Inside Account Executive - SMB

Inside Account Executive – SMB (iAE SMB)

Ideal candidate will be located in the Chicago, Illinois or Raleigh, North Carolina area; however will consider candidates in the Remote US.

Join Cisco's Global Virtual Sales organization - one of our fastest-growing sales teams, and the talent engine for Cisco Sales that consistently delivers profitable growth. We serve the customer lifecycle by connecting customers with transformative solutions to drive business value and efficiency. Here, you'll find a supportive environment with coaching, training, and on-the-job learning to accelerate your career. Enjoy our award-winning, flexible workplace powered by the latest Cisco technology, where innovation and giving back to the community are at the heart of what we do. Be part of a dynamic team that thrives on adapting to market changes and making an impact.

The Inside Account Executive – SMB (iAE SMB) is responsible for managing and driving sales opportunities in collaboration with Cisco partners within the Small & Medium Business segment for a designated territory. This role engages directly with customers and partners to qualify opportunities, ensures required actions are taken, holds partners accountable for closing deals, and maintains accurate opportunity records in Salesforce (SFDC).

The Inside Account Executive is fully accountable for achieving sales goals and business objectives for assigned accounts or territories. This role leads the sales cycle end-to-end, builds strong customer relationships, and works closely with channel partners to deliver solutions and business outcomes. Collaboration with cross-functional sales teams—including Account Executives, sales specialists, system engineers, and partner sales—is essential to manage all aspects of the sales process, leveraging innovative technologies for seamless remote collaboration with customers and partners.

This position is part of a dynamic team, providing opportunities to be challenged, appreciated, and supported by colleagues and mentors who value creativity and ambition.

Key Roles & Responsibilities:

• Achieve quota targets for SMB accounts by managing the full Cisco product portfolio and running end-to-end deal cycles, including technical demos.
• Qualify and manage opportunities from partners and marketing, driving accountability and collaboration for deal closure.
• Engage directly with SMB customers to communicate Cisco's value and identify cross-architecture opportunities, supporting demand generation initiatives.
• Stay current on industry trends and Cisco solutions, working closely with the SMB Pod to maintain pipeline health and support sales campaigns.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Minimum 2 years of B2B selling experience in a similar or adjacent industry.
• Experience owning the full sales cycle (prospecting, demos, negotiation, closing).
• Demonstrated achievement of at least 100% quota attainment or consistent YoY growth of 10% or more.
• Strong collaboration skills, managing partner engagement and direct customer interaction for a territory of active SMB accounts.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Passion for sales and building positive relationships.
• Strong business sense and ability to effectively communicate the value proposition to the customer base.
• Ability to engage in active listening to identify customer challenges - both current and future - and propose solutions to improve their process.
• Strong relationship management skills to build trust and drive results with partners and customers.
• Experience using digital selling tools such as Salesforce.

Why Cisco?

At Cisco, we're revolutionizing how data and infrastructure connect and protect organizations in the AI era – and beyond. We've been innovating fearlessly for 40 years to create solutions that power how humans and technology work together across the physical and digital worlds. These solutions provide customers with unparalleled security, visibility, and insights across the entire digital footprint.

Fueled by the depth and breadth of our technology, we experiment and create meaningful solutions. Add to that our worldwide network of doers and experts, and you'll see that the opportunities to grow and build are limitless. We work as a team, collaborating with empathy to make really big things happen on a global scale. Because our solutions are everywhere, our impact is everywhere.

We are Cisco, and our power starts with you.

Message to applicants applying to work in the U.S. and/or Canada:

The starting salary range posted for this position is $125,300.00 to $166,300.00 and reflects the projected salary range for new hires in this position in U.S. and/or Canada locations, not including incentive compensation*, equity, or benefits.

Individual pay is determined by the candidate's hiring location, market conditions, job-related skillset, experience, qualifications, education, certifications, and/or training. The full salary range for certain locations is listed below. For locations not listed below, the recruiter can share more details about compensation for the role in your location during the hiring process.

U.S. employees are offered benefits, subject to Cisco's plan eligibility rules, which include medical, dental and vision insurance, a 401(k) plan with a Cisco matching contribution, paid parental leave, short and long-term disability coverage, and basic life insurance. Please see the Cisco careers site to discover more benefits and perks. Employees may be eligible to receive grants of Cisco restricted stock units, which vest following continued employment with Cisco for defined periods of time.

U.S. employees are eligible for paid time away as described below, subject to Cisco's policies:

• 10 paid holidays per full calendar year, plus 1 floating holiday for non-exempt employees
• 1 paid day off for employee's birthday, paid year-end holiday shutdown, and 4 paid days off for personal wellness determined by Cisco
• Non-exempt employees** receive 16 days of paid vacation time per full calendar year, accrued at rate of 4.92 hours per pay period for full-time employees
• Exempt employees participate in Cisco's flexible vacation time off program, which has no defined limit on how much vacation time eligible employees may use (subject to availability and some business limitations)
• 80 hours of sick time off provided on hire date and each January 1st thereafter, and up to 80 hours of unused sick time carried forward from one calendar year to the next
• Additional paid time away may be requested to deal with critical or emergency issues for family members
• Optional 10 paid days per full calendar year to volunteer

For non-sales roles, employees are also eligible to earn annual bonuses subject to Cisco's policies.

Employees on sales plans earn performance-based incentive pay on top of their base salary, which is split between quota and non-quota components, subject to the applicable Cisco plan. For quota-based incentive pay, Cisco typically pays as follows:

• .75% of incentive target for each 1% of revenue attainment up to 50% of quota;
• 1.5% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 50% and 75%;
• 1% of incentive target for each 1% of attainment between 75% and 100%; and
• Once performance exceeds 100% attainment, incentive rates are at or above 1% for each 1% of attainment with no cap on incentive compensation.

For non-quota-based sales performance elements such as strategic sales objectives, Cisco may pay 0% up to 125% of target. Cisco sales plans do not have a minimum threshold of performance for sales incentive compensation to be paid.

The applicable full salary ranges for this position, by specific state, are listed below:

New York City Metro Area:

$139,600.00 - $206,600.00

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

$127,500.00 - $197,700.00

* For quota-based sales roles on Cisco's sales plan, the ranges provided in this posting include base pay and sales target incentive compensation combined.

** Employees in Illinois, whether exempt or non-exempt, will participate in a unique time off program to meet local requirements.