Learn
Know the seat before you take it.
Two sales jobs with the same title can differ in quota, territory, deal size and how much of the pay is at risk. These guides explain each seat on a sales team the way a good manager would on your first day: what fills the calendar, which numbers you answer for, how the base and the variable add up to OTE, and the usual route in and up. For the openings themselves, go to the live board.
Each role's pay is read from the open postings that publish it, or from its dated benchmark when too few doread 30 Oct 2026, 18:07 UTC
Guides
Comp plans, first seats and interview loops.
Researched from employer pages, benchmark studies and the statutes themselves. Every outside figure links to where it is published; every pay figure is today's, read from the board.
The roles
Every seat on a sales team, in deal order.
A deal passes through several hands: someone opens the conversation, someone closes it, someone keeps the customer and grows the account, and someone runs the team and the system behind it. Find the stage that suits how you like to work, then open its guide.
Open the pipeline
Start the conversations every deal begins with.
These seats find buyers who are not yet talking to the company: by calling, writing and following up with target accounts, or by recruiting partners who bring their own customers. They are measured on meetings, opportunities and sourced pipeline rather than signed revenue, and the SDR seat in this group is the most common first job in B2B sales.
Sales Development (SDR & BDR)
Entry bar: LowFind the buyers, start the conversation and book the first meeting an account executive will run.
Partner, Channel & Alliances
Entry bar: MediumSell with and through other companies: resellers, consultancies, marketplaces and technology partners.
Win the deal
Run the sale from first meeting to signature.
Account executives own the deal and carry the revenue quota; sales engineers carry the technical side of the same deal and prove the product works for this buyer. These are the seats where the most pay is tied to results, and where discovery, qualification and negotiation decide the year.
Account Executive
Entry bar: MediumOwn the deal from the first meeting to the signed contract, and carry the revenue quota for it.
Sales Engineering & Solutions
Entry bar: HighCarry the technical side of the deal: discovery, demos and proof that the product fits.
Keep and grow customers
Renew, protect and expand the revenue already won.
Once a customer signs, someone has to make sure it gets value, renews and buys more. Account managers own the commercial side of that book, and customer success managers own adoption and health. Pay is steadier than in a closing seat, and in subscription businesses this work decides a large share of each year's revenue.
Account Management & Renewals
Entry bar: MediumOwn a book of existing customers: renew their contracts and sell them more.
Customer Success
Entry bar: LowMake sure customers get the result they bought, so they stay, renew and grow.
Lead and run the team
Hire, coach and forecast, and build the system sellers work in.
Sales leaders answer for the team's number through the people they hire and coach. Revenue operations and enablement build what the team runs on: territories, quotas, forecasts, the CRM, the comp plan and the training. Most people reach these seats after several years in the field, though operations also hires analysts from finance and consulting.
Revenue Operations & Enablement
Entry bar: MediumBuild and run the system sellers work in: territories, quotas, forecasts, tools and training.
Sales Leadership
Entry bar: HighHire, coach and lead a team of sellers, and answer for its number.
Free tools
Vet the offer, then rehearse the loop.
Where to begin
Start from where you are today.
You are holding an offer or a posting
What the OTE really promises, how the variable half is earned and paid, and the questions to settle before you sign the comp plan.
Read the comp plan right →