Just got fired from one of the biggest GTM SaaS companies after barely not hitting a ramp PIP. I told them last week my dad was put in critical care at the hospital and now I have to deal with this too.

I loved my job, probably one of the few people there that did. Oh, and my partners birthday is Thursday.

Anyone knows of a gig that pays at least 50k base reach out. Looking for SDR or CSM role.

What were the different challenges from inside to outside? What techniques/strategies/approaches worked for you during your inside sales tenure but didnt work during the outside sales job? I'm looking to hear about any and all experiences from this who have done both inside and outside sales. Thank you

Hello salespeople!

I am looking for ideas on what other Sales Jobs I can get into since I’m at a lost and getting burnt out with applying for multiple sales jobs that I’m not getting a response from at all.

I’ve been doing salary/commision sales for the past 7 and it’s been tough trying to get into any sales jobs at all.

As of right now I am in a “Sales” position, but really it’s more of a call center job (follow ups only, brief information about the services and vet, then transfer to “closer”). I do not feel like I’m in the right place as I am eager to overcoming pushbacks and obstacles. I miss the rush and excitement of closing a sales.

For the last 7 years I have done phone sales for 2 years —> car sales for 2 years —> real estate for 2 years (present)—> Current job health care service “sales”. I am still doing real estate as a side gig (over the weekend).

I’ve been applying for HVAC/Construction sales and also entry level tech sales here in the Bay Area. But still no luck.

Any recommendations?

First off- CarSales wouldn't let me post for some reason...

If you don't feel comfortable sharing, then please don't feel like you need to comment. I'm starting to really die at my phone sales job. Even though it's one of the greatest comm jobs out there, but I don't believe in the product so I'm making shit. My teacher suggested car sales, and it honestly feels like a fun job. I already understand the sales grind.

So, can you guys tell me how much you make a month, or your friends you know?

Background:

I do construction sales (windows). 5 salesmen in the company including the owner. He and I are the only ones who do commercial, everyone else does residential.

All salesmen are paid commissions based on profit margin percentage, and the schedule of values is geared toward residential salesmen. To be more descriptive, commercial sales profit margins are about half to 1/3rd margin percentage than residential in order to secure the contract. It's just more competitive all around. So in theory, commercial sales are punished on this schedule because the margin cannot be what is considered "good" except under rare circumstances. Keep in mind I don't receive inbound sales leads and all of my business has been additional accounts we have not done business with before, so there is a significant amount of project management and pipeline legwork that I need to do.

Details:

I've been working on a project since March 2020, I got the contract for it summer last year. It's a $3.8M contract, and as the project has unfolded, it looks to be about $700K in profit generated for the company. My boss has told me verbatim "this job alone will bring in more profit than the other three salesmen combined and doubled this year." The project is 10 hours drive away round trip and has commanded hundreds of hours of my time.

The problem is that this sale will turn out the lowest possible commission rate (1/2%, 19K pretax) because the profit margin is not considered "good" under residential sales conditions.

I know that I need to get him to have a separate arrangement for how commissions are calculated for me. He's acknowledged this in the past, but I'm coming to the end of a lot of projects now and can envision myself being paid based on previous arrangements despite trying to rectify them multiple times.

I just want to know how to tactfully handle this and part of that is knowing what a reasonable salesperson would expect for compensation in this scenario. I really appreciate your insight.

Current Compensation:

55k a year salary plus commission. Company car for business use only. 401K match up to 3%, health insurance except dental.

Hi all,

I’m preparing for a VP of Sales offer at a newly PE backed SaaS start up doing ~$8M ARR and expecting 30% YoY growth results over the next 5 years. Company is located in Chicago.

I’d expect a 50/50/25 (base/variable/bonus) structure or something similar + equity (12 month cliff and 4 year vesting although wondering how common it is to negotiate for 6 month cliff as well as full vest upon early exit - should we be so lucky).

I have ~9 years sales management experience (Director level) at medium to large corporate SaaS companies.

Those with experience, what would the market rate be for the compensation package including base/variable/bonus/equity?

How common are starting bonuses; reasonable to ask for one? How much?

Any other feedback appreciated as well.

Thanks so much in advance!

