Account Executive

Also called AE

Account executive: the salesperson who owns deals end to end, running discovery, demos, and negotiation to close, and usually carrying a quota. The closer on a sales team.

Why it matters

AEs are the engine of a B2B sales team, and knowing when to hire your first one, usually after you have proven you can sell the product yourself, is a pivotal decision. Hire too early and they flounder without a playbook.

For example

An account executive owns the deal from demo to close, carrying a 2 crore annual quota and running the negotiation with the buyer's team.

Go deeper

Founding Sales: The Early-Stage GTM Handbook Pete Kazanjy · guide Account Executive in context: the free handbook on running early-stage sales as a founder, from first outreach to a repeatable motion. Open foundingsales.com →

Related terms

Also in Starting Up

See how founders actually handle this on Getting your first customers, part of the Starting Up hub.

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