Marc Perez

Enterprise Account Executive at Comcast Business

Lowball offers when applying for Enterprise and MidMarket AE roles

President's club winner in 2022 for SMB sales, moved over to MidMarket AE role in May to gain experience with selling to larger companies with larger deal size, more robust product set and higher comp, but feels like a set-up for failure: great product set with competitive offers, good demand and market fit, but poor sales process to get signed contract and even worse handoff after customers signs which leads to buyers remorse cancels. Micromanagement in every aspect of metrics, and overkill number of team/office meetings kills office morale and gets in the way of closing deals. 5 days in office no matter what..

I have applied for numerous roles in SAAS, very few responses and only lowball offers for MidMarket AE roles, no responses for true Strategic/enterprise level roles at all.. Is the market really that bad for AE roles, am I looking in the wrong places, or am I not a good fit for these roles?

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23 comments

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Beans

Big Shot

8

Enterprise Account Executive

You're gonna have to earn it buddy.

saaskicker

Celebrated Contributor

7

Enterprise AE

Your background isn't going to pass the SaaS sniff test for Strat/Enterprise as an external hire.

1

Enterprise Account Executive

Appreciate the honesty. Do you recommend I keep looking at Midmarket level as that's my current experience?
And long term, how can I move up to Strategic/True Enterprise level at another company?

Sunbunny31

Politicker

4

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Start at SMB or MM in a good tech company, nail your numbers year over year and internally network as you build out your personal internal resume. Enterprise and Strat AEs have years of experience, MAY come from external hires, but those will be lateral moves from another large org with similar backgrounds. If you're good at sales, you definitely have the opportunity to move up, but you will have to get in the door first.

GDO

Politicker

1

BDM

Yeah enter through the SMB route!

saaskicker

Celebrated Contributor

3

Enterprise AE

@Sunbunny31 laid it out. Ent/Strat roles require 7+ years of quota carrying experience - that's where you're not going to pass the test. Go to a company that has a path to where you want to be. MM/SMB, learn the product, learn the ideal customer, build internal network and move up.

JustGonnaSendIt

Politicker

2

Burn Towns, Get Money

Concurring with @Sunbunny31 and @saaskicker on this.

I am a Strat AE currently.

Started as Ent BDR, went to Ent AE, at a startup. 6 years total time invested - 2 as BDR.

Left, took role as MM AE, proved my shit over 9 months, got moved up to ENT AE, proved my shit again for about 1.5 years, and got moved up to Strat AE.

80%+ of Strat AE's arrived there by climbing up within the same business. It takes a while to build the network and trust within a large company to be granted access to the biggest headaches (...I mean accounts).

Once you've demonstrated that and held the Strat role, you can move laterally... sometimes.

One of the big value props of a Strat AE for their employer is that they are highly networked and a great ambassador for the company to their top customers. It's hard to ramp up quickly to fill that expectation, unless you're late in career and have prior ties to key people in the organization and a large degree of experience in the industry.

TL;DR - The pace of promotion slows dramatically after MM, take your time, earn your stripes, and make some friends along the way.

pirate

Big Shot

4

🦜☠️ Account Executive

You'll have to take the low-ball offer to get experience from mid market and enterprise and then you can ask for more once you have the experience

CuriousFox

WR Officer

8

🦊

There's nothing wrong with taking a step back temporarily to be catapulted forward 🔥

TheColdestColdCall

Executive

2

Enterprise Account Executive

This is great advice. short term play, long term gain.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

1

🦊

I'm good for something occasionally 😏

Space_Ghost20

Valued Contributor

2

Account Executive

How are we defining "lowball offer"? 2021-2022 I was at a startup doing predominately MM and Ent, I was at $75k base/$150k OTE. I interviewed a few places (never got an offer though) that were MM offering $90k base/$180k OTE.

Diablo

Politicker

2

Sr. AE

As all suggested start small and prove your worthiness - you will get what you want :) all the best

1

Enterprise Account Executive

I’m at 80K base/ 160K OTE now, the new roles that responded are offering 60-70 base 140 OTE in MidMarket. So not a huge drop, but mine is not high to begin with, so I don’t want to take less. The MM I applied for are advertising 90K base/ 180K OTE in 2023

pirate

Big Shot

4

🦜☠️ Account Executive

Have you told this to the recruiters when they ask for your salary expectations? "Currently earning X so hoping to get X but would consider X because I really like the company"

Sunbunny31

Politicker

3

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Smart.

DataCorrupter

Politicker

1

Account Executive

70/70 does seem a little low for MM, would think normal is more like 85/85-120/120. You should be able to stay at your current salary or get a smidge more, but not much more.

snafu_sales

Catalyst

1

SaaS Sales

Salaries across the board are stagnating/shrinking compared to 2021/2 levels - find a company that you love, with leadership you can learn from and a product you genuinely believe in.
It is an investment in your future and the earnings will come as a result.

LMHandle7

Personal Narrative

1

Sales Director

Take your time and try to find roles that reflect your true hunting experience, do you know any other fellow sales colleagues that have moved on that are working MM and ENT?

0

Enterprise Account Executive

Only 1 that I am close with. He is on the hunt himself, came up from the same company I work with now, was an SMB AE like myself and went directly to Strategic at another company. He advised I start in MM to gain experience, which I have done.
I am using current role for experience, so long term I win. But I am looking for a better set-up, feel like I am not going to reach my full potential where I am at. Also working on building my network, to try to find new opps.

lieselfuel

Member

0

Regional Vice President

Honestly, in this market go back to SMB and make some $$

FlyingHellfish

Good Citizen

2

Director of Business Development

+1 to this statement. Most of my Ent. friends are missing quotas and not even close to hitting their OTE compared to all my SMB - MM pals who are surpassing theirs and getting accelerators to boot.

0

Enterprise Account Executive

**Update: As of Jan 24’ I was hired for what I was looking for. A fully remote role at the Enterprise (not Strategic) level at a reputable and stable company. Avg deal size 85-100K, with potential to move into Strategic in the near future. Big thanks to all who contributed, your sage advice did help!**

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