Account Executive

An account executive manages, supports, renews, and helps grow existing clients' accounts. In addition, they help the company formulate effective sales strategies and ideas that promote the client's brand reputation and products. It is also called a full-cycle sales representative as it has to perform the role of sales, customers support and account handling all by itself.

Key account executives are key to contact with the client and prospects. Their main task revolves around convincing clients to sell products. They primarily give product demos and convert prospects into customers. Their role involves a vicious cycle of counseling, persuading, and upselling the company's products or services. They have inbuilt patience, handling objections and negotiations with clients until the closure of deals.

• Account executive means an employee of a firm that searches for new business accounts and sells new businesses to clients on behalf of the company.
• It helps the company get new businesses using the strategy developed by executives with excellent soft skills, selling skills, convincing ability, and data analysis qualities.
• These executives are the first point of contact between a client and the business. In contrast, the account manager is the one that nurtures, maintains, and upsells the client for business growth indefinitely.
• Account executives are primarily responsible for getting new clients, have project management ability, can thwart competition, work across teams lucidly, and maintain existing clients.

An account executive is an employee responsible for scouting, building, and cultivating relationships with current and new clients. They are employed in a wide range of sectors. However, they are most frequently seen in the financial services, public relations, and advertising sectors. They do it by carrying the responsibilities of marketing, public relations, and advertising. In addition, these executives work to achieve revenue targets that give them good commissions on successful sales closure, client addition, and company product or service selling.

These executives help get the company opens new accounts. They get entrusted to care for the existing clients. Also, they convince clients to buy upgraded and costly products of the firm. Executives must keep growing the older client accounts and nourish them for newer deals, products, or services.  

Account executives need to have good knowledge of sales tools besides having excellent soft skills. Prospecting tools available to them help them to do so. They also work with quotation generation and proposal generation and have sound knowledge of pipeline management tools like customer relationship management (CRM) which have it inbuilt. 

Executives must know CRM tools like outreach, contact management, and report generation. As these executives have to work in a team to achieve the organizational goal so they must have a good know-how of project management tools for the following -

• Knowing the status of all tasks
• Getting notified of all project developments
• Bypass any confusion while the client dealing

The skills of an account executive or enterprise account executive are elaborated on in the following list.

1. Excellent soft skills and convincing ability
2. Must have market research knowledge
3. Well-versed in sales and negotiation
4. Good familiarity with Microsoft Office
5. Able to use CRM software smoothly
6. Knows how to use PowerPoint presentation
7. Excellent relationship-building skills
8. Must have strong business acumen
9. Having relevant educational qualifications

These executives' roles span getting new clients through sales or marketing and nurturing them. Firstly, aspirants need certain traits mentioned below to become an account executive:

• Aspirants should get educated with a Bachelor of Communication or business or master's in business (MBA).
• They must gain good sales experience by working as a sales executive.
• Further, they must develop good communication, negotiation, convincing, and presentation skills.
• Aspirants must try to get hands-on experience in management. 
• They must obtain a sales certificate from a reputed institute.
• Finally, one must apply and start working as an executive in a firm.

A base salary, sales commissions, and bonuses for surpassing goals are typically included in compensation.

In America, an account executive or sales account executive has been able to get an average salary of $97,413 as of 26th September 2022. However, the typical salary range of an executive has been between $84,383 to $113,123. The variations arise because of differing educational qualifications, skills, and years of experience in the same profession.

Working for either one or numerous clients is possible for this career. But first, let us have a look at the account executive job description that includes its tole & responsibilities as below:

• Executives must be able to grow existing customer accounts.
• They must remove any threats emanating from rivals to poach customers.
• Further, they must preserve the existing customer relationship successfully.
• Then they also need to ensure they get new clients for the company.
• They should be able to collect and analyze industry data, client behavior, and potential for growth in each account.
• Help clients through their buying process.
• They should handle the list of prospects to convert them into potential customers.
• Work along with key accounts of clients to maintain and grow their business.
• Work across domains like marketing and sales teams.
• Develop the best-suited sales and marketing strategies

Account executives in the financial sector are expected to adhere to regulatory agencies' ethical standards. For instance, Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) Rule 3220, which applies to broker-dealers and investment advisors, requires financial account executives to abide by restrictions on giving gifts and gratuities.

Although both deals with and handles client accounts, both the executive and manager of accounts have differences. It is noted in the table below:

This has been a guide to Account Executive and its meaning. We explain its skills, salary, roles & responsibilities, and comparison with an account manager. You can learn more about it from the following articles -

• Accounting System
• Accounting Department
• Accounting Procedure