Field-tested rituals to build a strong AE-SE partnership that sells.
You’re five minutes into a discovery call. Your buyer’s on mute. Your AE is riffing through slides while you’re wondering which PoC path fits their architecture. No roles, no baton passes, no plan. You feel the deal slipping. This is where great AE-SE partnerships get made.
Why this partnership matters more than ever
- The Account Executive is the commercial owner focused on retaining and growing relationships, not just closing a transaction “an Account Executive has day-to-day responsibility for the relationship”.
- The Sales Engineer is the trusted technical guide who surfaces requirements, removes objections, and earns the technical win “gather requirements, craft technical sales strategy, and demonstrate solutions”.
- In complex SaaS cycles, presales is central. 70% of sales deals require presales support, yet 35% of demos are unqualified or underqualified, amplifying the cost of misalignment.
- SE bandwidth is finite. Capacity and context switching are real risks, making the AE:SE ratio a strategic decision, not a staffing guess “SE availability is about balance”.
- Tight AE-SE routines create time. AI is already helping teams “augment and automate” tasks so sellers can spend more hours with customers “do what you do today, but faster and better”, and leaders are scaling this to reshape workflows and outcomes “1.8x margin impact through growth and efficiency”.
Roles on the field: who owns what
Think quarterback and offensive coordinator. One calls the drive, one designs the plays. Use this table to set norms before every engagement.
| Motion | AE owns | SE owns | Shared |
|---|---|---|---|
| Discovery kickoff | Introductions, agenda, commercial context | Technical discovery path, validation plan | Note-taking, time checks |
| Business case | Outcome narrative, ROI framing | Feasibility, constraints, risk calls | Success criteria |
| Demo | Storyline, audience alignment | Tailoring, live navigation, QPS handling | Objection handling |
| PoC/Pilot | Commercial terms, decision plan | Success criteria, environment design | Win plan hygiene |
| Pricing/procurement | Negotiation strategy | Architecture and security responses | Mutual action plan |
Ground your language in buyer outcomes. The AE maintains the executive relationship “customer retention and growth”, while the SE proves fit and de-risks the path to value “remove technical objections in the sales cycle”.
The pre-call huddle: your non-negotiable 10 minutes
Most AE-SE fumbles happen before the call even starts. Run this checklist every time.
- Who’s in the room and why now? Titles, motivations, and likely objections.
- One crisp goal: discovery, validation, or decision. No multi-goal calls.
- Hypotheses: known pains, success metrics, and top three proof points.
- Roles and baton passes: who asks what, and the pass-the-mic signal.
- Landmines: competitors, constraints, or procurement quirks to navigate.
- Close plan today: exact next step, owner, date.
Relationship selling is about trust and relevance. Make it obvious you came prepared “prospects want to know, like, and trust you”.
Running the call: clean handoffs, clear lanes
- Open strong. AE sets context and outcome. SE confirms technical objectives.
- Use signals. Agree on a simple phrase to hand off without crosstalk.
- Demo like a doc. Start with the pain, show the remedy, confirm relief.
- Narrate trade-offs. Buyers respect clear constraints more than vague promises.
- Close the loop. Summarize decisions, risks, and the next commitment.
These lanes mirror how top presales teams operate in enterprise cycles “consultative discovery, configure, and demonstrate”.
The post-call debrief: ship a better next step in 15 minutes
Right after the call, answer together:
- What new info did we learn and how does it change our win plan?
- Which objections surfaced and how do we address them?
- What artifact moves the deal forward? PoC plan, decision map, or executive recap?
- Who owns each follow-up and by when?
Teams that systematize these loops move faster and measure SE impact in the places that matter, like deal velocity and win rate “track SE contributions to deal velocity and retention”.
Capacity reality: protect SE focus, improve AE coverage
- Set a service-level model. For example, 2 demos per AE per week, 48-hour SLA on technical follow-ups.
- Triage ruthlessly. Unqualified demos waste scarce SE cycles “35% of demos are unqualified”.
- Batch the busy work. Standardize RFPs, security answers, and repeatable demo builds so SE time concentrates on PoCs and late-stage validation “SEs are stretched across demos, education, and long cycles”.
For a deeper look at how internal friction drains selling time and how teams create cleaner operating rhythm, see oper8r’s posts on RevOps vs. AE process friction and why the lone-wolf seller is extinct.
Conflict without casualties: when you disagree, do this
- Start with the job to be done. Restate the shared goal and the buying criteria.
- Surface assumptions explicitly. Is the pushback about risk, effort, or timeline?
- Decide the decision. If it is technical, SE proposes and documents trade-offs. If commercial, AE owns the call and risk plan.
- Write a one-page agreement. Owner, risks, antipatterns to avoid, and the next review date.
- Disagree, then commit. Move forward aligned.
If the customer path is unclear, align your plan across planning, execution, and resourcing to reduce friction on both sides “align across planning, execution, and resources”.
Rituals that compound
- Weekly pipeline architecture review. One hour to pressure test PoC designs, success criteria, and blockers.
- Demo QA. Rotate internal dry runs to standardize patterns and reduce variance.
- Decision map library. Keep a shared index of buyer processes, evaluators, and procurement patterns by segment.
- Call film study. Normalize watching game tape together, not in silos.
- Automation board. Quarterly pass to eliminate repetitive tasks, freeing hours for discovery and late-stage selling “augment and automate to free time for customers”.
What people get wrong about AE-SE relationships
- Thinking chemistry alone is enough. You need shared process, not just vibes.
- Treating SEs as on-demand demo machines. Presales is a strategic function that should be measured and coached like the core of the deal team “technical sales is the strategic backbone”.
- Ignoring capacity math. Overextending SEs degrades quality and burns out your best people “balance AE:SE ratio so SEs are not overwhelmed”.
- Skipping personalization. Relationship-led selling means showing you did the homework and earning trust early “build genuine connections buyers can trust”.
Back to that discovery call from the intro... This time you and your AE huddle, run the plan, and trade clean handoffs. You leave with clear success criteria, a decision map, and a PoC plan buyers believe in. The silence is gone. Momentum replaces scramble. A strong AE-SE partnership improves the buying experience, not just during discovery, and sets everyone up for success.