Account Executive

Overview

You're selling physical security hardware + cloud software platform to organizations replacing legacy on-premise systems. You handle the full sales cycle - prospecting, discovery, demos, pilots, navigating procurement, and closing. You're selling cameras, access control systems, alarms, and intercoms that all run through Verkada's cloud platform, which means coordinating with facilities managers, IT teams, and security directors.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Late-stage private (Series D+)

Size: 2,645 employees

Growth: Active hiring across sales teams, multiple divisions with 5+ teams each

Market Position: Leader in cloud-based physical security, competing against legacy on-premise systems and newer cloud competitors. Selling into an established market (physical security) with a modern approach (cloud-based, integrated platform).

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 40% Inbound - Mix of website leads, existing customer referrals, and inbound interest from marketing campaigns. Quality varies - some are ready to buy, others are early-stage researchers.
• 50% Outbound - Heavy prospecting into target accounts. Cold calling facilities managers and security directors, LinkedIn outreach, territory account mapping.
• 10% Referrals/Existing customers - Upsells and cross-sells into current customer base.

SDR/AE Structure: Dedicated SDR team books initial meetings, but as a full-cycle rep you're expected to self-source a significant portion of your pipeline through outbound.

SE Support: Shared Solutions Engineer pool for larger deals and technical evaluations. You handle most demos yourself; SE comes in for complex technical questions, custom integrations, or enterprise POCs.

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors:

• Legacy systems (Genetec, Milestone, Avigilon) - on-premise, often complex
• Cloud competitors (Rhombus, Cloudastructure)
• Traditional camera/access control vendors (Axis, HID Global)

How They Differentiate: Integrated platform (all security products in one system), cloud-based with no servers to manage, modern UI with AI-powered search, easier installation than legacy systems.

Common Objections:

• "We already have a system that works"
• Price compared to traditional hardware-only solutions
• IT security concerns about cloud-based surveillance
• "We need on-premise storage for compliance reasons"

Win Themes: Ease of management, scalability, remote access, integration across products (cameras + access control + alarms in one platform), faster deployment than legacy systems.

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Prospecting (30%) | Active Deals (45%) | Internal/Admin (25%)

Key Activities

• Outbound Prospecting: 20-30 calls/day into target accounts. You're reaching facilities managers, security directors, and IT leaders. Most don't pick up. You're trying to book 5-8 discovery calls per week. Lots of voicemails and LinkedIn messages.

• Discovery & Demos: Running product demos (you'll do most yourself) showing the camera system, access control, and cloud platform. Demos are semi-technical - you're explaining how the system works, addressing security concerns, and scoping out their facility needs (how many cameras, doors, buildings).

• Navigating Stakeholders: Deals involve 3-5 people minimum - facilities/operations (day-to-day users), IT (security/infrastructure concerns), procurement (price negotiations), sometimes legal (contracts/data privacy). You spend significant time coordinating meetings, answering follow-up questions, and keeping everyone aligned.

• Pilots & POCs: Many deals require a pilot installation - a few cameras at one location to test the system. You coordinate installation, manage expectations, and use pilot results to expand. This adds 4-8 weeks to the sales cycle.

• Pricing & Proposals: Building quotes with hardware costs (cameras, sensors, access readers) plus software licensing. Deals often require custom proposals based on facility size and requirements. Negotiating with procurement on payment terms and pricing.

• Pipeline Management: Salesforce updates, forecast calls with your manager, coordinating with internal teams (sales engineering, installation/implementation, customer success handoff).

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Long sales cycles with multiple delays: Deals slip constantly. Facilities projects get delayed due to budget freezes, construction timelines, or shifting priorities. You'll have deals forecasted for Q1 that close in Q3.

• Complex stakeholder management: Getting IT, facilities, and procurement aligned is slow. IT has security questions, facilities wants specific features, procurement pushes back on price. One "no" from any stakeholder can stall the deal.

• Incumbent displacement: Most prospects have existing systems. You're convincing them to rip out working cameras and replace them. Change is hard, especially when security teams are risk-averse.

• Hardware logistics: Unlike pure SaaS, you're dealing with physical installation. Site surveys, installation coordination, shipping delays, and post-install troubleshooting all extend the process and create more points of failure.

• Price objections: You're not the cheapest option. Legacy systems or camera-only solutions cost less upfront. You're selling total cost of ownership and ease of management, but procurement cares about sticker price.

What Success Looks Like

• Closing 2-4 deals per month consistently (mix of small/medium/large)
• Building pipeline that's 3-4x your quarterly quota
• 30-40% win rate on qualified opportunities
• Getting deals through pilots successfully (pilot-to-close rate of 60%+)
• Hitting 75-100% of quota (based on team averages mentioned)

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• Director/VP of Facilities or Operations (day-to-day system owner)
• Head of Security or Chief Security Officer (larger orgs)
• IT Director/CTO (technical approval, especially for cloud/security concerns)
• Procurement/Finance (budget holder, final approval)

What They Care About:

• Facilities/Ops: Ease of use, remote access, scalability across multiple sites, integration with other building systems
• Security: Video quality, retention policies, incident investigation tools, compliance (HIPAA, GDPR, etc.)
• IT: Cloud security, data privacy, integration with existing IT infrastructure, low maintenance burden
• Procurement: Total cost of ownership, contract terms, implementation timeline, ROI vs. existing system

Requirements

• 2-4 years of full-cycle B2B sales experience (SaaS or hardware/software preferred)
• Proven ability to prospect and build your own pipeline via outbound
• Experience managing complex deals with multiple stakeholders
• Comfortable with technical products and explaining technical concepts to non-technical buyers
• Track record of hitting quota in a competitive sales environment
• Willingness to work on-site at San Mateo HQ (not remote)
• Strong pipeline management and forecasting discipline