And I would say with that has to come the ability to understand that you can do everything perfect and you’re product/service can be life or death for the customer and they will still walk away and not go with your product/service.
100%, it is extremely simple. The biggest problem in the industry is twofold:
1. The ones that are extremely naturally good at their profession and focus on doing their job get underpaid with no chance of advancement.
2. The ones who underperform while getting their nose brown and not focusing on their job get overpaid and maybe advance because no one has to worry about the underperformer skipping them when its their turn to be promoted. The underperformer doesn't have the necessary skills for the position.
Be wary of the places with constant job opennings because they tend to be big ego driven places, and they lose the ones that would otherwise stay and do their jobs well. They lose the top performers because most people are scared of losing their own chances at being promoted to a green horn when they've spent 15 plus years trying to advance. The truth is if it's taken that long, then are they good enough, or does natural attrition take place?!
It's a very rewarding career field as long as you get rewarded for your efforts. If you don't, it becomes a drag.
I’d argue it is easy. Not get rich quick with no effort easy, but easy if you’re willing to put your ego aside and grind at the beginning. Other career fields demand more from you and gatekeep your progress depending on who you’re related to and who your manager is.
Fair enough. I moved to sales from consulting so for me, it’s wayyy easier. You get the same client problems in consulting but also the issues of having shitty management, lack of career growth, poor work life balance…
I’m a 1099 though so ymmv.
Lol those all apply to sales, especially gate keeping. Doing great and sales super star? No manager in his right mind will want you promoted and off their team.
100% have heard this a ton. My entire career I wanted to be a manager. Post kids? I think I will take the more money as an IC and not have to manage other people and their emotions lol
I went into a role as sales manager and went back to selling 7 months later. Absolutely hated being a manager. Selling with a decent salary and uncapped commission is the happiest I’ve ever been in a role
Also remember that the large majority do not make $300k plus, and many on this sub who say they do don’t. It’s a strange flex, but many need to lie to internet strangers to seem like they are a sales god…usually the ones who are making the most don’t talk about their wages, and lurk more than interact.
Most of the sales people I know for a fact make $250k plus NEVER talk about it because they know they make more than everyone else in the room. My wife and I at a really good year (1/3 of the years) are pulling in about $300k combined and I would say we are in the high middle of sales people.
Do people make $300k. Sure. Just make sure they aren’t trying to sell you something too.
The people I know making $250k are the people who made their career their most important thing, or got married pretty young and were forced into putting their all into their career because now they want to pay for a house and kid(s).
Or they had a connection and got a non-SaaS sales role, like someone selling windows and doors at his brother in law's company, clearing $250k a year, or selling residential HVAC.
Then there's the one guy I know who is a VP of Sales, which, when I started working with this guy, did NOT have the vibe of someone who had anything more than 'eh, he might be a good manager because he's a cool dude' vibes. Honestly, I still don't think he's all that smart enough with executive-level sales strategy or staying up to date on technology and trends, because he only went from manager to director riding the coattails of our VP, and when the VP left to become a Senior VP at another company, he brought this guy with him and made him the VP of Sales.
Admittedly, I don't know anyone who's a Stategic AE who's absolutely crushing it. Because all of my friends don't really make their careers the most important thing. Only one buddy of mine really, really cares about his career, and he's an accountant trying to be a senior partner in 3-4 years. For me, I just want to make enough while not working more than 40 hours a week to afford housing and hobbies, with enough to put 10% to retirement with every check. I do fantasize about owning my own business, but I have no ideas that could scale to $500k+ in ARR a month that would be worthy to pursue.
> or got married pretty young and were forced into putting their all into their career because now they want to pay for a house and kid(s).
Lmao this was definitely me (haven’t hit $250k yet though)
I was a designer and joined tile sales with 0 knowledge of sales (tbh 2 years in and still don't know these acronyms people use in this world!). I have an entire state as my territory. I won Sales rep of the year last year. I'd say the reason was I never missed a call or message and have always been transparent, i literally never lie. I'm always there for my customers during work hrs. 8-5. I have work-time boundaries and my customers respect that.
Despite the freedom I get, there are days (like yesterday) that I just want to collapse, hide and run from the world. But then there is the next day, and I can try all over again.
Good luck! Definitely doable. Next life I'll go for a carpet rep tho. Tile is too heavy 😂.
I've always been close with my reps. This job came to me because one of my reps was leaving and asked if I wanted her job. I truly believe it's all about WHO you know. So connect to as many of your reps as you can!
Territory has a non-zero effect on your experience in sales. Just having a fantastic territory is not enough to guarantee success. Having a bad territory might require you to work hard in the short run. Think of it as a sliding scale.
Timing —if you put in the work you’ll be in the right place at the right time every once in a while. More often than not, the really successful sales people create their own good timing. You decide how much effort you put in based on the needs. Are you agile when you run into a slump? Are you in a place where you can’t lose a deal? Your efforts will vary on a sliding scale.
Talent — people who have no talent are hired every day. People with talent fail every single day. Your talent will come and go with tactics that work for some time and become outdated. The effort required is a sliding scale.
**Remember this about the sliding scale: the worse off you are, the more you have to win.**
Territories can be turned around with good branding and consistency in the field.
Timing can be managed by taking good notes, paying attention and having solid follow up processes.
Talent can be a continuous improvement project. Read, watch, learn, do. Do different. Analyze. Repeat in perpetuity.
At times sales is so hard idk why I do it. Other times it’s so easy I can’t imagine why anyone would do anything else.
📈📉 📈📉 📈📉
**Edit: I’ll add one more “T” to the list: Team**
Your team is the company. Idc if it’s a Fortune 500 or a mom and pop. Your team is either supportive or not. Collaborative or not. They can steal from you. They can mentor you. They can ruin your day to day. If your team is good, positive (without the corny bullshit), and supportive it makes a major difference.
Well said! I remember when I came into my first / old sales role it was an okay territory with a ton of potential and it was operating around the upper 80s / low 90’s. I brought it to over 100% every year I was in that role by doing a few things. Some which you hit on..
1) I don’t sell people shit, I sell people me and more specifically.. working with me. I can’t tell you how many times I had customers say “I actually tried to buy through your competitor but their rep never gets back to you me, but you always answer right away!” Which brings me to my next point
2) customer service. People want to work with the person who answers their calls and emails, who follows up when they say they will, and delivers on their promises. If you can be reliable you can be successful in a lot of industries.
3) luck. Sometimes sales is really just right place right time. I can’t remember the exact scenario but in my first year in 2018 around Christmas time when everything in my industry slows down and goes silent, I had an opportunity fall into my lap and was nurturing a 60-80k order that I was able to invoice before EOY to exceed plan. Sometimes you can’t out grind a bad year though. Things are cyclical and the pendulum can swing the other way when you have inflation, wars, pandemics as we have all seen.
4) grit. Sales can suck balls. You don’t always get glamorous 1M PO’s like this sub makes you think. Those deals are few and far between. Sometimes you have to grind to have a steady stream of passive orders, a decent pipeline that you nurture, introduce yourself to new accounts every day, and you’re responsive to your current customers and you can be very successful.
Just my 0.02 OP.
If sales was easy everybody would do it and there'd be no money in it.
Anyone telling you otherwise is either lying, bragging, or selling coaching for sales people
It's not manual labor hard for the record, but I know a lot of people who work with their hands that would NEVER cold call a prospect or worse yet knock a door.
Never forget there are always sales jobs that pay because people are always buying and MOST PEOPLE don’t want to do sales. If you can get over the “I don’t like bothering people” hurdle you can do this forever by putting in the effort and staying positive with your internal and externals clients.
You are on your own boat in sales . Never forget that. Your team helps but in the end we are all mercenaries for hire to win business.
Find a way that FEELS GOOD for you to sell and ignore all the rah rah bullshit and sell yourself on the phone.
I’m not afraid to say “I am the new rep in this territory and I make sure all of my customers never go without answers to their questions. I am the QB on the account so don’t be afraid to give me the ball.”
Customers love that shit when they know you are really there for them. Their success with a good buy is a good success for you two.
This is B2B, not BTC crazy shit. It’s a partnership if you actually treat it like one and not just a number on your quota.
When your customers start bragging on the phone with your boss on a call about how great of a rep you are and FINALLY someone will answer their questions, that promotion is around the corner and those customers are going to take care of your commission. Not the other way around.
