Comprehensive Guide to Hiring an Account Executive

You know you need more sales coverage—your team is stretched thin, leads are piling up, and new opportunities are going untouched. Whether you’re hiring your first account executive or adding to an existing team, the challenge is the same: how do you make sure you’re bringing in someone who can actually close?

The risk of a mismatch is high. A weak hire stalls your pipeline, wastes your team’s time, and leaves real revenue on the table. And with every slow or failed search, your ability to hit aggressive growth targets takes a hit.

This guide will walk you through how to hire an account executive with the right mix of skills, experience, and mindset to succeed in your specific sales environment. You’ll get clear guidance on salary expectations, must-have capabilities, where to find great candidates, and how to evaluate them effectively—so you can hire with more speed and confidence.

What Do Account Executives Do?

Account executives are the relationship builders and deal closers who convert qualified prospects into paying customers and then nurture those relationships for long-term success.

Unlike sales development representatives, who focus on lead generation, account executives work with prospects who are already in your sales funnel. They conduct discovery calls, run product demonstrations, handle objections, negotiate contracts, and guide prospects through your entire buying process. They’re also responsible for maintaining relationships with existing clients to ensure retention and identify expansion opportunities.

In most organizations, account executives work closely with marketing teams to understand lead quality, collaborate with product teams to communicate customer feedback, and partner with customer success to ensure smooth handoffs after closing deals. They don’t typically handle cold outreach or initial prospecting—that’s usually handled by SDRs or inside sales representatives.

How Much Does It Cost to Hire an Account Executive?

Account executive compensation packages can quickly add up, especially when you factor in the variable commission structures that top performers expect.

Understanding the full picture helps you budget effectively and structure offers that attract the talent you need.

Understanding account executive compensation structure

Most account executive compensation combines base salary with commission, creating a total package that rewards performance. The typical structure includes:

• Base salary: The fixed annual amount that provides financial stability and covers basic living expenses. This is the guaranteed portion of compensation.
• Commission: Variable compensation based on performance metrics like closed deals, revenue generated, or quota achievement. Commission structures vary depending on your industry, deal size, and company goals.

It’s important to be transparent about how commissions are structured and what it takes to earn them.

In the US, here’s what you can expect for base salaries (before commission):

• Junior Account Executive (0-2 years): $51,000 – $95,000
• Mid-Level Account Executive (2-5 years): $95,000 – $113,000
• Senior Account Executive (5+ years): $113,000 – $135,000

These figures represent base salaries and don’t include commission structures, which can significantly impact total compensation. Many US companies offer 50/50 or 60/40 base-to-commission splits.

If those numbers don’t match your budget, expanding your search to Latin America can provide access to the same caliber of account executive talent for significantly less while getting better time zone compatibility than other offshore options.

The time zone alignment means no loss in the ability to hop on calls during standard US business hours.

Here’s the cost comparison for base salaries:

These savings reflect different costs of living, not differences in talent quality or dedication. Many Latin American account executives have extensive experience working with US companies and understand American business culture and expectations.

What Skills Should You Look for When Hiring an Account Executive?

Finding the right account executive requires evaluating both technical sales capabilities and the strategic thinking that separates good AEs from great ones.

Understanding what to expect at different experience levels helps you evaluate candidates fairly and set realistic expectations for their performance. 

A junior account executive might excel at relationship building and basic sales processes but need guidance on complex negotiations and strategic account planning, while a senior account executive should be able to manage enterprise-level deals independently and mentor team members on advanced sales strategies.

These skill expectations also directly impact compensation and role responsibilities. Junior account executives typically focus on smaller deals and established prospects, while senior professionals handle strategic accounts and complex sales cycles that require deep industry knowledge and advanced negotiation skills.

