Advice for new AE

Question

After 2 LONG years as a BDR (surviving 2 rounds of layoffs), I'm finally getting promoted to Account Executive in July.

As excited as I am, there are some nerves - I've been successful in my role and everyone on the team has extremely high expectations for my closing career.

To all current/former AEs - what are things you wish you did leading up to your promotion, or things you did, that helped ease the transition period?

Accepted Answer

I would check out the academy and this post

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Just be your self and stay away from micromanaging.

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Have a 30-60-9days plan. Learn the product, process well. Build good relationships with the AEs, shadow them and be open to coaching.

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Old as it is, this post still has some good observations:

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Can I ask what “I’m finally getting promoted” means? Do you have documentation? If not, my first word of advice would be to not count deals closed/won until they are.

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Gratz in advance.

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congrats!

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The list is infinitely broad but there's no better starting point than to take amicable ownership of the domain, understand how to make the best use of cross functional resources and realize that deals won't close as a result of hope. Don't assume your colleagues are as passionate or vested to win as you are. The role is mainly about efficiency in expediting solution based investigations. Everyone craves new business but few have an idea of how to win it. Here you lose as an individual and win as a team. Move away from a set list of QnA and instead build from positive continuous dialogue with peers and prospective customers. The rest will tend to take care of itself.

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You've gotten some great advice here. I would add: never stop BDRing. Self generated pipeline could be the difference between 90% and 100%. It's a super valuable skill and not all AE's have that background. It can be a differentiator for you whether your company is asking for & encouraging it or not. Contributing to building your own top of funnel is never something you'll regret.

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Get ready to fall on your face. You have an advantage being promoted internally and understanding the ins and outs of the product. I coached a recent promotion last week, one thing stood out to me. Your goal now is to ask for the business, not to book a meeting or a follow up. Leave that at the door! Good luck, pal.

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Reach out to as many people as possible... Obviously top performing reps are #1 priority but I can tell you from experience that making inroads with legal, customer success, IT, marketing etc. will pay dividends down the road when you need a favor and they remember your name.

Internal prospecting can be just as valuable as external

crocodilehunter

Advice for new AE

15 comments

crocodilehunter

Advice for new AE

15 comments

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