So I actually like his content and his style, however it isn’t his it’s Michael Oliver’s. Michael Oliver views selling as natural, he truly detached himself from the sale so that he can view the situation more accurately and effectively, Jeremy likes to say “ detach “ but he isn’t really detached from the outcome of the sale, he teaches you to ACT rather than BE. Using his style will make you come across as fake and if it doesn’t, I promise it’ll take a toll on you mentally. With that being said, DO NOT and im going to repeat this, DO NOT purchase his course. You’ll find that his whole style basically ( but not entirely ) revolves around “Socratic Questioning” which is Disciplined Questioning used to pursue thought in many directions and for many purposes: it is to explore complex ideas, to get the truth of things,to open up issues and problems, to uncover any assumptions, to analyze concepts, to distinguish what is known from what is not known, and to follow out logical implications of thought. Now it’s the basis of what he does except remove logical and replace it with emotional.

Just thought I’d share this with everyone looking to buy his course. You can build this skill yourself, learn to question the decisions you make as well as others… learn why it is some people may think the way they do, learn to uncover the intention which is all very easy as long as you’re willing to put in the work.

What has been yalls experience ?

Has anyone successfully moved states and switched into a new sales job? Trying to get out of the hell hole state I live in and having some trouble getting a bite on Indeed. Is there anyone I can reach out to? I find it pretty crazy how there are recruiters that want you but theres no way to reach out and find them. I don’t need any of the resume advice, just looking for some tips that have worked for others.

Yes, you read that right—I got mugged! But instead of just handing over my wallet, this unexpected encounter taught me some invaluable lessons about B2B sales as an SDR. Here’s the breakdown:

1. Prospecting: Just like in sales, not every street in London is going to be a safe bet. Knowing your territory could mean the difference between making a sale and losing your shirt... or in my case, your wallet.

2. Risk Assessment: Every salesperson assesses risks, but when you're faced with a knife, it's a bit more literal. It really puts those high-stakes sales negotiations into perspective!

3. Value Proposition: There I was, trying to negotiate my way out of losing my valuables. It turns out, pleading the value of my old, nearly expired bank cards wasn’t as compelling as I hoped. Note to self: always know what you’re really worth.

4. Handling Objections: When your mugger says, "Give me your wallet," that's a pretty strong objection to overcome. I tried the classic "What wallet?" technique.

Spoiler: it didn’t work.

5. Closing Techniques: Ultimately, I handed over my wallet, but not before slipping out a few less important cards. It’s like in sales, sometimes you've got to concede a little to close the deal safely.

6. Customer Satisfaction: My mugger seemed pretty satisfied with his 'customer experience', but it’s safe to say, I won’t be seeking a repeat transaction!

7. Reflection and Follow-up: Post-mugging, I reflected on what I could learn from this.

Main takeaway? Always be prepared, stay aware of your surroundings, and maybe take a self-defense class or two.

So, fellow sales warriors, remember: if you can handle a mugging in London, you can handle even the toughest clients. Just maybe stick to closing deals in the boardroom, not on the back alleys.

FYI I didn’t get mugged, I made this post tongue in cheek while laying lazily on the sofa staring out at the rain (which isn’t a rare sight in London). It’s kinda obvious the inspiration for this post and just wanted to lighten the mood (whilst applying to my job hunting).

Happy Sunday y’all!

I feel like my boss is starting to put things in writing that are untrue, but could be used against me later.

He’s been far more critical about me and my work in the last couple weeks, despite having nothing but good stuff written in my annual review.

I hit my quota, but I feel like he’s targeting me and wants to make my life harder than it’s been in the last couple years I’ve been here.

Anyone else experience this? What caused it? What happened?

Chat gpt will not take our jobs any time soon…

I have accounts un Column C…. Account owner in column J…

How can i make it so account owner is mapped to all their accounts, joined into 1 cell, so that i kay mail merge…

Last Tuesday I met with a prospect who was excited about using us because the value. I sell uniform services. The Decision Maker (DM) said they want to sign up with us, but first want to make sure their guys WANT uniforms, so she said to go out to their work yard , show the guys the workwear and see if they want to use it. I showed their workers the uniform options and they were all excited about it.

On Wednesday I email the DM , go over who all wanted uniforms and confirm I didn't miss anyone . At the end of the email I request a time to go over next steps The DM replied back asking to confirm the price. I confirmed it. Did not say anything about when to meet for next steps..

Her Husband responded separately that it sounds like I checked with all the guys.

She hasn't said anything else yet. I called later in the day the receptionist said she was busy.

I called the next office lady said she will call me back.

I called her husband on Friday and he said "yeah, my wife said she wants to do it. Let me call her and we can get it squared away the beginning of the week. "

That was the last of it. Should I wait a few days and ask a no oriented question? Should I wait a few days and stop in with an agreement?

What would you do?

For the job seekers, simply comment on a job posting listed or DM that user if you are interested. Any comments not in response to a job posting will be removed.