Here’s how account executive skills typically progress across experience levels:

Regardless of seniority level, all account executives should demonstrate certain fundamental capabilities. Here are the core skills to evaluate:

Hard skills (the must-haves)

• CRM proficiency and pipeline management: Your account executive needs to track deals, update forecasts, and maintain clean data in your CRM system. Look for candidates with experience in Salesforce, HubSpot, or similar platforms, and ask about their approach to pipeline hygiene and forecasting accuracy.
• Consultative selling and discovery: The best account executives don’t just present your product—they uncover business needs and position your solution as the answer. They should demonstrate experience conducting thorough discovery calls and asking questions that reveal both explicit needs and underlying challenges.
• Negotiation and contract management: Account executives must navigate pricing discussions, handle contract terms, and find win-win solutions that close deals without sacrificing profitability. Look for candidates who can discuss specific negotiation strategies and share examples of complex deals they’ve closed.
• Product knowledge and technical fluency: While they don’t need to be technical experts, account executives should understand your product well enough to handle basic questions and know when to bring in technical support. This is particularly important for B2B SaaS companies where buyers have detailed technical requirements.
• Presentation and communication skills: Account executives regularly present to groups, run product demos, and communicate complex information clearly. Strong verbal and written communication skills are essential, especially for remote roles where most interactions happen over video calls.

Soft skills (equally important)

• Relationship building and emotional intelligence: Sales is fundamentally about relationships. The best account executives build genuine connections with prospects, understand their motivations, and maintain trust throughout long sales cycles. They read social cues, adapt their communication style, and make prospects feel understood rather than sold to.
• Resilience and persistence: Account executives face rejection regularly and must bounce back from lost deals without losing confidence. Look for candidates who can discuss how they handle setbacks and maintain motivation during challenging periods.
• Strategic thinking and business acumen: Top account executives understand their prospects’ business challenges and can articulate how your solution impacts broader business goals. They think beyond features and benefits to focus on outcomes and ROI.
• Organization and time management: Account executives typically manage multiple deals simultaneously while maintaining consistent follow-up and meeting deadlines. They need strong organizational systems and the ability to prioritize effectively without micromanagement.
• Adaptability and learning agility: Sales processes evolve, products change, and market conditions shift. The best account executives adapt quickly to new tools, messaging, and strategies while maintaining performance consistency.

Nice-to-have skills (the differentiators)

• Industry-specific experience: While not always essential, candidates with experience in your industry bring valuable context about common challenges, competitive landscape, and buyer behavior patterns.
• Multilingual capabilities: For companies with diverse prospect bases, account executives who can communicate in multiple languages can access broader markets and build stronger relationships with international clients.
• Technical certifications: For complex B2B sales, certifications in relevant technologies or methodologies (like Challenger Sale or MEDDIC) can indicate commitment to professional development and structured selling approaches.
• Digital marketing knowledge: Account executives who understand lead generation, content marketing, and digital channels can better collaborate with marketing teams and provide valuable feedback on lead quality and messaging effectiveness.

Where Can You Find and Hire Great Account Executives?

Finding great account executives involves two key decisions: where geographically you want to hire from and which recruiting channels to use in that location.

Your success depends on making informed choices about both the location and sourcing approach that align with your specific needs, timeline, and budget.

Deciding between local, national, or global talent

Most account executive roles are naturally remote-friendly. Account executives spend their days on calls, video conferences, managing their CRM, and building relationships with prospects through digital channels.

They don’t need to be in the same building as your product team—they need to be able to call or message your prospects and equipped with the right tools and skills.

In fact, according to Hubspot’s 2024 Sales Trends Report, “56% of sales professionals say that remote selling has made it easier to sell,” and 21% agree that “remote sales are somewhat more effective than in-person sales.”

That flexibility opens up significant opportunities when it comes to sourcing talent.

Local/in-office hiring works well when you need face-to-face collaboration, have complex products requiring extensive training, or serve customers who prefer in-person meetings. Some companies also prefer local hiring for easier onboarding and culture-building, especially with junior account executives.

But local hiring comes with tradeoffs. You’re limited by geography, and in many US markets, compensation expectations are increasingly disconnected from experience. It’s not uncommon to see account executives demanding high base salaries before they’ve proven their ability to close deals consistently.

