So a little background....I'm in my mid 30's. Computer Science degree. My entire professional career has been in sales, across many industries. At this point my CS degree means next to nothing because my software dev experience is outdated (so programming roles are not an option).

Various SaaS: CAD, Ed-tech (my biggest regret), communications solutions, a stint in outsourced software development (a tough gig) and recently automation/manufacturing on both the OEM and distribution side. I've done it all, biz dev, AE, AM, Sales Management, renewals, Channel/distribution, outside, inside....the works.

Through my career I've made some mistakes and tried to learn from them. I've accepted startup jobs with products I should have known were shit, I've been apart of layoffs due to a company being acquired (twice), and I've also faultered at times not meeting goals, one of them being let go surprisingly quick (good performance and one bad Qtr and boom).

My most recent job search I prioritized the product being industry-leading. Was at a huge OEM and I figured this is where I'll be able to be long-term because it's a great product and there is no way I can't sell a good product. I get there, and although the company is huge (10+B), sales are declining the past 4yrs and lots of people are getting fired. The culture was hiring mostly recent grads, and those guys generally get a bit of experience and leave to a competitor for better pay, and at the top is "the old boys club". So while at the time I was a rare hire with experience, and I thought I was making a great career move, but it didn't play out that way. And that has happened a couple times in my career now (again sometimes my fault, sometimes I feel like I'm just getting a raw deal).

I guess I'm just not cut out for sales guys. I'm 34, 2jobs in 4yrs (it's even been worse at other points in my career), and just rarely see longevity/security in sales. I'm very sad that I can't provide the way I want to for my SO, and I feel like I have the skills, experience, and work-ethic that I should be able to find something where I can/should feel secure. Admittedly I have faltered at times maybe relaxed on performance and I will take that fault, but I think I've also found myself in some raw situations where I'm the scapegoat for someone else more senior, I've had 2 jobs that were just striaght-up terrible decisions, and now I just can't afford another short stint on my resume.

I'm sure some people are in similar boats or were and pivoted. What do you think is a good direction to go to possibly get a bit more job security. Job titles, types of companies, etc. And what industries or types of roles would be easy/good to transition to with this kind of background? Advise and especially any success stories of people that have transitioned would be appreciated. $100k+

A couple things I've considered: Sr Buyer, mid-level marketing role, luxury jewelry sales (I feel this could have potential to be another tough experience),....still trying to come up with more ideas (hence post)

tldr; worked entire career in sales. Never had something last longer than 4yrs. What would be a good transition that offers some more security? Can't keep doing this. Need to get that 20+ yr job.

I work for an independent security camera company with only 6 people in our company. Since yesterday I am now the only salesman in our company and I need more money and the company needs more business. I am already making us some social media pages but I want to start cold calling and attempting to set up appointments. I am just wondering if y’all can help me and tell me if this is a good idea for a security company, and how to get started.. like how I find people in my city’s information so I can call them and stuff like that. Anything helps thanks yall.

My company will have a large booth in a VERY high-traffic area.

I’m just on the SDR team, so my product knowledge isn’t as deep as some other folks who are going. You could say I’m a bit nervous. What do I do if someone asks me something I don’t know?

I have a feeling that people will stop talking to me as soon as they get a hint that I’m on the sales team.

We’re also hosting a happy hour with a few other companies. Do I just walk up to people and introduce myself? I don’t mean to sound like I haven’t been in social settings before, but I don’t know what the “status quo” is in these scenarios

I know they're technically a recruiting company but I've been offered an Account Manager role selling their recruiting service to companies in the STEM fields.

"is this a growth trend? Is this customer declining? Is the purchasing pattern off?"

These are all questions I'd like to answer by applying a suitable data analysis model or tool to my revenue data.

So far I'm thinking of applying "Bollinger Bands" to my sales data (akin to technical investing).

Others suggested time series analysis approach.

What works for you?

Is anyone aware of a scheduling tool (such as Calendly) that will force a person booking to verify with either an email or phone number?

Basically thinking of MFA for the booker.

We currently use Calendly with round robin assignment for inbound leads, but a lot of people provide fake details (email and/or phone number). I know we can set up workflows via Zapier to cancel the event after it’s created through additional third-party tools that can validate an email address after the fact, but ideally I would just like to block them from even booking in the first place.

