Job Description of an Account Executive

The job of an accounts executive covers the primary duties performed by individuals who occupy this role. This role is often the lead role in driving sales for a full portfolio of products or services or specific groups of services and products. They are often responsible for the complete sales cycles for their portfolio of products. As you can see, this role is critical in driving market share and revenue growth.

Account Executives are employed in various industries and contribute to expanding their employers' businesses by generating leads, closing sales, and providing support to existing clients. Individuals in this role must be capable of driving sales by product through various sales channels. When this role falters, the whole business can suffer.

Account executives play a sales function, assisting in managing and extending current accounts (client relationships) and developing new accounts. They provide higher-level leadership and often collaborate with sales representatives, account managers, and other similar positions.

Account Executives, also known as Key Account Executives, interact directly with customers to ascertain their needs and find ways to meet them. They often work within the client's budget and assist them in meeting their needs.

Account Executives need to have good presentation abilities, excellent communication skills, and in-depth knowledge of the company products.

This role requires an individual with extensive product knowledge—someone with an up-to-date understanding of industry trends and consumer behaviours specific to the sector.

Job Description of an Account Executive: Overall Purpose of the Job

Responsible for driving sales by identifying opportunities that must convert into sales. The role is responsible for building sustainable and profitable relationships with clients.

In some organizations, this role is segmented by location, channels or product categories.

Job Description of an Account Executive: Primary Duties

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The following are some of the primary duties found in the job description for an Account Executive:

Manages the entire sales cycle, from searching for clients to closing sales deals.
Natures productive relationships with current and prospective clients.
Presents products and services to prospective clients.
Attends trade shows to showcase the company's products.
Provides after-sales support to clients.
Negotiates sales agreements with clients.
Prospects for clients through various methods such as cold calling and attending network events.
Keeps a client database to increase sales and build client relationships.
Solves client queries.
Illustrate the value of our products to clients to create growth opportunities for the business.
Devise strategies to generate more leads.
Devise strategies to increase lead conversion.
Prospects for opportunities to sell company products.
Delivers products to clients through various delivery channels.
Visits current and prospective clients to build relationships.
Uses data to search for sales trends and use insights to inform new and novel selling strategies.
Creates and executes evidence-based sales plans.
Carries out market research to qualify new business opportunities.
Researches existing customers' preferences and the competition to identify new sales opportunities.
Participates in business planning sessions as a way to discover new selling opportunities.
Builds a pipeline of new opportunities for the business.

Job Description of an Account Executive: Educational Requirements

People who occupy this role often have a business-related educational background. However, there are exceptions when the industry is a specialized field selling things like engineering-related, pharmaceuticals, mining equipment products etc. In such cases, you usually get people with relevant education in that field.

Below I list some of the standard educational qualifications for Account Executives. When creating an account executive job description, ensure you do not ignore the points highlighted in the paragraph above.

A degree in business or any business-related degree
A specific degree in marketing or sales will be an advantage.
Sales or business-related certifications will be an advantage.

Job Description of an Account Executive: Experience Level required

Selling largely depends on understanding the product or service being sold. To succeed, candidates must have extensive industry-specific experience and product knowledge. Below I list the nature and extent of experiences required for someone to be successful in this role.

Extensive product knowledge.
Experience in a similar sector is an added advantage
Experience using CRM platforms is a requirement.
Proven account relationship management experience.
Experience in other sales-related roles is an advantage.
Proven track record of exceeding sales targets.

Job Description of an Account Executive: Knowledge, Skills, Abilities and Other Characteristics(KSAO)

You need to identify and list the attributes of a good account executive. The list is a guide on what to include in the job description of an account executive. Remember that selling is about personality when compiling an account executive's job description. Research has consistently shown that extroverted individuals tend to be better salespeople because of their courage to engage customers and other key stakeholders.

Good presentation skills
Good selling skills
Extensive knowledge of company product offerings.
Good time management skills
Good planning skills
Good interpersonal skills
Research capability is a requirement.
High levels of self-confidence
Ability to build profitable relationships with clients.
Good attention to detail
Good report writing skills.

Conclusion

As you can see from the above job description, an account executive needs a precise job description to enable you to hire the best candidates available. That can only happen if there is clarity on the role and what kind of people will do well when hired.

Remember, account executives are primarily responsible for selling the company products. They achieve this by creating opportunities to sell the company's products. They can be achieved by using various client engagement channels. With the advent of social media, this role has been given enough opportunities to excel by utilizing the power of social media. There are opportunities to use other digital assets, such as CRM platforms.

Candidates who excel in this role must be astute communicators capable of building lasting and profitable client relationships. These candidates need to have a deeper understanding of the industry and the products they will be selling.

Feel free to customize this job description template to create a job description that suits your organization. The template is not exhaustive. It can only act as a guideline.

Memory Nguwi is an Occupational Psychologist, Data Scientist, Speaker, & Managing Consultant- Industrial Psychology Consultants (Pvt) Ltd, a management and human resources consulting firm.Email:mnguwi@ipcconsultants.com or visit our websites https://www.thehumancapitalhub.com and www.ipcconsultants.com