Breaking Into SaaS AE Roles From a BDR Seat
The internal promotion is harder than it looks in 2026. Here's the 90-day plan that actually gets you the AE conversation.
The 'do 18 months of BDR and get promoted to AE' path has narrowed. Companies are hiring fewer AEs, and the ones they hire are increasingly experienced closers. If you want the promotion, you need to engineer it.
90-day plan: in month one, partner with one specific AE on their two largest open deals. Sit on every call, draft their follow-ups, build the close plan. In month two, ask to run a portion of discovery on a small inbound deal — solo. In month three, take that deal to close, document it cleanly, and walk your manager through the playbook.
Then have the AE conversation. You're not asking — you're presenting evidence. The reps who get promoted in 2026 show up with a deal they already closed.