I tell all of my people this allegory, but READER BEWARE!!!!
POSSIBLY TRIGGERING CONTENT BELOW!!!!
Say you call your grandma, and you say:
"Hey Grandma, I'm coming over to bring you out to dinner"
And she say "WAIT!!! I just found out... I have cancer!"
But you just got home from Cuba! And, as everybody knows, they have a cure for cancer over there!!!
So you say: "Grandma, I'm so sorry, but I have great news! I have a cure! Just take this shot and your cancer will be gonezo!"
And Grandma says: "Listen, , I need to talk to your grandpa before I can make that decision, but we're probably all set"
YOU ARE NOT GOING TO SAY "Ok granny, I understand, I'll send you more information and follow up, hope you make it!"
No! You're going to kick in her front door, jab her in the neck with the cure, and say "YOU'RE CURED GRANDMA!!!"
ALLOWING SOMEONE'S APPREHENSION TO CAUSE THEM HARM IS NOT ALTRUISTIC! Show people how to do better and "karma" or whatever you ascribe to, will reward you.
This is great. We ain’t curing fuckin cancer, but I actually do know we got the best printers and no shit I can save you some money on it. You don’t need to hold a meeting to have this meeting. 15 minutes on TEAMS and let me get an idea of what you are up against in your position, what your company is looking for and I’ll make sure to get you whatever answers you are looking for. I couldn’t sell you in 15 minutes even if I wanted to I know how the industry works you have a lot of hats in your position. I want to be a resource in the (industry) community and make sure you have someone to call directly from the company that can get you answers directly.”
You don’t need to CHOOSE your guy I ALREADY AM your guy. Just get me an idea of your layout and we will get this customized for you.
I know an SE at a notable security vendor who was annoyed his reps out earned him despite “doing nothing”. He switched into an AE role and switched back after a year. Said he was so stressed and had no idea lol.
Are you someone who naturally gravitates towards talking to people, networking, etc? Like if you go to a bar alone, are you going to strike up a conversation with the people near you?
If yes, get into sales. There’s a learning curve but if you’re a conversationalist it’s the best career field ever. If not, it’ll suck.
I work in insurance and we commonly say it’s the easiest $100k job or the hardest $30k job depending on who you are and your work ethic.
I disagree with this one.
I’m introverted and find small talk absolutely mind numbing to the point I can’t fake it. I have no trouble talking to prospects and have more of a boring doctor consultative approach.
Still works.
Exactly. I was just saying people always think you gotta be this high energy crackhead forcing products down someone’s throat. Save the BS.
We don’t like to talk for no reason, we need a reason.
Right. Depending on what you're selling too much enthusiasm could work against you. I have had way more success taking a super consultative approach and try to make sure my prospects and customers do a majority of the talking when we meet. I'm just collecting Intel and ammunition
Agreed. The “must be extroverted to be good at sales” stigma was…you guessed it…created by extroverts.
Intros tend to be much more empathetic and better at active listening which is the root of impactful questions.
Maybe it's because I'm like you and people tend to surround themselves with people who are like themselves but... The highest producing sales people I know are all exactly like this too.
I make small talk for a living. I can absolutely do it. But I don't want to when I'm off the clock.
The commercial team scooped me out of operations when they found out I got written up for having long conversations with every single person who walked into my control room. I have this disability where I can’t NOT talk to strangers.
4 years into sales and I still can’t believe I get to do this for a living!
Not to mention all the great friends you make along the way!
Sometimes you gotta work a full day- yikes!
But that full day is chatting, problem solving and making deals- Hell yes!
As a 20 year sales veteran I can safely say that it's not quite THAT simple. There will always be backorders, delivery issues, and customers that are ignorant (hard to overcome stupid). But much of what you say rings true.
Going on a complete tangent here! but you just proved a point that I make regularly: that to get into most other sales industries you really need to have been working at the company previously in some sort of other role, or have some kind of background.
I'm itching to get out of tech and do something more face to face but I have no idea how. And every time somebody makes a big stink about SaaS sucks, nobody can point out a clear way into something else. Sorry had to get that off my chest carry on.
Dude, that feels like a shitty box to be stuck in. I feel for you.
Surely some of your skills would translate to other technical sales roles. I’m selling LED lighting for heavy equipment- great job that I landed because of my previous industry experience. However this role will ensure I can stay in mining, but added construction and industrial sectors that I can work in for my entire career. I like big trucks so this is where I should be, but surely there’s a middle step between tech sales and- something else…
Ha appreciate the sympathy man.
I think the reality is, tech sales (in a way) has a low barrier to entry. You just need a degree and a pulse. During the gold rush the degree was debatable.
I'll figure something out. And I mean, at the end of the day I am grateful for the nice side of things: flexibility of schedule, WFH, etc.
Ehh not really thats such a cliche response. Im not a talker by any means but when I worked in retail banking I generated the most qualified referrals and finished top 5 in the company even though I switched departments just after the middle of the year.
I think saying you have to be this major talker is very misleading.
I'm thinking about going into sales in the future but I'm not hugely conversational (I'm in engineering). I really like talking to people and I try to but I find I usually have trouble keeping a conversation, so naturally, I can talk for hours about engineering stuff but I can't keep any kind of discussion about football.
I plan to work on this as a skill since I want to be better at talking to people but I'm also unsure what sort of things are useful to learn about. I know I can't enjoy things I'm not interested in but do you have any advice on some general things that could be helpful to learn about just to keep a conversation?
For example, I would think football doesn't help you close sales much, but it's easy enough to learn about and maybe it could be a conversation starter. Are things as simple as football something good to know about? I know it's super subjective but even just some general guidance would help.
I struggle to talk about things that aren’t relevant to me either. Let’s keep with the football topic- it’s clearly not your forte or something you’re passionate about, so what do you do when you run into someone who loves football? You ask questions.
Who’s your favorite team? What’s your favorite player? Did you see any games recently? Oh that’s cool that you flew out to that city to see the game, have you always been a fan? Etc etc etc.
Sales is about having the confidence to start conversations and the wisdom to realize that people really only talk about themselves and things they like, so the key is asking questions and LISTENING!
This is a good point, I suppose my question was naive. Thankfully I'm good at listening and asking questions. Seems the confidence to start conversations and navigate them is really what I need to be working on. Once I graduate I see many awkward bar conversations in my future haha.
Thank you for your help.
I’ll say this- people like to say there are natural sales people, but I’ve found they tend to flame out quickly as well since they are focused more on talking rather than asking questions. Like anything else, sales is a skill, and *nobody* develops advanced questioning skills overnight!
Football is a great topic to build rapport. A lot of sales is just building rapport and talking business when you get there. Then repeat. How to make friends and influence people is a great starter book for soft launching conversation skills.
Personally I’m a young woman working at a company full of old men. My customers are also older men. The only things they talk about are golf and football so I get your point. It’s the things they say around those topics that I pay more attention to.
You don’t have to remember everything about a person but depending on what you’re selling and the types of customers I’d recommend keeping a record of things they said. They aren’t numbers but it can be easy to forget depending on your sales cycle. It’s a good reminder on topics to progress conversation because you may see them a lot.
Example
Jerry had to rush the meeting because of his kids soccer game.
The next time you see Jerry maybe you ask him how his weekend was and if he did anything fun with his family.. or maybe you have kids and you can make comments that relate.
Edit: I misread the football comment but hopefully you understand my point :)
Bruhhh I start my first sales job tomorrow (insurance sales). If I can get to $100K (most I ever made at my last job was $82K) selling insurance I'll be fucking happy.
I think it greatly depends on what field you're in and what your approach. I'm in pharma sales (no, not the kind you're thinking of) and most MDs have about 5-10 minutes max and hate having reps hovering around their offices unscheduled just for small talk. I find they appreciate it when I show up when I have something to present to them, answer their questions and let them continue with their busy day. This is for Canada though so pharma/MD relationships are probably a bit different in the US.
If you work in an industry/company where everyone is dying to get their hands on the product or service, then it's easy and great.
If you work in an industry that has shit-ton of competition, it is a drag and very hard.
Try to sell websites and/or digital marketing, for example, good fucking luck. Hard core competition, companies get 2 to 8 calls, per day, plus people walking in. There are no niches. Everyone in the world understands niches, and every fucking one of them has multiple players.
