Senior Account Executive Hiring Guide

Role Overview

A Senior Account Executive (SAE) is a quota-carrying seller responsible for managing the full sales cycle for mid-market to enterprise customers. The SAE qualifies prospects, develops account strategies, negotiates contracts, and closes deals while collaborating with SDRs, customer success, product, and marketing. They are expected to contribute to pipeline creation, maintain a predictable sales cadence, and mentor junior sellers.

What That Looks Like In Practice

An SAE runs discovery calls to diagnose business problems, designs ROI-backed solutions with product/solutions engineers, manages proof-of-concept or pilot programs, and negotiates contract terms with procurement and legal. They typically own a book of business, forecast accurately, and improve win rates by bringing competitive insights and a consultative selling approach.

Core Skills

Technical and functional skills that predict success in this role. Focus on demonstrable experience and outcomes rather than vague statements.

Enterprise Selling Experience Proven track record selling to mid-market and enterprise accounts (multi-stakeholder deals, 6–18 month cycles). Provide ARR quota attainment metrics and deal sizes.
Pipeline & Forecast Management Consistently builds a healthy pipeline, updates CRM accurately, and delivers reliable forecasts. Familiarity with forecasting frameworks and deal hygiene best practices.
Solution & Value Selling Ability to translate product capabilities into business outcomes and ROI. Comfortable leading discovery and shaping solutions aligned to buyer priorities.
Negotiation & Contracting Experience negotiating pricing, commercial terms, and SOWs with procurement and legal teams while protecting margin and managing concessions.
Cross-functional Collaboration History of partnering with SDRs, customer success, product, and marketing to close complex deals and ensure successful handoffs.
Product & Industry Knowledge Deep understanding of the product stack being sold and the industry landscape, competitors, and buyer personas.
CRM & Sales Tool Proficiency Comfortable using Salesforce or similar CRMs, sales engagement tools (Outreach/Salesloft), and analytics to manage activity and measure outcomes.

When screening, ask for examples, metrics, and references that validate these skills.

Soft Skills

Soft skills often determine whether a technically capable candidate will thrive in your team and culture. Prioritize skills that align to your customer and team dynamics.

Communication & Storytelling Conveys complex ideas clearly to executives and technical stakeholders; crafts compelling narratives that link features to business impact.
Resilience & Grit Handles long sales cycles, rejection, and complex negotiations without losing momentum; maintains consistent activity.
Curiosity & Learning Agility Asks insightful questions, rapidly learns product and industry nuances, and adapts messaging for different buyer types.
Coachability & Team Orientation Open to feedback, implements coaching, mentors others, and shares best practices across the team.
Strategic Thinking Prioritizes high-value opportunities, builds account plans, and aligns stakeholders to execute multi-quarter deals.

Probe for these through behavioral interview questions and situational roleplays.

Job Description Do's and Don'ts

A clear, accurate job description attracts the right candidates and reduces mismatched expectations.

Do	Don't
List measurable goals and quota expectations (e.g., $1.5M ARR quota, average deal size $50–150k).	Vague statements like 'grow revenue' without context or targets.
Be specific about territory, verticals, and typical buyer personas.	Use overly broad requirements like 'must be able to sell to anyone.'
Highlight cross-functional collaboration and support resources (SEs, marketing, CS).	Imply the candidate will do everything alone without support.
State required experience and preferred qualifications separately.	List an exhaustive wish list of skills that aren't essential to performance.

Use the dos and don'ts to craft a JD that highlights outcomes, not just tasks.

Sourcing Strategy

Targeted sourcing increases conversion and reduces time-to-hire. Mix inbound, outbound, and referral channels.

LinkedIn Recruiter — Targeted Outreach Search by title variants (Senior Account Executive, Enterprise AE, Strategic Account Executive), filters for company size/industry, and signals like recent promotions or quota attainment mentioned in profiles.
Employee Referrals Incentivize referrals from top performers and other teams in contact with AEs (CS, SDR, RevOps). Referrals often have higher cultural fit and faster ramp.
Industry & Vertical Job Boards Post on niche boards (e.g., SaaS sales communities) and forums where experienced AEs engage.
Recruiting Firms / RPO for Key Hires Use specialized firms for hard-to-fill enterprise roles or when expanding into new geographies or verticals.
Alumni & Competitor Poaching Approach proven sellers at competitor or complementary solution companies, focusing on those with relevant buyer relationships.
Sales Meetups & Conferences Sponsor or attend relevant industry events and career days to identify passive candidates and build brand presence.

Prioritize channels that have historically delivered sellers familiar with your buyer and product complexity.

Screening Process

An efficient, consistent screening process reduces bias and improves selection quality. Each step should evaluate specific competencies.

Initial Recruiter Screen (30 min) Confirm motivations, salary expectations, notice period, role fit, and high-level track record (quota, ACV, territories). Collect resume examples of closed deals.
Hiring Manager Phone Screen (30–45 min) Behavioral and situational questions: probe discovery approach, pipeline management, negotiation examples, and a few deal deconstructions.
Sales Exercise / Roleplay (45–60 min) Simulate discovery or executive briefing with a standard prompt. Evaluate value articulation, questioning, objection handling, and close strategy.
Panel Interview (Cross-functional, 60 min) Include SDR/BDR lead, SE/solutions engineer, and customer success or product leader. Focus on technical fit, collaboration, and onboarding ramp plan.
Reference Checks (2–3 references) Speak with former managers and peers to verify quota attainment, work ethic, teamwork, and reasons for leaving. Ask for concrete examples and outcomes.

