Description
The role
Our CEO currently handles most sales himself. This role exists to change that. You’re joining to take over the full sales cycle so the founder can get out of the sales seat and back to running the company.
This is a full-cycle AE position, but you’ll get there through a deliberate ramp. You won’t be thrown into closing on day one. Instead, you’ll work closely with the CEO, learn the product, learn our buyers, and progressively take on more of the sales motion until you’re running deals end to end.
The progression
- Start by setting appointments for the CEO and learning the ICP
- Shadow the CEO on discovery calls and demos
- Work alongside the CEO on active deals as a deal partner, helping with proposals, follow-ups, and closing activities
- Begin sourcing and setting your own appointments
- Run discovery and demos yourself, with the CEO joining as a sales engineer for technical depth
- Own the full cycle: prospecting, discovery, demo, proposal, close
- Once you’re running full-cycle, we backfill behind you with a dedicated SDR. This role has a clear path into sales management as the team grows.
What you’ll be doing
Run discovery using SPICED
Situation, Pain, Impact, Critical Event, Economic buyer, Decision. Full framework, every deal. Partial discovery means partial pipeline means lost deals.
Educate prospects on what AI can do for their organization
Our biggest competitive threat isn’t another vendor. It’s the prospect thinking they can just use Claude or ChatGPT directly, or that AI isn’t for organizations like theirs. You need to move them from “AI tool” to “AI platform built around how our team works.” This is consultative selling. You’re teaching, not pressuring.
Build champions inside accounts
Deals with internal champions close at much higher rates than those without. In the social sector, champions are often program directors or senior staff who feel the capacity pain every day. You find them, arm them with the internal business case, and make it easy for them to sell on your behalf.
Navigate social sector buying dynamics
These orgs don’t buy like SaaS companies. Expect board involvement, grant-cycle timing, consensus decision cultures, and fiscal sponsors. Map the buying committee early. The ED cares about mission impact, the ops lead cares about workflow relief, the board cares about data privacy and fiscal responsibility.
Handle inbound leads
When a demo request or inquiry comes in, you own it. Qualify fast, respond fast, and route appropriately. Inbounds are warm and they don’t stay warm for long.
Manage your pipeline honestly
Deal stages reflect reality. Close dates are commitments, not wishes. Notes exist for every meaningful interaction. If a deal is dead, kill it. Don’t let it rot in “Negotiation” for 90 days.
Identify repeatable patterns
When you find something that works, flag it. We have the technical team and AI tools to turn a repeatable sales motion into an automated workflow fast. Your ability to spot those patterns is as valuable as your ability to close.
Requirements
Must-haves
3–5 years in B2B/nonprofit SaaS sales
Ideally $10K–$100K ACV range. Full-cycle experience preferred, but strong SDRs ready to step up will be considered. Social sector sales experience is a real advantage.
Remote work experience
This cannot be your first remote job. We are a fully distributed team and we manage by output: calendar, tasks, and results. Accountability is how remote culture works here, and we take it seriously.
Social sector fluency
You understand how nonprofits, advocacy orgs, and unions operate: grant cycles, board governance, consensus cultures, fiscal sponsors. If you’ve never sold to a mission-driven organization, you’ll need to learn fast. These buyers see through vendor playbooks immediately.
Technical fluency
Not engineering-level, but you need to hold your own when a prospect asks about data privacy, AI models, integrations, or security. “I’ll check with engineering” on basic questions kills credibility.
Consultative sales instinct
You lead with insight, not features. You teach prospects something they didn’t know about what AI can do for their specific mission. You listen more than you talk, and you earn trust by genuinely understanding their problems before proposing solutions.
Champion-building ability
You naturally identify the person inside an org who feels the capacity pain daily. The program director drowning in grant reports. The comms lead who can’t keep up with five channels. You give them what they need to make the internal case.
Writing and communication
Proposals, follow-up emails, executive summaries. You write clearly and persuasively. No one is going to ghost-write your deal communications.
CRM rigor
HubSpot is our system of record. Your pipeline is accurate, your notes are useful, and your forecast is honest.
Strong pluses
- You’ve worked at or alongside nonprofits, unions, advocacy organizations, or progressive consultancies
- AI/ML product sales experience. Selling AI when the market is flooded with AI noise is a specific skill, especially to buyers who are justifiably skeptical of tech vendors making big promises.
- Early-stage company experience (Series A or earlier). We don’t have a playbook binder and a BDR army. You’ll help build the motion.
- HubSpot Sales Professional experience
- MEDDIC, SPICED, or similar qualification framework fluency
What we don’t need
- Reps who only know how to run demos and hope for the best. This role is about getting the founder out of the sales seat, not order-taking.
- Reps who need a full sales enablement team to function
- People whose only remote work experience is “I worked from home during COVID”
- Anyone who thinks nonprofits are unsophisticated buyers. They’re not, and that assumption will cost you every deal.
- People who view CRM as something they update before forecast calls
- Anyone uncomfortable with mission-driven language. If “social justice” and “worker power” make you squirm, this isn’t your shop.
