SultanofSale

Sales Director

The Epic Saga of AE vs. AM: When is handover right?

I am yet to see the perfect model of AE/AM handover. I would love to hear your experiences of great working models and how to cut the cake for what is AE territory and what is AM.

✌️ Growing Pains

💽 CRM

7 comments

Sort by:

sales7

Politicker

Commercial Product Enablement

I tend to think that as soon as a client is a customer it should be AM. AE's are incentivised to focus on New Biz and AM's role is to expand and retain existing.

Companies that blur the lines are the ones in my experience that have issues with this and more arguments.

SultanofSale

Praised Answer

Sales Director

This is the cleanest option but how do you keep an AE incentivized for a 'land' deal if it gets handed over? Wont they try to squeeze everything in or delay a deal until they can?

sales7

Politicker

Commercial Product Enablement

In my experience there is no fool proof system to preventing this.

I would recommend kickers for AE's for upsells within a certain time period following the initial land deal to incentivise them to hand over quickly and well so they can keep working on whales and then benefit from selling well the first time.

Or just go work for a small company with no split.

Smithy

Politicker

Director of Sales

I think it should be as the deal is closing.

I am not a fan of a quick handover and the prospects never hear from you again and now speak with this new person.

As part of agreeing the onboarding just before they sign, I'd try to get the AM on the call and help build the expectations of how the handover will go so that everyone is familiar with each other.

Think of it as a roundabout in that the AM enters the conversation as you are exiting, but there is some crossover. Too many companies treat it like a traffic light system where one dept stops and the other one starts, that's not ideal for the client at all. Think of how valued clients feels if it looks like you are really working with them and dedicating this much manpower to them joining your company.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

This is how I see it:

Once the business is won/closed by the AE it gets handed off to the AM right?

Invite the AM on your meetings, especially the the closing. Once you win the new business, the AM will be your right hand throughout the implementation. Even though the business is won, show up to the first QBR with the AM to make sure the client is happy and that you have done everything you said you would do up front. This is when you bow out.

By this point the client has the relationship with you AND the AM making the transition seamless.

exec

Acclaimed Answer

Account Executive

we do 1 year handoffs. gives the AE time to land the deal, foster a relationship, expand, or choose not to. after the 1 year mark the handoff is made via an intro, which has helped generate new conversations within the company and ultimately drive expansion based on the ROI over the past year.

FormerStartupJobHopper

Tycoon

We keep the account for 3 months. Frankly I hate managing people I've already closed, it's not my cup of tea. I'd gladly forego the occasionaly upsell that I get to not have to deal with the headache. I will say it incentivizes me to not close a bad deal, but I like to think I wouldn't do that anyways.

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

Press Careers

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.

SultanofSale

The Epic Saga of AE vs. AM: When is handover right?

7 comments

Related posts

Corp & Kevin Greene: From SDR to AE

Best company for SDR -> AE? Startup Vs Corp Corp

Does being a good SDR mean you will be a good AE?