Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for B2B Sales Executive

🎯 Role Definition

The B2B Sales Executive owns the full sales cycle for mid-market and enterprise customers — from prospecting and needs discovery to solution demonstration, proposal, negotiation, and handoff to customer success. This role requires strong consultative selling skills, experience managing a sales pipeline in a CRM (e.g., Salesforce), and a track record of achieving or surpassing sales quotas. The ideal candidate is data-informed, comfortable with complex deal cycles and RFPs, and able to collaborate cross-functionally with product, marketing, legal, and operations to close deals and drive account growth.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

Sales Development Representative (SDR) or Business Development Representative (BDR)
Inside Sales Representative / Account Executive (Junior)
Customer Success or Technical Sales Specialist

Advancement To:

Senior B2B Sales Executive / Enterprise Account Executive
Sales Manager / Team Lead
Regional Sales Director → VP of Sales

Lateral Moves:

Strategic Account Manager
Business Development Manager
Customer Success Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Build, manage, and expand a high-quality sales pipeline by proactively sourcing and qualifying new B2B leads using outbound prospecting, warm inbound follow-up, referrals, and marketing-sourced opportunities.
Execute consultative sales conversations to uncover customer business objectives, pain points, decision-making processes, and success criteria; craft tailored solutions that align product capabilities to client outcomes.
Deliver compelling product demonstrations and proof-of-value sessions that clearly show ROI, use cases, and technical fit for prospective enterprise customers and cross-functional stakeholders.
Prepare, present, and negotiate commercial proposals, statements of work (SOWs), and contracts; manage stakeholder expectations to close deals while protecting margin and contractual compliance.
Consistently achieve or exceed monthly, quarterly, and annual revenue quotas through disciplined pipeline coverage, deal progression, and timely closing strategies.
Manage complex, multi-stakeholder sales cycles including procurement, IT, legal, and business leaders; develop account plans to accelerate decision-making and shorten sales cycles.
Use CRM (Salesforce, HubSpot, or similar) to document activity, update opportunity stages, forecast accurately, and maintain pipeline hygiene for predictable revenue reporting.
Develop territory and account strategies including target account lists, ideal customer profile (ICP) mapping, outreach plans, and prioritized engagement tactics to maximize conversion and deal size.
Conduct competitive analysis and positioning, articulating product differentiation against competitors in calls, proposals, and negotiation scenarios.
Collaborate with marketing to convert demand generation programs into qualified pipeline; provide feedback on messaging, case studies, and campaign effectiveness.
Work with product and engineering teams to relay prospect requirements, prioritize feature requests, and secure beta or pilot opportunities that demonstrate product-market fit.
Lead complex contract negotiations including pricing, payment terms, licensing structures, renewals, and SLAs in coordination with legal and finance.
Create and deliver high-quality proposals, RFP responses, and executive summaries tailored to customer needs and procurement processes.
Maintain up-to-date knowledge of product roadmaps, industry trends, regulatory considerations, and customer use cases to provide strategic consultative advice.
Drive upsell and cross-sell opportunities inside existing accounts by identifying expansion triggers, usage gaps, and additional product fit in partnership with account management or customer success teams.
Prepare and present sales forecasts, pipeline reviews, and weekly activity reports to sales leadership; highlight blockers and recommended actions to advance deals.
Coordinate proof-of-concept (POC) pilots and trials by aligning internal resources, defining success metrics, and ensuring timely execution and evaluation.
Attend industry events, trade shows, webinars, and networking forums to generate leads, represent the company, and gather market intelligence.
Coach and mentor junior sales staff and SDR partners on outreach best practices, objection handling, and deal progression tactics when requested.
Maintain high standards of CRM data quality, ensuring contacts, activities, and opportunity details are current and actionable for the broader GTM organization.
Develop pricing strategies and packaging recommendations for prospects, balancing competitiveness with company margin and long-term account potential.
Identify and mitigate deal risks by mapping champions, influencers, and blockers; create pursuit plans and escalation paths to secure executive sponsorship.
Partner with finance and operations to ensure clean order entry, accurate billing setup, and smooth transition from contract signature to onboarding.
Track and optimize sales metrics (conversion rates, sales cycle length, average deal size, win rate) and apply continuous improvement to personal selling processes.

Secondary Functions

Support marketing and product teams by providing customer insights, competitive intelligence, and prioritized feature requests gathered during customer interactions.
Participate in customer implementation kickoff meetings to ensure smooth handoff and alignment on success criteria with Customer Success Managers.
Provide high-quality feedback on sales enablement materials — scripts, battlecards, case studies, and playbooks — based on frontline learnings.
Take part in cross-functional strategy sessions to help shape pricing, packaging, and go-to-market approaches for new verticals or products.
Contribute to the creation and maintenance of sales templates, proposal libraries, and demo environments to improve team efficiency.
Respond to ad-hoc requirements like executive briefings, partner co-selling meetings, and internal training sessions.
Support pilot and POC evaluation processes by collecting success metrics and customer testimonials for future sales motions.
Assist in developing partner and channel relationships where applicable, identifying co-selling opportunities and joint value propositions.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Advanced CRM proficiency (Salesforce preferred) — pipeline management, forecasting, reporting, and automation best practices.
Proven experience with consultative and solution selling frameworks for B2B / enterprise accounts.
Strong contract and commercial negotiation skills including pricing, SOWs, and licensing models.
Demonstrated ability to manage multi-stakeholder procurement cycles and respond to RFPs and RFIs effectively.
Experience running and evaluating POCs, pilots, and technical demos in collaboration with solutions engineers or product specialists.
Excellent sales analytics skills — comfortable using data to prioritize accounts, model outcomes, and produce actionable forecasts.
Familiarity with sales engagement tools (Outreach, SalesLoft), demo platforms (Zoom, Webex), and collaboration tools (Slack, Google Workspace, Microsoft 365).
Competency with presentation software (PowerPoint/Google Slides) and the ability to craft executive-level decks and proposals.
Knowledge of CRM integrations, CPQ tools, and basic understanding of legal/finance contract workflows.
Ability to translate technical product capabilities into clear business value and ROI metrics.

Soft Skills

Strong consultative communication and active listening — able to discover underlying business needs and craft persuasive solutions.
Outcome-oriented mindset with resilience, persistence, and a bias for action in complex, long-cycle sales environments.
Exceptional stakeholder management and interpersonal skills; adept at building trust with executives and technical teams.
Strategic thinker with excellent prioritization, time management, and territory planning abilities.
Collaborative team player who partners effectively with marketing, product, customer success, and operations.
High emotional intelligence and the ability to adapt messaging and approach to diverse customer personalities and cultures.
Problem-solving orientation with the ability to anticipate objections and develop creative win-win solutions.
Results-driven and accountable — consistently tracks metrics, accepts feedback, and iterates on approach.
Strong presentation and storytelling skills for both technical and executive audiences.
Comfortable with ambiguity and rapid change in product, market, or go-to-market motions.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Economics, Computer Science, or equivalent relevant work experience.

Preferred Education:

Bachelor’s degree in Business, Marketing, or related field; MBA or advanced degree a plus for enterprise/strategic sales roles.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Business Administration
Marketing
Economics
Computer Science / Information Systems (for technical products)
Communications / Sales

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

3–7 years of progressive B2B sales experience, including direct experience managing a quota and working enterprise or mid-market accounts.

Preferred:

5+ years in B2B or enterprise sales with demonstrated quota attainment, experience with CRM-driven selling (Salesforce), proven track record closing multi-stakeholder deals, and prior work in the target industry vertical (SaaS, FinTech, SaaS/Cloud, Enterprise Software, or related).