Hi all, First wanted to introduce myself. Ive been an AE for a marketing company for around 15 years. I started in basically a support role answering inbound calls and morphed into a AE when the company realized my sales talent. I've been an AE for around 15 of those 20 years and strictly on inbound calls and leads from SDRs. I have had about a year of outbound experience but that was primarily prospecting our own internal CRMs for certain market segments. I would call my company "legacy martech or dying martech" when compared with all of the AI/ML cloud base analytical stuff now. I am kind of a tech-nerd and tend to keep up with technology but my company doesn't. Needless to say, I am still with said company and still paid fairly well, but I want to grow and I want to work on focus on longer time frame deals (mid/enterprise). Our business was never properly segmented the way that most are (SMB, Mid-tier, Enterprise) so I've just been handling a smorgasbord of inbound calls, emails, and SDR leads from all tiers of businesses. Before this gets too long, alot of the roles and companies I am looking at with open AE positions want the closer, but also someone who does all the cold calling and territory establishment to. I have done some research on this subject and quite possibly can BS myself through this part of it on the interview to progress further, but I have always been quite the ethical person so I am honest. I am trying to stay my lane and applying to jobs that are either 100% inbound and/or SDR leads or book of business, or ones that have minimal territory building. In a couple of interviews, I decided to stick with with my strengths when confronted about building and managing a territory (feel free to critique): I had roughly a year of OB experience in my current role. My job was to hunt through our current customer database of ~5 million customers (many dormant) and essentially build a territory (geographic location, company size, market vertical, job type). I would put together email templates and for the leads I and one's that I really felt great about I'd customize to their unique business. I would tailor cold calls this way as well. I had some faily good success but eventually returned back to my closer role. I highlighted the fact that in my current role I have to often find account expansion opportunities within minutes while being under the pressure of being on the phone with a client, and correlated that to my outbound experience where I was able to take my time and formulate account data and pitches prior to calling customers. When asking interviewers (only have done 3 thus far)at the end if there was any reservations they had about me for the role to bring them to light so I can address them it almost always comes back to "You seem completely qualified for every aspect of this role, except where we see a problem is the territory building/management". Clearly I need work in this area. My current company does not want me going outbound (I've asked) they need me where I am. I would like to avoid moving to another company and switching into a SDR role to start, I've been a closer for so long, but I have always been such a hands on learner and I pick things up very quickly when I dedicate myself to learning a craft. The only other thing I can think of is to literally build a territory and in extreme detail overview my approach to generating leads external to the company and laying that all out during the interview, which I would be willing to do. Feeling a little bit stuck, would appreciate any advice this wonderful community has to offer.

If you've been an AE that means you have closing experience, correct?

Is there any way that you can find 10% of your time to do outbound and try to build that skill set? Some time at the start or end of each day. If your doing work that yields new revenue, no one will complain.

Thats quite the novel you wrote.

Territory planning is a skill set in itself, but certainly can be learned. I'm trying to think if I've seen any methods online that you could look at and become familiar with in your free time, but maybe taking a look around, you might find something. I would look at it as a gap that you can proactively address.

Look to make the transition upward, not lateral

Remember... an interview is nothing more than a sales call. Do what you do when you know the regular objection: head it off before they can express it! "I am a very coachable person and when given feedback on a particular matter I try to fervently improve myself. So when I am hearing basically the only objection to my interview is lack of hunter skills and territory building I am already trying to leverage what I know now and how it can be applied in these hunter-closer AE roles."

AE4x

Account Executive

Opinionated

Valued Contributor

Member

Hello everyone! Looking for some advice

Hi all,

First wanted to introduce myself. Ive been an AE for a marketing company for around 15 years. I started in basically a support role answering inbound calls and morphed into a AE when the company realized my sales talent. I've been an AE for around 15 of those 20 years and strictly on inbound calls and leads from SDRs. I have had about a year of outbound experience but that was primarily prospecting our own internal CRMs for certain market segments. I would call my company "legacy martech or dying martech" when compared with all of the AI/ML cloud base analytical stuff now. I am kind of a tech-nerd and tend to keep up with technology but my company doesn't.

Needless to say, I am still with said company and still paid fairly well, but I want to grow and I want to work on focus on longer time frame deals (mid/enterprise). Our business was never properly segmented the way that most are (SMB, Mid-tier, Enterprise) so I've just been handling a smorgasbord of inbound calls, emails, and SDR leads from all tiers of businesses.

Before this gets too long, alot of the roles and companies I am looking at with open AE positions want the closer, but also someone who does all the cold calling and territory establishment to. I have done some research on this subject and quite possibly can BS myself through this part of it on the interview to progress further, but I have always been quite the ethical person so I am honest.

I am trying to stay my lane and applying to jobs that are either 100% inbound and/or SDR leads or book of business, or ones that have minimal territory building. In a couple of interviews, I decided to stick with with my strengths when confronted about building and managing a territory (feel free to critique):

I had roughly a year of OB experience in my current role. My job was to hunt through our current customer database of ~5 million customers (many dormant) and essentially build a territory (geographic location, company size, market vertical, job type). I would put together email templates and for the leads I and one's that I really felt great about I'd customize to their unique business. I would tailor cold calls this way as well. I had some faily good success but eventually returned back to my closer role.
I highlighted the fact that in my current role I have to often find account expansion opportunities within minutes while being under the pressure of being on the phone with a client, and correlated that to my outbound experience where I was able to take my time and formulate account data and pitches prior to calling customers.

When asking interviewers (only have done 3 thus far)at the end if there was any reservations they had about me for the role to bring them to light so I can address them it almost always comes back to "You seem completely qualified for every aspect of this role, except where we see a problem is the territory building/management".

Clearly I need work in this area. My current company does not want me going outbound (I've asked) they need me where I am. I would like to avoid moving to another company and switching into a SDR role to start, I've been a closer for so long, but I have always been such a hands on learner and I pick things up very quickly when I dedicate myself to learning a craft. The only other thing I can think of is to literally build a territory and in extreme detail overview my approach to generating leads external to the company and laying that all out during the interview, which I would be willing to do.

Feeling a little bit stuck, would appreciate any advice this wonderful community has to offer.

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AE4x

Hello everyone! Looking for some advice

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