Keep rounds focused, time-boxed, and aligned to the skills you most need.

Top Rejection Reasons

Deciding rejection reasons ahead of time ensures you screen consistently and avoid sunk-cost hires. These are common, objective reasons to remove a candidate from consideration.

No Demonstrable Quota Attainment Claims of success without verifiable metrics (quota, ARR, win rate) or inability to provide names of closed deals and references.
Poor Discovery & Questioning Unable to ask insightful, open-ended questions or tailor the value proposition to business outcomes during roleplay.
Lack of Enterprise Experience (if required) Candidate only has SMB or transactional background when you need multi-stakeholder, long-cycle enterprise sellers.
Cultural Misfit / Low Coachability Defensive responses to feedback, inability to accept constructive coaching, or values misaligned with team norms.
Unreliable Process & CRM Hygiene History of poor forecasting, no consistent pipeline management, or reluctance to use CRM and sales tools as required.

Document specifics for each rejection to provide constructive feedback and to refine your hiring criteria.

Evaluation Rubric / Interview Scorecard Overview

Use a standardized rubric to compare candidates objectively across core competencies. Score on a 1–5 scale and capture concrete evidence for each rating.

Criteria	Score (1-5)	Evidence / Notes
Revenue Impact & Quota Attainment	1 = Missed consistently, 3 = Meets most quarters, 5 = Consistently exceeds with large deals	Example: Closed 3 deals worth $200k ARR in last 12 months; provided manager reference confirming attainment.
Discovery & Value Selling	1 = Surface level, 3 = Structured approach, 5 = Shapes enterprise-level outcomes	Example: Roleplay showed ability to quantify ROI and align to exec metrics.
Collaboration & Cross-functional Execution	1 = Works in silos, 3 = Coordinates occasionally, 5 = Regularly runs complex cross-functional deals	Example: Described repeat collaboration with SE and CS to run multi-stage pilots.
Negotiation & Commercial Acumen	1 = Limited exposure, 3 = Handles standard terms, 5 = Negotiates complex contracts with procurement	Example: Negotiated discounts while preserving margin and escalated appropriately to leaders.
Cultural Fit & Coachability	1 = Resistant to feedback, 3 = Accepts feedback, 5 = Actively mentors and acts on coaching	Example: Provided examples of adopting new playbooks and mentoring junior reps.

Require interviewers to provide examples/notes tied to scores to make the hiring decision defensible.

Closing & Selling The Role

Senior AEs evaluate opportunities by growth potential, comp, leadership, and product-market fit. Address these proactively when selling the role.

Talk Compensation & OTE Transparently Share base, bonus structure, accelerators, on-target earnings, and historical attainment by peers. Be explicit about ramp expectations and first-year OTE realization.
Show Career Path & Growth Explain promotion timelines, examples of AEs promoted to leadership or strategic roles, and opportunities for account expansion or specialization.
Highlight Market & Product Differentiation Provide competitive positioning, customer success stories, and recent product roadmaps that enable easier closes and expansion.
Describe Support Structure Explain availability of SEs, marketing programs, SDR pipeline, RevOps support, and any buying signals or demand-gen playbooks provided.
Emphasize Autonomy & Influence Senior hires want to influence strategy. Share examples of AE input into pricing, packaging, or territory design.

Tailor the pitch to whether the candidate is high-performing at a competitor, looking for step-up responsibility, or seeking better comp/structure.

Red Flags

Red flags help you triage quickly. Not every red flag is disqualifying, but multiple should trigger deeper investigation.

Inconsistent or Evasive Metrics Unable or unwilling to share concrete numbers (quota, attainment, ACV, churn) or gives contradictory details about past performance.
Blaming Others for Losses Consistently blames product, marketing, or other teams without taking ownership or showing learning from failures.
Poor Listening During Interviews Talks over interviewers, misses cues, or repeatedly pivots to unrelated achievements instead of answering questions directly.
Repeated Job-Hopping Without Progression Short tenures with lateral moves and no clear progression or increasing responsibility.
Reluctance to Use Process/Tools Insists on doing things their way and resists CRM/tracking requirements that are critical for team forecasting.

Onboarding Recommendations

A structured 90-day onboarding accelerates productivity. Align ramp milestones to measurable milestones and tie to support resources.

Week 1–2: Orientation & Product Deep Dive Introduce product, customers, case studies, pricing, and competitive landscape. Include shadowing top AEs on discovery and demo calls.
Week 3–6: Territory & Account Planning Approve a first 90-day account plan with target accounts, outreach sequences, and pilot/POC strategies. Hold a planning review with manager and SE.
Week 7–12: Pipeline Building & Early Opportunities Focus on generating at least X qualified opportunities (define per role) and moving 1–2 deals to pipeline stages with clear next steps. Begin tracking weekly activity vs plan.
Ongoing: Coaching & Skill Development Regular 1:1 coaching around call reviews, negotiation support, and quarterly skill sessions. Provide KPI visibility and feedback loops.

Assign a mentor and set weekly check-ins for the first 3 months to ensure adoption of playbooks and cultural integration.