Remote US-based hiring expands your options significantly while maintaining familiar business practices and time zone alignment. You can find candidates with specific industry experience or advanced sales skills from across the country. However, you’re still competing in a tight labor market, and compensation expectations will generally be on par with local hires, sometimes even higher depending on the region.

International/offshore hiring offers the largest talent pool and most significant cost savings. If you’re open to remote work and results matter more than location, looking internationally can be a smart strategic move.

As we mentioned earlier, Latin America offers particular advantages for account executive roles: real-time collaboration during US business hours, strong English proficiency, and cultural alignment that makes relationship-building with US prospects more natural. Many companies have built successful remote sales teams this way, with strong retention and performance.

Countries in South and Southeast Asia (like the Philippines or India) can also work well if you’re comfortable with more asynchronous communication or if your sales process doesn’t require extensive real-time interaction during US business hours.

Our article on the best countries to find and hire top remote sales talent delves further into some of the key factors to consider when selecting a location to hire from. 

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Choosing the right sourcing channel

Different sourcing methods have distinct advantages depending on your timeline, budget, and quality requirements:

For account executive roles specifically, consider these specialized channels:

• Sales recruitment firms like top sales recruiters who focus exclusively on sales talent and understand compensation structures, performance metrics, and cultural fit requirements.
• Sales communities and forums where experienced account executives share insights and job opportunities.
• Industry-specific networks that connect you with candidates who already understand your market and buyer personas.

Industry referrals also deserve special attention as 45% of referred candidates are likely to stay longer than four years with a company compared to 25% for job board hires. Your existing sales team likely knows other talented account executives from previous companies or industry connections.

How to Hire the Best Account Executive: Best Practices

Hiring account executives successfully requires a systematic approach that evaluates both sales capabilities and cultural fit while moving quickly enough to secure top talent.

Here are some of the best practices to incorporate in each stage of your hiring process.

Stage 1: Before and during sourcing

Define your ideal candidate profile beyond generic requirements

Rather than listing “3+ years of sales experience,” specify the deal sizes, sales cycles, and market segments that matter for your business.

Do you need someone who’s comfortable with six-figure enterprise deals or someone who excels at high-volume transactional sales?

This clarity helps you define what you are looking for and filter candidates more effectively.

Focus on achievements, not just experience

When reviewing resumes, look for candidates who include specific metrics: quota attainment, average deal size, sales cycle length, and year-over-year performance improvements. 

According to our sales recruiters, “The best candidates have clear, measurable achievements on their resumes—they’ve exceeded targets, brought in big accounts, or led growth initiatives.”

Write job descriptions that attract top performers

Great account executives want to understand your sales process, target market, and growth trajectory. Include information about your average deal size, sales cycle length, commission structure, and team dynamics. Be specific about what success looks like in the first 90 days and the first year.

Research analyzing over 1 billion job postings shows that job descriptions between 300-660 words fill 8 days faster than those outside this range. Additionally, skills-based hiring approaches expand candidate pools by 6.1x globally, making it beneficial to focus on relevant capabilities rather than rigid degree requirements.

See our guide on writing job descriptions that attract the right sales talent for more tips. 

Stage 2: Screening and evaluation

Use role-playing exercises to assess real-world skills

Rather than relying solely on interviews, create scenarios that mirror your actual sales process. Present a prospect profile and ask candidates to conduct a discovery call or handle common objections. This reveals how they think on their feet and approach relationship-building.

Evaluate their questions, not just their answers

Great account executives ask strategic questions that uncover business needs and decision-making processes. During interviews, pay attention to what they ask about your sales process, target customers, and growth challenges. Their questions often reveal more about their sales acumen than their prepared answers.

Top account executives will naturally research prospects before sales calls, so this habit should be evident during the hiring process.

Stage 3: Making the offer and closing the deal

Move quickly once you’ve identified the right candidate

Top account executives often have multiple opportunities, and lengthy decision processes can cost you your preferred candidate. 

Have your interview process streamlined and decision-makers aligned before you begin sourcing.

Structure offers that appeal to sales professionals

Account executives are motivated by earning potential and growth opportunities.

When hiring internationally, understand what makes a competitive offer in the local market.

