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The differences between account executives and customer success managers can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a customer success manager has an average salary of $93,820, which is higher than the $69,618 average annual salary of an account executive.
The top three skills for an account executive include customer service, CRM and healthcare. The most important skills for a customer success manager are client facing, cloud, and account management.
| Account Executive | Customer Success Manager | |
| Yearly salary | $69,618 | $93,820 |
| Hourly rate | $33.47 | $45.11 |
| Growth rate | 5% | 5% |
| Number of jobs | 205,561 | 95,053 |
| Job satisfaction | - | - |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 78% | Bachelor's Degree, 78% |
| Average age | 44 | 46 |
| Years of experience | - | 8 |
An account executive is responsible for supporting existing clients, closing client deals, and developing sales strategies to increase the company's sales and satisfaction. An account executive must be competitive enough to keep up with the constant changes in the sales industry, including the high demands of digital marketing, a different approach to product advertising, effective negotiation, and presentation skills. An account executive also requires excellent communication skills for the successful acquisition of client accounts and immediately resolve possible complaints as they arise.
A customer success manager works to understand repeat customers and prioritize their long-term needs. Primarily, they manage the customer relationship and give them prompt value propositions. They act as mentors to customers by educating them about the sales process and ensure efficient transaction processing. Their tasks include advocating for the company, onboarding customers to the products, follow-up on renewals, and encouraging cross-sells and upsells. Additionally, they build relationships with the customer and the support team as well as advocating customers' needs.
Account executives and customer success managers have different pay scales, as shown below.
| Account Executive | Customer Success Manager | |
| Average salary | $69,618 | $93,820 |
| Salary range | Between $44,000 And $109,000 | Between $61,000 And $142,000 |
| Highest paying City | Portland, OR | Redwood City, CA |
| Highest paying state | Oregon | California |
| Best paying company | Hitachi Vantara | VMware |
| Best paying industry | Finance | Technology |
There are a few differences between an account executive and a customer success manager in terms of educational background:
| Account Executive | Customer Success Manager | |
| Most common degree | Bachelor's Degree, 78% | Bachelor's Degree, 78% |
| Most common major | Business | Business |
| Most common college | University of Pennsylvania | University of Pennsylvania |
Here are the differences between account executives' and customer success managers' demographics:
| Account Executive | Customer Success Manager | |
| Average age | 44 | 46 |
| Gender ratio | Male, 57.2% Female, 42.8% | Male, 54.9% Female, 45.1% |
| Race ratio | Black or African American, 6.7% Unknown, 4.0% Hispanic or Latino, 16.3% Asian, 5.6% White, 66.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.4% | Black or African American, 3.2% Unknown, 4.4% Hispanic or Latino, 9.8% Asian, 4.1% White, 78.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.2% |
| LGBT Percentage | 5% | 7% |