Automotive Account Executive

Bedfordads; Dallas (TX); Hybrid; USD 85,000 - 135,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health and dental insurance

401(k) with company match

Paid time off

Phone allowance & mileage

Hybrid schedule

Long-term career path

Job summary

Bedford Advertising, a Dallas-based automotive advertising agency, seeks an Automotive Account Executive to drive new business with franchise dealers and manage their advertising strategy as a dedicated marketing partner. You will lead the team, leverage data-driven insights, and maintain long-term dealer relationships.

You will work in a hybrid schedule, collaborating with strategists, media buyers, and creative teams to grow market share and revenue for dealership clients.

Qualifications

• Five or more years of sales experience in automotive or dealership environments.
• Ability to build long-term dealer relationships and trust.
• Strong understanding of market share and sales metrics.

Responsibilities

• Drive new business with franchise dealerships and build a foundation.
• Lead Bedford's three-meeting process: Help Me Understand, Align & Prescribe, Meet The Team.
• Close new dealer partners into the Key to Success with confidence.
• Own the relationship and manage the dealer's advertising strategy.
• Collaborate with strategists, media buyers, digital specialists, and creatives.
• Forecast pipeline, report progress, and maintain updates with leadership.
• Represent Bedford in the industry at events and associations.

Skills

Automotive sales

Sales pipeline

Relationship building

Tools

CRM software

Job description

For almost half a century, Bedford Advertising has helped franchise auto dealerships dominate their local market through digital and direct advertising, using our proven Key to Success approach.

We are a full-service automotive advertising agency headquartered in Dallas, Texas, serving franchise dealerships in more than 20 markets nationwide. Digital, traditional media, SEO, in-house creative and video production, and data-driven strategy all live under one roof, so our dealers work with one partner instead of juggling a dozen vendors.

Our dealers stay. Over the past six years, 87 percent of our clients have renewed with us, and our longest partnership has passed 25 years.

We build a culture of support and abundance. That means taking the time to get to know the people you work with and respecting what makes each of them unique. Our core values guide how we hire, how we work, and how we treat each other:

• Be F.A.S.T.: Flexible, Adaptable, Skillful, and Tenacious.
• Own It.
• Put We Before Me.
• Embrace the Can-Do Spirit.

About Bedford Advertising

For almost half a century, Bedford Advertising has helped franchise auto dealerships dominate their local market through digital and direct advertising, using our proven Key to Success approach.

We are a full-service automotive advertising agency headquartered in Dallas, Texas, serving franchise dealerships in more than 20 markets nationwide. Digital, traditional media, SEO, in-house creative and video production, and data-driven strategy all live under one roof, so our dealers work with one partner instead of juggling a dozen vendors.

Our dealers stay. Over the past six years, 87 percent of our clients have renewed with us, and our longest partnership has passed 25 years.

We build a culture of support and abundance. That means taking the time to get to know the people you work with and respecting what makes each of them unique. Our core values guide how we hire, how we work, and how we treat each other:

• Be F.A.S.T.: Flexible, Adaptable, Skillful, and Tenacious.
• Own It.
• Put We Before Me.
• Embrace the Can-Do Spirit.

The Opportunity

At Bedford Ads, the close of a deal is where your work starts.

As an Automotive Account Executive, you will be a primary driver of new business for the agency. You will find franchise dealers who want real growth, earn their trust, and bring them into the Key to Success. Then you stay on as their lead marketing consultant: the single dedicated expert who manages every vendor and the entire advertising strategy on the dealer's behalf. The relationship you build in the first meeting is the one you keep for years.

You will not be making it up as you go. You will run a proven three-meeting sales process, backed by verified, state-registered manufacturer data (updated within three days), a written playbook, and a full creative, media, and data team in the room with you. You will report directly to the President.

This is a career, not a stop along the way. Our average account executive tenure is over 15 years. If you are a skilled seller who wants to build a book of long-term dealer relationships, grow with a respected agency, and stay somewhere you are valued, this is the seat.

What You'll Do

• Drive new business. This comes first. You are building your foundation. Build and work a pipeline of franchise dealerships, typically stores selling 60 or more units a month, through outreach, dealership visits, industry events, and referrals.
• Run the Trust Architecture. Lead dealers through Bedford's three-meeting process: a Help Me Understand session where you listen first, an Align & Prescribe session where you walk the dealer through a data-backed diagnosis of their store, and a Meet The Team session where they meet the people who will do the work.
• Diagnose before you prescribe. Use our Focus Finder, a nine-lever diagnostic grid, along with market share and pump-in data (other dealers selling into the dealer's territory) to show a GM exactly where sales are coming from and where they are leaking.
• Close new dealer partners into the Key to Success with confidence, and talk about money the way dealers do: units, gross, and market share.
• Become their marketing partner after the close. Own the relationship, manage their advertising, be their advocate inside Bedford Advertising, build and maintain the dealer's Budget Map, set budgets on a cost per sold vehicle basis, and keep every tactic pointed at market share growth.
• Lead the team behind your dealers. Partner with our strategists, media buyers, digital specialists, and creative team to turn each dealer's plan into advertising that moves metal.
• Report on what matters. Keep your pipeline current, forecast honestly, and review progress with the President.
• Represent Bedford in the industry. Show up at dealer associations, events, and in your local market as a trusted voice on automotive advertising.

What Success Looks Like in Your First 90 Days

Days 1 to 30: Learn the Bedford way.

• Learn the Key to Success process, the Trust Architecture, and the Focus Finder inside and out.
• Sit in on live dealer meetings and existing client strategy sessions.
• Meet every department and the AACs you will work alongside.
• Build your target list of franchise dealers in your area and start outreach.

Days 31 to 60: Run your own meetings.

• Lead your own Help Me Understand sessions with GMs and Dealer Principals.
• Present your first Align & Prescribe diagnosis with support from the strategy team.
• Begin supporting existing dealer partners as an AAC alongside a senior teammate.

Days 61 to 90: Own the pipeline.

• Carry a healthy pipeline with dealers at every stage of the three-meeting process.
• Bring your first dealers to Meet The Team and ask for the business.
• Own the kickoff for any new partner you sign, so the dealer never experiences a handoff.

What You'll Bring

• A record of closing in a relationship-driven, consultative sale. Five or more years of sales experience is typical for this role.
• Automotive experience, strongly preferred. Dealership management, OEM, agency, or dealer vendor backgrounds all translate well.
• You speak the dealer's language. Units, gross, PMA, and the realities of running a rooftop.
• You listen first. You would rather ask a sharp question than give a polished pitch.
• You are comfortable with numbers. You can read a market share report and explain what it means for a store's gross.
• You are self-directed. You manage your own calendar and pipeline in a hybrid role.
• You live our values. Flexible, adaptable, skillful, and tenacious. You own it, you put we before me, and you bring a can-do spirit.
• A valid driver's license and reliable transportation for regular dealership visits.

Compensation and Benefits

• Competitive compensation: base salary plus commission, based on experience.
• Health and dental insurance.
• 401(k) with company match.
• Paid time off.
• Phone allowance and mileage reimbursement.
• Hybrid schedule: visit dealerships in your local market and work from the office on occasion.
• A long-term career: our account execs stay for a reason.

And a place you will want to be. We get together offsite every quarter for Top Golf, escape rooms, game rooms, and game shows. In the office, we celebrate everything from fantasy football to Christmas in July and Thanksgiving, and every year closes with our offsite Christmas party.

If you are a closer who wants to build something that lasts, we would like to meet you.

Bedford Advertising is an equal opportunity employer.