Account Executive, Portfolio - US Commercial - Central IL

Candidate must be located in or willing to relocate to Central IL

Meet the Team
As an Account Executive/Account Manager, you’ll own customer relationships and growth outcomes across a defined territory and/or named accounts. You’ll partner closely with Solutions Engineers, Customer Success, and Cisco’s partner ecosystem to solve customer outcomes across networking, security, collaboration, data center, AI and cloud—while driving pipeline, forecast accuracy, and strong customer experience.

This role is ideal for a disciplined seller who thrives in a high-activity environment, builds pipeline consistently, and runs a predictable operating cadence across multiple accounts.

Your Impact

• Own a Commercial Select territory and/or book of accounts with responsibility for revenue growth, retention, and expansion.

• Drive pipeline creation through proactive prospecting, partner co-selling, installed base plays, lifecycle refresh, and whitespace identification.

• Run a high-velocity sales motion across multiple concurrent opportunities—prioritizing time and resources for highest impact.

• Lead discovery and position value by connecting customer business needs to Cisco architectures (networking, security, collaboration, data center/cloud).

• Develop and execute account/territory plans with clear targets, segmentation, and weekly/monthly actions.

• Orchestrate the virtual team (Solutions Engineers, specialists, customer success, Cisco CX/services) to move deals forward and reduce friction.

• Engage the partner ecosystem to build joint account plans, leverage partner capabilities, and accelerate execution.

• Maintain strong operational rigor: CRM hygiene, deal inspection, next steps, close plans, and risk management.

• Forecast accurately and communicate clearly on deal health, pipeline coverage, and timing.

Minimum Qualifications

• 5+ years of quota-carrying B2B sales experience (technology preferred)

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience

• Proven success in a territory-based or portfolio-of-accounts sales model with consistent pipeline generation

• Ability to sell solutions (not just products) using consultative discovery and value-based messaging

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience selling enterprise infrastructure and/or SaaS: networking, security, collaboration, AI, data center, cloud, observability, etc

• Familiarity with Cisco go-to-market motions, channel programs, and consumption models (subscriptions, EA/ELA, services attach)

• Experience with MEDDICC (or similar) and disciplined CRM forecasting

• Strong collaboration skills—ability to work effectively with Sales Engineers, specialists, and partners

• Comfort operating in a partner environment and managing partner cadence

• Strong communication, organization, and prioritization skills across many accounts/opportunities

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. 

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:

Non-Metro New York state & Washington state:

* 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.