Advice Regarding a Sales Job?

Anything to do with the traditional world of get a degree, get a job as well as its alternatives
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Smashter
Posts: 541
Joined: Sat Nov 12, 2016 8:05 am
Location: Midwest USA

Advice Regarding a Sales Job?

Post by Smashter »

I remember a thread where folks were saying that taking a job in sales is playing with fire, ie a couple people crush it but the vast majority languish.

I'm asking because I am exploring the job market, and I'm not sure what roles I should be pursuing with the most vigor. Sales roles are intriguing because of the high upside and the sheer number of job openings in the NYC area. But maybe the amount of openings speaks to burnout and disillusionment?

I currently work at small SaaS startup. Despite being hired in a completely different capacity, I've proven to be our best salesman over the past two years.

I'm not sure how well these experiences would translate if working as a classic sales development representative at a bigger tech company or standard Fortune 1000 type place. I currently have very little oversight and pretty much get to do whatever I want. This leads to interesting, outside the box thinking, but I'm sure I've also developed bad habits that would not fly at mega-corp. Mostly, I'm afraid I'd find a traditional sales role quite boring.

So, I'm not the most excited about sales, but I have a knack for it and getting commissions is very fun. I'm 30 years old and looking for something stable, or at least less insane than the startup at which I currently work. I'm not opposed to hard work, I just want to be at a company that is likely to exist beyond the next 12 months. I'm curious if anyone here has worked in sales and what they thought about it.

SustainableHappiness
Posts: 266
Joined: Tue Jun 28, 2016 6:39 pm

Re: Advice Regarding a Sales Job?

Post by SustainableHappiness »

I've typically worked in more sales SME and sales analytics roles with heavy customer interaction as an advisor, less straight negotiations and business development. I enjoy the customer interaction, but am not interested at all in the products and have started to get bored in each of my roles roughly 6 months in due to similar solutions being needed for all of the problems I am presented with. Occasionally I'll get a project that lights my fire, but the interesting stuff and creative problem solving generally only lasts a few days before it is a matter of convincing the customer my idea is right and then the more boring part of implementation and follow-up.

Biggest pros are the perks, i.e. "free" company car (taxable benefit), good compensation and bonus structure (although capped in most consumer goods roles due to no commission as you enter into an existing relationship managing multi-millions of $ vs bus. dev.)

Good luck.

distracted_at_work
Posts: 202
Joined: Fri Jan 13, 2017 11:51 am

Re: Advice Regarding a Sales Job?

Post by distracted_at_work »

I just accepted a half sales half engineering job so I'm posting to follow this thread. I'm told I have the knack.

plantingourpennies
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Re: Advice Regarding a Sales Job?

Post by plantingourpennies »

Background-I've been in technology consulting sales for 4 years, sales training for 2. I went from earning 40k in retail to 110k in sales, my wife and I are able to ER because of this jump. If we were as good as others on this forum we could have done it years ago now.
Smashter wrote:
Mon May 08, 2017 2:41 pm
I remember a thread where folks were saying that taking a job in sales is playing with fire, ie a couple people crush it but the vast majority languish.
Highly dependent on the company. More than half of the sales reps in my company (rapidly grown, 1B plus technology consulting) exceeded their quota in 2016.
Smashter wrote:
Mon May 08, 2017 2:41 pm
I'm asking because I am exploring the job market, and I'm not sure what roles I should be pursuing with the most vigor. Sales roles are intriguing because of the high upside and the sheer number of job openings in the NYC area. But maybe the amount of openings speaks to burnout and disillusionment?
Possibly. I've found that sales people generally have a "shelf life" of about 2 years inside their territory-after 2 years it's up or out. The upside is very high in technology sales. The downside is very low...unless you're afraid of failure. Many people are afraid of failure so these jobs can be tough to fill.
Smashter wrote:
Mon May 08, 2017 2:41 pm
I currently work at small SaaS startup. Despite being hired in a completely different capacity, I've proven to be our best salesman over the past two years.
This is a good sign...but you may want to do account management instead of business development. Account management lets you work with existing clients to deliver services as well as sell new product to them. Business development is meeting brand new prospects and selling them, usually then handing them off to the account manager.
Smashter wrote:
Mon May 08, 2017 2:41 pm
I'm not sure how well these experiences would translate if working as a classic sales development representative at a bigger tech company or standard Fortune 1000 type place. I currently have very little oversight and pretty much get to do whatever I want. This leads to interesting, outside the box thinking, but I'm sure I've also developed bad habits that would not fly at mega-corp. Mostly, I'm afraid I'd find a traditional sales role quite boring.
If its boring then your quota must be too low :twisted: Outside of the box thinking is encouraged, and you can do whatever you want as long as your manager trusts you and you are on the right side of ethical norms.
Smashter wrote:
Mon May 08, 2017 2:41 pm
So, I'm not the most excited about sales, but I have a knack for it and getting commissions is very fun. I'm 30 years old and looking for something stable, or at least less insane than the startup at which I currently work. I'm not opposed to hard work, I just want to be at a company that is likely to exist beyond the next 12 months. I'm curious if anyone here has worked in sales and what they thought about it.
Commissions are the only reason anybody goes into sales. Sales is a stable career in the sense that you'll earn more money over time, but there will be more ups and downs along the way. Charlie Munger once said that he would rather have a lumpy 17% ROI rather than a steady 12%; if you understand that logic you'll be fine.

