Role overview
An Account Executive (AE) owns deals end-to-end: discovery, demo, multi-threaded buying-committee sales, negotiation, and close. Unlike SDRs, AEs are paid on closed revenue, not pipeline.
The most important screening question is segment fit. An AE who crushed quota selling $10k SMB deals will struggle in a six-month enterprise cycle, and vice versa. Match the deal motion to the candidate, not the title.
Job criteria
- 2–7 years closing experience for SMB/MM roles, 5+ for enterprise
- Demonstrated quota attainment ("110% of $1.2M quota") with the numbers cited
- Experience in a comparable deal motion (ACV range, deal-cycle length, buyer persona)
- Track record of multi-threaded selling for MM/Enterprise roles
- Strong written communication and discovery question quality
- Pipeline-generation discipline — does not rely solely on inbound
What to screen for
- Numbers on the resume. Quota attainment, ACV, win rate, ramp time. Generic accomplishments mean little for AE roles.
- Segment match. Read for ACV and deal cycle, not just product category. SMB and Enterprise are different jobs.
- Self-sourced pipeline. AEs who only close inbound rarely scale into harder motions.
- Deal storytelling. In their cover letter or screening answers — can they walk through a real deal with names, stakeholders, and what almost went wrong?
- Stability in past roles. Closing motions take 6–12 months to ramp. Job-hop patterns under that horizon are a yellow flag.
Red flags
- Quota attainment percentages without the underlying number (110% of what?)
- A pattern of leaving roles before the ramp window
- "President's Club" badges with no quota context
- Resumes built around accolades rather than deals — speeches, awards, recognition without numbers
- Discovery questions in the screening answers that read like a checklist, not curiosity
Resume keywords
quota attainment, ACV, MRR, ARR, pipeline generation, closed-won, MEDDIC, MEDDPICC, Force Management, Command of the Message, Sandler, Challenger, multi-threaded, SaaS, mid-market, enterprise, SMB
Interview questions
- Walk me through your largest closed deal — stakeholders, timeline, what almost killed it, and what saved it.
- Tell me about a deal you lost that you should have won. What did you learn?
- How do you self-source pipeline when inbound is dry?
- Describe your discovery process. What are the three questions you do not leave a first call without asking?
- We sell <ACV / motion / persona>. Where is the closest analog in your experience, and where is the gap?
- How do you forecast a deal? Walk me through your last commit call.