E.g. they open Calendly (or another scheduling tool), they choose a time and date available, they enter their email and/or phone number, and the system says, “to confirm the selected time, you must enter a verification code that we will send you. Would you like to receive the code via email or SMS?”

As a note, round robin assignment functionality is still a must-have for any Calendly alternatives.

So I sell exterior paint jobs b2c and got with a well established company with top tier features (as far as prep, processes, and warranty go) in the industry in January. Sold a few jobs my first week and then had a couple weeks with no sales despite running 13-15 appointments and following up with previous appointments.

I was improving a good bit and starting to book jobs consistently when they put me on a 2 week focus plan as a precursor to a PIP in March. The goals were kinda crazy but I guess possible if I got a whole bunch of people booked on callbacks. Essentially he wanted me to get my Jan, Feb, and March closing rates up to 30% from ~15%, and if I got close (maybe 25%) I would avoid a PIP.

My closing rate during that 2 weeks was 32%, but I didnt get all my numbers up enough to avoid the PIP. My pip goals were primarily to book 6 jobs a week and hit my revenue goals ($30k/week). I started the PIP pretty well booking a few jobs right off the bat, and then I ended up getting sick a few days and thought I might be fucked. Ended up getting back to work on Thursday, booked 3 jobs through Saturday, and then booked 5 jobs on callbacks Sunday, and another 4 this past Monday.

Without those, I think I lose my job. It might be close, and my manager likes me, so I'd probably be ok only booking half of those. Got kind of lucky that we did an extra sale to catch up to our YTD goals as a team, but I busted my ass and called/texted everybody on my list to get what I needed. In April, I've got a 40% closing rate right now and I'm on cloud 9. The grind continues, but I'm savoring this one.

One thing about this PIP and company is that they really have helped me to become a better salesman and were as supportive as you could've hoped in helping me get over some humps. It feels great to be at a good place that actually offers support and where a PIP isn't an automatic death sentence. My boy Parker got the boot though, sad to say. He was a really cool guy, but my manager thinks he's just too nice for sales.

So, I have no sales experience and I hired someone with no sales experience to help me sell a service/product that our company is providing lol (I own the company).

I have no idea where to start with a good setup for my employee. He will be working from home, no traveling required. I bought him an iPhone to start and added it to our plan. We have a CRM platform and I did once purchase a number and set that up through the CRM platform to text and call but to me there's just something about the reliability of cellular service and having a cell phone. Am I wrong for thinking that?

What's the best setup for him when it comes to having to make calls all day? I know he'll need a great headset, one that sounds great and that is comfortable.

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Should everything be done wired through the computer and ditch the cell phone? Or have it so there is an app on the phone as well so as long as he has internet he will receive the call on his phone without using the cell service? Or go bluetooth headset with the phone?

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He won't be directly selling to the people he's calling, he'll be getting them our app so they can push it to their clients. The calls will likely be longer and he wouldn't have anyone hanging up on him. After the first sentence most salesmen we're reaching out to him will be all ears. I made two cold calls in front of him yesterday, first one was 2 minutes the second one was 10 minutes. So he's not going to be dialing 1000x in a day if that makes any difference.

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Sorry I'm very new to this and I want to do my guy and our operation right. Reasonably speaking I don't care what stuff costs. I'm not going to be pinching pennies or stepping over dollars to pick up dimes.

I am 31F. Have worked in manufacturing environments (offices) in customer service and supply chain support. May possibly get an offer for a “junior sales account manager” / “sales account representative” position soon. Description said 60-70k, fully remote, for a smaller ERP software company. The description and recruiter leaned more into sales when describing the position, but the hiring manager said it’s more existing customer support, as they are defining the sales strategy and decided to focus more on existing customers than growing.

It is a very small team, I believe 3 sales reps/account managers providing customer support over the whole US! And my manager is the VP! I would have the whole west half of the US!

I currently make 52k living paycheck to paycheck, renting alone, working in office (13 mile drive). This job may be around 65k fully remote. Does this sound like a good segway into sales? Should I hold out for better salary? I don’t think there is commission or bonuses involved.

