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Build the Right AE: A Startup’s Guide to Crafting Your Ideal Sales Hire

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Why This Guide Exists

Creating the right candidate profile is everything for startups, especially Seed and Series A. When done well, it sets you up for success in two key ways:


  1. You attract candidates who run toward your open roles because they are aligned with how they work and what they want.

  2. You increase the odds they stay, because the roles match their skills, preferences, and growth goals.


Too often, startups get the profile wrong leading to poor fit applicants, wasted cycles trying to convince the wrong people to interview, and a shallow candidate pool that makes it hard to compare options and make confident decisions.


This guide is built for Seed to Series C SaaS companies that want to hire smarter by aligning AE profiles with their sales motion, GTM maturity, and internal resources.


Step 1: Know Your Sales Motion

Before hiring, map out your motion with four simple variables:

  • Deal Size: under $10K, $20 to $50K, $100K plus

  • Deal Velocity: weeks, months, multi quarter

  • ICP or Persona Complexity: are you selling to a buyer like your AE, for example sales selling to sales, or someone more technical or senior

  • Volume of Pipeline: are you expecting high activity and volume or fewer, higher value conversations


These inputs help you back into the experience, skill set, and traits your AE hire needs.


Matching AE Profiles to Common SaaS Motions


1) SMB, Transactional, or Product Led Sales

  • Deal Size: under $10K

  • Velocity: under 30 days

  • Buyer: Ops, Marketing, Sales, or SMB Owner

  • Pipeline Source: high velocity inbound, outbound, PLG trials, webinars

  • What You Need: high activity, coachability, volume management, comfort with prospecting


Best Fit: current SDRs looking to level up are often hungry for the AE title and happy to keep prospecting, even with only a modest pay bump. If you want more closing experience, look for SMB or Commercial AEs who thrive in high volume, transactional environments.


Watch out: many AEs are actively trying to move up in segment to boost their salary and OTE. That means it may be tough to convince strong reps to make a lateral move unless they see something of value that they do not currently have, for example real upside in compensation or growth trajectory.


2) Mid Market, Repeatable Motion

  • Deal Size: $20 to $50K

  • Velocity: 30 to 90 days

  • Buyer: Director plus level with budget control

  • Pipeline Source: blend of outbound and inbound

  • What You Need: confident discovery, can multithread, close, and prospect


Best Fit: AEs who have sold to your ICP and can own the full cycle. Best if they have operated on lean teams and worn multiple hats.


3) Enterprise or Strategic Sales

  • Deal Size: $75K plus

  • Velocity: 3 to 8 months

  • Buyer: VP, C Suite, multiple stakeholders

  • Pipeline Source: ABM, outbound, events, founder networks

  • What You Need: strategic thinking, high EQ, strong process, comfort with ambiguity


Best Fit: senior AE who has sold in your industry with long cycle startup experience. They should bring a proven playbook and know how to create pipeline and sell cross functionally in complex orgs.


Pro Tip: Match to Stage, Not Just Motion

  • Seed or Pre Product Market Fit: look for builders. Coachable, gritty, and comfortable with messiness. They will sell and give you early GTM feedback to create the right motions for long term success.

  • Series A: ready to scale what is working. Hire AEs who can execute and help refine process and tooling.

  • Series B or C: time to specialize. Bring in role specific AEs, and or SDRs, AMs, who have succeeded in your motion and know how to plug in fast.


Consider Geography and Office Strategy

If your AE hiring profile is too narrow, do not limit yourself to one city. Launching in office hubs across two to three cities can help you build real in person culture without oversaturating local talent pools or outreach cadences.

This strategy also allows for more targeted recruiting by time zone, territory, or go to market function and still supports coaching and collaboration without needing a full return to HQ.


Final Thought

The perfect AE does not exist. But the right fit for your company and motion does.


About ClosedWon Talent

ClosedWon Talent is a specialized sales recruiting firm that helps growth focused companies hire top GTM talent. We partner with founders, revenue leaders, and investors to build high performing sales teams across SaaS and beyond.


What sets us apart is the ClosedWon Method, a proven recruiting framework built on speed, precision, and transparency. We combine deep industry expertise with a curated candidate network to deliver shortlists of qualified, motivated sales professionals...fast. Our team does not just fill roles, we act as embedded partners who understand how to assess selling style, territory experience, and growth potential based on each clients' specific needs.

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