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AE (Account Executive)

Starting as an Enterprise AE next week - Do's and Don'ts?

Hey rockstars,

I know this might a generic question, but from a past experience I kind of realised that assumptions can really backfire... So I really want to start this from scratch and learn on the fly, instead of bring my firm beliefs with me from day 1 and get stuck.

I have been in SaaS sales for 4 years (1 year SDR, 3 years AE), and my most recent role was in SMB. I have some exposure to Mid-Market as well, but will be completely new to Enterprise.

The company is a startup, and sure I will focus on learning the product, personas, market and their existing processes etc.... but there are some real OGs here and I was wondering what else can you advise me to address in my first weeks?

Thanks!

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18 comments

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Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

Congrats on the role! You got to be more strategic and need to have a lot of patience as there will be more roadblocks. I would just have a quick chat with my peers in the first week and learn more about the processes, challenges etc. Are you set up for a defined Onboarding ?

wfh

Fire Starter

AE (Account Executive)

Thanks! In terms of the onboard, on paper yes but I believe it won't be in much depth and there will a be a lot of room to fill by myself

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

Congrats! :)
I haven't been promoted to an Enterprise AE, but our titles changed to "Strategic AE". We are now being trained on:

- Identifying the right stakeholders in a company early on. The org map is really important
- Take time to understand the deal. Unlike SMB, it's not velocity game, it is value game
- Understand the psyche of the buyer. The psychology of what works for them, how to talk to them and how not to pitch to them.
- If you have a live customer example, take that in as opposed to showing and talking in decks.
- Deal Map: Who is the owner of what action.

wfh

Fire Starter

AE (Account Executive)

Thank you! Certainly looking into the accounts and finding the right way to approach them will be key. I will work with the SDR team and this relationship will also be relatively new to me, I feel that working closely with them on the topics you mentioned above would be key

palmtrees

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

The strategic role is becoming my favorite

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

congrats! thats a solid career you are building there!

do you have a list of accounts you can go after? is it any company in a certain territory?

Depending on that it may chance how you approach it but here is what I would do:

Segment your accounts by A, B, C level.

The criteria i used this year was roughly this:
- Are they large enough to buy the product
- From what i can learn do they have centralized decision making? (this is an indicator that they would be ABLE to buy the product)
- ARe they a single need account or is there room for multiple products (if this is relevant to you)

Yes to all three? - A
Yes to 2/3 - B
yes to 1/3 - C

this will help your prioritize. then i would create an account map for each one and figure out WHO you need to be targeting for outreach.

Armageddon

Opinionated

Enterprise Account Executive

Congrats on the move! The biggest difference you will need to focus on is the importance of Multi-threading across your opps and looking to build multiple champions within an opp. In SMB you can get by with one point of contact, in Ent deals you always need to assume that the competition if wider in the account and has a better champion then yours. Never feel content in a deal until the docusign is inked.

Good luck!

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Fire Starter

AE (Account Executive)

Thank you! Have you found any specific ways to do successful multithreading without damaging the relationship with your champion? I kind of feel that reaching out to more people once there is already someone leading it on their end feels like going behind their back...

Blue_Turtle

Opinionated

sdr

I’m just an SDR but I prospect across all business units. First thing I do is ask the champion who else I should reach out to, especially if the product has a use case across multiple parts of the company. Ask them for an intro or if it’s ok if you say you spoke to them.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

Connect with the top reps and learn from them, I think is the best advice

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Fire Starter

AE (Account Executive)

Agree that's one of the first things I am going to do

palmtrees

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

There is much tribal knowledge

punishedlad

Tycoon

Business Development Team Lead

It'd be great to have more insight into what the onboarding process looks like. Is it structured out pretty well, or are you being thrown to the wolves?

If it's well structured, report back once it's done and we'd be able to give better advice.

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Fire Starter

AE (Account Executive)

Super, will do that next week

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Fire Starter

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-3

accountant

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CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Dude. Why.

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Fire Starter

AE (Account Executive)

uh oh

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Starting as an Enterprise AE next week - Do's and Don'ts?

18 comments

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