A week in the life of an Enterprise Account Executive

Welcome to the final edition of “A week in the life” for 2024, where we take you inside the professional lives of our exceptional team members. Have you ever wondered what it’s like to be at the forefront of enterprise sales in a fast-growing startup? Matt Haney, an Enterprise Account Executive based in North Grafton, Massachusetts, USA, describes his role as “50% secret agent.”

With a career centered around the Customer Experience space, Matt combines a knack for uncovering hidden opportunities with passion, strategy, creativity, and curiosity. In this spotlight, we explore what drew Matt to TheyDo and gain insights into his experience during his first few months.

Here’s his story:

What drew you to TheyDo, and what excited you about joining the team as an Enterprise Account Executive?

“A recruiter! Kidding aside, I am very passionate about the Customer Experience space, having worked at both Medallia and Sprinklr. TheyDo addresses a key challenge that all large companies who care about CX face: how do you improve the experience for customers, partners, and employees when it requires so many different teams to not only participate but understand the context of their role in the big picture?

The fact that TheyDo has acquired so many incredible Global 2000 brands with such a small team and entirely through product-led growth is astonishing. I’ve worked for several software companies, but not since my very first in 2007 have I seen such inbound demand.

As I met more of the team and realized the company is loaded with A+ talent, it occurred to me that I was looking at a truly unique opportunity — an incredible product with great market fit, powerhouse founders, well-financed, amazing culture, and essentially a wide-open territory. It’s a seller’s dream!”

How has your onboarding experience been? Any standout moments or key learnings from your first few weeks?

“Onboarding has been amazing — to have my second week be the bi-annual company retreat in Nice, France, didn’t hurt! Most of the time, when you join a company, the things you ignored (or prayed about) start to reveal themselves, and the ‘honeymoon’ phase slowly wears off. I’ve been pleasantly surprised that I’ve only gotten more excited about the company, the people, and the opportunity.

There’s a lot more documentation than you’d expect from a startup. The product does more than I thought, the roadmap is aggressive, and the product actually ships! Best of all, the people are kind, funny, hardworking, and care about each other in a way that you just know in your bones is authentic.”

Can you walk us through your primary responsibilities as an Enterprise Account Executive? What are you focusing on at the moment?

“My main responsibility is to generate revenue for TheyDo, which I approach by identifying the intersection of several factors: who has the highest propensity for benefiting from journey management, who has the maturity to take advantage of the power we can offer, and who could benefit the most if they were to execute at a high level.

I’m dividing my time today between servicing my key clients, managing the sales cycle for the (shocking amount of) inbound interest, and building out my territory plan for 2025.

What does a typical week look like for you as an Enterprise Account Executive?

“A lot of learning! I find it’s the highest-value activity in my day and applies regardless of whether I’m focused on better understanding the market, my prospect’s situation, our product, or how our company operates. Keeping my mind open and curious serves me well.

My time is divided pretty equally between prospecting, speaking with potential and existing customers, developing account plans, collaborating internally, and educating myself. I am pleased to report that, blessedly, little of my time goes to administrative nonsense — we’re too small to have that here!” 

What challenges are unique to being an Enterprise Account Executive at a scaling startup like TheyDo, and how do you approach them?

“Startups like TheyDo tend to have extremely high talent density, which means you need a high processing and operating speed to keep up. At the same time, there are a lot fewer resources than at a scaled company with thousands of employees, so you need to be prepared to work with less-than-perfect conditions and get comfortable wearing a lot of hats.

My personal opinion is you’re either comfortable with some uncertainty and chaos, or you aren’t — I don’t know that it’s something you can really prepare for. I thrive in environments like this because it allows me to use my creativity to solve complex problems in ways that haven’t been attempted before.” 

What part of your role do you find most rewarding?

“Having the autonomy, trust, and support to try things in new ways, knowing that if it doesn’t work perfectly, I have a team of people to support me in learning and improving. Nothing feels better than growing together and helping clients in real ways that simply couldn’t happen without your solution.” 

What’s something surprising that people might not expect about your role or the work you do?

“I’m convinced that being a true enterprise salesperson is at least 50% secret agent. I’ve been astonished throughout my career by how much of my job has been connecting dots internally for my clients — whether that’s spilling tea about a major initiative one team doesn’t know about or connecting people from around the world who may have worked at the same company for years but never met. There’s a ton of value to add beyond selling software.”

Early in my career, I received the gift of advice that I should give freely of information and do favors for others any time I could with absolutely no expectation of reciprocity. I’ve been doing it for 17 years, and while I have no way (or desire) to measure the ROI of the endeavor, it’s the most rewarding part of my work.”

What’s been the highlight of your first three months at TheyDo?

“Seeing how much value my clients are getting out of a partnership with our company. We are barely scratching the surface, and we are already transforming how people collaborate around the customer’s journey. I can’t wait to see where we go from here!”