A remote job and career is important to me since I will be living in the middle of nowhere in the future, not near a city. So I think software sales is pretty remote friendly!

Hello, I’m working at Korean medical devices company specializing medical devices coating machines and coating solutions. We are trying to find med device distribution/sales companies in the Europe and Russia.

This is a new area for me and hoping the Reddit community can help point me in the right direction for finding distributors. Appreciate any help I can get!

If so, which provider are you using?

Are these companies a good place for an enterprise role? The latter looks to be very well placed considering the recent boom in AI and big companies holding their data in warehouses?

Thoughts? Repvue not super conclusive.

Welcome to HVAC sales

Hello, I am trying to find advertisers for my billboard locations. Where should I start?Any advice/insight is appreciated. Thank you

One of the biggest things that make me uncomfortable about pursuing a career in sales is how slimy it can feel, then again, maybe I have been in the wrong industries.

Wife has gone through a series of interviews for a senior management position in sales with a Fortune 500 firm. 7 interviews in total with VP’s and Directors over a period of 4 months. Just received a thank you for your patience email with a final HR interview schedule. We’ve both never heard of an “HR interview”. Any advice or suggestions for what to expect and prep for? Thanks for your time.

We have the biggest trade show of the year coming up soon for our company. It’s our biggest chance to spread awareness and get in front of our customers.

What do you do to lock in some great wins and start some meaningful partnerships / customer relationships.

(Our sales cycle is 4month-2 years depending on deal size B2G / B2B)

There was a post that for the most part got it right with MLMs. If the company requires a monthly fee to basically fund the company then it’s a bad idea for the majority of sales reps. Especially for the targeted stay at home moms with hounds such as Herbalife with the majority of reps paying more fees than they earn.

However, this is more for the niches of money being left on the table for reps who are already producing and can benefit in certain cases.

From my personal experience as a d2d b2c/b2b telecom sales rep it makes sense to go with ACN. Mostly due to directv satellite to directv stream being commissioned.

The residuals are a job within itself to keep up with but the $25/monthly fee makes sense if you’re already in the telecom space as it’s a write off and you can easily miss out on more than $25/mo. Additionally they operate in several countries and if you travel or have family/business partners abroad it makes sense.

Primerica was mentioned in the previous post. I have no experience in the life insurance department other than being a consumer for their term life and I have my needs met with it.

However, outside of California they go through Answer Financial for opportunities to sell home and auto and commercial business insurance. Additionally they partnered with E-telequote to do Medicare referrals. The good thing about their non-life insurance policies is that the referrals are very hands off as it’s a 3 way call where the client gets introduced and your job is done.

Primerica additionally does Vivint home security. It’s a decent commission but being in the telecom sales industry I know that they pay about 40% of what a contractor gets paid. It may go up in the MLM pyramid scheme but I have no experience with that but I find that this would be beneficial to install techs who would otherwise leave money on the table.

I don’t work for either company but just wanted to share my experience, thoughts and opinions. I am not recruiting, but if the guidelines for this forum allow me to jump onboard with another company I can edit this for networking purposes.

I’m interested in an SDR role with the quota being defined by SAOs and SQLs. I originally thought the quota had more SQLs than SAOs, but it’s the other way around. I am new to this, so I originally thought SAOs come from SQLs - is it the other way around? Could someone explain what these two things mean in your org? Thanks!

Currently, I am a college student-athlete, looking to break into medDevice who is going to be graduating in under 2 weeks and done with his sport in 1 - 1.5 months. I have a plan to travel (for at least a week abroad with family) at the end of June and to begin work in July.

When I begin work, I’d want to start at a “burner” job, one like ADP, Paychex, Cintas, Unifirst, or Enterprise. I choose these because their training programs are apparently fantastic and very worthwhile - no hate to anyone on this sub who works there. The job there would last for six months. After that job, it’s my goal to make it into Jan 2025 class for the STR program at JnJ and to succeed there and to hopefully enjoy it (I feel I would but I need to experience it). That program is 12-14 months and would effectively train me to succeed moving forward in my career in medSales, if indeed I make one out of it.

Tons of planning has gone into this and I’m confident it would work, just need to succeed in the interview processes.

