What are the responsibilities of a Sales Executive?
- Careers
Are you considering applying for a Sales Executive position but are unsure what the role actually entails? This article will go through what responsibilities the role includes, what to expect, and the criteria for applying. The information is mostly based on a general description of the role as the tasks of a Sales Executive will differ slightly depending on the company. In addition, we have included input from two of the Sales Executives at Marketer and their experience with the role.
Responsibilities
A sales executive explained in general terms is responsible for helping the company they work for to grow through identifying new business opportunities and selling the product or service to clients. After successfully closing a deal, the sales executive will also be responsible for building a good and lasting relationship with the client and having regular contact with existing customers in their portfolio.
Identifying new business
Prospecting is the process of finding new business opportunities. This research will allow you to find leads who potentially are in need of your products or services, where your company is in a position to solve their challenges. The overall goal of prospecting is to convert the leads into permanent clients. Hubspot mentions in their article on prospecting how salespeople who use prospecting on a high level generate almost three times more sales meetings compared to those who do not prospect at all, or not enough.
Building and maintaining relationships with clients
Even though a lead has become a client, sales is about more than just closing deals. One of the most important responsibilities of a Sales Executive is to build and maintain relationships with clients. As a seller, you can also act as an advisor to the client, thus it is important to realise how valuable good communication is while expressing a genuine interest to help your clients. This Forbes article states how there is not just one way to be good at sales, but how far you can come by being a good listener as that creates a feeling of trust, which facilitates in maintaining the relationship after the sale.
Skills and experience
In the role of a Sales Executive, it is necessary to be a good communicator, organized, and assertive. Further requirements such as experience can vary from what company you apply to, but it is usually an advantage with a degree and/or experience within Sales and Marketing or similar.
If you already work with sales but want new challenges, transitioning to a new industry is always an option as the skills gained from previous sales jobs are very often transferable. An example of this is the story from one of Marketer’s Sales Executives, Dani Gjulem, who previously worked with sales in shipping. He mentions how there are plenty of differences between shipping and a digital software company like Marketer such as selling a physical product versus software, as well as who the target prospects and clients are. When that is said, Dani also mentions the importance of reflecting on your experiences and finding the similarities between each job when changing your career path.
“Even though the industry and product you’re selling might be very different from each other, there is usually a similar fundamental point which is more important to focus on when transitioning to a new industry. In my case, it was how the technological development in the industries is quite similar, in addition to the mentality and basic interest for an objective decision basis.”
Sales Executive at Marketer
As mentioned above, the role of a Sales Executive can be slightly different from business to business. At Marketer, our Sales Executives are responsible for selling our AI-driven products and being the point of contact for new and existing clients. However, a big part of their role is also to act as consultants for their clients, combining industry insight and product knowledge to give quality advice.
“At Marketer, we approach sales by helping our clients to make sense of their digital strategy, thus driving their digital transformation when it comes to projects in sales and marketing. This requires planning strategies as well as extensive market and industry knowledge, which makes the role very interesting and distinct from other Sales Executive positions that I have seen”, says Diogo Affonso, Sales Executive at Marketer.
The sales team collaborate closely with the product team to stay updated on the latest within our products. They also team up with the Customer Success Managers and the Senior Account Executives, collaborating on cases and making use of each other's strengths to ensure excellent solutions and provide superior customer service.
Do you want to be a part of a high-performing sales team? Marketer is now looking for two ambitious Sales Executives. You will be part of an interdisciplinary working environment, and as a part of our Oslo-based sales team, you will be working strategically towards markets and customers worldwide. Click here to apply.
