Account Executive

Blue Ribbon Fastener Co. | Skokie, IL | Base $75,000 + 15% commission on new-customer GP | OTE ~$145k

In-office at our Skokie, IL HQ, Monday through Friday. Expect 1-2 days/week of field activity in the Chicago metro for customer visits, prospect site visits, and trade shows.

Blue Ribbon Fastener supplies fasteners, hardware, fittings and other C-class components to North American OEMs. Our customers are procurement, production, and engineering teams running production lines, including industries such as Defense, Data Center, and Robotics. They pick us because we're faster off the desk, more reliable on delivery, and more competitive on price than the bigger distributors they could be calling. Our mission is simple: set the bar for customer experience in the fastener industry.

We run a defined SDR → AE → AM sales model. The SDR builds and qualifies pipeline. The AE converts it. The AM grows it. You'll own the conversion seat.

Convert SDR-qualified leads into shipping customers and graduate them to Account Management. You're the conversion engine in BRF's funnel: you secure the first quoting opportunity, win the first orders, and stay on the account until it's a real customer.

Targets are prorated for a July 1 start.

#

Outcome

Target

By when

1

New-customer GP entered

$100,000

Dec 31, 2026

2

Net-new customers to 2+ orders

10

Dec 31, 2026

3

Net-new customers to 10+ orders

3

Dec 31, 2026

4

Weekly outbound call cadence sustained

125 calls/wk

Week 5 forward

5

SAL handoff acceptance window

48 hours

Every handoff

6

Quoting opportunity secured per accepted SAL

Within 2 weeks of acceptance

Every active deal

7

Quote review with customer

Within 2 weeks of quote return from AM

Every quote

8

CN3 (GP quoted from fully qualified leads)

Hit weekly trailing 4-week target

From CN3 go-live (Aug 2026)

Day 30. HubSpot trained. AE Workflow Procedure trained end-to-end. First 5 SALs accepted and worked. Sample call recordings reviewed in weekly 1:1. Familiar with our top accounts.

Day 60. 10+ SALs in active pipeline. First quote built with an AM and returned to customer. Sales Scorecard rows green or trending green. First new-customer order shipped.

Day 90. Pipeline producing at the run rate needed to hit the 12-month outcomes. Working SAL → quote → close motion without escalation. Coaching shifts from "how to do the job" to "how to do it better."

These are BRF's Operating Principles. Mismatch on any one is a hard no.

• Amp it up. High urgency, high standards, high productivity.
• Own the outcome. You deliver what you commit to.
• Customer service beyond what's expected. The highest level of CX you can fathom.
• Open, honest, direct. Candid communication.
• Attention to detail. You operate with precision.
• Solve with technology. Solving problems at the root with technology compounds our ability to be operationally excellent.
• Problems = opportunities. Problems are how you grow.

• Hunter mentality. Persistent. Aggressive. Comfortable with rejection. You don't wait for inbound.
• Disciplined qualifier. You can ask 3 good questions in the first 5 minutes of a call and know whether to keep going or kill it. You never waste time selling to a company without a need.
• Technical sales credibility. You can interpret a blueprint, read a spec, and hold your own with buyers and engineers on procurement calls. Fastener-specific knowledge is a plus. Ability to learn it fast is required.
• Speed obsession. First off your desk. Fastest in the inbox. You move quotes faster than the customer expects.
• CRM discipline. HubSpot is your record of work. If it's not in HubSpot, it didn't happen.
• Analytical. You measure your performance with data, not anecdote. You can read your own funnel and call out where it's leaking.
• Clear communicator. You write short crisp sentences. You don't pad emails. You never over-promise to win an order BRF can't deliver.
• Rolodex (preferred, not required). Local-market OEM contacts and/or contacts in Defense, Data Center Infrastructure, or Robotics is a real edge.

Weekly 1:1 against the BRF Sales Scorecard. The 5 rows that matter most:

• New-customer GP entered, weekly run rate
• Number of SALs accepted (weekly)
• Number of new customers to 2+ orders (QTD)
• Number of new customers to 10+ orders (QTD)
• CN3 (GP quoted from qualified leads), once live in August 2026

Reviews anchor on the numbers and the 7 Operating Principles. Numbers are the output. The seven are the input.

Component

Detail

Base salary

$75,000/yr

Commission

15% of new-customer GP shipped, paid monthly.

Commission window

Paid for 12 months from first ship date on each account you sourced, OR through handoff to AM at 10 orders, whichever is longer (capped at 12 months).

Quarterly bonus

$2,500/quarter for hitting both net-new customer milestones (2+ orders QTD AND 10+ orders QTD).

Accelerator

Commission rate steps to 20% on new-customer GP shipped above 100% of quarterly quota. Uncapped.

Base review

Reviewed at 12 months.

Benefits

Health, PTO, and standard BRF package.

OTE at quota, year 1 (H2 2026): $57,500 over 6 months ($115k annualized run rate) OTE at quota, year 2 (2027): $145,000 OTE at 130% attainment, year 2: $169,000 (uncapped above)

• Direct access to leadership. You report to the VP, who's running the sales seat himself today. The owners are in the building.
• Real growth path. AE → Senior AE → Sales Manager is a defined track with clear criteria at each step. We promote from within.
• A real operating system, not chaos. Clear scorecards, a defined sales process, real CRM tooling, and weekly 1:1 coaching. You'll always know where you stand and what to work on next.
• Variety beyond the phone. Customer visits, plant tours, and trade shows are part of the job, not perks you have to ask for.
• A small team that operates like a team. We win and lose together. We celebrate wins. The culture is high-output, not all-hours.