What is the difference between an account executive and an SDR in B2B?

The Account Executive (AE) and the Sales Development Representative (SDR) are complementary roles in most B2B sales organisations, but with fundamentally different responsibilities: SDR (Sales Development Representative): responsible for outbound prospecting and inbound lead qualification -- finding potential buyers, engaging them through cold outreach (email, phone, LinkedIn), qualifying their fit against the ICP, and booking meetings for the AE. The SDR is not measured on closed revenue; they are measured on the number of qualified meetings or SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads) they generate per week/month. Account Executive (AE): responsible for managing the sales process from a qualified meeting (or SQL) through to signed contract. The AE is measured on closed revenue (new ARR) and is the primary quota carrier in the organisation. The AE does not typically prospect from scratch; they rely on the SDR team to book qualified meetings and then manage the sales process from there. How they work together: the SDR and AE are typically paired in a pod structure (one AE supported by one or more SDRs). The SDR fills the AE's pipeline with qualified meetings; the AE converts those meetings into closed revenue. A well-functioning SDR/AE relationship requires clear qualification criteria (what does "qualified" mean?), regular feedback (the AE tells the SDR which meeting types are converting and which are wasting time), and shared accountability (the AE's pipeline health depends on the SDR's output quality; the SDR's long-term success depends on the AE closing the meetings they book).

What quota should a B2B account executive have?

B2B account executive quota benchmarks by segment: SMB AE (average deal size below INR 3 lakh ACV): annual quota INR 1.5-4 crore, assuming a high-velocity sales model with 50-100+ deals closed per year. Mid-market AE (average deal size INR 3-15 lakh ACV): annual quota INR 3-8 crore, assuming 20-50 deals per year at higher average deal values and longer sales cycles. Enterprise AE (average deal size above INR 15 lakh ACV): annual quota INR 8-20 crore+, with a smaller number of large, complex deals. These ranges vary significantly by company stage, product category, sales cycle length, and rep experience level. The quota should represent what a high-performing rep can achieve through excellent effort and skill in the given territory -- not what an average rep might achieve with average effort, and not what the company needs to achieve to hit its financial targets (the two are set through separate planning processes and reconciled through the quota buffer). A useful benchmark: the OTE-to-quota ratio for healthy B2B AE roles is typically 1:5 to 1:8 -- an AE with OTE of INR 25 lakh should have a quota of INR 1.25-2 crore. Ratios significantly lower than 1:5 suggest quota is set too low; ratios significantly higher than 1:8 suggest quota is set too high or OTE is too low to attract competitive talent.

How do you hire a great B2B account executive in India?

Hiring a high-performing B2B AE in India: (1) Define the specific AE profile before writing the JD: what average deal size will this AE close? What sales cycle length? What buyer persona? SMB AEs who sell low-ACV, short-cycle deals need different skills than enterprise AEs who manage complex, multi-stakeholder, 6-month evaluations. Mixing these requirements in a single JD (and hiring process) produces mis-hires. (2) Assess discovery skill, not just closing ability: the most impactful hiring signal for AE quality is how well a candidate runs a discovery conversation. Include a discovery roleplay in the hiring process where the candidate conducts discovery on the interviewer playing a specific B2B buyer persona. Evaluate: do they ask open-ended questions or closed ones? Do they listen and follow the thread, or do they follow a rigid script? Do they uncover the business impact, not just the surface problem? (3) Look for consistent quota performance over time, not just one good year: ask for quota attainment by year for the last 3-5 years, not just the highlight reel. A candidate who has hit 120% once and 60-70% in surrounding years is different from one who has consistently performed at 90-110% across multiple years and quota cycles. (4) Assess product curiosity and learning speed: B2B AEs who are genuinely curious about the product and the market, who invest time in understanding the competitive landscape and the customer's business context, consistently outperform those who treat the product as a black box and rely purely on sales technique. (5) Check references specifically on deal management: ask references about specific deals the candidate managed -- not "was he/she good to work with?" but "tell me about a deal they managed that you were close to -- what did they do well and what could they have done better?"

