The Life of an Account Executive

Meet Saul, an Account Executive here at Groundswell. When he is not hitting the slopes and exploring BC’s vast terrain, you can find him chatting with our clients, making new connections, and expanding Groundswell’s relationships with Salesforce. Keep reading to hear more about Saul and what a day looks like in his life! 

As an Account Executive, every day is and will be different due to the nature of a Sales role. Your week will be dedicated based on clients’ and prospects’ schedules, Salesforce AE’s and RVP’s schedules, and personal tasks. However, there is a general framework I try and follow, and this provides me some sort of structure to make sure I get the most important tasks done regardless of meeting times:

Morning

Prospecting

Every morning I block off at least an hour to do prospecting work. Typically I have a targeted list I have prepared the day before to ensure I maximize the hour. The mornings are best for this type of activity as I usually have the most energy. I can focus on outbound activities before any distractions (like emails) get in the way. Carving out this hour is crucial to maintaining a healthy sales pipeline.

After my prospecting block, I tend to scan my inbox and address any immediate action requests. I also take this time to log any missing information into Salesforce that I missed during my prospecting time: new contacts, call notes, email responses, etc. 

Midday

Client Meetings and Lunch

By noon I move into have client-facing meetings if possible. If I don’t have meetings, I use this time to follow up on any current sales cycles in the pipeline, prepare sales decks, and support the engagement team in generating SOWs. I also use this time to follow and manage any leads I am working on, ensuring they progress through their sales cycle. These activities typically include following up on inbound leads, qualifying calls, or even connecting with a Salesforce AE to co-target new business accounts together. Oh and of course, I carve out an hour for lunch!

Afternoon

Prospecting

Like the morning, I strive to schedule at least one more hour of prospecting in the afternoon. This is either a continuation of the list I worked on in the morning, or a completely new list. Additionally, I try to use the afternoon to have any internal calls with my team. These calls could include discussions and strategy planning on current deals, pipeline updates with the Sales team and Project Team, or even one-on-one’s with my manager. 

Preparing for tomorrow

Finally, I use the last hour of the day to recheck my email and clear out any actions if needed. I log all my notes and tasks in Salesforce and then prepare a prospecting list for the next day.

What do you like most about what you do? 

The best part of my job is working with such a stellar and close-knit team. Most typical sales jobs are focused on you, your territory, and your manager. But here at Groundswell, whenever I need support on a deal, I can ask any member of the Sales, Engagement, or even Marketing teams for help. And the benefit of that is that we now bring together an abundance of skill sets and perspectives to our clients and prospects regardless of the project. 

How is your work-life different now that we are hybrid?

I joined Groundswell in 2021 and by that time most companies had already experienced about a year of remote work. Interestingly enough, my previous job was a fully remote sales position, so I was more prepared than others for the ‘work from home’ movement. For me, this new hybrid work setup has been perfect. Going into the office provides me with a nice change of pace and scenery from my home office. On those cold and rainy Vancouver days, I have the benefit of working from home!

Have you grown during your time here?

It’s only been a year for me so far at Groundswell, and during this time I’ve experienced both professional and personal growth. As the first Account Executive on the team, there were a lot of new aspects of the role to figure out. Through this process, I’ve grown professionally by getting hands-on experience defining the role, trying new strategies, and reviewing the results as a team to see what worked and what needed refinement. 

Also, I’ve grown personally by experiencing what work/life balance means at Groundswell. I’ve had the opportunity to focus on my hobbies and interests throughout the year because of how supportive Groundswell is with taking time off. We are constantly reminded to use vacation time, take time for ourselves and our family, and engage in fun weekly activities with colleagues. It’s been a breath of fresh air to see a company not just talk about work/life balance, but truly instill it in our culture.

How did you come to choose this career path? 

As with most people in Sales, I fell into this world by chance. My educational background is in Finance, and my first job out of college was in Business Development for a currency exchange brokerage. After a year, by luck I had the opportunity to move into the tech world and join Salesforce as a Sales Rep. Over the next five years, I developed my sales skills and moved into an Account Executive role managing customers, learning the Salesforce way of selling, and defining my style of selling and relationship building. After Salesforce, I was eager to see what it would be like working for a startup company, so I worked for a year at a small tech company in the cannabis space. After a year there, I helped develop a new sales process, standardized their prospecting efforts, and helped close some of their largest Canadian customers. I loved working at a small company, but I kept having an urge to work with the Salesforce platform again. It was around this time when Groundswell reached out to me. The opportunity to join as their first Account Executive and grow this role, paired with the ability to sell in the Salesforce Ecosystem, made it the perfect fit for me.

What are your favorite things to do in your spare time when you are out of the office?

The majority of my spare time I spend out in the mountains. I’m an avid hiker, camper, snowboarder, and – more recently – climber. Moving to BC from Toronto in 2017 was a significant cultural change from city life to outdoorsy life, and I embraced it with open arms. My favorite memories are from exploring some of the most beautiful terrains in BC. From shredding a 50cm powder day at Whistler to watching the Milky Way above our campsite at a 2,000 metre elevation, I’ve grown to embrace the outdoors and mountain culture. I’ve also taken up landscape and action photography to help document these trips and develop my visual creativity muscles.

We are hiring Account Executives!

If you are interested in joining Saul on the Engagement team apply today:

https://gscloudsolutions.com/careers/open-positions/