What is th...

Question

What is the difference between an Account Executive and sales specialist at Microsoft. I thought that a sales specialist would be like a sales engineer but it sounds like it's more AE. Are sales specialist cold prospecting? Can anyone tell me what the sales team looks like at Microsoft?

Former Employee · Accepted Answer

Microsoft operates across multiple $20-45B lines of business, including Azure, Modern Work (e.g., Teams), BizApps, AI and Analytics, and Security. Enterprise Account Executives (AEs) manage 1-7 accounts and carry quotas often exceeding $50-70M, encompassing all these solutions. They are generalists, tasked with “selling everything on the truck,” rather than specialists.

For example, the AE for Philip Morris (73,000 employees), one of my accounts, carried a $92M quota. Security accounted for just 8% of this number, but the goal was to increase that to 12%, requiring an additional $3.68M in security spend. Since the AE wasn’t a security expert, my team led the effort. We conducted white space and competitive analyses, identified the right stakeholders, and launched a comprehensive sales campaign to drive the incremental revenue.

Our role required not only deep expertise across over 100 security solutions but also navigating the complexities of cross-organizational collaboration. We served as pursuit specialists (working with an extensive partner eco-system), technical advisors, and strategic partners to ensure alignment with the AE’s broader objectives.

The specialist carried a quota, just like the AE's, but for only one workload. In the case above, security. The AE would be carrying the quota for everything in truck.

Current Employee · Answer

The AE owns the customer relationship then there’s specialists for each workload which is like an AE role at another tech company. So an azure specialist is similar to an AWS AE, you have sales engineers etc to work with there’s just another layer of AE. There’s no cold prospecting at Microsoft

Current Employee · Answer

Account executive is responsible for all up account driving all workloads across microsoft. The SSP is responsible for growth in a solution area such as Azure etc. Both are responsible for developing and finding pipeline. No cold calling as MIcrosoft very strong brand name.

Former Employee · Answer

The AE is the quarterback for the entire account team. Whereas the sales specialist is just that, a specialist in an area of the Microsoft product offering like security or modern work, or dynamics. The sales specialist role is an overlay role that supports the AE in developing their accounts.

Current Employee · Answer

Sales specialist go deep other specific product vs account executive are generalist sales folks..AE manages the relationship across the customer csuite, specialist focuses on engaging the relevant tech stakeholder to drive cloud projects.

Former Employee · Answer

The Account Manager drives the overall strategy and owns the full quota across Azure, MWP, and Dynamics. The Sales Specialist focuses on one workload with deep expertise and a specific quota. Microsoft doesn’t rely on cold calling due to its strong brand presence.

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Anonymous Q&A

What is the difference between an Account Executive and sales specialist at Microsoft. I thought that a sales specialist would be like a sales engineer but it sounds like it's more AE. Are sales specialist cold prospecting? Can anyone tell me what the sales team looks like at Microsoft?