What is a Channel Sales Account Executive (CSAE)?
If you’ve ever found yourself wondering… “What’s the difference between a CSAE and a CAM?” We get it. There’s confusion and overlap between various sales titles used at different organizations. What’s more, titles are often changing and adapting to industry trends.
The fast-growing, competitive nature of the SaaS industry has created an environment where new titles are needed to accommodate for completely new positions. What’s more, (slightly) different titles – à la Sales Development Rep vs. Business Development Rep – are created to sound more relevant, modern, and in line with company values and culture.
If you’re new to all this sales jargon, look no further! We’ve got you covered. Keep reading to find out exactly what a channel sales account executive does, average salary for CSAEs, career outlook, and available CSAE jobs.
In sales, the acronym CSAE usually stands for Channel Sales Account Executive. CSAEs are responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with business partners, and generating revenue goals from their efforts.
Channel Sales Account Executive Job Description
Channel Sales Account Executives (CSAEs) generally help facilitate the relationship between their company and a partner company, assisting the partner in reaching their sales goals while simultaneously growing their channel partner network.
For example, at Kixie, we work with a range of integration partners (ie, HubSpot, Pipedrive, etc.) who promote Kixie’s telephony service as a solution to their respective customers. This widens our potential customer base, while also providing the partners with top-notch telephony solutions to offer their customers.
What does a Channel Sales Account Executive do?
Channel Sales Account Executives often play a large role in companies that rely on a business-to-business go-to-market strategy, as they acquire new partners and sales channels via other businesses. They are responsible for developing and maintaining relationships with these business partners, and generating revenue goals from their efforts.
CSAEs create sales methodology and demand generation strategies to help their partners succeed, as it’s a win-win situation when new channels and partnerships generate new deals. Additionally, CSAEs give guidance to channel sellers and may manage a team of channel specialists at their organization.
Channel Sales Account Executive Salary
Channel sales positions such as CSAEs make an average of $69,112 per year in base pay in the US, with an average additional $27,767 per year from performance-based compensation (source: Glassdoor). Salary varies depending on the size of the company and the location.
CSAE Career Outlook
With the abundance of automation, software, and online sales and marketing tools available on the market today, it may be worth wondering if sales positions will still be growing in a few years.
If you’re looking to grow your career in the sales industry, don’t worry – as the market outlook for channel sales opportunities is positive! 5% growth is projected for channel sales positions through 2028, or an additional 20,800 job opportunities (source: Zippia).
Channel Sales Account Executive Jobs
Looking for available CSAE jobs? Here are a few resources to help your search:
- Channel Sales Account Executive Jobs on LinkedIn
- Channel Sales Account Executive Jobs on Indeed
- Channel Sales Account Executive Jobs on Glassdoor
Which sales role is right for me?
The right sales role for you depends on your experience and expertise, but sales can be a good industry to get your start if you are entering the job market for the first time!
Some key characteristics of great sales and customer support professionals include:
- Excellent interpersonal skills
- Great communicators
- Passion for what they are selling
- Willingness to roll up their sleeves and get the job done
- No fear calling and following-up with potential clients
- Positive attitude
- Creative and passionate about helping others
- Ability to multi-task across different platforms and forms of communication
- Ability to work well under pressure and with a team
Does this sound like you? Kixie is hiring, and we’d love to hear from you! We are looking for jovial, hard-working colleagues to share our journey as we change the landscape of business telephony.
