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Tern is a venture-backed software platform transforming the $127B travel agency industry by providing a modern operating system for small travel businesses. The platform helps travel advisors run efficient, professional, and profitable operations through client profiles, supplier connections, commissions management, back-office accounting, and business reporting.
As an Account Executive, you will own a named book of mid-market travel agencies (typically 10-100+ advisors each) and run full-cycle sales. This is a quota-carrying role where you source prospects, conduct discovery, demo the complete platform including accounting features, build internal coalitions across multiple stakeholders (agency owners, operations leads, finance/accounting staff, and advisor users), close full commitments, and hand off complete records to implementation.
Key responsibilities include:
- Building and maintaining a researched target list with documented entry paths before outreach (existing Tern users, referrals, community connections, engagement signals, or business research)
- Running multithreaded deals by mapping accounts, engaging economic buyers and operational stakeholders, identifying who signs/blocks/champions, and getting decision-makers on calls
- Selling the entire platform with confidence, including commissions reconciliation, supplier statements, and back-office accounting; quantifying financial value to agencies
- Quarterbacking deals by bringing product, implementation, and leadership into conversations with clear briefs; driving to close with real urgency (kickoff dates, implementation capacity, customer timelines)
- Closing full-seat commitments upfront with staged billing where appropriate
- Maintaining pipeline rigor: weekly forecasts, complete HubSpot records, accurate deal documentation, and consistent quarter-over-quarter attainment
- Handing off clean implementation records and feeding closed-lost reasons and product gaps back to marketing and R&D
You will work directly with the Head of Sales and COO, sitting close to the largest deals in the industry. The travel advisor market is finite and tightly networked; success requires researched, named-account selling with documented reasons for outreach, honoring rejections, and building a reputation as someone agencies want to hear from.
REQUIREMENTS:
- Consistent quota attainment in full-cycle B2B SaaS with 3+ years of closing experience, ideally at least mid-market level, with documented quarter-over-quarter attainment
- Experience selling operational systems (systems of record, vertical SaaS, ERP, accounting or commissions tooling) where the buyer's back office had a vote; ability to learn and explain accrual accounting in plain language
- Proven multithreading track record closing deals requiring owner, operator, and end-user buy-in; ability to walk through exactly how you achieved this
- Deep discovery skills: uncovering real problems, quantifying costs, tying solutions to dollars, asking questions that elicit true answers
- Pipeline rigor as a habit: complete HubSpot records, accurate forecasting, next steps with dates
- Sound judgment in small markets: knowing when to stop, writing like a person (not templates), understanding that burned prospects in tight communities cost more than one deal
- Ability to implement coaching feedback in subsequent calls, not future quarters
HIGHLY PREFERRED:
- Travel industry experience, especially with host agencies or consortia
- Vertical SaaS with accounting or commissions components
- Account-based selling in defined markets
- Experience running mutual action plans or deal rooms
- Fluency with AI tools for research and call prep
Measurement includes monthly MRR quota with accelerators and GMV-based bonuses, pipeline coverage from named accounts, weekly on-time forecasts with complete HubSpot records, deal quality metrics (stakeholder engagement, documented buying roles, signer involvement, deal rooms with agreed dates), full-seat commitments at close, and platform certification (including accounting) within 60 days.
