Why The AE Role Might Not Be For You

For as long as I can remember being in tech sales, the position of the AE (account executive) role has been glorified, propped up as the holy grail the pinnacle of one's sales career.

It is where the real money is made, it is where you can truly excel in your sales career.

Now, do not get me wrong; for some SDRs, it’s the best move, the one that propels them to career heights they could never have dreamed of and I have personally promoted a bunch of SDRs and will continue to do so…

But is this the right move for you?

There is one action I implore you to take before contemplating committing to becoming an AE and involves some self-evaluation, sitting down and having a real and honest think about how YOU are wired.?

Forget everyone else and everything you heard. Think about if are YOU wired for the role of AE.?

To do this, you need to put aside the money, the glory and the prestige for a minute because that will not matter if you are miserable and fail as an AE.?

So how do you figure out how you are wired??

The overarching question you need to answer is:

Do you prefer the short or long sale cycle?

To help you get to that answer you need to be honest with yourself and take a moment to answer these questions: (Maybe write them down)

1. In your relationships business & personal, are you a quick-fing sort of person or a serial monogamist? Do not kid yourself on this one...
2. Are you someone who likes instant gratification or do you like the long game? eg are you a generally patient person?
3. Do you prefer transactional over relational relationships in a business setting??This is different to Q1, this is about relationship style rather than the timeline
4. Do you enjoy a quick spurt of intense work and then move on to the next target or do you like going over one project again and again and again? Read that slowly and think about it…
5. Are you okay with many factors that are out of your control going wrong that can completely sabotage your earnings? Take a real hard think on this one
6. Do you enjoy switching off for a day or two once you have hit your target for the month??

Take a moment to think about your answers...

If you are someone who:

Prefers a quick fling or craves instant gratification, is not the most patient type, in a business setting likes to keep it transactional so you can move on to the next deal, loves the feeling of benefitting from someone else’s hard work or does not do well when things out of their control go wrong and from time to time and relishes a moment to just switch off…. (no judgement at all) Then you might just want to stay in the SDR game…

There is no shame in admitting to some or all of the above.

The challenges of being an AE are many and include; really being able to own that long game, having the ability to multi-thread through accounts and stakeholders internal and external which can take a lot of time for not much return and dealing with levels of last-minute falling through of deals that can ruin your year let alone one month.?

The SDR role if done well can be a very lucrative and successful long-term career and I hope this can help you get to know yourself within the realm of sales a little better and perhaps give you some food for thought next time you think about your next step!?

Peace ???