Career Guide

The Ultimate Oracle Account Executive Review Guide – Inside Sales

2 years ago   •   9 min read

By Bravado Staff

Learn about the Oracle Account Executive salary, culture, and role.
*Note: This is for the Inside Sales Account Executive role (Oracle Digital). The Field Sales Account Executive Review Guide will be posted soon.

Role Basics

What title does Oracle give Inside Sales Reps?

Inside sales reps are known internally as OD Reps. The OD comes from Oracle Digital.

However, on LinkedIn you’ll see the more traditional Account Executive and Account Manager. On Oracle job postings, you should notice the Oracle Digital label, which signifies an inside sales role.

Throughout this guide, you will see inside sales reps referred to as: OD Reps, Inside Sales Reps, Account Executives, and inside sales Account Executives.

What experience do you need for the Account Executive role?

Most inside Account Executives are internal hires from the Business Development Consultant (BDC) program or from other inside sales teams. Oracle heavily promotes from the BDC program for their inside sales Account Executive Roles. Most BDC’s have 12-24 months experience before getting promoted into this role. Many even get hired with only 9-11 months BDC experience.

Occasionally you will see outside hires, and these outside hires always have prior closing-role sales experience. They will not come from SDR roles but from Inside Sales or Field Sales roles from other Tech companies. Outside hires for this role will have anywhere from 2 to several years full cycle technology sales experience.

How is the Oracle sales org structured? (Company Structure)

Oracle’s sales org is divided by product set and then by account size.

Product set:
Oracle’s product set is divided into 3 main pillars (Orgs): Technology, Cloud, and Applications. Tech covers their on premise core technology offerings – Database, Middleware, Security, Integration, Hardware. Cloud covers the cloud version of their on premise offerings. Apps covers both the On Premise and Cloud offerings of their application suites (ERP, EPM, HCM, CX, SCM, etc.).

For account size, within each of these pillars, you’ll have SMB, Mid-Market, Enterprise (Named), Key/Strategic Accounts, Public Sector. Some pillars combine mid-market and enterprise or enterprise and key accounts.

So, your org will be known as for example, SMB Cloud or Key Account Tech.

Within Cloud and Apps, teams will further silo into industry groups they sell into (retail, healthcare, etc.)

Note: NetSuite runs independently of Oracle.

What does an Account Executive do at Oracle?

The inside sales Account Executive’s responsibility is to close the small deals within the territory and find new deals within the lower priority accounts.

It’s also important to understand how the inside sales Account Executive role is structured. As an inside sales Account Executive, you are either a ‘mirrored’ or ‘prime’ rep. Mirrored reps are overlay sales reps and share the territory with the field sales rep.

Prime reps, on the other hand, are the main sales rep on the account. They are your standard Account Executives as they have no field counterpart. Inside sales prime Account Executives are responsible for closing all of the deals in the territory, including with existing and net new accounts.

More on how the mirrored sales role works at Oracle: Mirrored reps will usually get paid on any deal (even if it comes from an ‘A’ account) that closes in the territory under a certain amount – this amount depends on the org you’re in, and is typically between $50k-$200k. They will also have 2-3 territories and field reps they’re mapped to.

The reasoning behind this setup is to free up time for the field reps to work the large deals ($1m+) in the high priority accounts and allow the inside sales reps to handle the smaller deals and all the paperwork, etc. necessary to getting the smaller deals done.

Which Oracle offices do the Account Executives work at?

All reps are currently WFH. But, when in office, the main hubs are Boston MA, Austin TX, Reston VA, and Santa Monica CA, with a smaller satellite hub in San Francisco. The offices are all top of the line. The offices have foosball, ping pong, tons of break reams, nice cafeterias, free drinks, etc.

Culture and Daily Life

How many hours per week do Account Executives work?

Your work-life balance will heavily depend on your direct manager. A typical day is evenly split between prospecting, customer calls, and paperwork for deals. You can work as little as 10 hours some weeks and some weeks as much as 50 hours if you have a deal with a lot of paperwork. Generally, 20-30 hours/week is what is most commonly reported with WFH.

