What is an account executive (AE)?
An account executive (AE) is a salesperson who owns qualified deals and works them through demos, proposals and negotiation to a signed contract.
Why it matters for sales teams
The AE is responsible for turning opportunities into revenue. They usually carry a quota for closed business and are measured on bookings, win rate and deal size. In teams with a sales development function, AEs receive meetings from SDRs or BDRs and spend most of their time on later-stage work: discovery, demos, building a business case, handling objections and negotiating terms.
Some AEs also prospect for their own pipeline, especially in smaller teams or when inbound volume is low.
Example
An SDR books a discovery call with the head of operations at a distribution company. The AE runs the call, confirms the problem and the budget, brings in a technical colleague for a demo, sends a proposal, works through procurement and gets the contract signed. After that, the account often moves to an account manager or a customer success team.
AE vs account manager
An AE wins new business. An account manager looks after existing customers and handles renewals and expansion. Some companies combine the two roles, while others keep them separate.