B2B Account Executive: Role, Responsibilities, Salary in India, and How to Hire

An account executive (AE) -- also called a sales executive, B2B sales representative, or quota carrier -- is the salesperson in a B2B organisation responsible for managing the full sales cycle from qualified lead or booked meeting through to contract signature. The AE role is the primary revenue-generating position in most B2B sales organisations: AEs are measured on the amount of new annual recurring revenue (ARR) or annual contract value (ACV) they close in a defined period, and their compensation is tied to this performance through commission plans calibrated to their quota.

What B2B account executives do

Qualify and advance inbound leads and SDR-sourced opportunities: AEs receive qualified meetings from the SDR team (or qualify inbound leads from marketing) and are responsible for assessing whether the opportunity has sufficient budget, authority, need, and timeline to be a viable prospect. An AE who advances every opportunity regardless of qualification quality will have high activity but low conversion; an AE who qualifies rigorously will have fewer active deals but higher win rates.
Run discovery calls to understand the prospect's situation: the discovery call is the AE's primary diagnostic tool -- a structured conversation designed to understand the prospect's current situation, the specific problem they are trying to solve, the business impact of the problem, the timeline and urgency, the decision-making process, and the competitive alternatives being considered. AEs who conduct excellent discovery calls have higher win rates because they understand the prospect's real needs and can tailor subsequent demos, proposals, and business cases to those specific needs.
Deliver product demonstrations: the AE (often with support from a solutions engineer for complex technical products) delivers product demonstrations that show the prospect how the product specifically addresses the needs uncovered in discovery. An effective B2B demo is not a feature walkthrough; it is a story about the prospect's specific use case, told through the product's actual functionality. The demo must answer the prospect's implicit question: "Can this product solve my specific problem?"
Build the business case and manage the proposal process: for mid-market and enterprise deals, the AE is responsible for building the business case (quantifying the ROI of the proposed solution for the prospect's specific situation) and managing the proposal process (drafting the proposal, coordinating with the deal desk and legal for commercial terms, and managing the sequence of approvals required to submit a competitive proposal).
Navigate the multi-stakeholder buying process: enterprise B2B deals involve multiple stakeholders -- the champion who advocates for the solution internally, the economic buyer who approves the budget, the technical evaluator who assesses product fit, and procurement or legal who manage the contract process. The AE must identify, engage, and manage all of these stakeholders simultaneously -- building the champion's confidence, addressing the economic buyer's ROI concerns, satisfying the technical evaluator's requirements, and navigating the procurement and legal processes efficiently.
Close and negotiate: the AE leads the commercial negotiation -- price, terms, contract duration, payment schedule, and any customisations required -- and manages the process through to signed contract. Closing requires the AE to have a clear sense of the prospect's decision timeline, the remaining concerns that must be addressed before they will sign, and the appropriate level of commercial flexibility to offer at each stage of the negotiation.

