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Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for Virtual Sales Account Manager

💰 $45,000 - $120,000

SalesRemoteAccount ManagementCustomer Success

🎯 Role Definition

The Virtual Sales Account Manager is a remote, quota-bearing sales professional responsible for managing and growing a portfolio of named accounts or an assigned territory through proactive relationship building, consultative selling, upsell/cross-sell activities, and disciplined pipeline management. This role combines inside sales execution, customer success orientation, and strategic account planning to maximize recurring revenue, reduce churn, and deliver measurable business outcomes for clients.


📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

  • Inside Sales Representative with remote selling experience
  • Customer Success Representative/Manager transitioning to revenue-focused account management
  • Business Development Representative (BDR) promoted into full account ownership

Advancement To:

  • Senior Account Manager / Strategic Account Manager
  • Enterprise Account Manager / Key Account Director
  • Sales Manager / Sales Director (Remote or Field)
  • Head of Account Management / VP of Sales

Lateral Moves:

  • Customer Success Manager / Director of Customer Success
  • Sales Operations / Enablement Specialist
  • Business Development Manager / Channel Manager

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

  • Own and manage a defined portfolio of existing and net-new accounts as the Virtual Sales Account Manager, delivering on monthly and quarterly revenue targets through strategic upsell, cross-sell, renewal, and expansion activities.
  • Act as the single point of contact for assigned accounts, building trusted advisor relationships with key stakeholders, C-level sponsors, and operational users to understand business priorities and define outcomes tied to product value.
  • Execute a consultative, solutions-oriented sales process in a fully remote environment—conducting discovery calls, virtual product demonstrations, customized proposals, and executive business reviews to drive account growth.
  • Maintain accurate and up-to-date opportunity and account information in the CRM (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot) including pipeline stages, next steps, forecasted revenue, and decision timelines to enable predictable forecasting and reporting.
  • Build and execute account plans that identify expansion opportunities, competitive landscape, risk indicators, and tailored value propositions that align product capabilities to client KPIs.
  • Proactively identify churn risk by monitoring engagement signals, usage metrics, and support interactions; coordinate with Customer Success and Support to implement retention strategies and conduct renewal negotiations.
  • Drive adoption and product penetration across multiple lines of business within accounts by creating and delivering adoption campaigns, training sessions, and executive-level ROI presentations.
  • Prospect within assigned accounts and via targeted campaigns to generate new-qualified opportunities using a mix of email, cold calling, social selling (LinkedIn), and virtual events tailored to remote buyers.
  • Negotiate commercial terms, pricing, and contract renewals with legal and finance partners while ensuring compliance with company policies and margin objectives; close multi-year renewals and expansion deals virtually.
  • Collaborate cross-functionally with Marketing, Product, Solutions Engineering, and Customer Success to develop tailored assets, proof-of-concepts, pilots, and case studies that accelerate deal velocity and increase conversion rates.
  • Manage quota attainment by forecasting accurately, prioritizing high-impact deals, and applying disciplined time management to balance proactive outreach and account servicing.
  • Deliver consistent, data-driven pipeline hygiene via weekly pipeline reviews, deal coaching sessions, and rigorous follow-up to convert opportunities into closed revenue.
  • Conduct virtual product demonstrations and customized workshops that translate technical features into measurable business outcomes for diverse stakeholder groups.
  • Prepare executive-level documentation, including account briefs, ROI analyses, renewal playbooks, and contract summaries, ensuring decision makers have clear, persuasive materials to approve spend.
  • Lead RFP responses and coordinate multi-stakeholder evaluations by assembling subject matter experts, technical resources, and pricing approvals to win competitive deals remotely.
  • Track and report key performance indicators (KPIs) such as ARR/MRR growth, churn rate, net revenue retention (NRR), win rate, average contract value (ACV), and sales cycle velocity to leadership and finance.
  • Leverage subscription and usage analytics to recommend product packaging or pricing adjustments that increase revenue per user while preserving customer satisfaction in virtual engagements.
  • Design and execute customer advocacy initiatives, referenceable case studies, and testimonial programs that support pipeline generation and improve brand trust among remote buyers.
  • Implement best practices for virtual selling — including video-first meetings, digital contract signing (DocuSign), and remote onboarding handoffs — to reduce friction and accelerate time-to-value for clients.
  • Mentor junior account managers and share virtual selling playbooks, objection-handling frameworks, and remote negotiation techniques to elevate team performance.
  • Ensure all sales activities comply with data security, privacy, and contractual obligations for remote client interactions and international accounts.
  • Continuously gather customer feedback and market intelligence to inform product roadmaps, feature prioritization, and go-to-market strategies for remote and hybrid customers.