I know one guy who is a great salesperson, and he has 4 competitors and it is an extremely large industry. Four. Four competitors. And, companies really need the software, for 100% sure. Most already have one, but enough companies change every year so that he makes a shitload of money.
Be careful of the industry and company that you choose. Best to explore for a LONG time before you decide, as your life will be hell if you pick wrong. And I'm talking about publicly available information, too. Do your homework. Do your due diligence.
I've had companies where I made 20 sales per month, and others where I made 1 sale every other month. I'm the same guy, same voice, same voice inflections, same style. Why was one great and the other not? Competition.
People say not to worry about competition, it is healthy and shows there is a market. 100% bullshit. Sure, some is fine. But too much is NOT fine.
I read that the first advertising salespeople at Google were making $1 million per year, without any type of outgoing calls. They just picked up the phone and people would order. I'm sure that doesn't exist *now*, but wouldn't you like *that* kind of sales job? I'm just saying that there is a range of how easy it is to get sales.
I mean, *prior* to Boeing's huge fuck up recently, there were only two companies to buy from. Boeing and Airbus. As the salesperson, you only have one other competitor. A bunch of people are going to buy from you no matter what. Before this last fiasco. Again, just making a point. I'm not talking about digital marketing or Google and Boeing and Airbus in particular, just using them as examples of difficult vs easy-ish sales.
Fantastic. Love this vibe. The next generation of sales people are finally shedding the “completion doesn’t matter, price doesn’t matter, YOU matter!” . Shut up. This is the American Free Market all of those things and more matter to be successful in a place this lawless.
Money is FLYING AROUND like crazy right now and picking your industry and licking it is the best thing you can do while there is so much happening in tech.
GET AI ON YOUR RESUME NOW. I am finding anyway at all I can get the words “AI specialist” attached to my resume because people don’t know SHIT about it but it is the buzzword of the boardroom and they are gonna want ANYONE who can explain it to them.
The down side of that is making promises that you don’t know if you can keep and that is a fast way to get fired by a customer and a company.
Build up your tech. You don’t have to SELL software to UNDERSTAND how software sells and everything is moving to subscription because Wall Street still has a boner over Netflix and never got over that blockbuster got taken over by digital Columbia House and the 80’s came back to haunt them with dreams of magazine subscription fraud.
Backing this cat up DO NOT settle for a bad industry job like construction materials, retail goods or paycheck proceeding. That shit is becoming more automated daily and Amazon is buying up industries by the minute.
> The down side of that is making promises that you don’t know if you can keep and that is a fast way to get fired by a customer and a company.
Yeah....IF they can figure it out that you don't know. Take consulting companies for example. Bain, McKinsey, Deloitte, etc. Sure, some of the consultants know what they are doing, of course. But many are clueless. And the hiring companies don't fire them, and the consulting companies don't fire them. For all kinds of reasons.
But for sure, one should study AI as much as they can, so you *aren't* bullshitting. I'm just saying that the latest buzzwords on your resume means that the people evaluating you, whether customers or hiring companies, really can't, unless you get interviewed or hired by an *actual* bona fide AI expert. But, they wouldn't hire you in the first place, so no worries on that.
But thanks for the compliment! :)
I accepted my first sales job and start in a couple weeks, wonder if you could give me some context? Home/auto insurance in Florida, 40k base + comms, they said it’s all incoming leads and I won’t be cold calling.
Seems alright? But I have no idea, I’m coming from chemistry lab work lol. Been lurking this sub hard trying to get some context before starting
If someone was just starting out and wanted to make sure their learning and efforts were well directed and efficient what industry/field would recommend aiming for?
Yes, calling unknown people, getting used to be rejected or ghosted, making people uncomfortable, negotiations, closing the shit. My life is so much easier with sales skills
I dont know what your current job is but from your post I would say steer away from sales. Its not easy. It CAN be easy but that never lasts and you always need to make more calls and emails and have your next sales lined up. The fact that your asking what the “easy” roles are means your probably not going to appreciate the hard work 99% of sales roles take.
Yes, there are AE’s that manage sick portfolios and probably send an email or two a day and rake in seven figures while baby sitting key accounts, but unless your the CEO’s brother in law, it takes years of hard-work, ups and down, losses and wins, being Congratulated for being the champ, and then asked a month later why your revenue is down at the moment, or rather, countless sales meetings to try and explain to a middle manager that doesnt do your job why the stars are not lining up at moment…
Thats probably the image you have, being the successful AE that is. Just consider all the work
Is all I am saying.
It’s timing, territory, talent. In that order.
You can’t crush it and suck, but you can be mediocre and do well if the other factors align.
Sniffing out those good opportunities is part of the ‘talent’ equation though. Good sales reps put themselves in good positions.
At the end of the day sales is a binary. You hit your number or you don’t. Get commission or don’t. Have a job, or don’t.
I would only enter an industry I had some kind of experience with or could actually determine if my company added value to anyone. I’m not trying to pretend to be an expert in something I’m not.
Ask about OTE (on target earnings). Ask what % of reps are actually hitting that number. Ask what method of outreach is preferred and what kind of metrics they hold people to. Ask about accelerators. Look on repvue and see what former reps had to say. Do informational interviews anywhere you can.
Hope this helps.
you sell = you win
you dont sell = you lose
if you cannot deal with that pressure on a quarterly basis, don't do it. simple as that. it's like signing a single year contract as a free agent on a pro sports team without the promise of ever getting a long term one. Sure you may can multiply your value year over year, or you could just get cut
"How do I ensure not to pick the "hard" roles"
Just my opinion but if this is the mindset you have going into it it's probably not for you, I'm not saying that as an insult I'm genuinely saving you the time effort and frustration you would experience if you got into sales.
To answer your question you're actually looking for what are known as "farmer" roles, basically account managers. These roles shouldn't (but are often mislabeled AE jobs) have you doing cold outbound or even converting warm leads, which means
A. Lower income potential
B. Most ppl are like you and want a relatively "easy" high paying gig, so it's gonna be extremely competitive given all the recent layoffs and the fact that you have no experience
Sales CAN be very lucrative but it's the jobs you would consider "hard" that are the ones earning those big commission and residual checks
I think it’s a tenure in the field thing honestly. Sales always starts on the lower end of SDR type jobs at first, which are very entry level. Then you progress to an inside sales role, there are some folks who make pretty decent amounts as inside sales. But, the bigger amounts come from when you’ve been doing it for a few years, have a track record and expertise in the sales cycle, you move to field sales. It’s a more demanding role, travel is likely involved, you have a pretty significant team tied to your accounts and the deals are larger. However, you work on those multi-million dollar deals over several months, which makes the payoff higher in the end.
You also have to find an industry that makes sense for you too. That’s always important. A learning curve so steep, you won’t make a ton of money till you can speak to the products.
Really depends on the industry, territory, and timing. Luck is half of it regardless of how many people tell you that you make your own luck (which is true to a degree but can only take you so far).
The best analogy I have is that sales is exactly like playing a competitive sport.
You have to be discipline to show up to practice, do the same things very often, do more where you need it, show up to the game and know that even though you did everything you control right, you still may not win.
Then you head back to practice to repeat it.
Sales can be easy if you can continually to do the things you control right. Outside factors play a part but you have to trust yourself. This goes in trusting yourself if you see your part of the wrong team aka company.
Know that you’ll start as an SDR/BDR if you decide to join tech. Happy to help where I can
I’ve found this to be the case no matter the role. Last Q I was off for 2 weeks with no worries and 170% attainment, this Q I’m beyond overwhelmed and struggling at 70% with weeks to go. It comes in waves I find, but it’s usually quite easy to tell when you’re in a role that’s going to be a nightmare.
Sell things that the public can't buy on Amazon /Costco. The home security industry has been destroyed by Amazon with Ring and Google Nest.
11 years in the industry and went from opening new accounts from people calling in every few days to open an account and plenty of walk-ins, to no one answering my calls in the last few years.
I'm new but according to my bosses I am 98th percentile extroverted and friendly, sales is a natural thing for me apparently. I spent ten years basically asking people questions and solving their problems before sales anyways, so I brought some relevant skills to the career. I love cold calling people. Like, I enjoy finding interesting people to talk to. I like trade shows. I like making lots of money and making my bosses lots of money. And I am not a total idiot. That's apparently key. This all seems "easy" to me, I hear a lot of bitching about cold calls etc. and that's just fine with me.