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r/sales

Isn't it weird how sales people never talk about relationships with current customers but we will always use the word when we are chasing after a complete stranger?

Am I doing something wrong? Should I be seeking better opportunities?

I work for a Fortune 500, selling SaaS but to me it seems like my talents are being wasted. This was my first job after graduating in Finance and the goal was to join a big company for security, but I'm not so sure.

Just to be clear, I am salaried but practically see no gain from the effort I do put in. Consistently booking meeting, building pipeline, and getting Closed Wons.

I sell B2C, epoxy floor coatings. I am thinking of attending a "Top Rep," a seminar presented for home improvements sales development.

I'm wondering if any of y'all have any experience with this company? Good/bad?

Sup my fellow road warriors.

Curious if any of you all have difficulty with the traveling that is sometimes required in this line of work. Without going too deep, I have some trauma in my life that has caused me to have some huge anxiety and difficulty traveling especially alone (IE without my partner).

I’m curious what yall do to keep your heads on straight when you’re bouncing around from city to city. I’m in my mid 30s, I am sober, and I don’t gamble anymore, so while I know a lot of you would say drugs or alcohol, that ship has sailed for me.

Thoughts on this? How many employers have actually gone after a sales person for going to a competitor? I would say they are mostly Concerned about not f*cking with their personal clients.

You are still required to follow the NDA and non-solicitation not to mention the larger orgs will find loopholes to really sue your ass if they want to but when have you heard of anyone being sued for going to a competitor? I’ve always seen it as a scare tactic? Would they go through all the trouble? Probably not if you’re not messing with their personal clients and/or trade secrets..

Have lawsuits for going to competitors really been a big thing in your industry?

TLDR: You’re not crazy if you feel this way. This model is a dead end, and the best you'll end up being now if you’re an SDR is probably an SDR manager. Which is fine, but I would be seriously concerned about my longer term career security if I were an SDR or leading team(s) of them.
Long version:I recently saw a post asking about life for BDR managers and I'm calling it now: the XDR model’s success is coming to an end quickly.
I recently walked away from a third SDR job. White hot startup, good product, motivated and pretty competent leadership. I was doing fine and bringing in a LOT of pipeline. But there's writing on the wall I read that I think the world should look at too; even with the things going for my former company, I'd never have a reasonable way forward in my role there.
And note: inb4 different organizations have different paths forward, and this may just be my experience, but I've seen and felt it happen thrice personally, and I see it happening to many of the other people I know who have been doing this and who got in when I did.
So from that vantage point and significant SDR experience and experience in startups, let me tell you that the SDR->AE model is archaic and does a massive disservice to up-and-coming sellers. It is a very unpleasant function of the marketing arm now. It is at best transactional sales.
"But OP! People just git gud and book meetings and then get promoted to AE, right?"
Wrong. Sales prospecting skills have almost zero in common with large-scale closing skills and the customer journey. The overlap between being able to write an email, set a meeting over the phone*, or write a good LinkedIn post have relatively little in common with getting to know a person who happens to be your prospect, asking them the right questions to surface what is important to them, actually knowing the ins and outs of the buying process at your company, and knowing how to take care of them along the way. I’ve seen it firsthand when I worked with an AE who put up 28 qualified meetings (2x more than any other person on the sales team) in a quarter, then didn’t close a single deal. The guy was great at hooking the ‘fish’ but couldn’t reel one in to save his life. But there he was, an AE! *You may occasionally have a great and meaningful phone conversation, but the way dialers are going now is going to hurt the chances of this happening.
You will not learn the ‘AE’ skills easily (if at all) in an SDR job, and your ability to rise out likely will not even be predicated on your performance. The odds that you will be pulled aside, coached and trained for an entirely new role whilst getting paid are incredibly low.
The moment that made this most evident for me was when the revenue leader at my last startup job sent me a copy of 'The Qualified Sales Leader' by John McMahon. When I read it and saw only ~2 pages in the entire book were devoted to prospecting I knew that whatever SDRing is isn't enterprise selling. Barring someone willing to take an out-of-the-blue chance to completely retrain and wait for me to ramp, it wasn't going to be a pathway into what I'd become an SDR to do; which was to sell.
So, to be clear: Do not pass go. Do not collect $200. Go back to the outreach/linkedin/orum spam dialer machine and have 5 minute interactions for meetings you likely won’t even be allowed into (or have to sit in the corner off camera for if you’ve been prospecting as a founder, say).
This is not to speak ill of my last role or my last boss. I just don't think people understand or are willing to admit what's happening. Outreach channels are as saturated as everyone is saying, especially in SaaS, and the rift between SDRing and being an ‘AE’ is starting to grow to a point where even Evel Knievel might have second thoughts about attempting to jump it.
SaaS is becoming an old industry. Old industries rely on the use of relationships. Do things like the challenger sale still have relevance? Heck yes. You have to reveal blind spots for your customer as a method of building trust. But the nature of cold prospecting has become something which is well on its way to being automated, and the greatest successes in landing new business lately are from events where people build relationships and actually have a face-to-face interaction. (Note: this could change, but take it from me that this is the case in May 2024).
I left SaaS for an even older industry. They do house calls and do a lot of business. It follows the old inside/outside model, and I’m still personally excited even though there was a ~10% initial pay hit, because there is a clear path forward. I’m actively involved in supporting and running the scoping and paperwork backend for sellers (eventually to take on smaller deals and then larger deals), rather than having loosely defined and limited involvement at best, or complete isolation and uncertainty at worst.
So, in closing, if you're a sales leader, the best thing you can do if you care about new business and care about our trade is to bring on people as junior, inside, or even apprentice AEs. Yes, they'll probably need to prospect just like an SDR. Yes, your CAC may be raised to some extent, or you may need to have people held in low commish training salaries or what have you. Have them working in direct support with full cycle AEs on the entire sales cycle, on contracts and redlining and the whole bit. YMMV already by org/product/scope/vertical etc, but I really think that this is the way forward to attract good talent, create better sellers, and most importantly make everyone more money.
I wish I had all the answers but I don't. Just don't funnel young/new sellers into marketing; funnel them into sales.

