Mid-market and enterprise AEs at every stage — from your first quota-carrier to senior enterprise closers who can land six-figure deals in a market you're still building.
An Account Executive owns the deal from qualified opportunity to closed-won. In early-stage SaaS that means selling a product that's still evolving, navigating buying committees that don't yet know they need you, and doing it without the case studies, references and brand that make enterprise selling easier at scale.
The gap between a good AE and an average one is enormous — and it rarely shows up on a CV. The best carry a number consistently across different products and stages; the rest rode a great territory once. Telling them apart is the whole job, and it's what twenty years on a specialist SaaS desk trains you to do.
Twenty years and 2,000+ placements have taught us the traits that separate a hire who performs from one who churns. Here's what we test for.
Attainment across more than one patch or product — not a single lucky year.
Proof they've closed at your deal size and sales cycle, not just at scale.
They diagnose before they pitch — the strongest predictor of complex-deal success.
They understand the buyer's business, not just their own feature list.
They self-generate and manage a book rigorously, not wait to be fed.
A logo on the CV isn't attainment. We verify real numbers, not reputational glow.
An SMB velocity seller and an enterprise closer are different athletes. Mismatched, both fail.
Hiring an AE and expecting quota in month two is how good hires get written off before they've started.
Illustrative UK ranges for SaaS companies from Seed to Series C. Actual packages vary by stage, location, vertical and deal size — we benchmark your specific role against live market data.
These are general guide ranges, not a quote — we give you a precise, benchmarked figure for your specific role. Packages can run well above these in high-value verticals such as fintech and legaltech, where deals are large and multi-year. We charge our fee on base salary and guaranteed earnings — never on inflated OTE or commission.
Once you're generating more qualified pipeline than the founder can personally work, and you have enough of a repeatable motion for a closer to ramp against. Before that, an AE often stalls.
Deal size, cycle length and buying-committee complexity. They're different skill sets — hiring one for the other's job is a common, costly mismatch we help you avoid.
A feasibility read on day one and a first shortlist of relevant AEs within five working days.
We verify attainment properly — across patches and products — rather than taking a headline number at face value. That verification is most of the value.
Usually around 50/50 — for example £60k base on a £120k OTE — varying by segment, stage and how much of the number is new business versus expansion.
We check attainment across more than one patch and product and reference it properly, rather than taking a headline number on a CV at face value. That verification is most of the value we add.
Match the AE to your actual deal size and cycle. Most early-stage SaaS sells mid-market, which needs a different profile from both a fast SMB closer and a complex-deal enterprise rep.
Tell us what you need and we'll come back with a feasibility read and a shortlist plan — usually same day.
Hire GTM talent → Browse live roles