑up.
• Lead and reinforce onboarding, product training, sales‑process training, Salesforce proficiency, and role‑readiness activities.
• Use call observation, deal reviews, peer learning, and practice exercises to build proficiency.
• Measure coaching and training effectiveness through improvements in behavior, productivity, conversion, retention, forecast accuracy, and business results.

Collaboration and Business Management

• Partner with Marketing on the planning, execution, and evaluation of sales programs and campaigns.
• Collaborate with Product, Editorial, Finance, Sales Operations, and other teams to resolve customer and sales‑process barriers.
• Support new product and service initiatives and improve processes that affect sales execution and the customer experience.
• Develop and manage departmental budgets and approve expenses and purchases.
• Represent Capstone at sales meetings, customer events, and trade shows as needed.

Education, Experience, and Skills desired:

• Bachelor's degree in business or a related field preferred.
• 5-10+ years of sales management experience; publishing or K-12 education‑market experience is a plus.
• Demonstrated success leading and developing frontline sales or account‑management teams.
• Experience managing new‑business pipelines, renewals, forecasts, and performance metrics.
• Strong coaching, communication, analytical, strategic‑planning, and problem‑solving skills.
• Ability to translate business goals into clear priorities and daily team execution.
• Demonstrated ability to manage performance, facilitate change, and collaborate across organizational levels.
• Proficiency with Salesforce and Microsoft 365.
• Strong organizational skills, attention to detail, and ability to manage competing priorities.
• Commitment to Capstone's mission and to building an inclusive, accountable, high‑performing team environment.

Travel Requirements

This position requires some travel – 5-20%.

Inclusion & Belonging

Capstone embraces equal opportunity and a culture of belonging for all employees and applicants. All candidate information will be kept private according to EEO guidelines. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation due to a disability during the application or the recruiting process, please send a request to hrservices@capstonepub.com.

The pay range for this role takes into account the wide range of factors that are considered surrounding compensation including but not limited to: skill sets, experience and training, work location, and other business and organizational needs. At Capstone, it is not typical for an individual to be hired at the top of the range for their role. This role earns a base salary and is eligible for a sales commission plan, with the annual total on‑target earnings (OTE) range of $200,000 - $240,000.

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Employment Authorization:

At this time Capstone unfortunately cannot sponsor or take over sponsorship of an employment visa. To be considered for one of our roles, applicants must be authorized to work in the United States.