WhattTheKicks

Account Executive

Pros & Cons of SMB vs Enterprise AE Role

in your experience, moving from an SMB to Enterprise AE role or the other way around. What would you say some of the biggest changes are in the sales process, daily grind, and your role in general? There is an opportunity for promotion for myself to move from SMB to Enterprise AE. Seems like a no brainer; increased salary, OTE, soild book of buisness but always curious to hear what others have to say.

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CoorsKing

WR Officer

Retired King of the Coors Knights

Enterprise
- long sales cycle
- bigger deals
- takes less deals to hit quota
- can miss number by a mile if 1 slips
- can make 7 figures
- more eyes on cycles
- better supporting structure

SMB
- quick sales cycles
- smaller deals
- takes more to hit quota
- won’t miss by a large amount unless multiple slip
- harder to make 7 figures but consistently make 6
- less eyes on cycles from leadership
- less experienced supporting structure

Net/net - both are dope, just depends on your personality. If you like the transactional bang bang cycles, do SMB. If you like the long term relationship deals and view yourself as an Ari Gold, Ent is for you.

WhattTheKicks

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

Didn’t think about having more eyes on deals. Certainly something I can see happening

CoorsKing

WR Officer

Retired King of the Coors Knights

Yup. But, the benefit is if you are in a highly competitive cycle, you can easily pull in your C-levels to throw some weight around

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Hell if you've got a plum prospect the CTO might even want to give the demo!

CoorsKing

WR Officer

Retired King of the Coors Knights

True. Shit, even the general council helps out with the big ones

bandabanda

Tycoon

Senior AE Mid Market

This is fire @CoorsKing, thanks for this

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

SMB deals are volume and lots of them. Enterprise is generally a shift - the deals are bigger, sometimes significantly bigger - but take much longer to close and involve a lot more people, departments, etc. You also may have months where you do not have any deals, depending on the nature of your business, the average sales cycle, and how many accounts you are assigned or have in your territory.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Good summary. ENT definitely has more feast and famine cycles.

ENT sales also typically involves more politics, although I've ran into some wacky SMB clients that make a navigating a Fortune 50 bank seem like a cakewalk.

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

That's basically it -> SMB = shorter sales cycle + higher volume
Enterprise = longer (sometimes MUCH longer) sales cycle + lower volume.

WhattTheKicks

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

Makes a lot of sense!

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Enterprise deals can take 2 years to close. You need to know this first and be ok with it.

bandabanda

Tycoon

Senior AE Mid Market

Bingo. I'm in SMB and I like the fast paced nature of it - working 60+ opps consistently.

But a working a deal that long seems stressful as hell.

saaster

Fire Starter

Account Executive

I would also say that smb can be “harder” depending on what you sell because you’re selling to tiny companies that might have literally $0 to spend regardless of how much pain your solution resolves. They also likely have no experience as buyers. These factors can turn what should be fast sales cycles that add up quick into absurdly long 10k engagements.

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Great points.

In SMB you have to lead your buyer. Explain: typically this is what happens next.

In ENT you need to understand the buyers process and how you can influence it.

bandabanda

Tycoon

Senior AE Mid Market

@braintankI'm in SMB and completely agree. Good insight on ENT, thanks.

SkunkBum

Good Citizen

Director, Sales

Watch out for quasi enterprise roles, where you have enterprise accounts, but not enterprise-sized deals/commissions.

These quickly turn into a lot of work for not a of return. The experience or logos may be worth it though!

Jewcan_Sam81

Politicker

Account Executive

SMB sales gives you more at-bats, meaning you’ll be able to close more deals and run multiple cycles at once.
Enterprise you’ll be able to have maybe a dozen at-bats a year and you gotta close those because that’s what you’ll get

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

Good point. And with mutli-year agreements and EAs you might not get another shot for 3-5 years.

So DON'T fuck up!

SalesSavage4Ever

Good Citizen

Account Executive

A big component I would look at is if you are a "hunter vs a farmer". Hunter in enterprise can be TOUGH but your quota is usually next to nothing. One whale can make you a lot of money let a lone TWO.

It always comes down to the nature of product and industry as well. If you have an existing install enterprise farmer role, do you get comped on organic growth? (i.e. license growth for us SaaS people)

What happens when there is M&A activity? Does your customer acquiring a competitor net you more users or customers on your platform?

Some more food for thought....

Updmamt

Opinionated

Business Development

The right answer should come from you:
Are you comfortable to have long (and slow) sales cycles, talking with multiple decisione makers and reaching mostly by emails or you feel the need to close new deals every month by just picking up the phone and talking to the owner/main decision maker?
I’ve been doing both myself and led teams in closing SMB/Ent deals.
Hope it helps!

AustinOG

Executive

Acvount Executive

Enterprise offers the most upside and a very real opportunity for a 7 figure W2 with the right solution set and comp plan. If you love process and activity, avoid Enterprise. If you enjoy strategy, thinking outside of the box, deal structuring, and developing deep relationships Enterprise might be a great fit. If you decide to go Enterprise:
-Negotiate a solid base that you can live on, because deals are not structured overnight
-Evaluate the comp plan carefully. Most allow the company to change them at any time, including after deals are closed. CFO’s hate writing 7 figure commission and often won’t, by minimizing your efforts and influence on deals
-Do the customers work for them in developing a defendable value proposition, and do not be afraid to ask for audacious amounts of money from the customer AND your employer
-Be paranoid and expect anything that can go wrong will. Resolve problems before they occur.

LMHandle7

Personal Narrative

Sales Director

I have worked both SMB & Ent at different orgs & what has been mentioned is correct, however the support of your team and director/CRO can & will vary, especially if it is a start-up or scaling org vs. large parent

OldSchoolEightiesStyle

Good Citizen

Global Vice President

All good answers. A couple of missing points to consider. Across most industries SMB's provide the highest profit margin %'s to the company. Those profits are needed to fund the tight margin %'s found in the Enterprise/Corporate accounts. Every company loves (hates) the big Enterprise/Corporate accounts for what they bring to the topline and the margin $'s they bring to the bottom line. SMB's just don't get the respect or support from upper management. So, if you want to further your career path into upper management you'll get more consideration conquering the Enterprise/Corporate accounts.

IYNFYL

Politicker

Enterprise SaaS AE

Doing both before SMB has always been harder to find deals than Enterprise, however others are correct that it’s a longer sales cycle and more importantly additional people to negotiate with usually

Igrowcoachingbiz

Member

Growth Consultant

What are the different levels of pricing for their core offer between SMB and Enterprise businesses in general?

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