Sales · Chapter 2 of 5
The roles, and how they differ
SDR, AE, enterprise AE, account manager — the ladder, and where each is measured.
| Role | What they do | Measured on |
|---|---|---|
| SDR / BDR | Generate and qualify pipeline; usually outbound | Meetings booked, qualified opportunities created |
| Commercial / SMB AE | Close smaller deals at higher volume | Bookings; short cycles, many deals |
| Mid-market AE | Larger deals, more stakeholders | Bookings; cycles measured in months |
| Enterprise AE | Few, large, long, multi-stakeholder deals | Bookings; cycles of six to eighteen months |
| Strategic / named account | A handful of very large accounts | Growth within those accounts |
| Account manager | Existing customers: renewal and expansion | Retention and expansion rather than new logos |
The corpus is dominated by enterprise account executive and its variants, which matters for preparation: enterprise selling is a long, multi-threaded, committee-driven process far removed from the transactional selling most training material describes.
What changes as deal size grows
- More people must agree. Enterprise deals involve a buying committee — economic buyer, technical evaluator, security, procurement, legal — and any one can stall it.
- Cycles lengthen, so forecast accuracy matters more than activity volume.
- The technical evaluation is real, which is why solutions engineers exist and why the technical 56% figure matters.
- Procurement and security review become gates that have nothing to do with whether the buyer wants your product.
- Relationships outlive deals, so a loss handled well is genuinely worth something.
The ladder, and what each rung is measured on
| Role | The job | Measured on | The trap |
|---|---|---|---|
| SDR / BDR | Generate qualified meetings from cold outreach or inbound | Meetings booked, and meetings that held | Volume targets that reward spray. The meeting that holds is the only one worth anything |
| Account executive | Run a deal from qualified to closed | Bookings against quota | Pipeline that looks healthy and is not. Forecast discipline matters more than activity |
| Enterprise AE | Long, multi-stakeholder deals with procurement and security in the path | Bookings, on a much longer cycle | Deals that stall in security or legal — which is a discovery failure, not bad luck |
| Account manager / CSM | Retain and grow existing accounts | Renewal and expansion — net revenue retention | Being measured on support metrics, which turns the role into support with a better title |
| Sales engineer | Technical credibility inside the deal | Deals won that needed it — often a shared number | Becoming the person who fills in security questionnaires |
The distinction that decides whether a role suits you is not seniority — it is cycle length. A transactional role closing in weeks gives you fast feedback and many attempts; an enterprise role closing in three quarters gives you very few, each one large. Those reward different temperaments, and people who move between them without noticing the change are the ones who struggle.
And on compensation, know the mechanics before the number. The split between base and variable, whether variable is capped, whether there is an accelerator above quota, how long the ramp is before you carry full quota, and what happens to commission if a customer churns inside a clawback window. A high on-target figure with a punishing structure pays less than a lower one with a fair structure, and the structure is rarely volunteered.
Check yourself