Account Executive

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:

1. Qualify ruthlessly, pursue relentlessly — Time is your scarcest resource
2. Multi-thread early and often — Single-threaded deals die
3. Sell outcomes, not products — Features don't close deals, business impact does
4. Control the process — Mutual action plans beat hope
5. 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)

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

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

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