Account Executive, Commercial

Kong Inc.; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 55,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Kong Inc. is seeking an experienced Account Executive to sell the Kong Konnect Platform to mid-market enterprise accounts in the UK.

You will own the sales cycle from prospecting to closure, meeting quarterly targets, and collaborating with pre-sales, channel partners, and customer success to win new business. The role emphasizes strong negotiation, presentation, and closing skills, with a track record of success in enterprise software sales and a preference for open source experience.

Qualifications

• 2+ years of direct sales experience selling enterprise software to small to mid-size organisations.
• Experience with open source, APIs and/or infrastructure software.
• Strong negotiation, presentation and closing skills.
• Effective communicator with strong interpersonal skills.
• Experience with fast growing startups is a plus.
• Measurable track record in new business development and over achieving sales targets.
• Knowledge of MEDDIC and Challenger methodologies is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Sell Kong Konnect Platform on Kong’s Commercial sales team.
• Meet and/or exceed individual quota, objectives and KPIs.
• Take ownership to build and manage your book of business, documenting buying criteria and process, determining motion and patterns, ensuring pipeline accuracy, and working leads to closure.
• Collaborate with pre-sales, post-sales, channel partners, customer success and leadership to promote Kong and drive new business.

Skills

Enterprise sales

Open source

Negotiation

Closing skills

Account planning

Communication

Presentation

Direct sales

Territory planning

New business development

Job description

Are you ready to unlock intelligence?

If you don’t think you meet all of the criteria below but are still interested in the job, please apply. Nobody checks every box - we’re looking for candidates that are particularly strong in a few areas, and have some interest and capabilities in others.

About the Role:

We are looking for an experienced sales professional, ideally with open source experience who will be selling into mid market enterprise accounts. The ideal candidate has been a part of the sales efforts for other early-stage enterprise products in an entrepreneurial setting. The Account Executive will be integral to our growth plan and in acquiring new customers. Kong’s Account Executive will be the primary point of contact and the face of Kong for our prospects.

What You'll be doing:

• Sell Kong Konnect Platform on Kong’s Commercial sales team.
• Meet and/or exceed individual quota, objectives and KPIs.
• Take ownership to build and manage your book of business, which includes understanding and documenting the buying criteria and process, determining the appropriate motion and patterns, ensuring pipeline accuracy based on evidence, and working the leads to closure.
• Collaborate and leverage an ecosystem of resources including pre sales, post sales, channel partners, customer success and leadership to promote Kong and drive new business.

What You'll bring:

• A true desire to see customers benefit from the investment they make with Kong.
• 2+ years of experience in direct sales experience selling enterprise software to small to mid-size organisations ideally with open source, APIs, and/or infrastructure software.
• Effective communicator and strong interpersonal skills.
• Excellent negotiation, presentation and closing skills.
• Experience with fast growing startups is a plus.
• Strong background in territory planning and revenue generated from outbound pipeline.
• You have a measurable track record in new business development and over achieving sales targets.
• Knowledge of MEDDIC and Challenger methodologies is a plus.

Preferred:

• A top performer with experience hunting and closing net new logos.
• Experienced with creatively sourcing companies outside of your CRM.
• You have previously worked in an early-stage company and you know how to navigate and be successful in a fast-growing organization.
• Motivated, collaborative, driven and results oriented.

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About Kong:

Kong Inc., the AI Connectivity Company, is building the connectivity layer of AI. Trusted by the Fortune 500® and AI-native startups alike, Kong’s unified API and AI platform enables organizations to secure, manage, accelerate, govern, and monetize the flow of intelligence across APIs and AI traffic — on any model, any cloud. For more information, visit www.konghq.com.