Thoughts? Anything I’m missing or should consider? How do we feel about 6 months B2B before breaking into medDevice?

TLDR; done with school and sports soon, want to work a burner sales job for 6 months to build sales acumen to then break into medDevice through a great program at JnJ. Eager to hear others’ thoughts on this plan or anything else I should be considering as I begin life after college.

Was an AE for 6 years in technology sales (mix of IT sales and Logistics Tech) and then internally took a position as an SE at a Cybersecurity SaaS company. Since being in that position I’ve gotten 6 certifications specializing in Cybersecurity, Networking, and Cloud. Have even spoken on industry expert panels at a number of conferences.

I miss running the entire sales cycle and think I can thrive even more with the technical skills under my belt now. What can I expect looking for AE/AM roles? Will my technical acumen be valued or seen as a detractor? Also what salary expectations should I be shooting for?

Has anyone left a salaried position to go 1099 and full commission? What was your experience? Also, what was the interview process, if any?

Here are some places I'm looking into for Seattle area.

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(Okta, ADP, AWS, Microsoft, PitchBook, Verkada, Snowflake, Smartsheet, SAP)

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Maybe there are some others you know of that are great places in the Seattle area don't hesitate to list them.

Hard task. I'm coming from traditional, surgical sales. Go to an office, ask if they have a day next week I could bring lunch or bagels for breakfast--bam I just won 2-10 minutes with the doctor. Or just find them in the OR. Or ask their partner that I already know if I could stop by on a day they are there. You know the drill.

Now picture this: Call center. Cold calling an office to try to get the receptionist/office manager to, on the spot, put me on the line with the primary care physician in clinic busy with patients, probably already an hour behind on their patients--phone or zoom. Or (considered less ideal) a set zoom appointment that that doctor will get on with me at a later date. I wont have the ability to schedule a virtual "lunch and learn" like during COVID or send anything to their office. I'll be a pharma rep with some good medications.

I know my tech sales friends on here will roll their eyes because this is what you do day in day out lol. But coming from someone with several years in medical sales, this is the LAST way doctors want to be contacted by reps. You couldnt get your ass over to my office for a scheduled lunch with some samples and you expect ME to take unscheduled time out of my 50 patients today to get on the phone with you to hear about some drugs I already prescribe?

How exactly are they getting reception/office manager to agree to hand over the phone, and that doc to actually agree? Obviously they are, as there are a ton of reps at this company and many are making presidents club.

Calling all over the country 50 new offices a day, so no possible way to build connections to these offices beforehand.

I think this situation is a little unique. Today, I received a verbal offer from the hiring manager and the official letter will be sent when HR is back in on Monday. I’m not doing anything until the ink is dry

I will be leaving to a larger, direct competitor and I will be managing almost the exact same territory and the exact same customers. We will also be carrying very similar product because both companies operate in the same B2B distribution industry.

My original thought process was that I wasn’t going to disclose where I’m going but it dawned on me that they’re going to find out pretty quick because again, we’re going to have the same customers that buy from the different companies.

How should I handle the exit? 2 week notice? Bounce the same day?

Also, what do you guys think of taking my customer lists/info? I have not signed any sort of NDA.

I have 2 weeks of notice period left and I'm currently taking screen shots of leads on shared drives / SF.

SF has been very useless so far as many reps haven't added the phone number, however, I managed to run some reports and take screen shots, I read somewhere that some reps are making it into a list view and then copy pasting in their excel, I don't want to get into trouble, especially with Salesforce because their tech is very strong, so I've done just half hour of report running without downloading but I have taken screenshots post running some reports.

I read that Salesforce has audit trail and what not, so I'm planning to be careful and do most Snooping on my last day before handing over the laptop or not do it at all and manage with screenshots, company currently doesn't have anything cyber security as such and there are loopholes, people who know this better, please guide and warn me on Salesforce capabilities here?

I'm aware this is not ethically right but quotas are too high everywhere and I can't just rely on just my leads, I need some peers leads as well.

Lmk how you guys go about it.

Okay, so how can I unpack this...

Landed a job in a rather big IT consultancy (over 10k employees worldwide).

My branch has Z E R O cold-calling activities, no mail campaigns, nothing. I'm the first guy who's supposed to get things going. And I'm a junior.

