What is an Account Executive?
Account executives are members of a sales team who are responsible for maintaining relationships with customers. They are typically responsible for negotiating sales and finalizing deals after a sales prospect has been successfully identified and sold on the product. Sales reps will pass their prospects on to an account executive to officially close a deal, and then maintain a positive relationship with the customer to ensure retention.
What Exactly Does an Account Executive Do?
Day-to-day tasks will vary depending on the type of company an account executive works at, but overall, their role focuses on a few core responsibilities.
Manage Existing Client Accounts
Account executives are responsible for helping their customers troubleshoot any issues they’re having with a product (and direct them to customer support as needed), ensure subscriptions are renewed, and upsell if there are opportunities to do so. If a customer has questions, the account executive is their first point of contact.
Ensure Customer Satisfaction
Account executives are expected to regularly check in with customers and make sure they’re happy, collect feedback both (positive and negative), help alleviate any issues, and always make sure customers feel valued and receive the resources they need to be successful while utilizing your product.
Help Close Deals
Once a sales lead is ready to sign on with your company’s product, they will often be handed off to an account executive to complete the transaction. There are templates online for completing a successful account executive handoff to ensure the transition is smooth. This is where negotiation skills come in, as well as overall project management.
There are often many moving parts to closing a deal, and an account executive needs to make sure everything goes smoothly. There are examples online to help account executives utilize video for easy introductions with new clients.
Help Increase Sales
Account executives are often tasked with researching new leads, keeping tabs on competitors, and funneling sales leads over to sales reps. They are experts when it comes to market awareness and are able to utilize their creativity and data analysis to help create and capitalize on new business opportunities.
Collaborate and Develop New Sales Strategies
Since sales executives spend so much time talking to clients and conducting market research, they’re well-equipped to help develop new sales strategies. They know what pitches work when meeting with clients, what product features are popular, and what exactly sets them apart from the competition. As a result, they often collaborate with the larger sales and marketing teams to build out new strategies.
Skills Needed to Be an Account Executive
Account executives typically start off in junior sales roles and work their way up from there. If you’re interested in becoming an account executive, make sure these skills are on your resume:
- Background in sales.
- Excellent communication (written and verbal) and active listening.
- Experience with negotiation and closing sales.
- Ability to develop trust with customers and maintain positive work relationships.
- Ability to analyze data and metrics to achieve strategic goals and sales objectives.
- Effective problem solving.
- Excellent time management.
- Ability to work both independently and within a larger, collaborative team.