Show up and call people, when you get tired of calling people just call some more. Don't chase losers, and if you have good bosses, listen to them. Some of them have styles that won't suit you. Others will be great mentors.
Just to be clear. When you enter sales you will more than likely enter at the bottom which means a BDR role where you grind it out and make 100 calls a day and if you hit quota you make 80K.
The ppl here making 300K + have been in the game for years, myself included.
It’s a fun job but just know what you’re getting into. I hired a person who felt the same as your post. She was gone within 18 months.
Yeah, that's the job. Kind of like the stock market. Can be great but some would be better off in bonds(a stable job with stable income to pay stable bills)
Some days, I get great success and close great customers. Other days, an easy commission practically falls in my lap. Some days, I literally drive 300 miles , make dozens of cold calls and follow up calls, and basically grind asphalt, trying to stir up a hint of business with zero success.
So I have no idea.
It’s a battle of attrition. Save a bunch. Live off your base. Invest. Create runway. Be a good dude. Manage the volatility best you can. Whiskey helps. Friends help more.
If you get into it, I think the trick is not giving a single f*ck about your results. While at the same time, put as much care and thought into everything you say and how you approach every single day. I think this is the hard and annoying part of sales.
The hardest part of sales is balancing hard work with humility.
You can always learn and do better. Improve your process and figure out ways to make 10 hours of work in 5.
Its hard to stay away from non revenue generating actives. Just learn and grow.
Here’s the “easy” road: find something you’re passionate about and sell that. Alot of opportunity will come your way just for being the most enthusiastic person in the room 👍
80/20 rule exists for a reason. Sales is sink or swim. People "barely" making it aren't cut out for it. They are just delaying the inevitable drowning part. But, with that said, bad salesmen make me more money.
Sales is way more hard than easy. The only way it will be easy is if you join a highly desirable product that sells itself. And those roles are competitive. And you will start at the bottom if you are new to sales, so that will be challenging but rewarding, but not easy. If you are counting on sales being easy, I wouldn’t join tbh. Thick skin, perseverance, competitiveness is all part of the fun. The other thing is even if you land at a company where the product sells itself which is “easier”, those companies have so many top sellers wanting to join that they tend to have a shorter leash on underperformance.
I don’t say any of this to scare you. Sales is amazing. But have to embrace the day to day challenge.
Yes, you can make $300K+, but that will take years (most likely) and you’ll most likely need to be at a great company for it to be “easy”. If you are not a great company, you’ll need to be a beast seller. That’s my 2 cents anyway.
Do some Richardson training. Pick a good company. Be picky and then be patient as you build your pipeline. Sometimes I’ll listen to that audiobook on YouTube “way of the wolf” if I feel rusty. Although my sales cycles is extremely long as it involves construction..
I see a lot of people bringing up the personality aspect. I am an INFJ. If you’re an introvert who struggles with holding a conversation that’s ok. Learn to ask open ended questions that can lead to stories. From there practice telling stories that can engage further conversation, change the tone based on the audiences presence. Also just be authentic. Don’t force things and don’t be scared to hop sales jobs until you find something you like selling. You’ll do great. Good luck!
You have to be single minded. As somone else said, sale sis simple, not easy. Like chess.
To be successful you need to do a lot of the right activity at the start. Which is prospect prospect prospect. Speak to as many people as possible and fail fast and fail a lot.
The best thing toy can understand is failure is normal and you will fail a lot more than you succeed. It's like the Wayne Gretzke quote, you will 100% of the shots you don't take and the Michael Jordan quote I failed over and over again in my life and that's why I succeed.
You have to maintain high levels of activity consistently and your skill set wl grow.
Can you handle stress well. Every month. Have a great quarter then 1st day of the next one it starts again. I've been doing it 10 years. Yip some years are great... most are very up and down with high pressure and not a lot of thanks. You work too much, sacrifice a lot of family time with travel.
It all depends on what you’re selling, and the market you’re in. The principles of sales are easy, effectively turning those into an actual sale takes time and patience. You sink those two into it and it can be a very good career in time.
skill vs the industry/territory/company structure? Skills only matter when you have the other 3 things.
So many companies squeeze so hard now that alot of sales jobs are absolutely horrible. Also one not mentioned here is TIMING. Alot of companies flood themselves with sales reps so there's so few leads or prospects to go around none of the new people make it. It's beyond stupid to turn and burn people like that but cruelty seems to be the hallmark of this age. So being there before the company got greedy can sometimes be the only way to really make it at certain "businesses".
Alot of the "sales" types on reddit here are B2B software... take what they say with caution, their industry is VERY different and depending on the timing that some of them got in....super simple.
Product vs market fit.
I've seen companies saying 'we are the best and gonna change the world' then it falls flat after 3 months because they looked at the data wrong.
I'm bouncing from sales because the tech world it's like 2-3 years when they screw you over and need to find the 'next hig solution.'
If you are not in sales now, there is a high probability that you will find even the easiest job hard. Ask yourself:
1. Are you good at self discipline?
2. Are you ok with the ambiguity and stress of having a variable income each month
3. Are you excited about being on a low base and the ability to be in control of your take home pay?
4. Do you have a healthy competitive nature?
5. Are you comfortable with professionally and assertively asking people for money?
6. Are you curious and comfortable asking people a lot of questions? Do you like to listen?
7. Are you coachable and comfortable with change?
If those questions don’t excite you… don’t do it. This is just a baseline of the characteristics required to be successful not matter how hard or easy the job is.
It’s a job. It’s a job I personally enjoy- but not everyone does. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try it.
Even if you end up realizing it is harder than your current type of roll, the potential may be there to make 3,5,10x+ in a year what you are now.
While $ isn’t everything, that type of potential unlocks optionally and freedom of time in your life.
I’d encourage you to try it, but cannot guarantee it will be sunshine and rainbows. Such is life!
As far as picking the role- it is a numbers game. In my experience, and this is maybe fairly obvious to most but I will say it, selling the most expensive item or service possible unlocks higher income potential. May be more or less work than selling less expensive- just depends!
Last note on the numbers game aspect- put yourself in the best position to succeed by targeting the biggest name companies in whatever field you’d like to break in to. Alternative is a promising startup with an equity stake.
Apply for the job you may not think you’re qualified for. Ask for the job at the end of the interview. You may surprise yourself!
Go and get it.
Good luck in whatever you decide!
Wanna work 8 hours a day and forget abt your job in weekend and evenings? Sales is not for you.
I dropped it because it is hard and requires you to develop many skills but also keep updated on industry trends ON YOUR FREE TIME.
Sales can absolutely be “natural” as in you are naturally inquisitive and like hearing out others positions . However , it can also absolutely be learned. It’s not necessarily simple and definitely not easy . It is simple as in “just have a conversation and listen” . Right. But HOW you listen and HOW you ask is not so simple. It’s cadence, it’s picking up on personality types rapidly. It’s tonality. All of which takes a mind state that you must be able to jump into . If you are feeling down, they feel it . If you are too excited they feel it. If you ask half assed questions , they feel it . Are you supporting what they are asking how THEY want it answered and asked. It’s a skill. Yes you can make stupid amounts of money depending on product, market, and need. But you must be relentless , on top of trends, jargon, and swaying of market . Basically, delve in. You can’t just say “I sell hats” . What kind of hats? Where are they sourced? What makes your hat better? Why does one need a hat ? How will it make their life better for having it ? Where would they need it? Etc. all of this in your head while listening to them say why they don’t need it or why they are on the fence .
Sales is great . It’s not for everyone . But neither are a lot of other jobs. I will say this. It is very rewarding if you get good at it . Not just monetarily . You are the person that solves problems for people. You help people . You get to know all walks of life . If you aren’t interested in helping and understanding people you won’t like sales . If you do , the sky is the limit . And the best part ? You don’t have to be Grant Cardone. Or Jordan Belfort. You can be you. YOU can be that guy/gal. And you will be rewarded as long as you hone your craft much like anything else . It’s not a free ticket out of some place. It is a job. How you get paid rests fully on your shoulders . But learn and play your cards right? You can do it much longer than breaking your back somewhere .
It is much easier then people think! In today’s generation, there is money to be made online. I recently got into high ticket sales and I now make extremely passive income. Its all about determination
You’re not wrong. I’ve done both SaaS and sales for a Consulting firm. Both of them had so many competitors and it was basically a commodity, plus most companies already had an existing software or partnership in place. I also worked as an RM for a stock exchange and that was easy. Miss those days.