Happy to elaborate to some extent on my experiences and the experiences of others if this reads as overly disgruntled; it isn’t supposed to. I just know a lot of good people and good sellers are SDRs and I want them to just know they’re not crazy if they feel like it’s a dead end.

So I started a new job working at a farmer's market, it's commission only so it's a sales gig albiet small (anyone can give it a try). I came from fundraising for non profit (same shit different script) and kind of burnt out after a a fews and being a manger. I tried a couple of sales jobs but realized i was still burnt out so i stopped for a while. Started to question my skills at some other little gigs i tried but finally found something that made my heart sing. It's only durin the weekend but i made 300$ on half a days of worth and it feels good!!

I’m new to sales, it’ll be 1 year this September.

And I work for an ed-tech company as an AE. My NYC regions are fantastic for the most part. Those are our closest relationships and accounts, and it’s easy to talk to who I need to talk to most days.

However, my upstate NY schools are my bane and I want to change that.

I usually call up individual schools first in my campaigns. Lately I’ve been trying to discuss stem with the principals, or stem/tech teachers but can’t get by the gatekeeper most of the time. I’m asked to email. Which is fine, but most of my emails get spam filtered or rejected outright when sending via outlook. Voicemails go nowhere most of the time. And on the occasion that I get a helpful gatekeeper that puts me through, I’m told to contact the districts.

So, onto the districts. I get no one. Either voicemails or dead ends to people who have no budget, or aren’t looking at stem, or technology, which is fine. If they don’t need it, they don’t need it. But I want to at least let them know what we do, as we do have some good customers up there that we have done millions of dollars in work with. Or they refer me to the BOCES to set up calls with them which usually leads to nothing but voicemails and wild goose chases.

All that said, anyone in ed-tech have and advice for getting past gatekeepers at the schools, or getting past budget objections when I’m not even trying to sell half the time, just trying to do future planning. I want to be more a consultant honestly, I know that these types of purchases can sometimes take a year or two of planning.

For 500-700 positions I apply to in a week only like four get back to me. Then only half get past the first call and both end up being scams asking you to pay for training.

Thought debt collector positions would be easy but only one out over 1k ever gave me an interview. And after talking to a sales guy that came from debt collection apparently debt collection is dead since COVID.

I don't know why people have told me it's as simple as applying hard enough and a numbers game because clearly that's not all there is to sales. In my last position I put in the most hours of everyone on the team and made the most customer contacts to just end up in the middle sales wise.

There's clearly a point where simply working harder does nothing. Only so many good hours in a given day you can sell to people.

There has to better advice than simply working harder will fix it.

Aside from more people being involved and the cycle being longer, are there other strategies you deploy that might not be necessary on small 10-20k deals but move the needle when it is pushing 50 + ?

Hi everyone, I'm at a career crossroads and looking for some guidance.

