Account Executive (Core)

Overview

You sell StackAdapt's programmatic advertising platform to agencies and brand marketers across Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. You're prospecting into ad agencies that might be using The Trade Desk, Yahoo, or Basis, plus going direct to brands with significant digital ad spend. Most of your day is cold outreach, platform demos, and negotiating annual contracts.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Growth stage / likely Series C+ based on 1,697 employees

Size: 1,697 employees

Growth: Actively hiring across regions, expanding Midwest presence suggests strong growth trajectory

Market Position: Established player in programmatic advertising competing against The Trade Desk, Yahoo DSP, Basis Technologies, Quantcast, and MiQ

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 20-30% Inbound - agencies and brands researching alternatives to incumbent platforms, demo requests from marketing
• 60-70% Outbound - cold calling agencies, LinkedIn outreach to media buyers and brand CMOs/marketing directors
• 10% Partner/Referrals - existing customer referrals to sibling agencies

SDR/AE Structure: Likely self-sourcing with some SDR support for high-priority accounts

SE Support: Solutions Engineer available for technical deep-dives and complex integrations, but you run most standard demos yourself

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: The Trade Desk (TTD), Yahoo DSP, Basis Technologies, Quantcast, MiQ

How They Differentiate: Likely competing on ease of use, customer support, specific targeting capabilities, or pricing vs larger players

Common Objections:

• "We're already with The Trade Desk/Yahoo" (incumbent stickiness)
• "We need to see performance data vs our current platform"
• "Your platform doesn't integrate with our reporting stack"
• Pricing pressure from procurement

Win Themes: Better support than TTD, easier platform than competitors, specific feature sets for targeting, transparent pricing

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

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

Key Activities

• Cold outreach to agencies: You're calling and emailing media buyers, account directors, and agency VPs at shops like Basis, MiQ competitors, and independent agencies. Most don't respond. You're trying to get 5-8 discovery calls booked per week.
• Platform demos: You run 60-90 minute demos showing how to set up campaigns, targeting options, reporting dashboards. You're answering questions about attribution, integrations with their existing tech stack, and how your platform compares to what they use now.
• Chasing contracts through procurement: After verbal commitments, you spend weeks following up with legal and procurement teams. Agencies especially have long approval processes. You're editing MSAs, negotiating payment terms, and answering security questionnaires.
• Account planning: You research which agencies handle which brands, map out decision-makers, figure out contract renewal dates with competitors, and identify which brands are most likely to test a new platform.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Incumbent stickiness: Most agencies and brands already have a programmatic platform they're comfortable with. Switching platforms is a pain, so you need compelling performance data or a frustrated buyer.
• Long sales cycles with agencies: Agency decision-making involves multiple stakeholders (media buyers, account leadership, operations, sometimes the client). Deals that should close in 6 weeks often take 3-4 months.
• Proving ROI against incumbents: You're constantly being asked to prove your platform will perform better than TTD or Yahoo. This means test campaigns, proof-of-concepts, and performance comparisons that extend your cycle.
• Territory building from scratch: You're in the Midwest covering 4 states. You're building your book from zero, which means heavy prospecting for the first 6-9 months before you have a base of renewals.

What Success Looks Like

• Closing 3-5 new logos per quarter in year one (mix of agencies and direct brands)
• Building a pipeline of $2-3M in potential annual spend by quarter two
• Getting 1-2 agencies to shift meaningful budget from competitors to StackAdapt
• Expanding initial test budgets ($50K) into full annual commitments ($200K+) after proving performance

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• Agency Media Directors/VPs (evaluating new platforms for client campaigns)
• Brand Marketing Directors/CMOs (at mid-market to enterprise brands with $500K+ digital ad budgets)
• Programmatic Leads/Traders (hands-on buyers who'll actually use the platform)

What They Care About:

• Performance data: CPMs, click-through rates, conversion rates vs what they're seeing on current platform
• Ease of use: Can their team adopt this without extensive training?
• Targeting capabilities: Specific audience segments, contextual targeting, geo-targeting precision
• Reporting and attribution: Clean dashboards, integration with their analytics stack
• Support: How fast do they get help when campaigns need troubleshooting?

Requirements

• 2-4 years in programmatic advertising, adtech sales, or digital media sales (agencies or platforms)
• Understanding of DSPs, DMPs, programmatic buying mechanics
• Experience selling to agencies and/or brands with significant ad budgets
• Comfortable with technical demos (you'll learn the platform, but need to grasp adtech concepts quickly)
• Self-starter who can build a territory without established accounts to farm
• Based in or willing to travel regularly within Missouri, Wisconsin, Minnesota, or Iowa