Account executive salary in India

Early-stage B2B SaaS (Series A/B): INR 10-18 lakh base salary; INR 18-30 lakh OTE (on-target earnings) for mid-market AEs. INR 15-25 lakh base; INR 25-45 lakh OTE for enterprise AEs. Variable component typically 40-50% of OTE, tied to quota attainment.
Growth-stage B2B SaaS (Series C+): INR 15-25 lakh base; INR 25-45 lakh OTE for mid-market AEs. INR 20-35 lakh base; INR 40-65 lakh OTE for enterprise AEs with large deal quotas (above INR 2 crore ARR).
India office of US SaaS companies: INR 20-35 lakh base; INR 35-60 lakh OTE for enterprise AEs selling US-market deals from India (these roles have higher compensation than domestic India-focused sales roles because they work US business hours and manage US-size deals).
Note: SaaS companies in Bangalore and Mumbai typically pay 15-25% above the national average for equivalent AE roles; Pune, Hyderabad, and Chennai are typically 10-15% below Bangalore. The increase in remote-first hiring since 2020 has compressed geographic salary differences, particularly for roles that do not require physical presence in a specific city.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between an account executive and an SDR in B2B?: The Account Executive (AE) and the Sales Development Representative (SDR) are complementary roles in most B2B sales organisations, but with fundamentally different responsibilities: SDR (Sales Development Representative): responsible for outbound prospecting and inbound lead qualification -- finding potential buyers, engaging them through cold outreach (email, phone, LinkedIn), qualifying their fit against the ICP, and booking meetings for the AE. The SDR is not measured on closed revenue; they are measured on the number of qualified meetings or SQLs (Sales Qualified Leads) they generate per week/month. Account Executive (AE): responsible for managing the sales process from a qualified meeting (or SQL) through to signed contract. The AE is measured on closed revenue (new ARR) and is the primary quota carrier in the organisation. The AE does not typically prospect from scratch; they rely on the SDR team to book qualified meetings and then manage the sales process from there. How they work together: the SDR and AE are typically paired in a pod structure (one AE supported by one or more SDRs). The SDR fills the AE's pipeline with qualified meetings; the AE converts those meetings into closed revenue. A well-functioning SDR/AE relationship requires clear qualification criteria (what does "qualified" mean?), regular feedback (the AE tells the SDR which meeting types are converting and which are wasting time), and shared accountability (the AE's pipeline health depends on the SDR's output quality; the SDR's long-term success depends on the AE closing the meetings they book).
What quota should a B2B account executive have?: B2B account executive quota benchmarks by segment: SMB AE (average deal size below INR 3 lakh ACV): annual quota INR 1.5-4 crore, assuming a high-velocity sales model with 50-100+ deals closed per year. Mid-market AE (average deal size INR 3-15 lakh ACV): annual quota INR 3-8 crore, assuming 20-50 deals per year at higher average deal values and longer sales cycles. Enterprise AE (average deal size above INR 15 lakh ACV): annual quota INR 8-20 crore+, with a smaller number of large, complex deals. These ranges vary significantly by company stage, product category, sales cycle length, and rep experience level. The quota should represent what a high-performing rep can achieve through excellent effort and skill in the given territory -- not what an average rep might achieve with average effort, and not what the company needs to achieve to hit its financial targets (the two are set through separate planning processes and reconciled through the quota buffer). A useful benchmark: the OTE-to-quota ratio for healthy B2B AE roles is typically 1:5 to 1:8 -- an AE with OTE of INR 25 lakh should have a quota of INR 1.25-2 crore. Ratios significantly lower than 1:5 suggest quota is set too low; ratios significantly higher than 1:8 suggest quota is set too high or OTE is too low to attract competitive talent.
How do you hire a great B2B account executive in India?: Hiring a high-performing B2B AE in India: (1) Define the specific AE profile before writing the JD: what average deal size will this AE close? What sales cycle length? What buyer persona? SMB AEs who sell low-ACV, short-cycle deals need different skills than enterprise AEs who manage complex, multi-stakeholder, 6-month evaluations. Mixing these requirements in a single JD (and hiring process) produces mis-hires. (2) Assess discovery skill, not just closing ability: the most impactful hiring signal for AE quality is how well a candidate runs a discovery conversation. Include a discovery roleplay in the hiring process where the candidate conducts discovery on the interviewer playing a specific B2B buyer persona. Evaluate: do they ask open-ended questions or closed ones? Do they listen and follow the thread, or do they follow a rigid script? Do they uncover the business impact, not just the surface problem? (3) Look for consistent quota performance over time, not just one good year: ask for quota attainment by year for the last 3-5 years, not just the highlight reel. A candidate who has hit 120% once and 60-70% in surrounding years is different from one who has consistently performed at 90-110% across multiple years and quota cycles. (4) Assess product curiosity and learning speed: B2B AEs who are genuinely curious about the product and the market, who invest time in understanding the competitive landscape and the customer's business context, consistently outperform those who treat the product as a black box and rely purely on sales technique. (5) Check references specifically on deal management: ask references about specific deals the candidate managed -- not "was he/she good to work with?" but "tell me about a deal they managed that you were close to -- what did they do well and what could they have done better?"

Keep reading

B2B Account Executive Role: What AEs Do, Salary in India, and How to Hire One

What B2B account executives do

Account executive salary in India

Frequently asked questions

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