Final advice-get into sales at a large, growing company and give it 2 years. If your'e good then you'll have a ticket to any other department in the org, if you're bad at it then you can just go back to what you're doing now.

I'm passionate about this stuff-let me know if you have other questions.

jambone612
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue May 23, 2017 5:53 pm

Re: Advice Regarding a Sales Job?

Post by jambone612 »

I wrote this post on another blog and I think it's somewhat relevant. I will post it below. My history: I worked in copier sales, and for a while tried to get into pharma and med device. For me, outside sales causes unhappiness.
***

Most people have a hard time knowing what a job is like until they actually try it. How can any high school senior really know? Through trial I gradually discovered what I dislike the least versus like the most, because all jobs are a drag if you have no choice but to do them each day. Generally speaking, the most enjoyable jobs pay the least and require little responsibility. For example, I would love being a clerk at a small bookstore. Low stress, I could read in down time, and I could talk with people who wanted to talk with me. I worked at Sunglass Hut in college (they usually had only one person working at a time) and when no one was in the store I could read magazines or books all day. It was great!

When I started my work life post college, I had my priorities wrong. I was too focused on trying to get money rather than doing something that didn’t feel like a lot of work and was somewhat enjoyable, after all, we spend most of our waking time at work. *Many people don’t even know what jobs are out there that they would like more.* I was in that position, and now, going forward, I regret earning my MBA along with pretty much my whole career track.

I started being a paraprofessional substitute, because I was unemployed at a family member did that. It was easy and it did not feel like work (my most important criteria) and I discovered that based on my criterion, education was the best field for me. Being a para pays nothing though, and now I am a substitute who will be pursuing teacher cert. For me at least, being a sub teacher is really easy, and I know being a teacher won’t be all that more of a drag. The BLS stats & 'day in the life' videos helps a lot.

Here was my list of what I did not want in a job and what I did want:

I do not like:
– desk jobs
– prospecting or jobs with rejection
– jobs that require heavy thought on the job
– Dealing with bodily fluids and gore

– I want a job that does not feel like work
– I like relaxed, low stress jobs
– I like to help people
– I like a certain job security and at least middle class pay

Based on my criteria, here are some jobs I decided I would like along with notes:

Teacher – Special ed or other high demand field

Librarian – no jobs

Forester- it might be hard being outside all the time especially when older. Progression in the field means having a desk job

Pharmacist – no jobs, hard to get in Pharma school

James_0011
Posts: 392
Joined: Wed Nov 09, 2016 12:00 am

Re: Advice Regarding a Sales Job?

Post by James_0011 »

@Jambone612

Doesn't ere change all of that though? personally, going for the money is tolerable knowing that its only a very small chunk of my life.

jambone612
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue May 23, 2017 5:53 pm

Re: Advice Regarding a Sales Job?

Post by jambone612 »

I guess it depends on how long one has to work to save enough for early retirement. Personally, I would not want to work a job for over 5 years that made me unhappy even if that job allowed me to eventually pack away enough money to allow me to early retire with $15,000 a year or so in cash flow. Maybe I would accept the trade-off if I only had to work for a year or so, but I cannot find a job that pays that much.

Personally, I would rather work a job that paid over $15,000 a year that was not mentally or physically taxing, and one that for me, feels easy and does not feel like work. There are a lot of low-status, easy and low stress jobs that pay out around that much.

Of course, this is all really a personal thing...as they say, what's right for one may not be for another.

Smashter
Posts: 541
Joined: Sat Nov 12, 2016 8:05 am
Location: Midwest USA

Re: Advice Regarding a Sales Job?

Post by Smashter »

I have a 3rd round interview coming up for a SaaS sales position at an interesting startup. If it goes well, I'll be interested to hear what the projected commission will be. I learned from a different interview that these companies know how to get you chomping at the bit if you're a competitive person :)

Smashter
Posts: 541
Joined: Sat Nov 12, 2016 8:05 am
Location: Midwest USA

Re: Advice Regarding a Sales Job?

Post by Smashter »

I didn't get this job. I was a "tweener" who didn't have quite enough experience for the role, so they offered me an entry level position instead. I had no interest in that.

I also turned down all other interviews, as my current employer gave me a small raise to get me to stop looking.

I am happy I went through the application and interview process. I now know a lot more about how to position myself for these roles. I had no clue what all the sales jargon was (AE, BDR, "enterprise", etc), and now I have a firm grasp on it. When I have to do this again, my resume will be much sharper.

For anyone considering this road, I would make sure to really sell yourself via hard numbers. I was a little nebulous in this regard.

I also got grilled more than I was expecting on the intricate details of my sales process. When do I follow up with someone if they are stuck in the sales cycle? How exactly do I close deals of different time frames? I was not very specific, as I tend to just feel things out as I go. I'm sure I could have done better with those questions.

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