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, forecastingrelationship-*— Multi-threading, champion development, executive accessdeal-*— Deal progression, momentum, competitive displacementaccount-*— Account planning, expansion, land-and-expandexecution-*— 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 coverageCompetitive 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