Sales Development Representative

About the Role

The Sales Development Representative (SDR) will help prospective clients find the right next step with Morningstar by turning interest from marketing campaigns into qualified sales conversations. You will understand each prospect’s business needs, work with marketing and sales colleagues to improve outreach, and provide account executives with context to continue conversations. You will build product knowledge and sales skills through prospect research, outreach, and feedback. This role requires four days a week in the Chicago office.

Key Responsibilities

• Follow up on marketing-qualified leads within agreed response times.
• Research each prospect, use lead scoring to prioritize outreach, and ask questions by phone, email, and LinkedIn to understand their needs and readiness to buy.
• Develop early-stage opportunities through follow-up conversations.
• Arrange meetings and product demonstrations with account executives or sales managers, sharing the prospect’s needs and conversation history.
• Keep prospect records and next steps current in the CRM so sales colleagues can pick up the conversation without losing context.
• Support outbound sales campaigns as needed, adapting your outreach to each prospect’s business challenges.
• Track calls, emails, meetings set, and opportunities generated.
• Review conversion rates, outreach results, and pipeline growth to identify where the qualification process could improve.
• Share feedback with marketing on lead quality and campaign results.
• Use learned information about Morningstar’s products, industry trends, and competitor offerings to make conversations more useful to prospects.

Requirements & Tech Stack

• Internship-2 years of experience in customer-facing roles, sales, or business development.
• Experience in business-to-business (B2B) or software-as-a-service (SaaS) settings is preferred.
• A bachelor’s degree is required. Business, Marketing, Communications, or a related field is preferred.
• Clear written and verbal communication, with the ability to listen closely and ask questions that uncover a prospect’s needs.
• The ability to manage several prospect conversations, prioritize follow-ups, and meet agreed response times.
• Familiarity with CRM tools, such as Salesforce, and sales engagement platforms.
• The ability to use lead and outreach data to improve your approach.

Qualifications

• Internship-2 years of experience in customer-facing roles, sales, or business development.
• Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, or related field.
• Strong communication and active listening skills.
• Ability to prioritize and manage multiple prospects.
• Experience with CRM and sales engagement platforms is a plus.