Account Executive - High-Value Clients

Overview

You sell Celero's payment processing platform to small and mid-sized businesses—think restaurants, retail stores, professional services firms, and other merchants processing $50K+ monthly. You're a full-cycle AE doing your own prospecting, discovery, quoting, and closing. Most of your time is spent cold calling business owners, reviewing merchant statements to find pricing gaps, and competing against their current processor (Square, Clover, First Data, or regional ISOs).

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Private (established player, not VC-backed startup)

Size: 298 employees

Growth: Adding to sales team suggests expansion, likely targeting accounts above their typical SMB sweet spot

Market Position: Mid-tier payment processor competing in a crowded space. Not the brand recognition of Square/Stripe, not the enterprise scale of Fiserv. Positioned as a more flexible, service-oriented alternative to big processors and more established than small ISOs.

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 80% Outbound - Cold calling merchants, LinkedIn outreach to business owners, door-to-door (yes, still a thing in payments)
• 15% Referrals - Existing merchants, partner ISOs, agents in their channel
• 5% Inbound - Mostly smaller merchants from web inquiries, not the high-value clients this role targets

SDR/AE Structure: No SDR support. You build your own pipeline.

SE Support: No dedicated SE—you handle demos and technical questions yourself (payment processing isn't highly technical from a demo standpoint).

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: Square, Clover (Fiserv), Stripe, Toast (restaurants), regional ISOs, merchant services divisions of banks

How They Differentiate: More hands-on support than Square/Stripe, more flexible pricing than big processors, technology integration for ISVs via APIs

Common Objections: "My current processor is fine", "I can't break my contract", "Square is simpler", "Your rates aren't low enough"

Win Themes: Better support than big players, custom rate structures for high-volume merchants, integrated solutions for specific verticals, relationship-based service

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Prospecting (40%) | Active Deals (35%) | Admin/Internal (25%)

Key Activities

• Cold calling merchants: 50-70 calls per day to business owners. You're asking them to send you their current merchant statement so you can run a cost comparison. Most say no or don't return your voicemail. You need 3-5 good conversations per day to keep your pipeline moving.
• Statement analysis: When you do get a statement, you're building a rate comparison showing how much they'd save with Celero. This is where deals are won or lost—your pricing needs to beat their current processor enough to justify the switch hassle.
• Discovery and objection handling: Business owners are skeptical of payment processors (the industry has a sleazy reputation). You spend time building trust, understanding their pain points beyond just price (equipment issues, poor support, integration needs), and addressing "I'm locked in a contract" concerns.
• Contract negotiation and closing: Once they agree conceptually, you're negotiating final rates, navigating early termination fees from their old processor, coordinating equipment install, and getting signed agreements. Deals can stall here if the merchant gets busy or spooked by change.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Merchant apathy: Most businesses aren't actively unhappy with their processor. You're selling a "nice to have" cost savings, not solving a burning problem. Prospects ghost after initial interest.
• Incumbent inertia: Switching processors is annoying—new equipment, training staff, potential downtime. Even if you're cheaper, merchants procrastinate. You'll chase people for weeks.
• Pricing pressure: Payment processing is largely commoditized. You're often competing on rate, and Celero may not always be the cheapest. High-value clients can get aggressive quotes from competitors.
• Contract buyouts: Many merchants are locked in contracts with early termination fees. You either need to cover these or convince them to wait months until their contract expires.
• Long, repetitive prospecting grind: To hit quota, you need to make a lot of calls to get a few statements, to close a handful of deals. The rejection-to-success ratio is high.

What Success Looks Like

• Closing 5-8 new merchants per month (high-value = bigger deal sizes, fewer deals needed)
• Building a portfolio that generates $40K-$60K annual residuals in your first year
• Getting referrals from happy merchants (reduces cold calling load over time)

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• Business owners (often founder/CEO of SMB)
• CFOs or finance managers at mid-sized companies
• Multi-location operators (retail chains, restaurant groups)

What They Care About:

• Total cost: Effective rate after all fees (interchange, gateway, PCI compliance, equipment rental)
• Reliability: Uptime, fast deposits, equipment that works
• Support: Can they reach a human when something breaks?
• Ease of switching: How much hassle is this going to be?
• Integration: Does it work with their POS, accounting software, e-commerce platform?

Requirements

• 2-4 years payment processing or merchant services sales experience (they want someone who knows how to read statements and quote rates)
• Proven track record selling to SMB or mid-market ($500K-$10M revenue businesses)
• Comfortable with high-activity prospecting (cold calling doesn't scare you)
• Consultative selling skills (you need to uncover needs beyond just price)
• Experience managing a full sales cycle with no SDR support
• Familiarity with ISVs, ISOs, or channel sales is a plus (Celero has a partner channel)
• Willingness to do occasional in-person meetings (payments is still a relationship business in many markets)