Generally, the larger the account size, the better your WLB. And generally, the Tech pillar has the best WLB, followed by Apps, and then Cloud.

Some inside sales teams have daily prospecting requirements (calls, emails, social media). Some managers require daily/weekly reports on your territory. Some work as much as you need to hit your quota and you’re really on your own. But, many don’t require any of this so you work as much or as little as you want.

Obviously, with SMB you’ll be prospecting a ton more than those on key or enterprise accounts. SMB reps will have thousands of accounts while an Enterprise rep will have 20-40.

Generally, there is not much pressure to sell in the Tech Org. Things are laid back. If you’re not doing well, you’ll certainly hear about it though.

In the Cloud Org, there’s considerable more pressure as the product suite doesn’t sell as well, and the future of Oracle relies on building out the cloud business. A lot more churn there.

What is the employee turnover like?

There are very few firings/PIPs. You have to really be messing up to get fired/PIPed in Oracle sales. You’ll leave on your own before getting fired.

In the Tech Org, there is very little rep turnover as the WLB is good and deals flow in on their own as the product sells itself.

Because the Cloud Org doesn’t do as well, there is much more churn.

The Apps Org from is very mixed depending on product and org in regards to turnover.

Is now a good time to join Oracle in this role?

It depends what org you’d be in.

Most recommend against the Cloud org and it seems that reps seem to be leaving pretty consistently. Also, the product isn’t great, which leads to higher pressure.

If you can get in the Tech Org – yes, it’s a great time to join. The product sells itself so you can make good money, and there’s a laid back culture.

As for the Apps org, yes, if you can get in the ERP/HCM space.

Salary, Commission, and Quota

How much does an Oracle Account Executive earn?

Compensation is pretty standardized at the inside sales Account Executive (OD Rep) level. In your first year (Level ISR1), you’ll generally earn $105,000 OTE, which is split 50/50 between base and commission. This equates to a $52,500 base salary, and a $52,500 commission at 100% of quota.

Quotas are generally attainable. It is not uncommon to hear of OD reps clearing $150,000 or more.

This is negotiable if you are an outside hire.

Some inside sales Prime reps can negotiate a higher OTE if they do well the year prior.

Most reps don’t get a signing bonus. If you relocate to another office, you’ll get anywhere from a 5-10k untaxed moving bonus.

The commission is usually uncapped (depends on org), and there are accelerators (usually you get paid 30-50% extra per dollar closed after you’ve hit quota).

Most OD roles have a variable comp plan. This means your commission is a variable of your base salary. For example, if you have a $50,000 base and $50,000 commission plan, if you hit 25% of your quota, you’ll be paid 25% of your $50,000 base salary ($12,500).

Other comp plans include a pool plan, where you’re given a bonus based on how well your Org did and how well you did individually. Your individual metrics will be determined by your manager but could be new workloads, deals progressed in pipe, deals closed, manager discretion, etc. Pool plans are seen on some teams in the Apps and Cloud Orgs. They implement these plans because these teams do not do well, so while not having a true quota sounds nice, be careful!

In the Cloud Org, they also have a consumption model based on cloud credits (cloud reps sell credits for Oracle’s cloud which can be used for any type of cloud service). If your territory is heavily consuming their cloud credits, you’ll get paid regardless of whether you sell anything net new.

For more detailed Oracle compensation data, visit our Oracle company page.

What employee benefits do you get?

Oracle has great benefits: Full dental, medical, vision insurance, HSA, 50% 401k match up to 6% of base salary, Employee-stock purchase program. PTO varies based on tenure but you start at 12-13 days per year at the inside sales rep level and you get an additional day per year of tenure.

How are the quotas structured?

The quota sizes and structures ultimately depend on what Org you are in.

Quotas in the Tech Org are annual quotas of $X amount. For example, as an inside sales rep for Enterprise accounts in the Tech Org, you might have a $900k quota, with 3 territories, which works out to 300k per territory. You are not truly measured on a quarterly or monthly basis, but it’s best to keep up some activity every quarter. Ultimately, you are judged by your yearly performance.

