What Is An Account Executive?
An account executive owns the sales cycle for qualified opportunities, from the first discovery call to a signed contract. At SaaS companies, that means running product demos, handling objections, negotiating terms, and closing the deal, usually picking up leads that a sales development rep already qualified.
- Also called
- AE, Sales Executive
- Reports to
- Head of Sales / VP Sales
- Works on
- Discovery, demos, negotiation, closing
- Measured on
- New bookings (quota attainment)
What An Account Executive Actually Does
- 01 · DiscoveryRuns discovery calls to understand a prospect’s workflow and priorities before pitching anything
- 02 · DemoDelivers product demos tailored to what the prospect actually cares about, not a generic script
- 03 · NegotiateHandles objections and negotiates pricing and contract terms
- 04 · CloseOwns the deal from qualified opportunity through signature, tracking it in the CRM
- 05 · Hand offHands off a clean, documented account to the account manager or CSM once the deal closes
Account Executive Vs. Similar Roles
| Role | Main focus | Primary metric |
|---|---|---|
| Account Executive | Closing new customers | New bookings |
| Sales Development Rep | Booking qualified first meetings | Meetings set, qualified leads |
| Account Manager | Renewals and expansion revenue | Net revenue retention |
| Customer Success Manager | Adoption and outcomes | Retention rate, churn |
At smaller companies, one person sometimes covers both AE and account management work early on. Once the customer base is big enough to need dedicated renewal attention, split the roles.
Skills To Screen For
Interview Questions Worth Asking
Hiring An Account Executive In Latin America
How Much Of The Workday You’d Share
Bogota, Mexico City, Sao Paulo, and Buenos Aires don’t change their clocks, so the overlap shifts when yours does. Times shown are in your team’s time zone. National English-proficiency averages vary by market too: Argentina ranks in EF’s "High" band globally, while Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil sit in the "Low" band. Screen every candidate’s spoken English directly rather than assuming by country.
What It Costs
| Country | Entry level (1-3 yrs) | Senior (6+ yrs) |
|---|---|---|
| Colombia | $14K/yr | $33K/yr |
| Mexico | $16K/yr | $33K/yr |
| Brazil | $20K/yr | $39K/yr |
| Argentina | $17K/yr | $41K/yr |
Typical time from kickoff to signed offer. LatamCent delivers 3 to 5 candidate profiles in the first 10 days.
Frequently Asked Questions
An SDR’s job ends once a qualified meeting is booked. The account executive takes it from there, running the demo, handling objections, negotiating terms, and closing the deal. An SDR is measured on meetings set and qualified leads, while an AE is measured on new bookings.
Yes, almost always. AEs are measured on new bookings, or quota attainment, which is why full-cycle deal experience and comfort asking for the close matter so much when screening candidates.
US account executives average around $79K a year, with a typical range of $54K to $95K. Account executives with 4 or more years of experience in Latin America typically run $33K to $41K a year for the same seniority, roughly 54% less.
Most searches run 21 days from kickoff to a signed offer, with 3 to 5 candidate profiles delivered in the first 10 days.
Yes. Colombia, Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina all sit within a few hours of US time zones, so most teams get 6 to 8 shared working hours a day depending on which US time zone they’re in, plenty for live demos and negotiation calls.
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