foreverthinking

Customer Success Manager/Account Manager

Career Advice on progression into a SE

So I’ve already been promoted from an Enterprise BDR to an ISR at this Startup SaaS company. My goal is to eventually grow into an SE, to bridge my coding and sales skills. My VP of Sales and I were discussing career progression acknowledging I’m keen on getting there, but I have to fill my experience gap. So I have been told I can move into either an AE role or CSM this year, so my question is, which role, in your opinion, would best serve me on the way to my goal to become an SE?

I'm currently in the process of reviewing code weekly with an engineer at the company and looking into LinkedIn Learnings for courses to help get me there, any suggestions or advice are appreciated.

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22 comments

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TheIncarceration

Politicker

SDR Manager

I don't know what you sell so I'm not sure how applicable this will be. For our SDRs that want to jump into an SE role, we've always had them go the CSM route. I've seen this happen 3 times now and so far the transition has seemed really smooth for all of them

foreverthinking

Big Shot

Customer Success Manager/Account Manager

The product we sell is an A.I. Speech to Text software commonly used for transcription and translation, great user interface and the user experience feedback we hear usually is that it’s a product that is easy to navigate and use. To be honest our CSMs do seem to have more interaction with the engineering and support teams than our AEs (not to say they don’t but not nearly as often), so in regards to what you said it does seem like it may make more sense for me to go the CSM route at this organization. I guess my only worry is what if I decide to move on you know 🤦‍♂️😅 nonetheless it’s nice to know that going this route is not out of the realm of possibility of still achieving my eventual goals

TheIncarceration

Politicker

SDR Manager

The biggest downside in going the CSM route is that you're probably not going to be making as much $$

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Which one pays more?

foreverthinking

Big Shot

Customer Success Manager/Account Manager

😄 pretty sure it’s the same base but AE’s have higher commission

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

Try to understand the role better. CSM in 2 different companies have completely different responsibilities. Try to match it with your goals before picking up.

Upper_Class_SaaS

Politicker

Account Executive

I think whichever role would give you more time facing customers and demoing the product. Since SE's typically are technically focused to save the AEs life on demos lol

buckets1

Politicker

Without knowing much about your company...some of the best career advice I ever got was if you’re unsure of which path to take and they both seem good, go with what would be more fun. For me personally that would be AE but could be different for you. I don’t see a wrong choice here if SE is your ultimate goal. Good luck!

foreverthinking

Big Shot

Customer Success Manager/Account Manager

Thanks - appreciate the advice!

efficient

Member

Director of SDR/BDR

SE is traditionally a presales role, and only AE is presales. As a technical AE you can experiment with doing a lot of the things you’d do as an SE, including giving demos or answering highly technical questions.
Your most lucrative option might be AE for a very technical product, which uses the coding skills but captures a lot more upside than SE.

payton_pritchard

Executive

RSM

I don't think either path is necessarily better or worse -- imo the most important part of being an SE is some level of expertise and credibility in the solution and surrounding space.

AE and CSM will both help in their own ways I guess? But the majority of the learning would fall on you (you might be able to make an argument that while the CSM route would lower your earning potential you'd have more time to learn)

Long answer short - I don't think it matters, you'll be responsible for learning/self imptovement/etc. anyways

foreverthinking

Big Shot

Customer Success Manager/Account Manager

appreciate the candid explanation

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

Either can get you to SE however if you’re a really good AE you may want to stay there because of the $$$ you make

foreverthinking

Big Shot

Customer Success Manager/Account Manager

that’s always good to know 🙏

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I had to read your comment several times before I could figure things out. Our AEs here are called SEs (Sales Executive), and are the same thing.

AE/SE are sales; CSM/CSD are customer management (upsell after first year + renewal and all customer value-add workshops and cadences).

Honestly, it depends on what you prefer, and you may not know yet, but buckets1 had a great point. If you don't know, pick what sounds most fun or interesting for you. If you feel you chose wrong downroad, don't stress, just adjust to what works for you at that point. Very few people in my experience mapped their whole life out accurately straight out of college. Or 5 years later. Or 10.

foreverthinking

Big Shot

Customer Success Manager/Account Manager

my apologies I should’ve been more clear but what I meant by SE is a Sales Engineer not Sales Executive, because from my understanding (and correct me if I’m wrong) generally a Sales Executive is the same thing as an Account Executive. I will say though I appreciate the sound advice, I’m not necessarily trying to map it all out step by step but rather have some goal posts to reach on the way and know that if something goes awry that I know how to adapt.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

So you wanna be an SE? Then focus on your technical skills. The AE would give you sales skills, but the CSM would network you better in the company to help solve actual customer problems. You also wouldn't have to worry about prioritizing quotas and monthly/quarterly/annual pressures over actually working to solve a problem.

So if SE is your goal - I would go CSM.

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

Officer of ♥️

Id go AE first

saaster

Fire Starter

Account Executive

How technical of a solution do you sell? If it’s relatively straight forward and you have industry knowledge I’d go ae but if you need to learn the big time ins and outs of a super complex solution/ industry csm might be the (much lower paying) path.

foreverthinking

Big Shot

Customer Success Manager/Account Manager

It’s not that technical to be honest, it tends to get heavy into the weeds if we’re talking with prospects about possible integration via Zapier, an API integration or when being questioned about our AWS cloud servers. However the product itself is pretty user friendly not only in my opinion, but it’s what I’ve heard on demos already, as well as from prospects that trialed the product and were looking to buy. Really do appreciate the advice though, any suggestions or tips going forward?

nemix

Politicker

SDR

What's the difference between SE and AE if they both demo? (We don't have SE's where i work)

foreverthinking

Big Shot

Customer Success Manager/Account Manager

SE typically has more technical know-how of the product vs an AE

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