I've spent the last decade in various hybrid roles at startups. While my positions were primarily sales/business development focused, I also touched on marketing, product, and project management. I've enjoyed the latter focuses, and i know their critical role in business growth, but I'm increasingly fed up of the daily sales grind.

The endless cycle of cold calling, handling rejections, and chasing KPIs is becoming very monotonous. Yet, I'm also apprehensive about losing my sales edge, which I consider a valuable skill. I see immense potential in focusing more on the strategic side of business development and marketing — like market and opportunity analysis, product/service development, and penetrating new markets.

I'm currently based in Australia, in my early 30s, and eager to shift my focus. How have you successfully transitioned from front-line sales to roles that are more strategic in nature? What paths did you take? Did you find certain skills or experiences particularly valuable during this transition?

Any advice or experiences you can share would be incredibly helpful as I navigate this shift.

Prospect #1

A few weeks back, I executed what I consider to be the my most flawless discovery calls of the year. It was a phone conversation that delved deep into the customer's statements and probed into their significant issues. I believed I had truly understood their problems. At the end, the prospect remarked, 'you bled me dry'. The prospect did 95 % of the talking. I had even prepared a dynamite sales presentation based on everything that was said. However, the earliest I could schedule the prospect for the board sales presentation was 2 weeks later. Unfortunately, the prospect canceled the day before. This still stings.

Prospect #2

Thankfully, another prospect in the same industry contacted me the 3 days later. I did a discovery call with him. Like that last time. It went deep. However, this time I sprinkled some insights into the discovery call. And again, I prepared a sales presentation for the board. They loved it. I won the deal.

Now my assumption with the Prospect #1 was that he obviously believed there would be no value from someone who only asked questions. He probably believed the sales presentation would be as dull as the questioning stage.

Proper Discovery calls are Value-less for Prospect

Proper discovery calls are actually value-less (and boring) for the prospect because they’re not seeing any solutions or value upfront. All they are hearing is questions. This leaves you in a "danger zone" after the discovery call. It's like with the trailer of a film. If the trailer is boring, you probably not going want to watch the film.

My question is this: How do you assure prospects that your presentation is going to be totally different from your discovery call?

How much of it was knowing what you want and getting it and how much luck/right place right time? Or, help from mom/dad/etc???

Started at a new company mid Feb, interviewed thinking it was going to be one thing and got in the door and it’s another. The interview process took a month and they had me go through 6 people. It’s about 100 employees and I work under the CEO.

The CEO hired me expecting me to be an expert in sales tools like Sales Navigator and know it better than him, as well as be good at writing emails about his companies right as I got in the door.

He tells me I’m a hardworker and have a lot of go-getter qualities about me but thinks I’m incompetent to do the job.

He pulls me aside one day on Zoom and told me he’s surprised he always has to correct my emails and change most if not the whole thing and he knows Linkedin Sales Nav better than I do, I told him coming from tech we have totally different styles and I’m still learning his way of doing things and on top of that learning the ins and outs of a complicated company.

I told him that sales is all about repetition and you really need longer than 3 months to learn the role. Firing someone less than 3 months in with 5 years of experience really isn’t because I can’t do the role, it’s because I’m learning a new way of doing things. I can do the role, but it seems like he’s made his decision based on my first month which was me getting comfortable here.

As a BDR, I try to give him ideas on how I can get him more meetings but he doesn’t want me to cold call, he doesn’t want me to be the one sending out these emails, he doesn’t want me to put together long sequences (usually sequences are 3-4 emails sent to 60-100 people). We do no ABM, really he built his company on word of mouth which makes my job almost irrelevant.

Instead, I just put things together for other people to send out and I spend my day adding contacts to our database and then putting them into excel for people to view and edit.

I’ve been put in a PIP for the next month and I’m supposed to go on a company trip next Tuesday for the rest of the week that * I just really do not want to go on.

Quick backstory: At my last company, I was the leading BDR and was promoted to team lead then manager, made half my quota off emails monthly and had a different way of doing things than this company. My whole team and I were let go except for 2 new BDRs cause mass layoffs and company wasn’t doing well. Here, there’s no way to show my worth within the company other than writing scripts and putting people in the database.

What is your way of doing the plans for the week?

I'm looking for a new job and since I'm in SaaS, LinkedIn is pretty much my only option to find one. However I've noticed a trend where a single company will have the EXACT same job posted up literally hundred of times in a row, making the search tedious as hell.

The two biggest offenders I've seen lately are the companies "J. Galt" and "Jobot". I don't understand what they get from doing this, and it makes me want to blacklist anything that has to do with their companies.