What's a typical career path for a sales professional?

According to all the websites and experts, a typical career path for a sales professional is to move from BDR to AE to Sales Manager, or a variation of this, and that can absolutely be your path. What you'll most likely find, is that there is NO typical path - especially as you discover who you are as a sales professional and your sales style. Each of us have unique strengths and interests, and instead of focusing on a career ladder, where you only have one option in moving up/down in roles, you ...Read More

I stronly believe that sales people are one of the most likely people to get to the highest position in any business right upto the role of a CEO. In fact, many CEOs in global companies either come from either sales or product background.  A sales person would start their sales career somewhere as a SDR/BDR.  And then move into an account executive quota carrying role.  From there, they would either branch into management or continue to be a senior Individual Contributor (think about a Key Accou ...Read More

I don’t believe there’s a single "right" career path for a sales professional. Sales is an incredible foundation that can lead to countless opportunities because the skills are universally valuable. Whether you’re pitching investors as a founder or advocating for an internal business initiative, you’re always selling—yourself, your ideas, your vision, or your work. Traditionally, Sales careers may start as an SDR, progress to AE, Mid-Market AE, Enterprise AE, and eventually to Client partner or ...Read More

I wish I could say there was a typical path but it is not often the case. If you were stay within the same company, and want to go the individual contributor (IC) track, you might view a typical career path to look something like: inbound SDR to outbound SDR to AE to Sr AE (or AM). If you were stay within the same company, and want to go the management track, it depends on what you are most interested in and the opportunities that are created. In the example above, you can stay as an SDR but mov ...Read More

I would think this varies dependent on the industry and company size. It's also important to note that not everyone wants to be a manager as well. Here is an overview of my career path within a company I worked for around 10 years; Step 1 - Joined company as an AE - delivered consistent results and demonstrated a passion for winning and a desire to grow with the business Step 2 - Promoted to Senior AE - took on a larger book of business and managed some of the larger regional accounts. Started t ...Read More

There are two primary paths for sales professionals who want to continue to level up in sales. The individual contributor path and the management path. Individual contributors might start as an Sales Development Rep or Business Development Rep. These are entry level sales roles that involve appointment setting for a more senior Account Executive who then takes a meeting and works to close business. At most tech companies, the most junior Account Executives work in the small business division, an ...Read More