As a Founding Account Executive at Plain, you'll own the entire sales process from lead generation to deal closure. Your responsibilities include managing inbound leads, understanding customer pain points, negotiating contracts, and collaborating cross-functionally with marketing and engineering teams. Your feedback will also help drive the product roadmap, ensuring we prioritize what matters most to our customers. With an emphasis on a collaborative, fast-paced environment, you will have the chance to make a tangible impact on the company's growth.

To be considered for the Founding Account Executive role at Plain, you should have a minimum of 2-3 years of sales experience in an early-stage B2B SaaS environment. It's beneficial to have a strong grasp of both technical and non-technical aspects of the product, as you'll be engaging with a diverse customer base. Traits such as being detail-oriented, a strong communicator, and comfortable with ambiguity will set you apart as a candidate ready to thrive in our dynamic startup environment.

The work culture at Plain is dynamic and collaborative, perfect for a Founding Account Executive who enjoys a startup environment. Here, you’ll find opportunities to work closely with founders and cross-functional teams, contributing ideas and insights to streamline our customer support platform. We're committed to fostering an innovative spirit where employees feel empowered to experiment, learn, and grow together as we navigate the exciting challenges of building a product-driven sales strategy.

As a Founding Account Executive at Plain, you’ll play a crucial role in shaping product development. Your insights from customer interactions will inform the product roadmap by identifying essential features and improvements. By communicating customer needs to our engineering and product teams, you’ll ensure that Plain evolves to meet expectations and enhances user experience, making your role vital to the company’s success.

In your role as a Founding Account Executive at Plain, you'll use a modern sales stack to streamline your workflow and improve productivity. Expect to work with tools like Linear for task management, Attio for customer relationship management, Notion for documentation, and Slack for seamless communication. Familiarity and a passion for using innovative software will be key, as you’ll help drive efficiencies and effectiveness in your sales efforts.

In answering this question, focus on the specific roles you've held within early-stage B2B SaaS companies, highlighting your key accomplishments and sales techniques. Emphasize your understanding of the sales lifecycle in a startup context, showcasing how you've adapted to changing environments and contributed to customer satisfaction and business growth.

Demonstrate your method for identifying customer pain points by discussing your active listening skills, experience with customer feedback, and how you ask probing questions. Share examples of how your insights have led to tailoring solutions, improving customer relationships, or closing deals successfully.

When discussing a challenging deal, outline the obstacles you faced, your strategic approach in addressing them, and the final outcome. Highlight specific skills like negotiation and building rapport, which are crucial for success in sales. This will showcase your ability to handle complexity and find solutions.

Explain your strategies for organization, such as utilizing CRM tools, maintaining consistent communication, and setting reminders for follow-ups. Discuss methods you've adopted to prioritize tasks effectively so that you can deliver excellent service and build trust with clients.

Here, discuss your approach to product demos, including how you tailor presentations to different audiences. Share any techniques you've learned for engaging technical and non-technical users and how you've effectively highlighted product benefits that meet customer needs.

In your response, emphasize your proactive communication strategies. Discuss how you would check in with the client to gauge their concerns, apply patience in understanding their needs, and perhaps suggest additional touchpoints to maintain momentum without being overbearing.

Talk about your experience with various lead-generation strategies, including networking, social media outreach, and leveraging referral systems. Highlight successful campaigns or methods you've employed that resulted in high-quality leads for the sales funnel.

Discuss a specific customer dissatisfaction case and your steps to address the issue. Focus on your skills in conflict resolution, empathy for the customer, and how you turned the situation into a learning experience for both parties.

Here, share how you foster communication and collaboration between sales and technical teams. Give examples of how you have brought customer insights to product meetings, contributing to improvements that drive sales success.

Reflect on your passion for sales and the impact of B2B SaaS products on business efficiency. Talk about your enthusiasm for helping businesses improve through technology, highlighting how it aligns with your personal and professional goals.