Tern Account Executive at Tern manages a named book of travel agency clients, driving full-cycle sales from sourcing to closing. The role focuses on selling an operating system to agency owners and key stakeholders.
Responsibilities
We are the best platform, now we need someone to own our mid-market deals the way they deserve to be run.
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.
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.
