Account Executive

Overview

You sell Verkada's cloud-based physical security platform - cameras, access control, alarms, intercoms, and sensors - to mid-market and enterprise organizations. You're replacing legacy systems from companies like Avigilon, Hanwha, or traditional security installers. Most deals involve facilities managers, IT directors, and security teams who need to be convinced that cloud-based security is secure enough and that the upfront hardware cost is worth it.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Late-stage (Series D+ equivalent, just hit $1B revenue)

Size: 2,630 employees

Growth: Rapidly scaling - hitting $1B revenue puts them in elite company territory. Active hiring across sales org.

Market Position: Category challenger disrupting traditional physical security with cloud-first approach. Competing against both legacy enterprise vendors and traditional installer channel.

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 40% Inbound - web leads, demo requests, existing customer referrals. Quality varies - some are tire-kickers comparing against Ring, others are serious enterprise evaluations.
• 50% Outbound - you're cold calling facilities managers, reaching out to companies posting security guard jobs (signal they have security concerns), targeting new construction projects.
• 10% Partner/referrals - some MSP and systems integrator partnerships, existing customer referrals.

SDR/AE Structure: Mix - SDRs feed you some leads but you're expected to self-source 60%+ of your pipeline. Top performers prospect heavily.

SE Support: Sales Engineers support demos and technical evaluations. You'll have SE help for qualified opportunities but you need to run initial discovery and simple demos yourself.

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors:

• Traditional vendors: Avigilon, Hanwha, Axis Communications (sold through installers)
• Cloud players: Rhombus, Spot AI
• Legacy enterprise: Genetec, Milestone

How They Differentiate: Cloud-native platform (no NVRs/servers to manage), plug-and-play setup, unified platform across all security needs (video, access, alarms), AI-powered search, mobile-first experience.

Common Objections:

• "We already have cameras" / sunk cost in existing system
• "Cloud isn't secure enough for our footage"
• "Your upfront cost is higher than traditional systems"
• "We need to use our existing installer relationships"
• Procurement cycles and budget timing (often CapEx purchases)

Win Themes:

• Total cost of ownership (no maintenance, no server replacements)
• Ease of deployment and management
• Modern user experience vs clunky legacy interfaces
• Scalability across locations
• Integration across security functions

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Prospecting (25%) | Active Deals (50%) | Demos & Meetings (15%) | Internal (10%)

Key Activities

• Prospecting and pipeline building: You're calling facilities managers, directors of security, IT directors. You're targeting companies with multiple locations, recent security incidents, or new construction. Expect 20-30 calls per day on prospecting days. Most don't pick up. You're trying to book site surveys and discovery calls.

• Running discovery and initial demos: You qualify whether they have budget authority, what their current setup is, and what pain points exist. You demo the platform yourself for simpler deals. For anything $100K+, you'll bring in an SE for a custom demo.

• Managing multi-stakeholder sales: You're coordinating between facilities (who manage the project), IT (who worry about network/security), procurement (who negotiate pricing), and sometimes legal (for cloud data contracts). Deals stall frequently because getting all these people aligned is hard.

• Site surveys and deployment planning: For larger deals, you're visiting facilities, counting camera locations, reviewing network infrastructure, planning access control reader placement. This is part technical discovery, part relationship building with the facilities team who'll manage the install.

• Proposals and ROI justification: You're building business cases comparing 5-year TCO vs their current system, calculating labor savings from not managing servers, quantifying incident response improvements. Finance and procurement will challenge your numbers.

• Negotiating and closing: Deals get stuck in procurement. You'll negotiate on payment terms (they want to spread it out, you want it upfront), support SLAs, and contract length. Discount pressure is real, especially when competing against installer channel pricing.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Long sales cycles with lots of stalls: Deals that look like they'll close this quarter slip constantly. Budget reallocation, new stakeholder objections, competing priorities. You'll have 15-20 active opportunities but only 3-4 will actually close each quarter.

• Technical complexity and deployment concerns: You're not just selling software. You need to understand network bandwidth requirements, PoE switches, camera specs, access control wiring. IT teams will grill you on security certifications and data residency. Some deals die because their network infrastructure can't support it without expensive upgrades.

• Price objections and ROI justification: Upfront cost is legitimately higher than legacy systems. You're selling on TCO and operational benefits, but CFOs often just see the bigger invoice. Traditional installers can undercut on initial price because they make money on maintenance contracts.

• Competitive displacement is tough: When someone already has cameras that work, convincing them to rip and replace is an uphill battle. You're waiting for a triggering event - lease renewal, security incident, new location opening.

What Success Looks Like

• Hitting 100%+ of quota: Based on the post, achievable but you need to consistently work pipeline. Team average was 167% but that's exceptional. 100-120% is strong performance.
• Building a pipeline of 4-5x your quarterly quota: You need $400-500K in pipeline to close $100-125K per quarter. Constantly prospecting is non-negotiable.
• Closing 2-4 deals per quarter: Not high volume. You're managing fewer, larger deals vs SMB transactional sales.

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• Director/VP of Facilities (budget owner for physical security)
• Head of Security / Chief Security Officer
• IT Director / CTO (technical evaluation and approval)
• CFO / Procurement (pricing and contract terms)

What They Care About:

• Facilities: Easy installation, reliable uptime, ability to manage across locations, mobile access
• Security: Footage quality, retention periods, forensic search capabilities, integration with monitoring services
• IT: Network impact, cybersecurity, data privacy, integration with existing systems (SSO, directory services)
• Finance: Total cost of ownership, payment terms, ROI justification, contract flexibility

Requirements

• 3-5 years full-cycle sales experience, ideally selling hardware + software solutions
• Comfortable with technical discussions - you need to talk network infrastructure, not just product features
• Experience managing 3-6 month sales cycles with multiple stakeholders
• Track record of quota attainment in a consultative B2B environment
• Willingness to do site visits and travel to customer locations (not a pure desk job)
• Ability to self-source pipeline - this isn't an order-taking role
• Comfortable with $50K-250K deal sizes (not SMB transactional, not multi-million strategic)