Account Executive

Clerq · Toronto, ON, Canada

Base: Not disclosed
OTE: Not disclosed
Quota attainment: Not disclosed
Posted: 18d ago

Why it matters: OTE tells you what you could earn. Attainment tells you how realistic it is.

Ask: “What percentage of fully ramped reps hit quota last year?”

Still open · checked 1h agoon Clerq's careers page

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The job

Who you'd sell to: Law firms, corporations and their IP teams · Legal and intellectual propertyIn their words: “prospecting and bringing in new logos across corporations and law firms”
Where deals come from: Mostly you. Expect a lot of outbound: cold calls, emails and LinkedIn.

The Braun Read

Proceed with caution

A few things here deserve a hard look before you spend time on it.

Pay: No pay listed at all.
Transparency: Shares 1 of 5: quota, attainment, deal size, territory, sales cycle.
Pipeline: Mostly self-sourced. Great if you like outbound, rough if you don't.
Time on market: Open 18 days.
Company hiring: This is their only open sales role.

Red lights

"Unlimited earnings," no numbers. It sells uncapped or unlimited earnings but never says what anyone actually earns.

Green lights

None spotted.

Based only on what the posting says. Lights are a starting point for your first call, not a final judgment.

Questions to ask on the first call

Built from what this posting leaves out. How they answer tells you as much as what they say.

1.
What did the median rep and the top rep actually earn last year?
"Unlimited" is a ceiling, not a number. You need the median.
2.
What percentage of fully ramped reps hit quota last year?
OTE is what you could earn. This is how likely you are to earn it.
3.
What percentage of reps on the team have been here more than 18 months?
Tenure shows whether people stay long enough to get paid.
4.
Has the comp plan changed in the last 12 to 18 months? What changed?
A plan that changes every year means the goalposts keep moving.
5.
Who sits with reps and reviews calls each week?
Coaching is often what's behind a good or bad attainment number.
6.
Why is this role open? Did someone leave, or is it new?
New headcount is growth. A replacement means someone left. Ask why.

› When the offer comes

Save these for later. They land better once they've said yes to you.

1.
Can I see the full comp plan in writing, including clawbacks and accelerators?
What's in writing is what gets paid. Read it before you sign.
2.
Can I see the actual comp distribution for the team last year, not just the OTE?
The spread shows what most reps really take home. OTE is just the target.
3.
I'd be walking away from earned commission to join. Is there room for a sign-on bonus to help cover that?
Leaving money behind is a fair reason to ask. The worst answer is no.

Josh's top five questions for any sales interview →

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Full posting

About Clerq Clerq is an industry-leading, AI-first patent search platform designed specifically for patent professionals globally. Patent attorneys, IP teams and R&D groups rely on Clerq to quickly and accurately assess whether their most important ideas are patentable. Our purpose-built workflows go beyond making existing work faster; they help users complete research that wasn’t possible before. More than 2,000 professionals at leading law firms and innovative companies use Clerq today. We’re a small, focused team headquartered in Toronto, with engineering in London, and we move quickly. The role We’re looking for an Account Executive who wants to get in early at a startup and contribute to a growing team. You’ll be primarily responsible for prospecting and bringing in new logos across corporations and law firms, while also helping the Customer Success team grow our reach into current accounts. You’ll own every deal from first conversation through trial, business case and close. This is a fast-growing team where you’ll build your own pipeline with some support from our BDRs. Reporting to the Sales Manager, you’ll work closely with Customer Success, Marketing and our in-house IP experts, and on a team this size, your results are visible and your work truly moves the needle What you’ll own - The full sales cycle: prospecting, discovery, demo, trial, proposal, negotiation and close. - Pipeline generation through outbound, inbound follow-up and conferences, with some support from BDRs. - Growth in current customer accounts, working with Customer Success to expand into new users, teams, offices and use cases. - Product demonstrations aligned to each prospect’s needs, based on what you uncovered in discovery. - Trial management aligned to identified success criteria. - Managing multi-stakeholder deals, including procurement, security reviews and RFQ/RFP responses. Requirements Who you are - A self-starter who brings initiative and accountability to your work. - Comfortable with pace and change, and quick to adapt when priorities shift, as they do at a startup. - 2+ years of quota-carrying B2B SaaS sales experience, with a track record of hitting or beating targets. - Proven ability to run complex, consultative sales cycles of 2 to 6 months with multiple stakeholders. - Experience generating your own pipeline through outbound prospecting. Nice to have - Background selling into law firms or corporate IP and legal departments. - Familiarity with patent search, prosecution or patentability workflows. - Experience at an early-stage or Series A company. Benefits - Competitive base salary plus uncapped commission. - Stock Option Plan. - Health and dental benefits. - Paid time off. - Work-from-home budget.

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