For Latin American candidates, according to our recruiters, “A strong commission structure is key. Top performers want to know they’ll be rewarded for meeting—and exceeding—targets.”

Provide clarity on onboarding and early success metrics

Account executives want to understand how they’ll be set up for success. Outline your onboarding process, training programs, and how success is measured in the first 90 days.

This demonstrates your commitment to their success and helps them envision their path to quota attainment.

Top Interview Questions for Hiring Account Executives 

These questions go beyond surface-level responses to uncover how candidates think, solve problems, and approach the strategic aspects of sales.

“Walk me through how you would research and prepare for a first call with a new prospect.”

This question reveals their systematic approach to sales and whether they understand the importance of preparation.

Strong candidates will describe researching the company, understanding the industry landscape, identifying potential business challenges, and preparing relevant questions.

Look for candidates who mention checking recent company news, understanding the competitive landscape, and preparing multiple conversation paths based on different prospect responses.

“Tell me about a deal you lost and what you learned from it.”

Everyone loses deals, but great account executives reflect on failures and improve their approach.

This question surfaces emotional intelligence, learning agility, and resilience.

Look for candidates who can analyze what went wrong without blaming external factors, explain what they would do differently, and show how they applied those lessons to future opportunities.

“How do you handle a situation where a qualified prospect goes silent during your sales process?”

This tests their persistence, creativity, and relationship-building abilities.

Strong candidates will have a systematic approach to re-engagement that includes varying communication methods, providing additional value, and knowing when to step back.

They should demonstrate understanding of buyer psychology and the ability to maintain relationships without being pushy.

“Describe a time when you had to sell to a committee or multiple stakeholders.”

Complex B2B sales often involve multiple decision-makers with different priorities.

This question reveals their ability to navigate organizational complexity, build consensus, and manage competing interests.

Look for candidates who can identify different stakeholder motivations, tailor their approach to each person, and coordinate multi-threaded sales processes.

“What questions do you ask to uncover a prospect’s true budget and decision-making process?”

This tests their discovery skills and comfort with direct conversations about money and authority.

Great account executives know how to address budget and decision-making early in the process without being confrontational.

They should demonstrate specific question frameworks and explain how they handle common prospect responses like “we don’t have a budget” or “I’ll need to check with my team.”

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring Account Executives

Even with a structured process, these common pitfalls can derail your hiring efforts and lead to poor performance or early turnover.

Prioritizing personality over proven performance

Many hiring managers fall for charismatic candidates who interview well but lack the systematic approach needed for consistent sales success.

While relationship-building skills matter, they need to be backed by a track record of quota attainment and deal closure. 

Always ask for specific examples of performance metrics and verify achievement claims through references or role-playing exercises. When interviewing sales talent, our recruiters always keep in mind that, by the nature of the role, the candidates know how to “sell themselves”—you need to be able to look past that and dig deep into their past performance.

Overlooking cultural fit and remote-readiness

Account executives must collaborate with marketing, customer success, and product teams while maintaining relationships with prospects across long sales cycles.

For remote roles, they need strong communication skills and the ability to build trust through video calls and digital interactions.

During interviews, assess how they communicate, follow up, and maintain relationships without in-person interaction.

Underestimating the importance of industry alignment

While great sales skills are transferable, account executives perform better when they understand your industry’s buying patterns, common challenges, and competitive landscape. This doesn’t mean you need perfect industry matches, but consider how much ramp time you’re willing to invest in educating new hires about your market dynamics.

Setting unrealistic expectations for ramp time

Even experienced account executives need time to learn your product, understand your sales process, and build relationships with prospects.

Setting aggressive quotas in the first 90 days often leads to frustration and early turnover. Plan for a realistic onboarding period and set progressive goals that build confidence while they’re learning.

Focusing solely on individual achievements without team collaboration

Account executives who only focus on their own deals and don’t collaborate effectively with marketing, SDRs, or customer success teams can create friction that impacts overall team performance.

Look for candidates who can discuss how they’ve worked with cross-functional teams and contributed to broader business goals beyond just their individual quota.

