Are you weighing up whether you should hire an Account Executive vs SDR or wondering how you can get your team to work more collaboratively?

In traditional sales models, Account Executives usually focus on the middle and bottom of the funnel, moving leads through the pipeline and closing deals.

Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) tend to work at the top of the sales funnel, generating and qualifying leads, as well as booking meetings for AEs and passing over qualified leads.

This article will compare the two roles and examine how they should work together to form a successful sales partnership.

We’ll also introduce the concept of a full-cycle sales model where the roles of AEs and SDRs are merged and explore how AI can help facilitate different approaches.

Account Executive vs SDR: What’s the Difference?

SDR Responsibilities

SDRs typically focus on prospecting, lead generation and cold outreach. They may also work on educating prospects, filtering out irrelevant or unengaged leads and ensuring smooth communication throughout the sales funnel.

Good SDRs prioritize skills such as organization, strong communication, time management and active listening.

Typical KPIs might include the number of qualified leads sent through the pipeline, volume of calls or emails and how many meetings they’ve booked for the AE.

The average tenure for an SDR is 12-18 months. SDRs have high employee churn rates in all industries, which can cause high turnover challenges, especially in smaller teams.

AE Responsibilities

Account Executives typically concentrate on mid-bottom-of-the-funnel activities, such as negotiating contracts, closing deals and managing client relationships.

Other responsibilities might include drafting internal and external comms, reporting sales activities in a CRM system and assisting the SDR with research and prospecting.

KPIs for Account Executives include win rates, average sales cycle lengths and revenue attribution targets.

Required skills for AEs include problem-solving, communication, project management and negotiation/client relationship management.

The average tenure for an AE is slightly longer than an SDR at around 2.5 years.) – however, a successful and ongoing relationship with an SDR is vital for success, which can be impacted if there is a high SDR turnover rate.

Account Executives and SDRs: How the Two Roles Collaborate

People often think of “Account Executive vs SDR” like they are two opposing forces. However, in a successful sales team, the roles of an AE and SDR should work in tandem, with a strong level of interdependence.

To put it simply, SDRs create opportunities for sales, while AEs convert these opportunities into revenue.

Despite the importance of trust and collaboration between these two roles, AEs and SDRs are often polarized, creating friction in the sales cycle.

Account Executive vs SDR: Common Pain Points

Potential friction points include task polarization, where the AEs are solely reliant on SDRs to find leads, which can cause bottlenecks and delays when pipelines aren’t full.

AEs and SDRs often work towards misaligned goals. For example, an SDR might be focused on the volume of leads they’re generating, while an AE prioritizes the quality of leads coming through the funnel.

If AEs and SDRs don’t work well together, there can be communication barriers that slow down the efficiency of the sales cycle or lead to the mishandling of client accounts.

Communication breakdowns can also result in a lack of shared insight on leads, as well as incorrect or missing data.

As opposed to an “Account Executive vs SDR” approach, the two roles should work in partnership. A lack of cohesion and trust between these two vital business functions can ruin the entire sales model and render it ineffective.

Tips for a Successful AE and SDR Partnership

• Run shared training sessions to align expectations, communication and goals

• Use collaborative CRM tools to ease communication and maintain lead visibility for both roles

• Employ regular feedback loops to help address common friction points and make sure goals remain aligned

• Operate a culture of trust and leadership, encouraging collaboration rather than competition between AEs and SDRs

• Implement KPIs that measure team success, not just individual performance

Account Executive vs SDR Compensation & Bonuses

Another potential point of friction between AEs and SDRs might be their compensation, as the two roles are very different.

SDRs tend to receive a base salary plus bonuses for meeting sales quotas. According to Glassdoor, the average annual salary for an SDR in the US is $51K.

AEs also receive a base salary, but they may also receive performance-based commissions.  The average base salary for an AE is $84K.

The compensation interplay of these two roles is more complex than it might appear. For example, if SDRs underperform, this will affect the AE’s ability to do their job and fulfill their sales quotas, impacting their take-home pay and creating resentment.

In order to foster trusting and effective partnerships, you might want to consider tiered bonuses for SDRs based on lead conversion rates, rather than volumes of leads. You could also tie your AE’s incentives to pipeline velocity and deal success to create a greater sense of unity and shared goals.

Full-Cycle Sales and the Role of AI

In full-cycle sales, there is no Account Executive vs SDR comparison. The roles are merged, with one sales rep responsible for prospecting, generating leads and closing deals. There are pros and cons to this approach.

One of the upsides is that you’ll have greater control over the entire pipeline because it’s being handled by one person or team rather than several. You’ll also be able to generate deeper insights from reps who’ve taken a lead through the sales pipeline from start to finish.

Of course, without intelligent automation, you risk burning out your employees by asking them to cover all bases. The roles of AEs and SDRs come with many manual administrative tasks that can weigh down sales professionals and impact their overall performance.

However, AI SDRs like Topo reduce the manual work involved in prospecting and qualifying leads. You can automate many of the background processes involved in a sales cycle without neglecting your pipeline generation.

With an AI SDR finding high-quality leads, managing your inboxes and generating email campaigns, you’ll be free to focus on high-value tasks, such as client relationship management and strategy.

Topo: The Future of Sales Collaboration

Sales teams don’t benefit from an “Account Executive vs SDR” mentality. Instead, the two roles should work together collaboratively for better sales outcomes.

Whether you’re running a traditional sales team or have implemented the full-cycle sales model, Topo can help you completely revolutionize your sales process, delivering more insightful data and better sales outcomes.

Topo’s AI SDRs combine the efficiency of a human SDR with AE-level strategic insights, giving you better control over your campaigns and helping you remain agile.

Combining an AI SDR with a human AE or SDR will enable scalable, high-quality prospecting that’s uniquely tailored to your ICP, at a fraction of the cost of hiring a human representative.

This affordable approach will allow you to explore new markets or verticals without the high cost of traditional experimentation.

Explore our features or book your free demo today, and let us show you how we can streamline your sales processes, creating more efficiency, better collaboration and higher ROI.