Account Executive

Overview

You sell Pipe17's order management and integration platform to enterprise e-commerce brands (think Shopify Plus, BigCommerce Enterprise merchants) and large 3PLs. You're replacing legacy OMS vendors like NetSuite, Brightpearl, or custom-built systems that companies have outgrown. Your buyers are VP/Director of Operations, IT Directors, and sometimes CTOs - people dealing with order routing failures, inventory sync issues, and developer backlogs.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Unknown (likely Series A/B based on 62 employee count and enterprise focus)

Size: 62 employees - small enough that you'll wear multiple hats

Growth: Hiring for sales, which suggests they're scaling GTM after product-market fit

Market Position: Challenger in a crowded OMS/integration space - competing against legacy vendors and newer API-first platforms

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 40% Outbound - You're prospecting into e-commerce brands doing $50M+ in revenue with complex order routing needs. LinkedIn research, trigger events (new funding, executive hires), tech stack signals.
• 35% Inbound - Marketing content about OMS pain points, maybe some free trials or product-led signups from smaller brands that need to upgrade.
• 25% Referrals/Partners - 3PL partnerships, e-commerce agency referrals, existing customer expansion.

SDR/AE Structure: At 62 people, probably 1-2 SDRs max or you're self-sourcing most of your pipeline. You're doing a lot of your own research and initial outreach.

SE Support: Likely shared solutions engineer support for technical demos and POCs. You'll do first calls solo, bring in SE for deep-dive demos.

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors:

• Legacy OMS: NetSuite, Brightpearl, Deposco, Fluent Commerce
• Modern Integration: Celigo, Workato (though more general iPaaS)
• Custom-built internal tools that IT teams cobbled together

How They Differentiate: "Managed connectivity + intelligent OMS in one platform" - they're positioning against vendors that make you buy integrations separately or manage connectors yourself. The 300+ pre-built connectors and AI-powered routing are key selling points.

Common Objections:

• "We already have NetSuite/our current OMS"
• "Our dev team can build this"
• "Too expensive vs. just hiring another developer"
• "Integration risk - what if something breaks during migration?"

Win Themes:

• Speed to value vs. building custom or implementing legacy systems
• Developer independence - ops can manage without engineering tickets
• Real-time inventory accuracy across channels (major pain point)
• Cost savings vs. managing multiple point solutions

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

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

Key Activities

• Prospecting: Research e-commerce brands and 3PLs, identify trigger events (tech stack changes, order volume growth, new funding). Send personalized outreach focused on specific pain points (cart abandonment from inventory issues, order routing failures, integration headaches). You're looking for companies scaling fast enough that their current system is breaking.

• Discovery Calls: Dig into their current tech stack (what cart, WMS, ERP, 3PL systems they use), order volume, number of sales channels, current pain points. You need to understand their integration complexity to scope the deal properly. Most calls include operations, IT, and sometimes finance.

• Technical Demos: First demo is you showing the platform basics - connector setup, order routing rules, inventory sync. Second/third demos bring in your SE to show custom workflows, API capabilities, specific integrations they need. You're often up against 2-3 other vendors in a formal RFP process.

• POC Management: For larger deals, you'll run a 2-4 week proof of concept connecting their actual systems. This means project managing their IT team, your SE, and their operations team. POCs often reveal scope creep ("Oh, we also need to integrate this other system").

• Multi-Threading: You're coordinating between operations (who feel the pain), IT (who evaluate the tech), finance (who approve budget), and executive sponsor (who signs). Most deals require at least 4-6 stakeholder meetings. Lots of internal champions who ghost when they get busy.

• Navigating Procurement: Enterprise deals mean legal review, security questionnaires, SOC 2 audits, MSAs. You'll spend weeks in redlines. Deals that look close in October slip to Q1 because of procurement cycles.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Long sales cycles with technical risk: POCs can uncover unexpected complexity. A deal you thought was $80K becomes $40K when they only need half the integrations, or becomes $150K when they want custom workflows. Timelines slip constantly.

• You're asking companies to rip out critical infrastructure: Migration is scary. You're dealing with "what if orders get lost during the switchover" fear. Even when they hate their current system, change management is brutal. Lots of deals stall at contract stage.

• Small team means limited resources: You might be sharing one SE across the whole sales team. When you need custom integration scoping, you're waiting. Marketing is small, so most of your pipeline is self-generated.

• Market education: Not everyone knows they need an OMS vs. just more integrations. You spend time explaining the category, especially to mid-market brands who think their dev team can handle it.

What Success Looks Like

• Closing 8-12 deals per year in the $50K-200K range
• Building a pipeline of 20-30 active opportunities in various stages
• 25-30% win rate on qualified POCs (deals that make it to technical validation)
• Getting deals through procurement in 4-6 weeks instead of 12

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• VP/Director of Operations at e-commerce brands ($50M-500M revenue)
• IT Director/CTO at 3PLs managing multiple client systems
• VP of E-commerce at omnichannel retailers

What They Care About:

• Uptime and reliability: Orders can't get lost. Inventory can't be wrong. Their brand reputation depends on fulfillment accuracy.
• Speed to implement: They're already behind on projects. Need to see value in weeks, not months.
• Reducing dev dependency: Their engineering team is backlogged. They need operations to self-serve.
• Scalability: Their order volume is growing 30-50% year over year. Current system won't handle Black Friday 2025.
• Cost vs. headcount: You're competing against "hire another developer" or "add more ops people to manually fix errors."

Requirements

• 3-5 years selling B2B SaaS, ideally to e-commerce, logistics, or supply chain buyers
• Experience with technical/enterprise sales cycles - you need to understand APIs, webhooks, data flows enough to have credible conversations
• Comfortable with long sales cycles and multi-stakeholder deals
• Self-starter who can generate pipeline without heavy SDR support
• Bonus: Background in e-commerce operations, OMS/WMS/ERP systems, or integration platforms