Account Executive

An Account Executive (AE) is a salesperson responsible for taking a sale through to signature. In business-to-business sales, they manage opportunities, present a solution suited to the customer's needs, negotiate and close the contract.

The role varies according to the customers targeted, the complexity of the offering and how sales work is divided. An AE may receive opportunities that have already been qualified or carry out some prospecting themselves. Their remit may also include sales to existing customers. The job title alone therefore does not establish their responsibilities.

Account Executive, SDR and Account Manager: who does what?

• The Account Executive explores the customer's needs in depth, develops the proposal and steers sales discussions towards a close.
• The SDR / BDR handles prospecting and qualification earlier in the process when the organisation separates these activities from managing the sale.
• The Account Manager develops existing accounts and may handle additional sales and renewals when these responsibilities are separate.

These boundaries should be set out in the job description. They can overlap, particularly when several sales functions sit within the same team. Specify who the AE reports to, who passes opportunities to them and who takes over the customer relationship after signature.

A clearly defined role also describes whom the AE sells to and the resources available to prepare the proposal. The AE works with prospecting teams, specialists involved before the sale and teams responsible for ongoing customer support. Their autonomy in sales depends on how the organisation is structured.

An Account Executive is responsible for the quality of a sale as well as closing it. Understanding the need, proposing a deliverable solution and tracking commitments helps the business decide which opportunities to pursue. Securing a signature when the scope is poorly understood can create difficulties as soon as the teams responsible for delivering the service take over.

Focus effort on opportunities that can move forward

Insufficient qualification leaves essential questions unanswered: what the prospect is trying to solve, how they will make their decision and what still needs clarification. The risk is giving presentation after presentation without knowing what would actually move the purchase forward. The sales manager's priority is to make these unknowns visible and decide which actions will help.

Defend a proposal the business can deliver

Adapting the offering means aligning the customer's expectations with the business's capabilities. A commercial concession or an additional promise should be assessed in this context. If the salesperson is unaware of the solution's limitations, negotiations can lead to an agreement that is difficult to deliver or insufficiently profitable.

Fictional example: a prospect makes their signature conditional on an adjustment to the offering. Before including it in the proposal, the AE asks the relevant team to clarify its feasibility. This check allows negotiations to proceed with an explicit scope.

Give the sales manager visibility they can use

Tracking opportunities and results informs forecasting and adjustments to sales activity. An incomplete history or an unclear next step can give a misleading impression of a sale's progress. The manager needs to understand the facts supporting the forecast, the obstacles and the decisions needed. Candidate selection should therefore consider how rigorously they track sales, as well as how confidently they present the offering.

• Understand the prospect's needs and the criteria that will guide their purchasing decision.
• Qualify opportunities by clarifying the purchasing process and next steps.
• Develop a commercial proposal that meets the need and that the business can deliver.
• Present the solution's value with arguments and materials suited to the people involved.
• Involve the teams needed to prepare the sale.
• Handle objections and negotiate terms within the authority granted.
• Guide sales discussions through to a signed contract.
• Document the progress of opportunities to inform sales forecasting.
• Analyse differences between targets and results to propose adjustments.

Relevant knowledge and skills combine an understanding of customers, knowledge of the offering and the ability to take a sale through to signature. Sales training can prepare candidates for these activities when it teaches them to analyse a request, develop a proposal and negotiate. The French professional qualification Négociateur technico-commercial is one relevant route, although it is not a mandatory prerequisite for the role.

Relate the candidate's background to the responsibilities

Useful experience covers several stages of a sale: presenting the offering, negotiating terms and closing the contract. Previous roles may have covered only some of these activities.

An SDR background provides experience in prospecting and qualification. Moving into an AE role requires building on these skills with in-depth discovery, solution presentations, objection handling and negotiation. The autonomy expected will depend on the assigned remit and the support available.

Assess how closely the experience matches your context

Prioritise knowledge and skills that transfer to your sales context: understanding a comparable offering, adapting the sales case and familiarity with the people being targeted. Experience in another market can be relevant if the candidate explains how they learn about a new offering and understand its uses.

To assess an Account Executive, examine their experience and decisions against situations similar to those in the role you want to fill.

1. Set the criteria before the interviews

Define the capabilities expected: understanding needs, qualifying the purchase, developing a proposal, negotiating and keeping useful sales records. Specify the customer segment and the share of prospecting assigned to the role.

For each capability, describe an observable behaviour. You might expect an accurate restatement of the need, a justified next step or a concession linked to something in return. Use the same criteria to compare candidates.

If you do not have sales expertise in-house, involve an assessor familiar with a comparable sales context. Ask them to examine the sales decisions while retaining responsibility for the final choice.

2. Reconstruct a past sale

Ask the candidate to describe a sale from the point they became involved through to its outcome. Have them clarify where the opportunity came from, who was involved, the obstacles and the decisions made.

Distinguish their contribution from that of other teams. Ask about the context of their results: the offering sold, the customers targeted and the support received. A reported figure alone does not explain how they sell.

Treat a precise account that distinguishes facts from assumptions as a positive sign. Probe answers that remain general or consistently attribute difficulties to other people.

3. Observe a customer discovery conversation

Fictional example: a prospect asks for a presentation of your offering, but their needs remain unclear. Give the candidate limited context and play the prospect in a discovery conversation.

Observe their choice of questions, listening and restatement of the need. Then ask the candidate to summarise what they know, what information they lack and the next step they recommend.

Value their ability to postpone a proposal when essential information is missing. A presentation delivered without taking the answers into account warrants further discussion in the debrief.

4. Examine the proposal and negotiation

Using the same case, ask for a short proposal and the reasoning behind it. Introduce an objection consistent with the context, followed by a request for a concession.

Examine how the candidate connects their response to the stated need. Ask them to explain what they would accept, what they would seek approval for and what information they would need to make their decision.

Look for a clear response that is compatible with the offering presented. Question any additional promise made without examining its feasibility, or any concession without a commercial justification.

5. Check cooperation and follow-up

Ask for a brief account of the case: the prospect's situation, unresolved points, actions and people to involve. Observe whether a manager could take over the case using this information.

Also explore a situation involving disagreement with a manager or support team. Ask the candidate to explain how they communicated constraints and worked towards a decision. Reserve management criteria for roles that actually include this responsibility.

6. Cross-check the decisive information

With the candidate's consent, prepare reference questions about their stated responsibilities, the quality of their follow-up and their cooperation. Seek to clarify points that remain uncertain.

Finish with a summary of the capabilities observed, limitations and support to plan for. Distinguish what needs to be in place from the start from what can be learnt within your organisation.