National account executive vs account director

The differences between national account executives and account directors can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, an account director has an average salary of $114,728, which is higher than the $75,924 average annual salary of a national account executive.

The top three skills for a national account executive include customer service, healthcare and account management. The most important skills for an account director are account management, project management, and work ethic.

National account executive vs account director overview

	National Account Executive	Account Director
Yearly salary	$75,924	$114,728
Hourly rate	$36.50	$55.16
Growth rate	5%	5%
Number of jobs	160,271	132,260
Job satisfaction	-	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 82%	Bachelor's Degree, 80%
Average age	44	46
Years of experience	-	8

What does a national account executive do?

A national account executive is responsible for identifying sales opportunities and assisting the company in achieving its sales goals. Your duties and responsibilities will include identifying new market trends and conducting research to win new accounts, enforcing the company's sales strategies and plans, and developing new revenue from existing clients by offering additional services and selling new sites. Additionally, you will be responsible for maintaining good relationships with business decision-makers at major companies, investigating promotions, sales strategies, and competitor products, and setting performance goals.

What does an account director do?

An account director is responsible for managing client accounts, monitoring budgets, and sales forecasting. Their goal is to maintain stable account management strategies, meet clients' demands, develop healthy professional partnerships that would generate revenues, increase profitability, and achieve the organization's long-term goals objectives. Account directors supervise the account management staff, ensuring the project's successful completion with the highest efficiency and accuracy. An account director also plans training programs to maximize their performance and productivity, especially when dealing with deadlines and clients' requests.

National account executive vs account director salary

National account executives and account directors have different pay scales, as shown below.

	National Account Executive	Account Director
Average salary	$75,924	$114,728
Salary range	Between $47,000 And $122,000	Between $82,000 And $158,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Oregon	New Jersey
Best paying company	Thumbtack	BuzzFeed
Best paying industry	Finance	Professional

Differences between national account executive and account director education

There are a few differences between a national account executive and an account director in terms of educational background:

	National Account Executive	Account Director
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 82%	Bachelor's Degree, 80%
Most common major	Business	Business
Most common college	University of Pennsylvania	University of Southern California

National account executive vs account director demographics

Here are the differences between national account executives' and account directors' demographics:

	National Account Executive	Account Director
Average age	44	46
Gender ratio	Male, 65.7% Female, 34.3%	Male, 50.9% Female, 49.1%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 7.1% Unknown, 4.1% Hispanic or Latino, 15.7% Asian, 5.7% White, 67.1% 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%

Differences between national account executive and account director duties and responsibilities

National account executive example responsibilities.

Manage a customer relations management (CRM) system by inputting customer orders and information necessary to manage each account.
Use SalesForce to effective manage current relationships and new prospects.
Utilize SalesForce daily in order to effectively prospect and manage sales cycle.
Manage and negotiate contracts with large strategic IDNs while supporting GPO management.
Manage OEM relationship from a proactive consultative role proposing strategy and tactics for client base on research data and marketing/engagement metrics.
Maintain accounts utilizing a detail CRM database and continuous follow-ups.

Account director example responsibilities.

Manage coordination with HCP agencies for launch.
Manage the development and creation of print and broadcast advertising and in-store merchandising.
Manage relationships with all GPO pharmacy, medical device, and physician preference teams.
Manage client accounts as well as introducing cross selling into other verticals to increase the portfolio.
Manage RFP / RFI process and drive all opportunities that provide a consultative, long-term solution and support.
Increase clients SEO rankings and achieve first page placement both locally and nationally for highly search phrases for a client.

National account executive vs account director skills

Common national account executive skills

Customer Service, 10%
Healthcare, 6%
Account Management, 6%
PowerPoint, 6%
National Accounts, 6%
CRM, 4%

Common account director skills

Account Management, 9%
Project Management, 7%
Work Ethic, 7%
Healthcare, 7%
Digital Marketing, 5%
Email Marketing, 4%

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National Account Executive
National Account Executive vs Account Director

Updated January 8, 2025

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