Photo: Bunyod Rustamov (CC BY 4.0)
Job description
A typical week mixes outreach to qualify new leads with tailored product demos and negotiations over pricing and contract terms. Account executives also stay involved after the sale, managing existing client relationships to support renewals and upsells, and logging every deal's progress in a CRM to track their pipeline against quota. Because pay usually combines a base salary with commission, income tends to rise and fall with individual performance, and the pace noticeably sharpens as quarter-end approaches.
Pros
- High upside earning potential up to $200k, with commission tying pay directly to performance
- Accessible entry path, since many companies hire from sales-development roles rather than requiring a specific degree
- Significant independent judgment in how you manage and prioritize your own pipeline
Cons
- Above-average hours, with real pressure spikes around quota deadlines and quarter-end
- Compensation is commission-dependent, so income can swing with deal flow and market conditions
- Constant client-facing pressure requires strong interpersonal skills to sustain over a career
A typical day
The calendar is the boss: a 9am discovery call with a prospect, a 10:30 demo run alongside a sales engineer, then an hour of follow-up emails tailored to what each buyer said they cared about. Midday is pipeline hygiene in the CRM — updating deal stages, logging next steps before they're forgotten. Afternoons swing between negotiating contract terms with a procurement team and cold outreach to keep next quarter's pipeline from going dry. The day ends checking numbers against quota, because in this job the scoreboard is always on.
Tasks at the job
- Prospect and qualify new sales leads through outreach and referrals.
- Deliver product demonstrations and presentations tailored to a prospect's needs.
- Negotiate pricing, terms, and contract details to close deals.
- Manage relationships with existing clients to support renewals and upsells.
- Track deal progress and forecasts in a CRM system.
- Coordinate with marketing and customer success teams to hand off and support accounts.
Workplace & working conditions
Work happens indoors in an office or remote, mixed with in-person or video meetings with clients.
The pace is driven by quota targets, especially at quarter-end, and the role calls for significant independent judgment in how to manage a pipeline. Frequent client interaction makes strong interpersonal skills essential.
Education necessary or common
Bachelor's degree; many companies hire from sales-development or customer-facing roles rather than requiring a specific major
Common college majors
Career path
Related fields
Courses to take
- AP English Language — selling is structured persuasion, spoken and written
- Public Speaking or Debate — objection handling is live argumentation
- Intro to Business — you have to speak the buyer's language of budgets and ROI
- AP Psychology — understanding what actually motivates a decision
- Statistics — forecasting a pipeline is applied probability
Clubs, activities & competitions
- DECA — role-play sales events are the closest thing to the real job
- FBLA competitive events in sales and marketing
- Debate team
- Fundraising lead for a club or team — real quota, real rejection
- Part-time retail or service job with upsell targets
First steps you can take now
- Sell something this month — anything — and write down what worked and what didn't
- Watch free SDR/AE training content (e.g. from sales academies on YouTube) and practice a mock cold call
- Ask a salesperson you know to let you shadow one real customer call
- Build a mock pitch deck for a product you love and deliver it to a friend