In the Cloud Org, your quota is usually based off how many cloud credits your customers consume, rather than buy net-new. Some cloud orgs have a pool plan.

In the Apps Org, it is a mix of traditional quotas, and a pool plan (quarterly bonus based off metrics that you manager sets, not necessarily related to closed deals).

Where do people go after this role?

It’s a little bit of everything.

Inside the company: Some stay on to get promoted to a true field sales role, but you’ll usually need 1.5+ years experience as an inside sales rep first.

Some go into SDR management (generally 18 months inside sales experience required). Uncommon, but some jump right into inside sales rep management (again, 18 months experience generally required). Some are content staying at the OD rep level for several years.

Outside the company: People exit to other sales roles at pretty much every company: Salesforce, AWS, GCP, startups, you name it. The Oracle name opens doors. People might also go back for an MBA at top 25 business schools or transition into finance/marketing/operations roles at other companies or back at Oracle.

Tips to Succeed

What is the best org (product suite) to sell in? (Tech, Cloud, or Apps Org)


Oracle’s outlook should be analyzed on a pillar level.

Their Tech org is slowly declining – OnPremise solutions are not the hip thing anymore as most companies’ next move is the cloud, not more on premise licenses. However, the majority of Oracle’s revenue comes from on premise offerings, so if you want deals, Tech is the place to be as you’ll get tons of repeat customers who know exactly what they want. The deals in Tech are ‘transactional’ rather than ‘transformational’. There’s not much real selling involved in most deals in tech as the OnPremise offerings haven’t changed much in the last 10 years so customers know what the solution set is capable of and Oracle’s On Premise offerings are top of market. On the flip side, because these solutions are not ‘new’ (Cloud), you rarely get greenfield sales – most sales come from up-selling existing on premise accounts.

The Cloud org is still TBD – most customers choose between AWS, Azure, and GCP. Oracle wins in this space only when converting existing on premise customers to the cloud. While the cloud revenue is growing, they still lose most deals to competitors. If you’re a real hunter, you can have some success, but the product is so far behind its competitors there’s only so much you can do.

The Apps Org is divided – the on premise apps are obviously declining and the cloud apps seem to be growing. You want to be in ERP or HCM apps, ideally Enterprise/Key accounts if you’re looking at the Apps pillar. Avoid CX Apps.

How big of a role does territory play in your success?

In the Tech org, because the product set is pretty much ‘legacy’ software/hardware, your territory truly decides your fate. Oracle is known for having weak reps finish at the top of the whole org of 100+ reps because they got the hot patch.

In the Cloud org, you need a territory with a large existing cloud footprint or on premise footprint to truly exceed your quota.

The Apps Org, like the Tech and Cloud orgs, territories with large existing Oracle installs do the best.

How competitive is the product / solution set?

In the Tech Org, the products sell themselves. They’ve been out there for 20+ years and the tech offerings (Oracle DB, WebLogic, GoldenGate, Exadata) are true enterprise grade offerings that have been battle tested at 95% of the F500.

The Cloud Org is a true grind and battle – you’ll have to fight off AWS/Azure/GCP. Customers looking to move from on premise to the cloud will certainly be talking to these competitors – you’ll have to convince them staying with Oracle makes the most sense.

The Apps Org – ERP/HCM Apps do the best, but CX is hard to sell for because of Salesforce.

Who are the main competitors?

Tech Org – IBM, Microsoft, AWS, GCP

Cloud Org – AWS, GCP, Azure

Apps Org – SAP, Microsoft, Salesforce, Workday, etc.

What advice would you give to a new rep?

Do as much due diligence on the territory before taking it as possible. Territory really determines 80-90% of your success in most orgs. Most territories do well in the Tech Org.

Other than that, make yourself known as the key point of contact at Oracle. Every pillar prospects into the same accounts and will try to tell the decision makers that they are the point of contact – you need to be that guy.

If you want to move into other roles at Oracle (Sales Management, SDR Management, Field Sales), it’s quite easy if you network as opportunities pop up all the time.


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