Account Executive

Tern is a venture-backed software company transforming the $127B travel agency industry by empowering entrepreneurs with modern infrastructure. With 14,000 advisors currently on the platform and a projected 20,000 by year-end, Tern has grown 4x in the last year. The company is trusted by agencies as their operational system, not just a front-office tool.

About Tern

Nearly 98% of travel agencies are small businesses, historically underserved by technology. Tern’s platform helps advisors run more efficient, professional, and profitable operations, enabling them to focus on meaningful travel experiences for clients. Travel advisors guide clients toward sustainable, impactful destinations, aligning with Tern’s mission of fostering intentional travel.

Account Executive Role

Agencies rely on Tern for client profiles, supplier connections, commissions, back-office accounting, and reporting. This role sells Tern as an operating system to agency owners, operations leads, and finance teams—all of whom must approve the purchase.

The travel advisor market is finite and tightly networked, requiring a strategic, relationship-driven sales approach. Reps must build trust through researched, named accounts and honor rejections to maintain credibility.

This is a full-cycle, quota-carrying position. Responsibilities include:

• Sourcing and qualifying leads
• Running discovery and demos (including accounting features)
• Mapping stakeholders (owners, operators, advisors) and securing buy-in
• Closing full commitments with staged billing
• Forecasting with precision and maintaining pipeline coverage
• Handing off clean records to implementation
• Feeding insights (lost reasons, objections, gaps) back to marketing and R&D

What You’ll Do

Own a named book of agencies (typically 10–100+ advisors) with documented entry paths (e.g., existing Tern users, referrals, or research-backed signals).

Run multithreaded deals: Engage economic buyers, operations leads, and advisors. Map decision-makers, secure signers, and create deal rooms with agreed-upon timelines.

Sell the entire platform, including back-office features like commissions, reconciliation, and supplier statements. Quantify Tern’s value in dollars, not features.

Quarterback deals: Coordinate product, implementation, and leadership involvement with pre-written briefs to drive closures.

Close full commitments with staged billing and urgency tied to real consequences (e.g., kickoff dates). Avoid artificial deadlines.

Forecast accurately: Submit weekly forecasts on time, track all deals in HubSpot, and maintain pipeline coverage.

Hand off cleanly: Provide a complete HubSpot record and scoped implementation plan at close.

Feed the loop: Share closed-lost reasons, objections, and product gaps for continuous improvement.

What You Have

Consistent quota attainment in full-cycle B2B SaaS (3+ years of closing experience, ideally mid-market). Show quarter-over-quarter performance, not one-time spikes.

Operational sales experience: Sold systems of record, vertical SaaS, ERP, or accounting/commissions tools. Understand accrual accounting and explain it clearly.

Multithreading track record: Closed deals requiring owner, operator, and user buy-in. Document how you secured alignment.

Discovery depth: Uncover real problems, quantify costs, and tie solutions to dollars. Ask probing questions for honest answers.

Pipeline rigor: HubSpot is always complete, forecasts are accurate, and next steps have deadlines.

Judgment in a small market: Know when to disengage, write authentically, and prioritize long-term relationships over short-term wins.

Coaching mindset: Apply feedback immediately to improve performance.

Highly Preferred

• Travel industry experience (especially with host agencies or consortia)
• Vertical SaaS with accounting or commissions components
• Account-based selling in a defined market
• Experience running mutual action plans or deal rooms
• Fluency with AI tools for research and call prep

How This Role Is Measured

• Monthly MRR quota with accelerators above quota and GMV-based bonuses post-quota attainment
• Pipeline coverage against targets, built from named accounts
• Weekly: On-time forecasts and complete HubSpot deal records
• Deal quality: Stakeholders engaged, roles documented, signers on calls, and agreed-upon deal rooms
• Full-seat commitments at close
• Tern platform certification (including accounting) within 60 days

What We Value at Tern

🌱 Growth mindset: Continuous learning and embracing challenges.

🧭 Optimistic agency: Initiative, curiosity, kindness, and resolve in every situation.

💪 Operational excellence: Weekly value delivery, compounding habits, and trust through consistency.

Operating Principles:

• 👂 User obsession: Deep understanding of advisors and the travel industry.
• ➕ Embrace