The rise of custom AI solutions is expected to accelerate vendor switching across the software industry, heightening the need for technically fluent, relationship-driven account executives (AEs) who build trust with customers and enable confident buying decisions. As tech companies compete to secure these savvy, strategic sales professionals, partnering with an experienced recruiting agency can help you find talent who expertly align customer needs with your revenue goals.
Account executives apply a consultative approach to guide customers through the sales process, close deals, and promote customer retention. Bringing at least five years of selling experience, they are sought after by companies with overflowing lead pipelines and are increasingly expected to be unicorn sellers.
On a GTM team, sales development representatives (SDRs) typically work at the “top of the funnel,” qualifying leads before passing them on to AEs. From there, account executives follow up on leads by email or phone, gain an in-depth understanding of the customers’ needs, conduct product demos, and negotiate contracts and pricing.
The increasing integration of AI-powered features and agents has fueled demand for technically fluent AEs who can explain the technology behind product features with a solutions-oriented approach. This expertise both builds customer confidence and helps AEs identify valuable up- and cross-selling opportunities, laying the foundation for a lucrative long-term partnership.
Below is our curated list of the top ten recruiting agencies for account executives in tech. Drawing on extensive experience placing exceptional AEs, these firms leverage functional specialization, market intelligence, and deep talent networks to help you secure revenue-generating talent.
1. Betts Recruiting
Betts Recruiting is the leading partner for high-growth tech companies seeking competitive go-to-market (GTM) talent. The firm has combined industry and functional expertise, proprietary sourcing technology, and flexible hiring models to match top account executives with organizations of all sizes, such as Zendesk, Rally Reader, Sysdig, Electric, and more.
Zendesk, a SaaS-based customer service platform, utilized Betts Connect, the firm’s in-house talent marketplace, to hire over 50 AEs and SDRs. Before partnering with Betts, Zendesk relied on LinkedIn Recruiter for its sourcing efforts and saw limited success, spending an average of 20 hours per search and on track to miss its hiring goals by 50%.
Featuring the profiles of tens of thousands of pre-vetted GTM candidates, Betts Connect allows recruiters and hiring managers to filter through candidates by KPIs such as quota attainment, average deal size, and industries sold to. By leveraging the platform’s AI-powered Just In Time inventory system, which uses predictive data to source and re-engage compatible candidates, Zendesk accessed higher-quality talent and dramatically accelerated the search process, averaging just one hour per hire and making 21 hires in seven months.
The firm also partnered with Rally Reader, a scaling seed-stage EdTech startup, to place a founding AE. Rally Reader opted for the subscription-based Recruitment-as-a-Service (RaaS) model, which included access to Betts Connect, strategic support from a dedicated recruiter, and white-glove services such as job description assistance and quota planning. This partnership enabled Rally Reader to make strategic hires that aligned with long-term growth goals, better manage increasing inbound leads, and reduce cost-per-hire.
Betts is a leading expert in AE recruitment, offering valuable insights into the role’s evolving responsibilities, compensation trends, and key measures of success that make it a trusted partner for companies looking to fill these positions.
2. Captivate Talent
Founded in 2017, Captivate Talent is a GTM recruiting specialist that exclusively partners with early- to growth-stage SaaS startups. Upholding a strong commitment to its human-centric approach, the firm pairs startup fluency with personalized consultation to promote long-term success.
Captivate Talent’s startup focus gives it a deep understanding of the various traits and skills to look for in your next hire, depending on your current stage of growth. Recruiters evaluate each candidate’s technical expertise, cultural alignment, and collaboration skills, prioritizing adaptability, a results-oriented approach, and function-specific expertise.
The firm delivers personalized service by advising on competitive compensation packages, assisting with brand positioning, and conducting tailored, role-focused screening processes.
3. HireDNA
Founded in 2018, HireDNA specializes in recruiting sales talent for SaaS and tech companies, including mid-market, enterprise, and strategic account executives. Implementing a thorough, data-driven approach, the firm evaluates candidates through interview scorecards, a comparative ranking system, and sales-specific assessments to help you make confident hiring decisions.
HireDNA’s proprietary FitScore measures role, culture, and experience alignment by collecting 26 data points across key attributes such as previous sales performance, quota attainment, and compensation requirements. Recruiters rank each professional against your ideal candidate profile to provide clear, actionable insights into which AEs are the best fit. They also implement sales-specific assessments to evaluate each candidate’s selling strengths, coachability, and motivators.
The firm conducts organized, transparent hiring processes by leveraging real-time analytics, helping your company stay up-to-date on interview feedback, assessment results, recruiting activity, and more.
4. Optimal Sales Search
Optimal Sales Search is a founder-led firm that has specialized in recruiting permanent GTM talent for tech and SaaS companies since 2004. With a strong focus on hunters, the firm combines its nationwide reach, Bay Area roots, and boutique approach to place AEs in positions across a wide range of SaaS domains.
Recruiters begin each search by discussing your goals, role requirements, and sales structure to create an ideal candidate profile and establish a hiring timeline. They consider your company’s trajectory over the next three to five years to identify talent that aligns with your long-term goals.
The firm also brings a wealth of market intelligence to each partnership, especially insights into to your competitors, including their recent hires, team quotas, and target markets.
5. Sales Talent Inc.
Sales Talent Inc. has been a leading sales recruiter for companies across the software, tech, healthcare, manufacturing, industrial, and general B2B industries since 1999. The firm routinely delivers well-matched sales talent in just over a week, prioritizing retention without compromising speed.