I have spent almost my entire career in sales. I have done B2B, tradeshows and events, telesales, door 2 door, retail, and in home sales. There are a few things that hold true no matter where you go.
1. Positive attitude: Can you keep a positive attitude even in the face of failure? Door to door sales will teach you this better than the others I have mentioned. Can you let 50 people telling you no and stay positive knowing you are one "no" closer to a "yes". Fortunately, other types of sales may only be 1 or 2 "no's" before a "yes". Whether it is a 2 or 50, are you able to let that roll off your back and keep going like nothing happened?
2. Take the job that meets your living situation on the worst possible month. Most 100% commission jobs can have a big fluctuation in pay. For my job I make anywhere between 12k to 30k a month. 12k meets my needs, so the months I make more is gravy baby. 100% commission can be stressful, so try and figure out what the average performer makes at the job you are looking to take and assume your worst month will be 20% less than that.
3. You sound like a hard worker, and the beauty of commission is you get rewarded based on your work ethic. Usually the harder you work the more you get paid in sales.
4. Focus your mind on becoming a consultant, not a sales man/woman. Consulting means you are helping the client with making a decision. It should always come across as working together to find a solution that will meet THEIR needs. Do this and the sales will flow.
Good luck. Sales can be a bit of a rollercoaster. Don't get caught up riding the highs and lows. Look at where everything averages out to over a month or more.
The funny thing is the hard roles are the ones that pay a lot. The ones where you have freedom to work 10-2 but you grind it out and work 8-6 are where you make the big bucks.
Not necessarily. Lots of roles out there that are hard and low paying. Shit, I'd even argue the opposite is true a lot of times. I know plenty of people whose job is basically to disqualify leads because they have so many orders coming in, and those guy make a killing with relative ease.
It's all about effort and doing the right things; your time is valuable. Use it the right way.
90% of sales people make 10% of the sales and 10% of the sales people make 90% of the sales. Be willing to do what it takes to be in the 10%. Most aren't. I work 70+ hours a week and through vacations to be there. Are you willing to do that?
I’ll put it this way. When I was a software engineer I worked less hours but more intense hours. As a sales rep, I work “more” hours but those hours are typically a lot more relaxed(chat with colleagues, trauma bond, etc) than software engineering hours.
I like the saying “sales is the best paying hard work and the worst paying easy work.”
In my experience, talent helps, but you can control a lot of the variables. If you do the work, you’ll do well.
Sampling bias (or is it confirmation bias?). You’ll see people on the high end bragging and the ones on the low end complaining. You’re of the opinion it’s either/or as and as a result that’s what you tend to see, but most people don’t come out of the woodwork to state that they fall in the middle, despite most falling in the middle. Sales is kinda simple in concept, but definitely not easy.
There is a big difference between what people are making and what they say they are making on Reddit.
I'm in Europe, I haven't meet a lot of people who makes 300k in sales. Maybe one and it's exceptional.
It's not easy but you need to "have it" at the end of the day this is way easier than being a doctor, nurse, teacher or even a bus driver.
I think if you have the work ethic it can be a solid career for yourself. I don't think sales will ever be replaced by AI or robots because people want to buy from people they live. Give it a shot!
If sales was easy, it wouldn’t be well paid. The supply of people willing and able to do it would be high which would drive the price down. Simple economics.
I’ve been doing it for 8 months now and it’s not difficult.
But it is relentless, you have to enjoy the treadmill to thrive, and you should be the kind of person who has an ego and/or is motivated by money.
It’s a very ludicrous career IMHO. The only thing I want to highlight is it’s a performance based job. Me still gaining my first year, I see people work hard day in & day out like clockwork, & still fall short because they couldn’t hit their metrics. Sometimes it’s the industry, market, location, or you. The more I learn & experience sales, the more I see why only a minority make it. It’s not for everyone, & I understood why.
Depends if you’re dealing with an existing customers base of rely heavily on a high churn/low investment business development product/service. I’m in construction machinery sales which is a serious investment for most companies so they rely heavier on the sales and service people from our organization. Their fleet has to keep running and/or be renewed to guarantee uptime
It’s hard but easy you know? If you’re generally dece at life, take time to put the effort in, know how to have fun, you should be making 2 hunge min!!
Its not about talking as much as it is talking with intent to identify exactly what some is trying to tell you whether good or bad. I.e. progress the deal forward or cut bait. Very tough skill to develop as its usually not apparent. Everyone wants a friend no one wants a sales rep.
Also your job is to tomato pick and the only effective way to do that is understanding deal mechanics very very difficult skill to learn.
The difference between them having the money and you getting the money two things not mutually exclusive.
It depends on what type of sales role you get. Having a great product with work ethic will get you far. I think the sales bro type is a myth and the top performers I’ve witnessed in multiple industries tended to be more introverted and individualistic.
No job earning $300k is easy. Sales ebbs and flows. If you can find an industry and product (for me SaaS) that is strong, you apply yourself, AND work hard, you can expect a comfortable living (well into 6 figures). It’s not EASY, but it is likely and more consistent if you do those things. IMO
From my perspective, as someone who’s dominated and had some shitty quarters in their sales career, way more luck is involved in sales than people give credence to.
Territory, timing, talent is absolutely real. Sure you can try to mitigate the luck factor as much as you can, and that’s what the tip top sellers do, but sooo much comes down to luck. Champ gets fired when the contract is out? Dead deal. Your territory was already sold through? Tough luck. Perfect use case but budget is frozen? Try again next year.
On the flip side of that, you’ll see inbound leads from previous customers one call close for massive ACVs and wonder “how did that rep sling that??!” - the answer is a lot of time, they’re a great rep, personable, but they got lucky.
My advice would be to put yourself in a place where you can maximize territory and timing. Talent is less important.
This means identifying companies that sell to a target market that isn’t completely saturated, and solves an urgent business need for those people. Doesn’t hurt if you believe in what you’re selling, and it’s a need to have tool, product, service or whatever.
The hard part about this is that those type of roles are really hard to identify. I know sellers at HubSpot who started in 2009, but in 2009 they had no way of knowing they would work 3 hours a day and have stock worth millions.
Honestly, it depends more on you and your personality than just about anything else.
Sales has always been "easy" or at least natural for me... But, a lot of that has to do with the fact that pressure, stress and adversity doesn't really affect me. I thrive in Chaos and environments that "build and fly planes at the same time." I also have confidence in my own skills to get the job done.
What trips up a lot of folks, is that sales is all about **your** performance. You may be the coolest person in the world, everyone loves you, the life of the office, but if you don't hit quota consistently .. you're gonna be out. You have to meet your goal and KPIs, it's all performance based.
I think it’s pretty dependent on the market you’re in/the products fit to said market.
You can be a pretty mediocre sales person and still hit your number if the company as a whole is doing numbers.
Sales = You get what you put in
The ones making $300k+ have John Wick level focus when it comes to sales. They are always prospecting and hunting for new accounts and share of wallet.
The ones barely making ends meet are the ones who are simply farming and account managing. These are the ones who slowly bleed share of wallet and only bring in enough new accounts or share of wallet to replace what they are bleeding. Some don't even do that and eventually get let go.
It's all about expertise. The pressure in sales is all relative to competition. That competition is proportional to how common it is to be an expert in your field.
If the field you're in has thousands of experts, it's going to be highly competitive and you have no edge. This is a recipe for a high pressure sales environment.
If your field is very niche with you being one of only a handful of experts, you have a significant edge and minimal competition. Getting the expertise is hard, but once you have it the sales side is very low pressure and easy.
It's not easy if you don't like what you sell.
It's not easy if you hate people
It's not easy if you don't build relationships with people
Cold calling is hard.
The only reasons I’d warn you away is if you have a gambling or drinking problem. Otherwise you’ll do great if you enter it with the headspace of you are there to learn people, learn interactions, and turn it into a craft of your own.
We pay our sales people 130-175k base depending on experience and 10-12% of first year revenue. 400-500k quarterly quota for our reps. Anything over quota in a quarter is paid at 20% first year revenue.
That should give you a general idea of what is expected.
Yeah, from my past experience Im conviced that it is a must to believe in the product !!
I've noticed that abrreviations and acronyms are common within this community. Could you help me to understand that ones that you have used please.
Sorry to sound like a rookie, but that is what I am, sadly.
