Account Executive

Strategic enterprise sales expertise for B2B SaaS companies — from pipeline building and deal progression to executive engagement and account expansion.

Philosophy

Elite enterprise selling isn't about pitching features. It's about becoming indispensable to your champion's success.

The best enterprise AEs:

Qualify ruthlessly, pursue relentlessly — Time is your scarcest resource
Multi-thread early and often — Single-threaded deals die
Sell outcomes, not products — Features don't close deals, business impact does
Control the process — Mutual action plans beat hope
Land with intent to expand — Every deal is an account, not a transaction

How This Skill Works

When invoked, apply the guidelines in rules/ organized by:

pipeline-* — Pipeline management, prioritization, forecasting
relationship-* — Multi-threading, champion development, executive access
deal-* — Deal progression, momentum, competitive displacement
account-* — Account planning, expansion, land-and-expand
execution-* — Time management, territory optimization, cadence

Core Frameworks

Deal Qualification (MEDDPICC)

Element	Question	Red Flag
Metrics	What business outcomes will success deliver?	No quantified value
Economic Buyer	Who signs the check?	Haven't met them
Decision Criteria	How will they decide?	Unknown or changing
Decision Process	What are the steps to close?	No clear timeline
Paper Process	Legal, procurement, security?	Unknown blockers
Identified Pain	What problem demands solving NOW?	Nice-to-have, not need
Champion	Who is selling internally for you?	No internal advocate
Competition	Who else is being evaluated?	Unknown alternatives

Deal Stages and Exit Criteria

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  DISCOVERY    │  SCOPING    │  VALIDATION  │  PROPOSAL   │  CLOSE     │
│     10%       │    25%      │     50%      │    75%      │   90%+     │
├───────────────┼─────────────┼──────────────┼─────────────┼────────────┤
│ Pain confirmed│ Solution    │ Technical    │ Commercial  │ Verbal     │
│ Champion ID'd │ requirements│ validation   │ terms       │ commitment │
│ Budget range  │ defined     │ complete     │ agreed      │ Legal/     │
│ Timeline set  │ Success     │ EB engaged   │ Proposal    │ procurement│
│               │ criteria    │ ROI accepted │ delivered   │ complete   │
└───────────────┴─────────────┴──────────────┴─────────────┴────────────┘

The Buying Committee

                    ┌──────────────────┐
                    │  ECONOMIC BUYER  │
                    │  (Signs check)   │
                    └────────┬─────────┘
                             │
         ┌───────────────────┼───────────────────┐
         │                   │                   │
    ┌────▼────┐        ┌─────▼─────┐       ┌────▼────┐
    │TECHNICAL│        │  CHAMPION │       │ USER    │
    │  BUYER  │        │ (Your     │       │ BUYER   │
    │(IT/Sec) │        │  advocate)│       │(End user│
    └─────────┘        └───────────┘       │ leader) │
                                           └─────────┘
                    ┌──────────────────┐
                    │   INFLUENCERS    │
                    │ (Consultants,    │
                    │  Peers, Legal)   │
                    └──────────────────┘

Account Tiering

Tier	Characteristics	Time Investment	Strategy
Tier 1	$100k+ potential, strategic fit, active buying	40% of time	White-glove, executive-sponsored
Tier 2	$50-100k potential, good fit, developing need	35% of time	High-touch, multi-threaded
Tier 3	$25-50k potential, fit confirmed, timeline unclear	20% of time	Efficient, templated
Tier 4	<$25k or poor fit	5% of time	Automated, self-serve, or disqualify

Pipeline Math

Target: $1M Annual Quota
Average Deal Size: $50K
Win Rate: 25%
Average Sales Cycle: 90 days

Required:
- Closed Won: 20 deals/year
- Pipeline Coverage: 4x = $4M active pipeline
- Opportunities/Quarter: 20 new opps
- Meetings/Week: ~8 qualified meetings

Pipeline Coverage by Stage:
- Discovery (10%): 40% of coverage
- Scoping (25%): 25% of coverage
- Validation (50%): 20% of coverage
- Proposal (75%): 10% of coverage
- Closing (90%): 5% of coverage

Competitive Positioning

Situation	Strategy	Risk
Incumbent	Land-and-expand, proof of value, executive alignment	Complacency, disruption
Challenger	Differentiation, champion mobilization, urgency creation	Longer sales cycle
Unknown	Early discovery, pain quantification, category creation	Education burden
Displacing competitor	FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt), cost of status quo, migration support	Resistance to change

Deal Momentum Indicators

Positive Signals

Champion proactively schedules next meeting
Economic buyer agrees to attend presentation
Customer shares internal documents/org charts
Technical team asks detailed implementation questions
Procurement timeline communicated
Reference calls requested
Legal/security review initiated

Danger Signals

Meetings rescheduled or cancelled
New stakeholders introduced late
"Let me run this by..." with no follow-up
Competitor mentioned after you thought you'd won
Budget concerns raised after proposal
Champion goes dark
"We'll get back to you" without date

Anti-Patterns

Happy ears — Hearing what you want, ignoring red flags
Single-threading — Relying on one contact who leaves or loses influence
Feature dumping — Presenting capabilities without connecting to outcomes
Proposal too early — Sending pricing before value is established
Hoping vs. controlling — No mutual action plan, just waiting
Demo before discovery — Showing product without understanding needs
Ignoring competition — Assuming you're the only option
Neglecting champions — Not enabling them to sell internally
Forecast fantasy — Committing deals that aren't real
Post-close abandonment — Moving on without ensuring success for expansion

account-executive