A New Job Description for Tech Sales
Creating a job description that accurately reflects the evolving demands of the tech industry is crucial for attracting the right candidates. Unfortunately, general job descriptions templates haven’t kept up with the latest demands. At Betts, we’ve crafted an enhanced Job Description (JD) template specifically tailored for Account Executives. We will break it down section by section to effectively streamline and alleviate the responsibilities of your recruiting team.
Account Executives’ main objectives are to create and close deals. They are responsible for being the point of contact to potential clients and build a relationship with them until the contract is signed. Keeping this in mind, let’s dive in to the JD itself.
Job Description Template:
About this Role
Before you get into the role and responsibilities of the job, you want to introduce your company, the nature of the position you’re looking to hire for and why you’re trying to hire this person. This section should include a company sizzle, job title and the challenge that you’re hoping they can solve.
1. Company Sizzle
The company sizzle should be short and sweet, and essentially “hook” your unicorn seller on why they should want to work for you instead of any other company.
2. Job Title
It is essential to ensure absolute clarity regarding the position applicants are seeking. In this section, simplicity is key; it should present the job title without unnecessary complexity.
3. Challenge
What is the main reason you’re hiring this person and what challenge are they solving? That’s what you’ll put in this section but keep it very brief.
It could look something like this:
| Company Sizzle | [Company name] is a newly funded [Series B FinTech] that’s positively growing and projected to reach [$] in ARR by [year] |
| Job Title | Account Executive |
| Challenge | Generate 1 Million in ARR |
Who We’re Looking For
Now more than ever, companies are looking for their “unicorn seller”. This means that background and experience prerequisites for top talent are more specific than ever before in tech sales. Because of this, we decided to separate the job requirements and preferences into different sections that include Industry Experience, Relevant Sales Motion and Sales Skills. This way, we’re getting rid of the “one size fits all” job description in order to hone in on exactly the kind of person who should be applying to your job.
1. Industry Experience
For the most part, companies want to hire someone who has already done similar work to the position they’re hiring for. When creating the industry experience requirements, it should lay out the types of products they’ve previously sold plus industries and customers they’ve sold into. Any preferences of what company stages that they’ve worked at, whether that’s their Series stage or companies’ average ARR should also be included. Depending on relevancy to the role, you can specify whether this type of experience is required or preferred.
Here’s an example:
| Required | – 2+ years of relevant Account Executive experience at a SaaS company in the [Industry Type] Industry – 2+ years experience selling into [Department type] – Experience in a Mid Stage Startup (Series [A/B/C/D] or [$$$] in ARR) |
| Preferred | – Relevant experience in [Preferred industry] or [Preferred industry] industry Experience at VC Backed Startup – 1+ years experience selling into [Department type] – 1+ year of experience selling into [C-suite] |
2. Relevant Sales Motion
For each company – deal sizes, sales cycles, and quotas can vastly differ which is why you want to specify what your typical sales motion looks like. The two main components of a sales motion are the steps in the process and the strategies used to complete it. The steps in the sales motion can include, searching for prospects, meeting and qualifying, researching, proposing an agreement, handling push back, and closing out the deal. The timeline of these steps change the average deal size and cycle depending on the company. Keeping that in mind, this section should include your typical quota, average deal size, average sales cycle, targets and current sales methodologies. This way, you can ensure that only the ideal candidates will apply.
See examples:
| Required | – Demonstrable experience in [trial led sales, land and expand sales or product-led growth] – Minimum avg. deal size of [50k] – Proven track record and quarterly quota attainment |
| Preferred | – Experience with [100K] Average Deal Size – [2-3] Month Sale Cycle – $1M Quota – Experience with [strategic-partner based selling] |
Some examples of different sales methodologies & sales motions include: channel sales, trial led strategies, land and expand methods, account-based selling, partner selling, product-led growth, SPIN selling, N.E.A.T selling, conceptual selling, SNAP selling, challenger sale, The Sandler Selling System, MEDDIC, solution selling, inbound selling, command of the sale and gap selling.
3. Sales Skills
When it comes to what it means to be successful at your company, there’s a certain skill set that may be required depending on your sales techniques. In this section, it should highlight 3-5 core skills that represent your culture and drive success in your company. It’s important to note that while some skills are coachable, others simply can’t be taught. So if competencies such as emotional intelligence and ability to relate to prospects are crucial to how you’re selling, you should include that in your requirements. It can look something like this:
| Required | – Ability to communicate their playbook for the defined sales motion – Demonstrated track record of connecting and relating to prospects in order to build a strong relationship – Ability to understand prospects challenges and determine solution based on conversations |
Some other sales skills & traits include: Creativity, Active Listening, Coach-ability, Relationship Building, Resilience, Analytical Thinking, Sales EQ/IQ, Industry Knowledge, Sales Playbook Knowledge, Problem Solving, Integrity, Sales planning & forecasting, Motivational Speaking, Trend Analysis, Playbook to Scale
About The Company
1. Benefits
This section should lay out all of the benefits available through your company and establish any incentives that will be included with this role along with any details about health insurance, remote/hybrid culture, flexible working hours. Here’s a tip: historically Betts has seen that top sales talent in tech value benefits, and they have increasingly become a key driver to attract quality candidates. So if there’s anything that makes your benefits more appealing than what else is on the market, make sure to include it. See below for an example of what it could look like:
| – Medical insurance for all employees (and largely subsidized coverage for families) – Dental – Vision – 401K with a [%] company contribution – [Flexible Working Hours] – [insert amenities, i.e.: an onsite fitness center, childcare center,etc.]. – [Remote/Hybrid/In-office] (if hybrid or in-office: position located in [City]). |
2. About the Hiring Team
This section will be the last thing a candidate should read and should include why they should come work for your company, the company mission statement and putting a face to the name of the hiring team. Headshots, names and titles of the hiring team can also be added. This can help humanize the whole process and make candidates feel like they’re directly working with people instead of just a screen or sent into a database. Here’s an example:
| This role will be reporting directly to the [Hiring Manager] and working closely with the [Job title, if applicable]. You should apply to this role if you would like to be a part of a [company culture/value, i.e.: collaborative work environment that encourages innovation and entrepreneurial thinking]. OR [Company mission statement] |
To enhance the caliber of your sales team, a revamp of your job description is crucial. To simplify this process for you, we’ve created a downloadable template that includes both a designed and plain text version for your convenience.
Download the Job Description 2.0 Template for Account Executives here.
Upscaling Your Sales Recruiting Search with Betts
If you need help hiring AEs, Betts offers unlimited hires for an annual fee with Recruitment as a Service (RaaS). RaaS combines everything you love about a traditional agency and transforms it into a scalable software-as-a-service package. You get access to both our recruiting support as well as our one-of-a-kind technology platform at a fraction of the cost of an outsourced recruiter team. Learn more about RaaS here, and start hiring your unicorn seller.