Named Account Executive

A Named Account Executive is a business-to-business salesperson who is given a defined, fixed list of client organisations ("named accounts") rather than an open territory or a stream of inbound enquiries. The job is to build relationships inside those specific companies, find out where their problems overlap with what your employer sells, and run deals from first conversation through to a signed contract. It is most common in software and technology, but also appears in telecoms, professional services, logistics and media.

Starting salary: £25k–£35k
Live graduate jobs: 13 open now
Main way in: Most common route
They usually ask for: Degree subject usually does not matter

Approximate graduate salary

Typically around £25,000–£35,000 basic salary to start, with on-target earnings (basic plus commission if you hit your target) often quoted at roughly £40,000–£60,000 in tech sales. This varies widely by sector, employer and location - London and enterprise software sit at the top, smaller firms and non-tech sectors lower - and commission is not guaranteed.

What you'd actually do

Researching the companies on your account list - who has just been hired into a relevant job, what the company said in its results or press releases, what technology or suppliers they already use - to work out a reason to make contact.
Prospecting into those accounts: emails, LinkedIn messages, phone calls and occasionally turning up at industry events, usually aimed at several people in the same organisation rather than one contact.
Running discovery calls and meetings, where you ask structured questions to understand what the client is actually trying to fix and whether your product genuinely fits.
Coordinating other people around a deal - a technical specialist or solutions engineer to demo the product, legal or procurement to handle contract terms, finance to approve a discount, and sometimes a senior leader to meet the client's senior leader.

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Keeping the CRM (the customer relationship management system, e.g. a sales database) up to date: logging activity, updating deal stages, forecasting which deals will close this quarter and for how much.
Sitting in internal pipeline reviews and forecast calls where your manager pressure-tests whether each deal is real, and what the next step is to move it forward.
Writing proposals, pricing, responding to formal tender or RFP documents (requests for proposal - structured written bids), and negotiating renewals or upsells with accounts you already serve.

How graduates get in

Most common route: start in a junior sales role first - Sales Development Representative (SDR) or Business Development Representative (BDR), where you do outbound prospecting and book meetings for more senior sellers - then get promoted into an Account Executive seat. 'Named Account Executive' titles are often a step above the most junior AE roles, so this is the usual path.
Tech company graduate sales schemes: many large software and telecoms employers run structured sales academies that combine product training, sales methodology and a ramp-up period. These recruit from any degree subject.
Direct entry as a graduate into a smaller Named AE patch - more likely at mid-sized firms, or in sectors where accounts are smaller and more numerous. Rarer at large enterprise software firms, where named accounts are big-name clients usually given to experienced sellers.
Moving across from an adjacent role: customer success, account management, recruitment, or a technical/consulting role where you already understand the product and the buyers. Fairly common, particularly in specialised sectors.

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Internships and placement years in commercial, sales or business development functions - a placement year on a sandwich degree is a strong route into a graduate sales scheme.
Non-graduate and apprenticeship entry does happen in sales more than in many professions, so a degree is not always a hard requirement.

What employers ask for

Degree subject usually does not matter. Business, economics and marketing are common, but humanities, science and languages graduates are all well represented. Technical sales into engineering or scientific markets is the exception - there, a relevant STEM degree can be expected or strongly preferred.
Grade requirements are typically looser than in law, finance or consulting. Many employers ask for a 2:2 or simply 'a degree', and some do not screen on grades at all; others still apply a 2:1 filter.
Evidence that you can handle rejection and keep going - part-time sales, fundraising, promotions work, running a society's sponsorship, or a placement year all count. This usually matters more to recruiters than academics.
No mandatory professional qualification. Optional credentials exist (for example membership of a professional sales institute, or vendor product certifications in tech), and some employers pay for these once you join.

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Commercial literacy: being able to read a company's results, understand what a budget cycle is, and explain how a product saves money or makes money.
Language skills if the patch covers continental Europe - some UK-based roles cover a named account list across EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and will ask for a second language.