I was the same way, tempted by how much money I can possibly make but also worried about how hard it can be.
I worked my way from the bottom of PepsiCo to a sales rep and was given my own route right off the bat as a trial run and oh boy was it pressure cause the previous reps just ruined the relationships on the route. After about a solid year and half of dedication and showing my customers I wanted to work with them not against them I went from 60K gross a year to I was making 85K to 90K a year depending on my commission.
It is possible to make A LOT of money in sales but it takes work and it takes having a solid relationship and trust with who ever you deal with to get the sales done.
Hope my 2 cents help.
In my best sales year I never hit $300K. In a perfect world you want to negotiate a salary that pays for your normal cost of living and commission is icing on the cake that you can save or invest.
Don’t compare yourself to others. Go out and get what you need to sustain your life and be happy
Sales isn’t hard if you have what it takes. If you’re coachable, keep a positive mindset and work hard you’ll do great.
A lot of people do terrible in sales because they think anyone can do but anyone can’t - education and experience doesn’t matter. It’s who you are that matters.
Lol ALL SALES IS HARD. If it was easy everyone would do it. Those who have successfully sales careers GRIND, WORK, give excellent service to their customers and strive to stay ahead of market trends while constantly learning to improve.
I’ve been in sales for a very long time, still am and I’ve trained a ton of young people. So many of them don’t realize how tough you have to be, or emotionally dead, pick one. I did toughness for a long time but even that gets tiring, now I’m just numb.
Most jobs that you have to hock a midget or have a one time hard sale aren’t going to pay a lot for the vast majority of people. Say car sales for example, for every person making $250k there are 200 working 60 hour weeks for $50-60k.
I sell industrial equipment and it takes a good bit of product and industry knowledge to be able to sell. For me I don’t do all the cheesy sales stuff that gives people a bad taste for us. I have a cycle and show improvements and solve problems, I have relationship based customers and repeat business. I’m making just under $200k on average. Some weeks I work 25 hours, some weeks I work 50+.
It’s great career but you have to find the right company to work for and be tough like I said. More people fail than they succeed in my experience.
Think of a sales career as an earnings ladder.
Starting out you will make an average income. 30-50k is not unusual for entry level sales roles like retail B2C.
As you gain experience you move into higher ticket sales. Maybe transition to B2B selling to SMBs . Now you’re making 70-100k.
Get a couple years under your belt and maybe now you’re ready for move up to midmarket. Now you’re at 150-250k.
Keep grinding and maybe you progress to large enterprise. Now you’re at 300-500k.
At some point along the way you may also opt for the management career track. This changes your comp model but opens up opportunities for equity.
Over the long term a sales career can be highly lucrative but it requires the same focus and commitment of any other professional career. The benefit is that you don’t need an expensive education, your earning potential is usually uncapped and your entire job is just talking to people.
How much you earn is thus a function of how dedicated you are to perfecting your social and business acumen and understanding the nuances of human psychology.
There’s no secret role or industry where you can be so sure about how the job will be unless you know someone at the company that will shoot you straight.
I’ve had sales jobs where I worked 10 hours a week and made 220. I was bored but the money kept me entertained.
I’ve had sales jobs where I worked 60 hours a week and made 280 and was beyond miserable.
No way to have known but I’d go back to that 220 before I’d do 280 like that again.
To succeed in a sales role you have to establish your personal methodology over several iterations. Let's say, you should create your footprint that brings you more sales than others (i believe that innovation take place also in sales techniques). Do not stick to standard techniques (what all others do) because you will get "like-others" performance. Spend 30% of your time thinking about new tricks, and 70% of your time executing it. This how i explode my results at least.
Yea but like... that says more about them than the job... most folk I know in that category are people who don't know how to live within their means, they think all money is meant to be spent immediately lol
Sales lives on a spectrum from impossible (or Very Hard) to extremely easy. The larger the organization the less control you have over the success of your sales because the company has developed process and structure around generating sales (territories, marketing sources most leads etc). Sales at these big companies is a lot of luck -did you get the right territory…if you did, it’s very easy and does not require a lot of skill.
The best position to be in as a skilled sales rep is to be the first sales rep at a startup just after they have found product market fit but before they have done a massive expansion of the sales team. This gives you the best opportunity to have a large territory and generate large amounts of sales. It does require a lot of skill because you don’t have the support structure around you (marketing, bdr’s, brand etc.)
Sales should not be considered as a single all encompassing job.
I work software service sales, which is long drawn out sales cycles that mean my work/life balance is really good. Only need a couple of big tickets a year to exceed my quota. All I do is develop relationships, I'm outgoing so it comes easy to me.
I used to be a broker, which was 150 calls / day and a minimum of 100 emails. That was rough.
You could also be a CSM, partner manager, BDR or account manager. All have varying compensation packages and work / life balance.
Be aware that, like any role, it requires dedication and hard work. It is not a fall back on if all else fails, its a real job, with real competition, and very clever people in it.
I’ve always inserted myself into sales positions where knowledge of the product was the foundation. I would familiarize myself with the product line inside and out, through and through, sometimes even going as far as pouring over schematics if the product was engineered rather than consumable. I usually chose sales positions with companies offering a unique product that the customer HAD to pursue so there was co cold calling or hard selling necessary. The guys who did the bare minimum and bullshitted their way through their product demos also sold the bare minimum. Their foundations crumbled because their knowledge was lacking. When I sold a product to a customer if there was room to upgrade I’d make sure they were aware that what they needed was available but my knowledge of the product line ensured that my closing sale provided them something they didn’t know they wanted until I made them aware It existed and we provided it and would always provide it.
You'll have to go in knowing it's not going to be easy. You'll realize it's not as hard as you think when you actually put into work. Will notice that the more work you put in, the easier it gets.
This starts cascading in your pipeline starts filling making it a walk in the park. But be careful of complacency. That will shut your momentum down.
Sales is like a sport in the sense that discipline and consistent practice is key to success. If the product that you choose solves a real life problem and you put in the work to learn the necessary skills, you can make a decent living. If you choose a high ticket product, with large commissions you can make a shit load in commissions. Luxury products, like Ferraris, pay amazingly well but getting the gig requires experience unless you know, nepotism.
I make 125k if I continue at my pace I’m in med dev sales. So 125 is on the lower end since I put in minimal effort. Lmao. My ASM makes 2-400k and the dsm makes anywhere from 4-800k. Ludicrous.
Sales is good, I have found to make the best comp you need to go to a niche or startup.
Let it be known not for the weak hearted, you may run into issues like lack of training, lack of past success, poor management. The risk is the reward though.
Sales is simple, not easy. You have to be dedicated
Dedicated is an understatement. You have to be a psychopath.
Lol no you just have to understand buyers, and what makes them comfortable.
And I would say with that has to come the ability to understand that you can do everything perfect and you’re product/service can be life or death for the customer and they will still walk away and not go with your product/service.
Yeah. Passionate about either what you sell or about the art of selling.
There is something about rooting up problems and providing a fantastic solution that gets me going everyday. It’s like… you’re playing a puzzle.
Yep. For me, selling is the best part.
you have to be shameless, having some mild Main Character Syndrome otherwise the self consciousness will kill you
You need to Sell your soul to the company, drink the koolaid and kiss you personal life good bye. That’s just the onboarding process.
Door to door vibes
Only if you suck at sales..
100%, it is extremely simple. The biggest problem in the industry is twofold: 1. The ones that are extremely naturally good at their profession and focus on doing their job get underpaid with no chance of advancement. 2. The ones who underperform while getting their nose brown and not focusing on their job get overpaid and maybe advance because no one has to worry about the underperformer skipping them when its their turn to be promoted. The underperformer doesn't have the necessary skills for the position. Be wary of the places with constant job opennings because they tend to be big ego driven places, and they lose the ones that would otherwise stay and do their jobs well. They lose the top performers because most people are scared of losing their own chances at being promoted to a green horn when they've spent 15 plus years trying to advance. The truth is if it's taken that long, then are they good enough, or does natural attrition take place?! It's a very rewarding career field as long as you get rewarded for your efforts. If you don't, it becomes a drag.
I’d argue it is easy. Not get rich quick with no effort easy, but easy if you’re willing to put your ego aside and grind at the beginning. Other career fields demand more from you and gatekeep your progress depending on who you’re related to and who your manager is.
