Business Development & Client Onboarding Executive

Sense Engine AI Private Limited · India

Company Description:

Sense Engine AI Private Limited is an AI-first SaaS company building commercialization infrastructure for intellectual property. Our flagship product, Open IP Market (openipmarket.com), is an AI-powered patent marketplace and commercialization toolkit that helps inventors, corporate IP teams, universities, and law firms turn idle patents into active revenue, without brokers, gatekeepers, or months of preparation.

Where traditional patent commercialization costs Rs. 30,000 to 50,000 per month in consultant fees plus 15 to 30 percent broker commissions, Open IP Market enables patent holders to go from upload to active buyer outreach in minutes, for Rs. 9,999 per year. Buyers (companies searching for technology to license or acquire) can browse and contact owners for free, globally.

We are a small, high-conviction team led by a Registered Patent Agent (CEO) and a technology founder (CTO), building a category-defining product at the intersection of AI, IP law, and marketplace dynamics.

About The Role :

You will be our first dedicated Business Development hire , owning the complete revenue journey from first touch to successfully onboarded customer.

This is a full-stack BD role. You will run outbound and inbound, conduct live demos, handle objections in real time, and personally guide new customers through their first milestones on the platform. You will work directly with the founders and have a direct line into product decisions.

• Outbound: Cold outreach via LinkedIn, email, WhatsApp, and calls to independent inventors, corporate IP teams, university technology transfer offices, and IP law firms
• Inbound: Qualify, nurture, and convert leads arriving from the website, content, and social channels
• Demos and Calls: Run live product demonstrations online (google meet or zoom meeting) and answer product, pricing, and legal questions on unscripted calls with confidence
• Onboarding: Guide newly subscribed customers through their first-use milestones (patent upload, AI listing generation, document creation, CRM activation) and make sure they experience real value within their first 15 days
• Feedback Loop: Capture customer signals, objections, and feature requests and relay them directly to the founders for product iteration

  Key Responsibilities

• Build and execute structured outbound sequences (LinkedIn DMs, email, WhatsApp/phone) targeting independent inventors, MSMEs, universities, educational institutes, corporate IP teams, and IP/patent law firms
• Handle inbound inquiries from the website and convert them into paying subscribers
• Conduct product demos over video call and explain AI features, the patent slot model, pricing, and deal flow clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Handle objections around pricing, ROI, legal validity, and competitive alternatives in real time without needing to "get back to them"
• Guide newly onboarded customers through first-use milestones: patent upload, AI-generated marketplace listing, document generation, target company finder, and CRM pipeline activation
• Maintain a clean, up-to-date pipeline in the CRM, track deal stages, and flag at-risk or stalled accounts
• Collaborate with founders to refine messaging, ICP targeting, and onboarding collateral as the playbook evolves
• Represent Sense Engine AI at relevant startup, IP, innovation, and legal-tech events (online and in-person as applicable)

Qualifications

Education

• Minimum: Bachelor's degree in any discipline (BBA, B.Com, B.Tech, BA, LLB, MBA, or equivalent)
• Preferred: MBA or PGDM in Sales, Marketing, or Business Development; or a degree/diploma in Law, Intellectual Property, or Technology Management
• A non-traditional educational background is fully acceptable if supported by demonstrated sales or BD experience

Work Experience (1+ year required, any of the following)

• B2B sales, business development, or account management
• SaaS, tech product, or marketplace sales
• Customer success or client onboarding role
• Inside sales or SDR/BDR role at a startup or growth-stage company
• IP/legal/patent services, legal tech, or deep tech sales (strong plus, not mandatory)

Communication Skills (evaluated at the interview stage)

• Spoken English and Hindi: confident, clear, and persuasive on unscripted calls; able to think on your feet when a prospect asks something unexpected
• Written English: professional, crisp email and LinkedIn outreach that gets replies
• Active listening: ability to identify the real pain point mid-conversation and pivot your pitch accordingly
• Presentation skills: structured demo delivery that guides a prospect without reading from a script

Skills

• Objection handling and consultative selling
• Ability to learn a technical and legal product quickly and explain it simply to a non-technical audience
• Familiarity with any CRM tool (HubSpot, Zoho, Pipedrive, Notion, Apollo or even a well-structured Google Sheet)
• Self-starter mindset, comfortable operating in a small team with lean processes and high ownership

Bonus (nice to have, not required)

• Background in IP law, patents, legal tech, or deep tech
• Experience selling to research institutions, university tech-transfer offices, or corporate innovation/R&D teams
• Prior exposure to marketplace or platform business models

Past Achievements: What We Want to Hear About

In your cover note or the LinkedIn "Message to Hiring Manager" field, we encourage you to share one or more of the following:

• A deal or account you personally closed or expanded. What was the size and what was your role?
• A sales target you consistently hit or exceeded. What did it take?
• An onboarding or customer success win, such as reduced churn, improved activation rate, or a client who expanded their usage because of your effort
• A situation where you handled a difficult objection or turned a hard "no" into a "yes". How did you do it?
• A self-initiated outreach campaign (cold email, LinkedIn, event attendance, etc.) and its measurable outcome

These do not need to be from a big company. A freelance win, a college startup hustle, or a solo client you closed counts.

What We Offer

• Competitive fixed salary with a performance-linked incentive structure (CTC discussed at interview)
• Direct working relationship with the founders, with no layers or hierarchy in between
• First BD hire status: you will shape the sales playbook, not inherit someone else's
• High-ownership, high-autonomy environment where your results are visible and rewarded
• Flexible, remote-friendly work setup
• Front-row seat at the intersection of AI, IP law, and marketplace SaaS - a rare combination that sharpens your career permanently