Skills that matter

Structured questioning in discovery calls

The difference between a good and bad AE is usually whether they can get a client to describe the real problem and its cost, rather than just pitching features.

Account mapping and stakeholder navigation

In a named account you may need the agreement of a user, a technical gatekeeper, a budget holder, procurement and sometimes legal, so you have to work out who all of them are and what each one cares about.

Written clarity

Most first contact is a cold email, and most deals need a proposal or tender response, so sloppy writing kills deals before anyone speaks to you.

Forecasting discipline and CRM hygiene

Your manager and the finance team rely on your deal dates and values being honest; consistently over-forecasting damages your credibility faster than missing a number.

Resilience and routine

Long stretches with no deal closing are normal in account-based selling, and the people who survive are those who keep doing the daily prospecting activity anyway.

Enough technical grasp to be credible

You do not need to be an engineer, but you must understand the product well enough to know when to bring in a specialist and not to promise something it cannot do.

Putting these on a CV? We counted which skills 12,914 live graduate adverts ask for, and what to do with the answer — part of our application advice.

Where it leads

SDR/BDR or junior AE: prospecting, booking meetings, learning the product and the market. Typically around a year or two before promotion, though this varies a lot and some people move faster in fast-growing companies.
Named Account Executive with a defined list of accounts, carrying your own quota (a sales target you are measured against, usually quarterly and annually).
Larger or more strategic accounts - titles vary widely and include Enterprise Account Executive, Strategic Account Manager or Global Account Director. The accounts get fewer, bigger and slower-moving.
Branch point: either stay in individual selling, where top performers often out-earn their managers, or move into management as a Sales Manager or Regional Sales Director leading a team.
Longer-term options include sales leadership (VP Sales, Chief Revenue Officer), or sideways moves into partnerships, sales enablement (training and coaching sellers), revenue operations, or product marketing. Timescales vary enormously and depend far more on performance and company growth than on years served.

What people get wrong

“'Named account' means you just look after existing customers - it is account management, not real selling.”

A named account list usually mixes current customers with target companies that have never bought anything. Winning new logos from a fixed list, with no option to go looking elsewhere, is often harder than open-territory selling.

“Sales is about being naturally charismatic and good at talking.”

Modern B2B sales is mostly research, process and persistence. The highest performers are often methodical rather than outgoing, and spend more time preparing and writing than performing.

“The commission means you can earn a fortune straight away.”

Pay is split into basic salary and variable commission, and most graduates get a guaranteed or 'ramped' target in the first few months while they learn. Big earnings come later, are not guaranteed, and in a bad year you may earn close to your basic only.

“It is a soft option for people who could not get into graduate schemes elsewhere.”

Performance is measured publicly and continuously against a number, and underperformance over two or three quarters usually leads to a formal performance plan. Job security is tied directly to results in a way most graduate roles are not.

Where this varies

The job varies enormously depending on what 'named account' means at that employer. In enterprise software you might hold a handful of very large organisations, with deals taking six to eighteen months, heavy involvement from procurement and legal, and a lot of your time spent on internal coordination. In mid-market or SME-focused companies you could hold dozens of accounts with deals closing in weeks, and the work looks much more like high-volume prospecting. Sector matters too: selling into the public sector means formal tendering through frameworks and far less freedom to negotiate, while selling into financial services or healthcare adds lengthy security and compliance reviews. Geography matters less than it used to because much of the work is now done by video call, but roles covering EMEA or requiring regular client site visits involve real travel. Finally, the pay mix differs - some employers offer a high basic with modest commission, others a low basic with uncapped upside.

See all 13 live Named Account Executive jobsFrom employers' own careers sites, updated daily Tailor your CV for this roleFree with an account, 3 a month

General guidance about the role across the UK market, not about any specific employer. Entry routes and requirements vary — always check the individual job advert.