Icyveins profile picture
Icyveins profile picture

Icyveins

Strategic Account Executive

Executive
Opinionated
Catalyst
+6

Strategic vs Enterprise AE? Does your company differentiate?

This post might not even be relevant if the company you work for isn't large enough but I'm trying to figure out the difference from folks where the Saas industry is well established.

The data is confusing because in some places this is a step up from Enterprise requiring more experience while in others this seems to be an alternative/notch below to Enterprise (my firm included).


Is there a difference in how should be approaching these accounts?

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17 comments

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detectivegibbles
Politicker
5
Sales Director
Go sell to anyone you can until they tell you to stop.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
2
🦊
Exactly. Don't ask permission...
Icyveins
Executive
0
Strategic Account Executive
Hahahahaha
Pachacuti
Politicker
3
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
It’s like SDR vs BDR, There is no real difference.
Greenerpastures
Personal Narrative
3
Account executive
Strat: >10k Employees in the USEnt: >1k<10k
SportsSalesGuy
Tycoon
2
Enterprise Account Executive
Yes but the accounts approach is the same
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Large company I previously worked for had Strategic reps. Fewer accounts - think 2-5. Huge quota, and basically embedded in their accounts. Enterprise 10-15 accounts. Large quota, expected to be knowledgeable about the accounts, typically in a vertical (such as FSI). Then there might be more regional Enterprise reps, 20-25 accounts, large quota, expected to also know the industries and regions.

Small company I’m at: am Enterprise, but some of the accounts I am working would definitely be Strategic at my former employer. And I never would have gotten near them unless as a specialist.
JustGonnaSendIt
Politicker
2
Burn Towns, Get Money
I have seen it both ways.

Sometimes it is a title inflation thing to give Sr. Sales folks something to attain after they've been in the Sr. Enterprise AE grind for a while, without being functionally different than Enterprise.

In my current org, there is a true separate Strategic team. It has dedicated resources for pre-sales, legal, deal desk, and sales ops.

In the current example, Strategic reps have 6-8 accounts, Quotas around $5M, OTE $280K - $380K. Most accounts are well-established customers and the reps have been working them for several years. The focus is expansion and farming for growth of existing products.

Enterprise reps have more like 60 accounts, quotas around $2M, OTE $180 - $260K, and will have maybe 10-15 established accounts, with a focus on new logo acquisition.
HoS
2
Founder
Strategic selling means having a wider view of the business in my experience - you are out of the weeds of the deal and into meta territory - effects on culture, share price, brand, structure and particularly the status needs of the "C" suite.
SalesBeast
Politicker
1
Sales Leader
Strategic typically gets named accounts to break into and big logos to hunt. Enterprise will handle anything and everything in a territory or vertical. Thats how I’ve seen it.
Justatitle
Big Shot
1
Account Executive
Stupid titles, sell some shit and your good at your job.
Beans
Big Shot
1
Enterprise Account Executive
Strat to us is top 100 ICP.
Diablo
Politicker
1
Sr. AE
No real difference because most Ent deals are strategic in nature vs volume driven.
TheIncarceration
Politicker
1
SDR Manager
For us, Strategic AEs had fewer but larger accounts.
Approach was nearly the same.
PhlipOut
Politicker
1
Account Executive
for us Srtrategic is a sub category of Enterprise. Generally more senior as you have less accounts but higher spend/quota attached to it.We go ENT -> Strat -> Key.
pirate
Big Shot
0
🦜☠️ Account Executive
Enterprise sounds better than strategic to me
GoBlue
Old School Bravo
0
National Account manager
Not unless some you cannot sell to.

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