Why Working With a Recruiting Partner Makes a Difference

You can absolutely hire great account executives on your own, and many companies do successfully. If you have strong internal recruiting capabilities, clear hiring criteria, and sufficient time to source and screen candidates, a DIY approach can work well.

However, working with a sales staffing or recruitment partner becomes particularly valuable when you’re facing time constraints, hiring internationally for the first time, or need to fill multiple sales roles quickly. 

The sales hiring market moves fast, and specialized recruiters often have relationships with passive candidates who aren’t actively job searching but might be open to the right opportunity. 

This is particularly true for international hiring, where specialized recruiters understand local salary expectations, cultural norms, and compliance requirements.

They can help you navigate questions about work authorization, tax implications, and benefits that matter in different markets.

A recruitment partner with experience in sales roles can also accelerate your screening process by pre-qualifying candidates for both technical capabilities and cultural fit. They understand the nuances of sales compensation structures, performance metrics, and what motivates top sales professionals.

When evaluating recruitment partners, look for firms that specialize in sales talent, have a track record of successful placements in your industry, and can provide references from other clients. 

The upfront cost of working with a partner is often offset by reduced time-to-hire, higher-quality candidates, and lower risk of bad hires.

Final Thoughts

The right account executive becomes a growth driver for your entire business. They build relationships that create long-term customer value and provide market insights that inform your product and marketing strategies.

Finding that caliber of professional requires looking beyond surface-level sales skills to evaluate strategic thinking, relationship-building abilities, and cultural fit.

Whether you need someone to manage enterprise accounts or drive high-volume transactional sales, investing in the right talent creates compounding returns across your entire sales organization.

If working with a recruitment partner seems like the right approach, consider a specialized firm that can make the hiring process seamless, efficient, and stress-free.

At Near, we understand that great account executives combine proven sales fundamentals with strategic thinking and relationship-building skills.

We match you with pre-vetted Latin American account executives who have experience working with US companies, strong English communication skills, and the cultural alignment needed to build trust with US prospects.

Our candidates work during your business hours, integrate seamlessly with your existing sales processes, and have salary expectations that are 30–70% lower than those of their US-based counterparts.

Ready to find an account executive who can accelerate your sales performance while fitting your budget?

Book a free remote recruiting consultation call with our team today, and we’ll help you find the perfect match within 21 days.

Frequently Asked Questions About Hiring Account Executives

What other sales roles should I be hiring to support my account executives? 

If your account executives are spending too much time prospecting or chasing cold leads, it’s probably time to build out supporting roles like sales development representatives (SDRs), business development representatives (BDRs), and appointment setters.

• SDRs focus on qualifying inbound leads and ensuring only sales-ready prospects reach your AEs.
• BDRs are typically more outbound-focused, identifying and initiating contact with new business opportunities.
• Appointment setters specialize in booking meetings, helping AEs stay focused on closing.

Learn more in our guide to hiring SDRs and our guide to hiring appointment setters.

What’s the difference between an account executive and a sales rep?

Account executives typically focus on qualified leads and relationship management, while sales reps may handle the entire sales cycle from prospecting to closing. 

Account executives usually work with larger deals and longer sales cycles, requiring more strategic thinking and stakeholder management skills.

Read our guide to hiring sales reps if you think that’s the right role to be hiring for.

What are the biggest mistakes when hiring account executives?

The most common mistakes include prioritizing personality over proven performance, setting unrealistic expectations for ramp time, focusing solely on individual achievements without considering team collaboration, and making compensation structures too complex or heavily weighted toward base salary.

How do you measure account executive success in the first 90 days?

Focus on leading indicators like pipeline creation, meeting bookings, and CRM adoption rather than just closed deals. Track activity metrics (calls, emails, meetings), conversion rates at each stage, and relationship-building progress. Most account executives need 3–6 months to fully ramp up.

Should I hire one or multiple account executives initially?

If you’re building your first account executive team, consider starting with two rather than one. This allows you to A/B test different approaches, creates healthy competition, and prevents the isolation that can lead to early turnover. You’ll also learn faster about what works in your specific market.