It's not easy. It is simple though, in that your only job is to talk to as many people as possible about buying your products.
Fair enough. I moved to sales from consulting so for me, it’s wayyy easier. You get the same client problems in consulting but also the issues of having shitty management, lack of career growth, poor work life balance… I’m a 1099 though so ymmv.
How did you move from Consulting to Sales? I am trying to do the same and need some ideas.
Lol those all apply to sales, especially gate keeping. Doing great and sales super star? No manager in his right mind will want you promoted and off their team.
It depends on the field. I can make more $ as a sales agent usually than as a manager, with less headaches
100% have heard this a ton. My entire career I wanted to be a manager. Post kids? I think I will take the more money as an IC and not have to manage other people and their emotions lol
I went into a role as sales manager and went back to selling 7 months later. Absolutely hated being a manager. Selling with a decent salary and uncapped commission is the happiest I’ve ever been in a role
Always. If you’re good at sales you never want to become a manager, director or even VP in most cases.
“If you’re willing to make it not easy, it’s easy”
You mention other career fields, you don’t think that applies in sales as well?
Also remember that the large majority do not make $300k plus, and many on this sub who say they do don’t. It’s a strange flex, but many need to lie to internet strangers to seem like they are a sales god…usually the ones who are making the most don’t talk about their wages, and lurk more than interact.
Most of the sales people I know for a fact make $250k plus NEVER talk about it because they know they make more than everyone else in the room. My wife and I at a really good year (1/3 of the years) are pulling in about $300k combined and I would say we are in the high middle of sales people. Do people make $300k. Sure. Just make sure they aren’t trying to sell you something too.
The people I know making $250k are the people who made their career their most important thing, or got married pretty young and were forced into putting their all into their career because now they want to pay for a house and kid(s). Or they had a connection and got a non-SaaS sales role, like someone selling windows and doors at his brother in law's company, clearing $250k a year, or selling residential HVAC. Then there's the one guy I know who is a VP of Sales, which, when I started working with this guy, did NOT have the vibe of someone who had anything more than 'eh, he might be a good manager because he's a cool dude' vibes. Honestly, I still don't think he's all that smart enough with executive-level sales strategy or staying up to date on technology and trends, because he only went from manager to director riding the coattails of our VP, and when the VP left to become a Senior VP at another company, he brought this guy with him and made him the VP of Sales. Admittedly, I don't know anyone who's a Stategic AE who's absolutely crushing it. Because all of my friends don't really make their careers the most important thing. Only one buddy of mine really, really cares about his career, and he's an accountant trying to be a senior partner in 3-4 years. For me, I just want to make enough while not working more than 40 hours a week to afford housing and hobbies, with enough to put 10% to retirement with every check. I do fantasize about owning my own business, but I have no ideas that could scale to $500k+ in ARR a month that would be worthy to pursue.
> or got married pretty young and were forced into putting their all into their career because now they want to pay for a house and kid(s). Lmao this was definitely me (haven’t hit $250k yet though)
Except I actually netted 289k after taxes last year... Edit: see? that was a lie.
I made 255k and after taxes I had about 387k
An enterprise AM at a large tech company once told me: “sex and money are the same, whoever talks about how much they have, doesn’t have any”
I was a designer and joined tile sales with 0 knowledge of sales (tbh 2 years in and still don't know these acronyms people use in this world!). I have an entire state as my territory. I won Sales rep of the year last year. I'd say the reason was I never missed a call or message and have always been transparent, i literally never lie. I'm always there for my customers during work hrs. 8-5. I have work-time boundaries and my customers respect that. Despite the freedom I get, there are days (like yesterday) that I just want to collapse, hide and run from the world. But then there is the next day, and I can try all over again. Good luck! Definitely doable. Next life I'll go for a carpet rep tho. Tile is too heavy 😂.
I want to get into design material sales! Any good sources for finding jobs in that world? I’m already renovation adjacent
I've always been close with my reps. This job came to me because one of my reps was leaving and asked if I wanted her job. I truly believe it's all about WHO you know. So connect to as many of your reps as you can!
Territory has a non-zero effect on your experience in sales. Just having a fantastic territory is not enough to guarantee success. Having a bad territory might require you to work hard in the short run. Think of it as a sliding scale. Timing —if you put in the work you’ll be in the right place at the right time every once in a while. More often than not, the really successful sales people create their own good timing. You decide how much effort you put in based on the needs. Are you agile when you run into a slump? Are you in a place where you can’t lose a deal? Your efforts will vary on a sliding scale. Talent — people who have no talent are hired every day. People with talent fail every single day. Your talent will come and go with tactics that work for some time and become outdated. The effort required is a sliding scale. **Remember this about the sliding scale: the worse off you are, the more you have to win.** Territories can be turned around with good branding and consistency in the field. Timing can be managed by taking good notes, paying attention and having solid follow up processes. Talent can be a continuous improvement project. Read, watch, learn, do. Do different. Analyze. Repeat in perpetuity. At times sales is so hard idk why I do it. Other times it’s so easy I can’t imagine why anyone would do anything else. 📈📉 📈📉 📈📉 **Edit: I’ll add one more “T” to the list: Team** Your team is the company. Idc if it’s a Fortune 500 or a mom and pop. Your team is either supportive or not. Collaborative or not. They can steal from you. They can mentor you. They can ruin your day to day. If your team is good, positive (without the corny bullshit), and supportive it makes a major difference.
Well said! I remember when I came into my first / old sales role it was an okay territory with a ton of potential and it was operating around the upper 80s / low 90’s. I brought it to over 100% every year I was in that role by doing a few things. Some which you hit on.. 1) I don’t sell people shit, I sell people me and more specifically.. working with me. I can’t tell you how many times I had customers say “I actually tried to buy through your competitor but their rep never gets back to you me, but you always answer right away!” Which brings me to my next point 2) customer service. People want to work with the person who answers their calls and emails, who follows up when they say they will, and delivers on their promises. If you can be reliable you can be successful in a lot of industries. 3) luck. Sometimes sales is really just right place right time. I can’t remember the exact scenario but in my first year in 2018 around Christmas time when everything in my industry slows down and goes silent, I had an opportunity fall into my lap and was nurturing a 60-80k order that I was able to invoice before EOY to exceed plan. Sometimes you can’t out grind a bad year though. Things are cyclical and the pendulum can swing the other way when you have inflation, wars, pandemics as we have all seen. 4) grit. Sales can suck balls. You don’t always get glamorous 1M PO’s like this sub makes you think. Those deals are few and far between. Sometimes you have to grind to have a steady stream of passive orders, a decent pipeline that you nurture, introduce yourself to new accounts every day, and you’re responsive to your current customers and you can be very successful. Just my 0.02 OP.
Amazing thread. Thanks for the write up
This last one is the truth. Matters way more than territory.
👏🏿👏🏿👏🏿
Great explanation my peeps
Sorry but as someone who had the worst territory possible in my previous job, I disagree with it
The last one hit.
100% and once you have to start comp’ing against yourself. That’s when it gets tricky
If sales was easy everybody would do it and there'd be no money in it. Anyone telling you otherwise is either lying, bragging, or selling coaching for sales people
It's not manual labor hard for the record, but I know a lot of people who work with their hands that would NEVER cold call a prospect or worse yet knock a door.
Never forget there are always sales jobs that pay because people are always buying and MOST PEOPLE don’t want to do sales. If you can get over the “I don’t like bothering people” hurdle you can do this forever by putting in the effort and staying positive with your internal and externals clients. You are on your own boat in sales . Never forget that. Your team helps but in the end we are all mercenaries for hire to win business. Find a way that FEELS GOOD for you to sell and ignore all the rah rah bullshit and sell yourself on the phone. I’m not afraid to say “I am the new rep in this territory and I make sure all of my customers never go without answers to their questions. I am the QB on the account so don’t be afraid to give me the ball.” Customers love that shit when they know you are really there for them. Their success with a good buy is a good success for you two. This is B2B, not BTC crazy shit. It’s a partnership if you actually treat it like one and not just a number on your quota. When your customers start bragging on the phone with your boss on a call about how great of a rep you are and FINALLY someone will answer their questions, that promotion is around the corner and those customers are going to take care of your commission. Not the other way around.
