Dear SaaStr: How Should I Specialize My Sales Team?
One thing is clear: most founders and VPs of Sales and CROs look back and wish they’d specialized their sales team earlier.
And not have everyone work in a round-robin or similar format on all the leads, just split across their reps.
You should split your AE team based on what will drive the most efficiency and results for your specific business.
Geography, industry, company size, or even deal size can all work—but the key is to specialize as early as possible. Specialization always leads to better results after just a few sales reps because it allows your AEs to focus on what they’re best at and build expertise in a specific segment.
A few ways to do it:
- Company Size (SMB, Mid-Market, Enterprise): Splitting by company size almost always works once you have 2-3 sales reps hitting quota. SMBs often require a high-velocity sales motion, while enterprise deals are slower and more relationship-driven. By segmenting your team this way, you can tailor your sales process to the needs of each segment and avoid wasting time on mismatched opportunities.
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Geography: This is a common starting point, especially if you’re selling globally or across multiple time zones. It ensures reps can work during the same hours as their prospects and build relationships in specific regions. It’s also useful if there are regional differences in how your product is adopted or sold. But the idea of a “patch” or “territory” is often a bit amorphous until you are at scale, especially if you don’t sell in-person.
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Industry (Verticals): This really works. If your product has strong use cases in specific industries, verticalizing your team can be a game-changer. For example, if you’re selling to healthcare, finance, or manufacturing, having AEs who deeply understand those industries will help them speak the customer’s language and close deals faster. This is especially important for complex or high-ACV sales. Not only do they get really good at the specific questions and issues in a vertical, they also get great at share case studies and examples from other customers in that vertical.
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Deal Size or ACV and/or Potential Deal Size: If you’re seeing a wide range of deal sizes, it can make sense to split your team by ACV. It’s a variant of company size in the end. High-ACV deals often require more hand-holding and a longer sales cycle, while lower-ACV deals can be handled more efficiently with a transactional approach.
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Inbound vs. Outbound: Another option is to split your team into inbound and outbound. Inbound AEs focus on closing leads generated by marketing, while outbound AEs prospect and build their own pipeline. This can work well if you have a strong marketing engine generating leads but still need to go after larger or more strategic accounts.
If you’re early-stage, you might not have enough reps to specialize deeply, so start simple—maybe by company size. As you scale, you can layer in more specialization, like verticals or potential deal size or territories, to optimize efficiency and results.
But the earlier you specialize, the better.
It’s much more efficient for AEs to focus on what they’re best at, and it leads to faster closes, higher quotas, and better overall performance.
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