Account Executive

About Emerald Emerald’s talented and experienced teams grow our customers’ businesses 365 days a year with products that create connections, deliver content, and drive commerce. We produce over 140 annual events, create and deliver content through print and digital channels, and power commerce through our seamlessly integrated in-person and digital platforms and channels. For more information, please visit http://www.emeraldx.com. ASD Market Week is one of the largest and longest-running business-to-business general merchandise trade shows in the United States. Held twice annually in Las Vegas, ASD connects thousands of retailers, distributors, importers, and e-commerce businesses with manufacturers, wholesalers, and suppliers from around the world. With more than 1,800 vendors, approximately 30,000 attendees, and over one million products across 19+ merchandise categories, ASD provides exhibitors with a powerful platform to meet new customers, enter new markets, build brand visibility, and write business directly on the show floor. We are seeking a motivated, commercially driven Account Executive to grow exhibitor and sponsorship revenue for ASD Market Week. The Account Executive will manage the complete sales cycle—from identifying and prospecting new business opportunities through discovery, proposal development, negotiation, closing, and renewal. This role will primarily engage manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, importers, suppliers, and consumer-product brands that would benefit from reaching ASD’s diverse community of retail buyers. The successful candidate will be a proactive new-business hunter who is comfortable conducting high-volume outbound prospecting, building relationships with senior decision-makers, and presenting tailored event solutions that deliver measurable value to customers. Key Responsibilities New Business Development •Identify and prospect manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, suppliers, and emerging brands that align with ASD Market Week’s buyer community. •Generate new business through telephone outreach, email campaigns, LinkedIn, industry research, referrals, inbound leads, networking, and competitive-event prospecting. •Build and maintain a healthy pipeline of qualified exhibit and sponsorship opportunities. •Develop targeted prospecting strategies across relevant product categories, including general merchandise, fashion and accessories, beauty and wellness, gift and home, toys, convenience-store products, closeouts, liquidation, and private-label manufacturing. •Re-engage dormant, lapsed, and previously lost exhibitors with relevant and compelling commercial proposals. Consultative Sales and Closing •Own the full sales cycle from initial outreach and qualification through proposal, negotiation, contracting, and close. •Conduct effective discovery conversations to understand each prospect’s products, target customers, business objectives, challenges, and growth strategy. •Clearly communicate ASD Market Week’s value proposition and demonstrate how participation can help customers generate leads, meet qualified buyers, enter new markets, increase brand visibility, and grow revenue. •Recommend appropriate booth packages, sponsorships, digital products, marketing opportunities, and other solutions based on customer needs and objectives. •Prepare proposals, negotiate commercial terms, overcome objections, create urgency, and consistently move opportunities toward close. •Meet or exceed individual revenue, new-business, renewal, activity, and productivity targets. Account Growth and Retention •Develop strong relationships with new and existing exhibitors, serving as a knowledgeable and trusted commercial partner. •Manage a portfolio of assigned accounts and identify opportunities for renewal, expansion, upselling, cross-selling, and multi-show participation. •Conduct structured post-show follow-up to review exhibitor outcomes, gather feedback, address concerns, and secure future participation. •Work proactively to reduce cancellations and improve exhibitor retention. •Maintain regular communication with customers throughout the event cycle to ensure expectations are clearly understood and appropriately managed. Pipeline Management and Forecasting •Maintain complete and accurate customer, activity, opportunity, and contract information within the CRM. •Manage opportunities through clearly defined pipeline stages with documented next steps and realistic close dates. •Produce accurate weekly and monthly sales forecasts. •Monitor personal pacing against revenue goals, activity expectations, and event deadlines. •Use CRM data, category insights, sales reports, and market intelligence to prioritize accounts and identify areas of opportunity. •Maintain strong pipeline discipline and immediately escalate material risks, blockers, or forecast changes. Collaboration and Event Delivery •Partner closely with marketing, operations, customer success, finance, and event leadership to deliver a strong exhibitor experience. •Provide customer and marketplace feedback to support product development, pricing, marketing campaigns, and show-floor strategy. •Coordinate the successful handoff of contracted exhibitors to the appropriate operational and customer-success teams. •Attend ASD Market Week and other relevant industry events, supporting customers onsite and developing new sales opportunities. •Represent ASD and Emerald professionally in all customer and industry interactions. Qualifications •Two or more years of successful B2B sales, business development, account management, media sales, event sales, or sponsorship sales experience. •Demonstrated ability to generate new business through proactive outbound prospecting. •Proven record of meeting or exceeding individual sales targets. •Experience managing the complete sales cycle from prospecting through negotiation and close. •Strong consultative-selling, presentation, negotiation, and objection-handling skills. •Ability to build credibility and relationships with business owners, founders, sales leaders, marketing executives, and other senior decision-makers. •Strong written and verbal communication skills. •Excellent organizational skills with the ability to manage a high volume of accounts, opportunities, and deadlines. •Experience using CRM and sales-enablement platforms; Salesforce experience is preferred. •Strong forecasting discipline and attention to CRM accuracy. •Comfortable working in a fast-paced, target-driven, and deadline-oriented sales environment. •Ability and willingness to travel to ASD Market Week in Las Vegas and other relevant industry events. •Trade-show, wholesale, retail, consumer-products, media, or events-industry experience is preferred but not required. What Success Looks Like Success in this role means: •Consistently achieving or exceeding revenue targets. •Building a strong and sustainable pipeline of new exhibitor opportunities. •Expanding ASD’s presence across priority merchandise categories and markets. •Converting qualified prospects into contracted exhibitors and sponsors. •Retaining and growing existing accounts. •Maintaining accurate forecasting and disciplined CRM management. •Delivering a professional, consultative, and commercially valuable customer experience. Ideal Candidate You are competitive, resilient, curious, and motivated by winning new business. You are comfortable picking up the phone, creating opportunities from a cold start, and maintaining a consistent level of outbound sales activity. You do not wait for leads to arrive. You research the market, identify the right prospects, ask thoughtful questions, communicate value clearly, and take ownership of moving opportunities through the sales process. You balance urgency with relationship building and understand that strong sales performance requires both disciplined activity and meaningful customer conversations. About Emerald At Emerald, we strive to foster a diverse and inclusive community. We actively recruit and champion candidates who bring new perspectives from varied professional backgrounds and experiences, and we are intentional about ensuring a positive hiring experience for everyone. Our job postings don’t contain experience inflation, and most don’t require college degrees. Instead, they’re crafted to focus on outcomes and transferable experiences that are assessed in a structured interview process carried out by trained hiring teams. COMPENSATION & BENEFITS Target Compensation: $90,000 - $95,000 Plus Sales Incentive Eligible Please note that this range reflects a reasonable estimate of the target compensation for this position. This range may ultimately vary based on a candidate’s qualifications and may be higher where required by applicable law. We offer a competitive benefits package designed to strengthen our employees’ physical and mental health, including unlimited vacation for exempt employees, flexible working locations, 401(k) plan with a company match, medical/dental/vision coverage with inclusive provisions including transgender services and fertility benefits, parental and caregiver leave, dependent, commuter and FSA benefits, professional development programs like Toastmasters, and mental wellness tools. If you need accommodation in our application process or have questions about our posted salary range, please email our Talent Acquisition team at [email protected].