Secondary Functions

  • Maintain and enrich CRM data hygiene, updating account contacts, activity logs, and opportunity metadata to support revenue operations and forecasting accuracy.
  • Support ad-hoc reporting and analytics requests from Sales Leadership and Finance related to renewal slippage, expansion velocity, and churn drivers.
  • Participate in cross-functional virtual workshops and sprint planning with Product and Customer Success to translate customer feedback into prioritized development initiatives.
  • Create and share scalable playbooks for remote onboarding, adoption campaigns, and renewal negotiation templates with the broader revenue organization.
  • Assist in pilot design and management for beta product releases with key accounts, capturing performance metrics and use cases for broader commercialization.
  • Contribute to internal enablement by developing training modules on remote selling tools (video conferencing, e-signature, collaboration platforms) and account-based marketing tactics.
  • Coordinate with support and professional services teams to schedule implementations, ensure migration success, and follow up on post-launch satisfaction metrics.
  • Evaluate and recommend sales technology stack improvements (e.g., CRM add-ons, sales engagement platforms) that improve virtual outreach efficiency and deal closure rates.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

  • Proven proficiency with CRM systems such as Salesforce or HubSpot for pipeline management, forecasting accuracy, and account planning.
  • Strong experience with video conferencing and virtual selling tools (Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Webex) including running polished product demos and webinars for remote stakeholders.
  • Familiarity with sales engagement platforms (Outreach, SalesLoft) to execute multi-touch outbound sequences and nurture cadences.
  • Competence in building and interpreting sales analytics and dashboards using Excel, Google Sheets, or BI tools (Tableau, Looker) to analyze ARR/MRR trends and churn indicators.
  • Practical knowledge of e-signature and contract management tools (DocuSign, Adobe Sign) and basic commercial contracting/negotiation workflows.
  • Experience with SaaS commercial models (subscription billing, renewal management, upsell/cross-sell playbooks) and metrics such as NRR, ARR, ACV, and churn rate.
  • Ability to create ROI analyses, business cases, and detailed proposals that translate product functionality into measurable business outcomes.
  • Familiarity with lead qualification frameworks (BANT, MEDDICC/MEDDIC) and opportunity scoring to prioritize account activities.
  • Understanding of product integration concepts and ability to coordinate with solutions engineers and technical teams during POCs and pilots.
  • Working knowledge of marketing automation platforms (Marketo, Pardot) to align account-based marketing campaigns with sales outreach.

Soft Skills

  • Exceptional verbal and written communication skills tailored to virtual executive conversations and remote decision-makers.
  • Strong consultative selling and relationship management mindset with demonstrated empathy and active listening.
  • High emotional intelligence and ability to manage stakeholder expectations across multiple organizational levels.
  • Strategic thinking and problem-solving orientation to design creative account expansion strategies.
  • Results-driven, self-motivated, and disciplined with excellent time management for a remote-first role.
  • Resilience and adaptability in responding to changing customer priorities and market conditions.
  • Collaboration and influencing skills to work across Product, Marketing, Support, and Finance in a distributed environment.
  • Negotiation and objection-handling expertise to close renewals and upsell deals profitably.
  • Coaching and mentoring ability to develop junior account managers and share best practices.
  • Customer-obsessed mindset focused on driving measurable outcomes and customer lifetime value.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

  • Bachelor's degree in Business, Marketing, Communications, Information Systems, or related field OR equivalent demonstrable sales experience.

Preferred Education:

  • Bachelor's degree plus relevant certifications in sales or account management (e.g., Sandler, Challenger, MEDDPICC training) or an MBA for senior roles.

Relevant Fields of Study:

  • Business Administration
  • Marketing / Communications
  • Information Systems / Technology
  • Economics / Finance

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

  • 2–6 years in inside sales, account management, customer success, or SaaS sales with a minimum of 1–2 years in a fully remote selling capacity.

Preferred:

  • 3–7+ years managing mid-market or enterprise accounts in a SaaS or technology environment with proven quota attainment, renewal/expansion track record, and experience using Salesforce or HubSpot for account management and forecasting.