Account Executive

Overview

You're selling Videowise's video commerce platform to ecommerce brands on Shopify, Magento, and Adobe Commerce. You handle the full cycle - prospecting, demoing, negotiating, closing. Most deals are mid-market ($20-75K ACV), closing in 2-6 weeks with buyers like ecommerce directors, heads of growth, or CMOs.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Likely bootstrapped or early Series A (profitable, 35 employees, 6+ years in business)

Size: 35 employees

Growth: Actively hiring for multiple GTM roles, claims full pipeline and real demand

Market Position: Mid-tier player in shoppable video space - competing against Tolstoy, Firework, VIMMI, and point solutions. Shopify-native positioning is their wedge.

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 30% Inbound - Shopify App Store installs, website demos, content marketing leads. Quality varies - lots of tire-kickers looking at multiple tools.
• 60% Outbound - You're prospecting into Shopify stores that already use video, targeting brands doing $5M+ in revenue. Cold email, LinkedIn, some calling.
• 10% Referrals/Partners - Agency referrals, Shopify partner ecosystem.

SDR/AE Structure: They're hiring a BDR, so you'll get some pipeline from them, but expect to self-source 50%+ of your opps. New BDR means they're building the function - you're not inheriting a machine.

SE Support: No dedicated SE. You're doing your own demos and handling technical questions. Product is relatively straightforward (video embeds, shoppable tags), but you need to speak to integrations, analytics, and feed management.

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: Tolstoy (interactive video), Firework (live shopping + shoppable video), VIMMI, Livescale, plus DIY solutions (embedding YouTube/Vimeo manually) and adjacent tools like social commerce platforms.

How They Differentiate: Native Shopify integration, end-to-end platform (not just player), combined shoppable video + live shopping + analytics in one place. They emphasize being built for ecommerce teams vs generic video platforms.

Common Objections:

• "We already post videos on our product pages" (DIY mindset)
• "Does shoppable video actually convert?" (ROI skepticism)
• "We're already using [competitor]" (switching costs)
• "That's expensive for a video player" (sticker shock)

Win Themes: Better analytics than competitors, easier to manage content at scale, Shopify-native means less technical lift, live shopping + on-demand video in one platform.

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Prospecting (35%) | Active Deals (40%) | Demos & Follow-up (20%) | Internal (5%)

Key Activities

• Prospecting: You're identifying Shopify stores in fashion, beauty, home goods, consumer electronics - brands that already use video in their marketing. Building lists, cold emailing, LinkedIn outreach. Expect 20-30 touches per day.
• Running Demos: You're showing how to embed videos on product pages, create shoppable hotspots, set up live shopping events, and track video attribution. Demos are 30-45 minutes. You're handling objections about implementation complexity and ROI.
• Pipeline Management: Chasing down stakeholders for next steps. Common pattern: ecommerce manager is interested, but needs to loop in head of growth, then CMO wants to see it. Deals slip because "we're focused on Black Friday prep" or "budget got reallocated."
• Closing: Negotiating contract terms (mostly annual vs monthly payment, user seats, video hosting limits). Deals rarely die - they just go quiet. You spend a lot of time resurrecting stalled opps.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Ecommerce brands are hit hard by economic cycles. When consumer spending drops, marketing budgets freeze. You'll have deals that were "next week" suddenly go dark for months.
• Proving ROI is tough early. Prospects want to see lift in conversion rates, but you need them to buy before they can test it. Chicken-and-egg problem means lots of "can we do a pilot?" conversations.
• High volume means you're juggling 20-30 deals at once. Lots of context-switching. Easy to let things slip through the cracks.
• Ecommerce buyers are comparison shoppers by nature. They will demo 4-5 tools before deciding. Long periods of radio silence are normal.
• "Ecommerce experience required" means they want someone who already speaks the language - conversion rates, AOV, bounce rates, attribution models. You can't learn this on the job.

What Success Looks Like

• Closing 4-6 deals per quarter at $20-50K ACV
• Keeping 25-30 active opportunities in your pipeline at all times
• Demo-to-close rate around 20-25% (1 in 4-5 demos closes within 2 quarters)
• Generating 50% of your pipeline through outbound prospecting

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• Ecommerce Directors/Managers (day-to-day operations, hands-on with tools)
• Heads of Growth/Growth Marketing (focused on conversion optimization)
• CMOs at mid-market brands (final budget approval)

What They Care About:

• Conversion rate lift - will shoppable video actually drive more purchases?
• Ease of implementation - how much dev work is required? How long to launch?
• Content management - can they scale video across hundreds of products without manual work?
• Analytics - can they prove attribution and ROI to justify the spend?
• Integration with existing stack - Shopify, Klaviyo, Google Analytics, ad platforms

Requirements

• 2-4 years selling SaaS to ecommerce/retail brands (they mean it - need to understand ecommerce metrics and buyer behavior)
• Experience with Shopify ecosystem strongly preferred
• Proven track record in high-volume, consultative sales (managing 20+ active deals)
• Comfortable doing technical demos without SE support
• Self-starter mentality - you're building pipeline, not just working inbound leads