Account Executive

$127B industry. 14,000 advisors on Tern today, 20,000 by year end. We've grown 4x in the last year. An industry so tight that everyone talks to each other, resulting in Tern quickly becoming the system agencies trust to run their business on.

You will work directly with the Head of Sales and the COO, sitting close to the largest deals in the industry. You get a chance to build a business, to help others build businesses, to ultimately help people travel- one of the most fundamentally life changing things you can experience.

We are the best platform, now we need someone to own our mid-market deals the way they deserve to be run.

ABOUT TERN

Tern is a venture-backed software company on a mission to reshape the $127B travel agency industry by giving power back to the entrepreneurs who built it.

Nearly 98% of travel agencies are small businesses. These businesses have been chronically underserved by technology. We're here to change that. Our platform helps travel advisors run more efficient, professional, and profitable operations, giving them the modern infrastructure they need to lead the next chapter of travel.

But the impact goes beyond business. Travel advisors help clients move more intentionally through the world. When a traveler works with an advisor, they're more likely to avoid overtouristed hotspots and more likely to spend their dollars in places where they can do real good. That's the kind of travel we want more of.

At Tern, we believe in small business. We believe in the power of travel. And we're building the future of both.

ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE

Agencies use Tern to run their business: client profiles, supplier connections, commissions, back-office accounting, and the reporting an owner needs to know how the business is actually doing. That has changed what the sale is. You are not selling a nicer front office to a solo advisor. You are selling an operating system to an agency owner, their operations lead, and the person who reconciles commissions every month. All three have to say yes.

The travel advisor market is finite and tightly networked. Agencies talk to each other in communities, at conferences, and in group threads. That shapes how we sell: researched, named accounts rather than volume; a documented reason to reach out before the first touch; a no that is honored. The reps who win here are the ones agencies want to hear from again.

This is a full-cycle, quota-carrying role. You source, you run discovery, you demo the whole platform including accounting, you build the coalition inside the account, you close full commitments, and you hand a complete record to implementation. Post-sale support is not your job. Adding revenue is.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

Own a named book of agencies. Build and maintain a researched list of target agencies, typically 10 to 100+ advisors. Every account has a documented entry path before you reach out: a Tern user already inside the agency, a referral, a community or consortium connection, a real engagement signal, or specific research on their business.

Run every deal as a multithreaded deal. Map the account. Engage the economic buyer, the operations or back-office lead, and advisor-level users. Map who signs, who blocks, who champions. Get the signer on a call. Build a deal room with dates the customer has agreed to. Deal size does not change the standard.

Sell the whole platform, including the back office. Run discovery with an agency's accounting or finance stakeholder on your own. Demo commissions, reconciliation, and supplier statements with confidence. Quantify what Tern is worth to the agency in dollars, not features.

Quarterback Deals. Bring product, implementation, SMEs or leadership into a deal with a written brief beforehand so the call does real work. You run the deal. You get the right people in the room at the right time and drive to close.

Close full commitments. Sell the whole cohort of seats up front, with staged billing where it helps the customer. Create urgency from real consequences: kickoff dates, implementation capacity, the customer's own timeline. Never from invented ones.

Forecast with precision. Weekly forecast submitted on time, every open deal complete in HubSpot, pipeline coverage maintained against target. Predictable attainment quarter after quarter, not a big month followed by two empty ones.

Hand off cleanly. A complete HubSpot record and a scoped implementation plan at close. Then implementation owns the relationship and you go find the next agency.

Feed the loop. Closed-lost reasons, recurring objections, and product gaps go back to marketing and R&D in a form they can act on.

WHAT YOU HAVE

Consistent quota attainment in full-cycle B2B SaaS. 3+ years closing, ideally at least mid-market. You can show quarter-over-quarter attainment, not one big quarter and a story about the rest.

Experience selling something operational. Systems of record, vertical SaaS, ERP, accounting or commissions tooling, anything where the buyer's back office had a vote. You can learn what accrual accounting means for an agency and explain it in plain language.

A multithreading track record. You have closed deals that required an owner, an operator, and end users to all say yes, and you can walk through exactly how you got there.

Discovery depth. You uncover the real problem, quantify what it costs, and tie the solution back to dollars. You ask the question that gets a true answer instead of a polite one.

Pipeline rigor as a habit. HubSpot is complete because that is how you work, not because someone asked. Your forecast is accurate. Your next steps have dates.

Judgment in a small market. You know when to stop. You write like a person, not a template. You understand that one burned prospect in a tight community costs more than one deal.

You implement coaching. Feedback shows up in your next call, not your next quarter.

HIGHLY PREFERRED

• Travel industry experience, especially with host agencies or consortia

• Vertical SaaS with an accounting or commissions component

• Account-based selling in a defined market

• Experience running mutual action plans or deal rooms

• Fluency with AI tools for research and call prep (research with AI, write as yourself)

HOW THIS ROLE IS MEASURED

• Monthly MRR quota, with accelerators above quota and GMV-based bonuses once quota is met

• Pipeline coverage against target, built from named accounts

• Weekly: forecast submitted on time, every open deal complete in HubSpot

• Deal quality on named accounts: stakeholders engaged, buying roles documented, signer on a call, deal room with agreed dates

• Full-seat commitments at close

• Certification on the Tern platform, including accounting, within your first 60 days

WHAT WE VALUE @ TERN

🌱 We're always leveling up. Whether you're deepening your craft, learning from a teammate, or embracing a new challenge, growth is core to our identity.

🧭 We act with optimistic agency. We take initiative, seek clarity, and move forward, even when the path isn't obvious. Through every peak and valley, we lead with curiosity, laughter, kindness, and resolve.

💪 We expect operational excellence. We ship value to our users every single week. We believe that compounding habits lead to sustainable productivity, consistency, and mutual trust.

Operating Principles:

👂 We deeply understand our users. At every level of the organization, we obsess about understanding those we serve and the industry we operate in.

➕ We embrace the power of and, and not now. We challenge trade-offs by asking better questions. We break hard problems into small pieces and tackle them with intention. We also know to make the hard call to say "not right now".

📣 We speak up and move forward. Everyone at Tern has a voice and a responsibility to use it. We invite healthy tension, share dissenting views early, and challenge each other with curiosity, not ego.

🏃 We move fast and sweat the details. Velocity matters and relentless progress beats perfection every time. But speed isn't chaos: we stay aligned, own our outcomes, and care deeply about quality.

🤣 We take the work seriously, but not ourselves. We hire kind, driven people who elevate the room. If you've got a big ego or take yourself too seriously, you won't last.

WHY JOIN TERN?

• Be part of a mission-driven team transforming the travel planning space

• Work with a supportive, curious, and creative team

• Sell a product that agencies run their business on, to buyers who care about the outcome

• Competitive salary, equity, and benefits package

Tern is committed to building a team that represents people from many different backgrounds and life experiences, reflecting our worldview coinciding with the users and customers we serve across the world. We prefer that you apply, so think of our postings as the start of the conversation. Take the chance, you may be a wonderful add to our Tern team, even if you don't fully match every requirement on the job description.