suhdude

Sales Rep

Valued Contributor

Day/Week in the Life of an AE

I am considering transitioning from financial services sales to tech sales. I understand I will (most likely) have to start as an SDR given my lack of industry experience and I'm fairly clear on what SDR life entails (outboundddd). Not so much about the actual day to day for an AE.

How many demo's are they normally doing per week (3 or 18)? What are they doing when not doing demo's?

Obviously this will depend upon the company, the product you're selling, sales cycle length, etc. etc. but I'd assume there is some common ground.

Also, why do companies pay SDR's 50-60k salary to do email/LinkedIn outbound (I understand you can't automate cold calling)? You could have one highly skilled email marketer manage a handful of different email/AE LinkedIn profiles sending out thousands and thousands of messages that would probably have better copy-writing than your average SDR for substantially less overall budget.

Also, why is this supposedly such a stressful job? I don't mean this in any disrespectful/condescending way whatsoever, but coming from a 100% commission based background where if you don't sell you literally make nothing... I don't see what's so stressful. Obviously an outsider perspective so a lot I am unaware of.

My understanding is as long as you hit quota MOST of the time you're good, and you could get fired whether you hit it or not. So long as you have a track record of success, you can find another AE job? What am I missing or where is my thinking around this lacking nuance?

👑 Sales Strategy

1

7 comments

Sort by:

waterjugsales

Politicker

6

Account Executive @ Funemployed

To be honest in this market- I’d say there is not a ton of common ground. I’d look at it in a few different buckets.

Full Cycle AE - you are given a territory. Your time will be spent building account/territory plans for the year. Executing on those plans likely will involve a lot of prospecting and self-sourcing pipeline. From there, once you have pipe coverage, you’re working deals and backfilling closed won/lost from there.

Closer AE - you’ll be mainly fed leads via SDRs/ marketing. Your job is to close these deals. Minimal or non existent prospecting. These roles are super coveted but earning potential is usually lower as I’ve seen many of these types of roles be pure SMB/low MM roles.

Account Manager/Upsell AE - you have existing clients and your job is to increase spend within the customer base. A very warm sale but again limits upside.

It’s sales - most sales roles will be stressful. Yes you have a base, that’s nice but it doesn’t mean things won’t get stressful and throughout the year - especially if you’re behind quota. Once you’re off ramp and a few months in, if you aren’t performing you’re always at risk to be let go.

You’re thinking lacks nuance because the data suggests most sales professionals aren’t hitting quota. If it was that simple, many people who left this profession never would have. And most people want to make more than their base. 50-90k bases are nice but with inflation, cost of living, it really isn’t much. In order to make the actual money you need to close.

jefe

Arsonist

3

🍁

^^^

oldcloser

Arsonist

2

💀

yeah, nothing to add here. Well done.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Really well done. I was leading with the "it depends" answer - but you covered the "depends" part exceptionally well.

Diablo

Politicker

0

Sr. AE

This is perfectly curated 👆

suhdude

Opinionated

-2

Sales Rep

Appreciate you explaining the different 'types' of AE's and how their respective roles would differ.
As for the stress component - sales absolutely is not for everyone and there will inevitably be turnover (in my world turnover is like 95% within the first 3 years). My question moreso was referring to AE's who are well suited personality wise/highly skilled (i.e. top 25% percentile let's say).
Maybe a better question to have asked would be 'for a fairly successful AE with a track record of relatively consistently hitting quota, how difficult is it for them to land a new AE role if let go?'

waterjugsales

Politicker

0

Account Executive @ Funemployed

Well if you’ve seen any of the posts in here recently - many good sales people are finding it hard to get a job in the tech sector. That’s a result of market conditions and often if you have minimal tenure during a downturn you’ll be passed over for those with more experience. If you have a great track record obviously that’ll for sure help - but your network is more important. A team can’t be full of only A players, a good B or C player who contributes in other ways/isn’t a pain in the ass is important too.

It’s sales, you’re always disposable. In my opinion, stop worrying about losing a job you don’t even have yet.

Regardless of what happens you have to make money whether that’s in sales or not.

I know mid level/below average AEs who can get a job/switch jobs fairly easily. Interviewing skills≠ competency. Just look at how many idiots are in positions in your org who are a net negative to the business overall.

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

© 2024 Bravado Inc. All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy Legal and Privacy Center Sales Jobs

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.