In a small company, one person may find customers, sell to them and look after them. As a company grows, these tasks are split between specialised roles. That makes each person better at their part, but it also creates handoffs: moments when a customer is passed from one person to the next. Most problems in sales teams happen at those handoffs.
Job titles differ between companies and countries, and many teams combine roles. The descriptions below are the common pattern, not a fixed rule.
The roles
Sales development representative (SDR) or business development representative (BDR)
What they do: find and contact possible customers, check whether they fit, and book a first meeting for a colleague who will run the sale. Many companies use SDR for people who follow up inbound leads (people who contacted the company themselves) and BDR for outbound work (contacting companies first), but the two titles are often used for the same job.
Measured by: meetings booked and actually held, qualified opportunities created, and the value of the pipeline they generated.
This is a common first job in sales. It teaches research, writing, phone calls and handling rejection.
Account executive (AE)
What they do: run the sale from the first proper conversation to the signed contract: discovery (finding out what the buyer needs), demos, proposals, negotiation and closing.
Measured by: revenue won against their quota (the sales target for a period), win rate (the share of their closed deals they won) and the size and quality of their pipeline.
Sales engineer or solutions consultant
What they do: support the account executive on the technical side. They run detailed demos, answer technical and security questions, and check that the product really solves the buyer's problem.
Measured by: often by the deals they support: the number of technical demos or trials, and how many supported deals were won. In many companies they share a team target with the account executives.
Account manager
What they do: look after existing customers commercially: renewals, extra products and larger contracts. Sometimes they own a small number of large customers, called key accounts.
Measured by: renewal rate, revenue from upsell (a bigger version of what the customer has) and cross-sell (an additional product), and how much revenue from existing customers grows or shrinks over a year.
Customer success manager (CSM)
What they do: make sure customers actually get value from what they bought: onboarding (helping the customer start), training, regular reviews, and spotting problems early. They usually do not negotiate prices.
Measured by: how many customers stay (retention) or leave (churn), how much customers use the product, and customer satisfaction.
Sales operations
What they do: make the sales team work smoothly. They run the CRM (customer relationship management system), keep the data clean, build reports and forecasts, design territories and quotas, and calculate commission. In some companies this role is part of a wider revenue operations team covering marketing, sales and customer success.
Measured by: forecast accuracy, data quality, how many sellers use the tools, and how quickly sellers get the reports they need.
Sales manager
What they do: lead a team of sellers: hire and coach them, review deals, set priorities, and report the forecast to management.
Measured by: the whole team's results against its target, forecast accuracy, and how well the team develops, for example how fast new sellers become productive and how many good sellers stay.
Handoffs: from marketing to sales
Before a person ever talks to a seller, marketing has often been in touch with them. Many companies use these labels to show how far a lead has come:
Label | Meaning | Usually decided by |
|---|---|---|
Lead | Someone who might become a customer, not checked yet | Anyone |
MQL (marketing qualified lead) | A lead whose behaviour and profile suggest interest, for example someone who downloaded a guide and works at a company that fits | Marketing, by agreed rules |
SQL (sales qualified lead) | A lead that sales has checked, for example in a short call, and found worth pursuing | SDR or BDR |
Opportunity | A real possible deal with a value and a stage in the pipeline | Account executive |
Some companies add a step between MQL and SQL: the sales accepted lead (SAL), when sales confirms it has received the lead and will work on it.
The key is that both sides agree in writing what each label means. If marketing counts every download as an MQL and sales finds most of them useless, both teams blame each other. Clear rules, and a regular look at how many MQLs become opportunities, fix most of these arguments.
A worked example: one deal through the team
Relecloud, a fictional software company, sells an IT service desk tool. Here is how one customer, Woodgrove Bank, moves through the team:
Marketing. An IT team lead at Woodgrove Bank downloads a guide on handling IT requests. Woodgrove fits the target profile (a bank with 900 employees), so the lead becomes an MQL.
SDR. Aylin, an SDR, reads the bank's job adverts, writes a short email and has a ten-minute call. The team lead confirms that the current system is being replaced next year. Aylin marks it as an SQL and books a meeting for the account executive. Her notes go into the CRM, so nobody asks the same questions twice.
Account executive. Ben runs a discovery call, then a demo. The deal becomes an opportunity in the stage "Discovery".
Sales engineer. The bank's security team has 60 questions. Priya, the sales engineer, answers them and runs a two-week trial.
Account executive and sales manager. Ben negotiates. His manager, Clara, helps decide how much discount is acceptable. The bank signs.
Customer success. Before the signature, Ben introduced the CSM, Jonas, to the bank. Jonas leads onboarding and checks after 90 days that the agreed goals were met.
Account manager. After a year, Elif, the account manager, prepares the renewal and offers the tool to the bank's facilities team as well.
Sales operations made sure all of this was recorded in the CRM, and that Ben's forecast included the deal at the right stage.
Career paths
There is no single route, but some paths are common:
SDR or BDR to account executive, then to larger customers (often called enterprise accounts) or to sales manager.
Customer success to account management, or to a leading role in customer success.
Technical roles to sales engineer. People with experience in IT or a technical field often move into this role.
Sales operations to revenue operations or analytics, for people who enjoy data and systems.
Account executive to founder. Selling teaches you what customers really want, which is useful for starting a business.
In many sales roles, part of the pay depends on results (commission or a bonus). How large that part is varies a lot between companies, roles and countries, so ask about it in job interviews.
Common mistakes in sales teams
Handoffs without notes. The customer has to explain everything again, and loses trust.
Measuring only activity. An SDR measured only on meetings booked may book meetings with people who do not fit. Measure meetings that lead to opportunities as well.
Bringing in the sales engineer too late, after the seller has promised something the product cannot do.
Customer success hearing about promises after the signature. Introduce the CSM before the contract is signed.
No agreed definitions. If "MQL" or "opportunity" means something different to each team, every report is an argument.
Copying a large company's structure into a small one. A team of four does not need seven roles.
Check what you know
Match the role to its main task
Check yourself
1.What is an MQL?
2.Which figure fits a customer success manager best?
3.An SDR is paid only for meetings booked. What can go wrong?
4.When should the customer success manager meet a new customer?
5.What does a quota mean in sales?
6.Why do marketing and sales need written definitions of MQL and SQL?