They told me new sales leadership is coming soon but I read their CV's. None of them have dedicated SDR manager experience.

Alright.

Before you guys tell me that I should leave the company, I dont want to. I wanna see what I can do to establish a good SDR team maybe in the future. Also the benefits at this company are insane. I just wanna get the most out of it and maybe they see the potential, and I can gain valuable experience on my own.

So far my workflow looks like this:

We prospect into accounts with desireably more than 5.000 employees, in pretty much any sector from automotive, manufacturing, medical, public services, defense, space, literally anything except other IT houses. tbh. Our offering is HUGE, with a ton of knowledgable and highly qualified consultants, and I have ZERO clue how this company scaled itself to 10k+ employees with around 1,5k here in my country, without dedicated GTM / New Business sales activities.

Anyway.

I use Sales Navigator to find relevant leads and accounts. I scout the accounts linkedin page for relevant posts. I google for recent news about company. SOmetimes I seek the 10K / annual report and let ChatGPT find relevant things to my topic. (on that note tho... HOW DO YOU EVEN READ 10Ks?! All I do is go to the "risk" section and see what happened to the company)

So once I got all that information I TRY MY BEST to formulate a good, precise, concise, not too long cold mail. After that I wait a few days, to send another inMail. After that I wait a few days to cold-call.

So far only one opportunity seems to be in the making. Got a meeting booked by e-mail with a huge account (over 30k employees).

But tbh I have no clue what I'm doing, I just do what I did in my prior role as a SMB / MM SDR - where I performed pretty good. But there we had basically infinate accounts to prospect into, and cold-calling was much more quantitative.

I feel totally lost in enterprise right now.

About 9 months ago, I decided to step down from management to take a role as an Enterprise rep, aiming for a better work-life balance and spending more time with my daughter.

I joined a fairly large company and was handed a less-than-ideal patch. For the first couple of months, I barely made any progress, but then I kicked into high gear with intense prospecting—around 5 hours a day of connecting and cold outreach.

One of my cold calls with a VP of Growth didn't go as smoothly as I'd hoped. We didn’t exactly click, but he agreed to connect me with someone who might be interested.He introduced me to a lower-level manager, and honestly, I wasn’t expecting much. Turns out, this guy was a powerhouse, fully committed to deploying our tech across the board.

After 4 months of hard work, filled with highs and lows, we closed a £5.3m ACV deal last week.

With accelerators, I'm looking at about £670k in commission, and after taxes, that's around £400k.

I'm thinking of banking it and possibly taking a few years off as a stay at home dad.

Maybe even start my own venture?!

Has anyone else landed a monster like that and done something similar? I'm aware it's a lot of money, but not enough to retire off

Giving some context: 24M just moved to a new city and got my real estate license. I joined a broker as a solo agent and I hate it—no support, no leads (promised at least 3-4 a month), no culture. I’ve kind of lost the desire to be an agent in the 1 month that I’ve been there especially after I’ve seen how dumb the majority of agents are. My goal later in life is wholesaling/flipping so that might be a reason why I might not like being an agent and the fact that commissions are very slow compared to other sales jobs. I just interviewed with Exp and I can join one of their teams, of course with a 50/50 split. I also have a friend in Solar at the moment who does 10-15k a month in commissions, and I'm thinking of acquiring the capital that I need to do that or applying to AE positions selling software giving me location freedom since it’s remote. The team leader that I interviewed told me that to be good at investing, you first have to be an agent and learn the craft that way. I believe there is truth in that, but at the same time, he wants to recruit me. I also have these feelings that without a sphere of influence that can give me the first couple of deals, it will be challenging to find someone who will hire me as their agent, of course not impossible. One more thing to consider is the current market—high prices, high-interest rates. I hear all the time around me that they are waiting for the rates to drop to even consider buying, and if that's the average consensus of the consumer, it will be a couple of hard years for real estate agents, let alone the fact that now everyone thinks that buyer agents should be paid just a small transaction fee since they aren’t doing much work. Feel free to drop your opinion below, and if anyone has made the switch from agent to selling Solar or software and how that was.

I've had mixed experiences and would love to know other people's takes.