Recruiters dedicate an average of 62 hours per search, almost three times the industry average. This gives them time to headhunt passive salespeople, interview each candidate twice, and present three to five compatible prospects in less than ten days on average.
6. SalesTalent.com
Founded in 2021, salestalent.com exclusively recruits permanent sales talent for organizations across the tech, SaaS, medical, and industrial verticals. Each of the firm’s headhunters is a former sales leader, including the founder, who brings over 20 years of sales leadership experience, giving them all valuable firsthand insight into the traits that distinguish successful sales candidates.
The firm’s functional expertise enables savvy sourcing, ensuring you are matched with top-tier passive candidates. Recruiters are limited to three searches at once and vet candidates through interviews and assessments, presenting a curated group in less than eight days.
7. CulverCareers
Founded in 1979, CulverCareers draws on more than four decades of sales recruiting experience to place entry-level, mid-market, enterprise, strategic, senior, and software sales account executives. The firm offers tailored solutions and brings a deep understanding of the distinct skill sets to look for in sales candidates, depending on your company’s size.
With a specific software sales recruiting focus, the firm prioritizes candidates with technical expertise and the ability to explain complex technological concepts. Your company’s size determines the traits recruiters prioritize in candidates, from flexibility or strategic thinking to leadership capabilities and business acumen.
8. 3Search
Founded in 2014, 3Search places GTM talent for tech, consumer, and service companies across the US and UK. Drawing on expertise spanning AI, enterprise software, FinTech, HealthTech, and SaaS, the firm applies its proprietary “Advise, Attract and Develop” model to conduct structured, consultative hiring processes.
Recruiters specialize in a specific skill set, industry, or seniority level to provide expert insights into your niche challenges. With a strong emphasis on the advisory component of its partnerships, the firm designs tailored search strategies for each role, assists with interview structuring, and develops candidate packs, scorecards, and assessments.
9. Talentfoot
Talentfoot has placed talent across diverse functional areas and industries, with specializations in sales recruiting for the manufacturing, SaaS, and IT domains. A consultative partner for companies of all sizes since 2010, the firm leverages extensive talent networks and rigorous vetting processes to match your company with competitive talent.
The firm begins the process with an in-depth consultation to understand your sales motions, go-to-market strategies, and company culture before designing a detailed candidate profile. Recruiters complement this with a customized search strategy that considers your industry, company size, and growth goals to match you with candidates who align with your specific sales environment.
They also save your hiring team valuable time and energy by pre-vetting candidates before presenting the top three to five prospective hires. The firm only headhunts candidates with a proven track record of leading their teams to record numbers and more deeply evaluates their capabilities by implementing multi-stage interviews and science-backed Hogan leadership assessments.
10. Hirewell
Founded in 2001, Hirewell offers recruitment and advisory services for companies of all sizes, with expertise across the GTM, technology, corporate, and industrial functions. The firm combines a talent marketplace platform with a consultative approach to help businesses overcome a wide range of hiring challenges.
Among the firm’s sales recruiting capabilities are hiring AEs at scale, building international teams, and securing leadership talent. Recruiters design consultative search strategies that consider available talent as well as your company’s organizational structure and growth goals.
The firm streamlines the hiring process by leveraging Rainmakers, a sales-only talent marketplace featuring 350,000 candidate profiles. The resource offers three engagement models for varying fees, serving as a job board, a sourcing tool, or as part of a fully supported recruitment solution.
Compensation Trends for Account Executives
Average base salaries for account executives vary depending on experience, location, and work environment, with remote AEs typically earning the lowest base salaries and in-person AEs based in New York, San Francisco, and the Pacific time zone typically earning the most. On-target earnings (OTE) also vary widely across these factors.
Remote AEs with zero to three years of experience typically earn base salaries between $60K and $100K, with on-target earnings ranging from $140K to $200K. Their peers with three to five years of experience average $95K to $125K in base salary and $180K to $250K in on-target earnings.
AEs with zero to three years of experience based in New York, San Francisco, and the Pacific time zone have the same average base salary but vary slightly in on-target earnings. Compensation for AEs with three to five years of experience in these locations is also comparable, with average base salaries between $95K and $125K and on-target earnings between $190K and $250K.
NY-based AE (0-3 Years Experience)
Base + OTE: $70K—$110K | $140K—$220K
SF-based AE (0-3 Years Experience)
Base + OTE: $70K—$110K | $140K—$220K
Pacific-based AE (0-3 Years Experience)
Base + OTE: $70K—$110K | $140K—$200K
Meanwhile, AEs with zero to three years of experience in the Mountain, Central, and Eastern time zones earn base salaries between $70K and $100K, with on-target earnings ranging from $140K to $200K. For more experienced AEs, the lower end of the base salary range varies by location.
Mountain-based AE (3-5 Years Experience)
Base + OTE: $85K—$125K | $180K—$250K
Central-based AE (3-5 Years Experience)
Base + OTE: $90K—$125K | $190K—$250K
Eastern-based AE (3-5 Years Experience)
Base + OTE: $95K—$125K | $190K—$250K
Deeper insights into market trends and salary benchmarks based on role, location, and experience level can be found in our 2025 Compensation Guide and the 2025 Enterprise Compensation Guide. Our data-driven Comp Engine also provides real-time benchmarks based on our recent placements across all GTM roles.
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