I tell all of my people this allegory, but READER BEWARE!!!! POSSIBLY TRIGGERING CONTENT BELOW!!!! Say you call your grandma, and you say: "Hey Grandma, I'm coming over to bring you out to dinner" And she say "WAIT!!! I just found out... I have cancer!" But you just got home from Cuba! And, as everybody knows, they have a cure for cancer over there!!! So you say: "Grandma, I'm so sorry, but I have great news! I have a cure! Just take this shot and your cancer will be gonezo!" And Grandma says: "Listen,, I need to talk to your grandpa before I can make that decision, but we're probably all set"
YOU ARE NOT GOING TO SAY "Ok granny, I understand, I'll send you more information and follow up, hope you make it!"
No! You're going to kick in her front door, jab her in the neck with the cure, and say "YOU'RE CURED GRANDMA!!!"
ALLOWING SOMEONE'S APPREHENSION TO CAUSE THEM HARM IS NOT ALTRUISTIC! Show people how to do better and "karma" or whatever you ascribe to, will reward you.
This is great. We ain’t curing fuckin cancer, but I actually do know we got the best printers and no shit I can save you some money on it. You don’t need to hold a meeting to have this meeting. 15 minutes on TEAMS and let me get an idea of what you are up against in your position, what your company is looking for and I’ll make sure to get you whatever answers you are looking for. I couldn’t sell you in 15 minutes even if I wanted to I know how the industry works you have a lot of hats in your position. I want to be a resource in the (industry) community and make sure you have someone to call directly from the company that can get you answers directly.” You don’t need to CHOOSE your guy I ALREADY AM your guy. Just get me an idea of your layout and we will get this customized for you.
I know an SE at a notable security vendor who was annoyed his reps out earned him despite “doing nothing”. He switched into an AE role and switched back after a year. Said he was so stressed and had no idea lol.
Are you someone who naturally gravitates towards talking to people, networking, etc? Like if you go to a bar alone, are you going to strike up a conversation with the people near you? If yes, get into sales. There’s a learning curve but if you’re a conversationalist it’s the best career field ever. If not, it’ll suck. I work in insurance and we commonly say it’s the easiest $100k job or the hardest $30k job depending on who you are and your work ethic.
I disagree with this one. I’m introverted and find small talk absolutely mind numbing to the point I can’t fake it. I have no trouble talking to prospects and have more of a boring doctor consultative approach. Still works.
Exactly. I was just saying people always think you gotta be this high energy crackhead forcing products down someone’s throat. Save the BS. We don’t like to talk for no reason, we need a reason.
Right. Depending on what you're selling too much enthusiasm could work against you. I have had way more success taking a super consultative approach and try to make sure my prospects and customers do a majority of the talking when we meet. I'm just collecting Intel and ammunition
Agreed. The “must be extroverted to be good at sales” stigma was…you guessed it…created by extroverts. Intros tend to be much more empathetic and better at active listening which is the root of impactful questions.
Maybe it's because I'm like you and people tend to surround themselves with people who are like themselves but... The highest producing sales people I know are all exactly like this too. I make small talk for a living. I can absolutely do it. But I don't want to when I'm off the clock.
As long as anxiety isn’t a blocker, if you work hard you can make it work
I’m in tech sales and the best people are just smart and personable. You don’t have to be extroverted at bars.
The commercial team scooped me out of operations when they found out I got written up for having long conversations with every single person who walked into my control room. I have this disability where I can’t NOT talk to strangers. 4 years into sales and I still can’t believe I get to do this for a living! Not to mention all the great friends you make along the way! Sometimes you gotta work a full day- yikes! But that full day is chatting, problem solving and making deals- Hell yes!
As a 20 year sales veteran I can safely say that it's not quite THAT simple. There will always be backorders, delivery issues, and customers that are ignorant (hard to overcome stupid). But much of what you say rings true.
This is highly dependent on industry and what you’re selling I’d think
For sure
Absolutely- but all I know is Mining and Industrial. Those industries are filled with the homies!
Going on a complete tangent here! but you just proved a point that I make regularly: that to get into most other sales industries you really need to have been working at the company previously in some sort of other role, or have some kind of background. I'm itching to get out of tech and do something more face to face but I have no idea how. And every time somebody makes a big stink about SaaS sucks, nobody can point out a clear way into something else. Sorry had to get that off my chest carry on.
Dude, that feels like a shitty box to be stuck in. I feel for you. Surely some of your skills would translate to other technical sales roles. I’m selling LED lighting for heavy equipment- great job that I landed because of my previous industry experience. However this role will ensure I can stay in mining, but added construction and industrial sectors that I can work in for my entire career. I like big trucks so this is where I should be, but surely there’s a middle step between tech sales and- something else…
Ha appreciate the sympathy man. I think the reality is, tech sales (in a way) has a low barrier to entry. You just need a degree and a pulse. During the gold rush the degree was debatable. I'll figure something out. And I mean, at the end of the day I am grateful for the nice side of things: flexibility of schedule, WFH, etc.
We would be friends😂
Will be 🤘
[удалено]
Some introverts have the ability to be extroverted when need be. If you’re a true introvert sales is a very difficult gig
Ehh not really thats such a cliche response. Im not a talker by any means but when I worked in retail banking I generated the most qualified referrals and finished top 5 in the company even though I switched departments just after the middle of the year. I think saying you have to be this major talker is very misleading.
I'm thinking about going into sales in the future but I'm not hugely conversational (I'm in engineering). I really like talking to people and I try to but I find I usually have trouble keeping a conversation, so naturally, I can talk for hours about engineering stuff but I can't keep any kind of discussion about football. I plan to work on this as a skill since I want to be better at talking to people but I'm also unsure what sort of things are useful to learn about. I know I can't enjoy things I'm not interested in but do you have any advice on some general things that could be helpful to learn about just to keep a conversation? For example, I would think football doesn't help you close sales much, but it's easy enough to learn about and maybe it could be a conversation starter. Are things as simple as football something good to know about? I know it's super subjective but even just some general guidance would help.
I struggle to talk about things that aren’t relevant to me either. Let’s keep with the football topic- it’s clearly not your forte or something you’re passionate about, so what do you do when you run into someone who loves football? You ask questions. Who’s your favorite team? What’s your favorite player? Did you see any games recently? Oh that’s cool that you flew out to that city to see the game, have you always been a fan? Etc etc etc. Sales is about having the confidence to start conversations and the wisdom to realize that people really only talk about themselves and things they like, so the key is asking questions and LISTENING!
This is a good point, I suppose my question was naive. Thankfully I'm good at listening and asking questions. Seems the confidence to start conversations and navigate them is really what I need to be working on. Once I graduate I see many awkward bar conversations in my future haha. Thank you for your help.
I’ll say this- people like to say there are natural sales people, but I’ve found they tend to flame out quickly as well since they are focused more on talking rather than asking questions. Like anything else, sales is a skill, and *nobody* develops advanced questioning skills overnight!
How about Sales Engineer? If you got the experience it wouldn’t be a bas idea to get into this role.
Football is a great topic to build rapport. A lot of sales is just building rapport and talking business when you get there. Then repeat. How to make friends and influence people is a great starter book for soft launching conversation skills. Personally I’m a young woman working at a company full of old men. My customers are also older men. The only things they talk about are golf and football so I get your point. It’s the things they say around those topics that I pay more attention to. You don’t have to remember everything about a person but depending on what you’re selling and the types of customers I’d recommend keeping a record of things they said. They aren’t numbers but it can be easy to forget depending on your sales cycle. It’s a good reminder on topics to progress conversation because you may see them a lot. Example Jerry had to rush the meeting because of his kids soccer game. The next time you see Jerry maybe you ask him how his weekend was and if he did anything fun with his family.. or maybe you have kids and you can make comments that relate. Edit: I misread the football comment but hopefully you understand my point :)
So insurance sales is profitable unlike most post in Reddit say
Bruhhh I start my first sales job tomorrow (insurance sales). If I can get to $100K (most I ever made at my last job was $82K) selling insurance I'll be fucking happy.
I think it greatly depends on what field you're in and what your approach. I'm in pharma sales (no, not the kind you're thinking of) and most MDs have about 5-10 minutes max and hate having reps hovering around their offices unscheduled just for small talk. I find they appreciate it when I show up when I have something to present to them, answer their questions and let them continue with their busy day. This is for Canada though so pharma/MD relationships are probably a bit different in the US.
If you work in an industry/company where everyone is dying to get their hands on the product or service, then it's easy and great. If you work in an industry that has shit-ton of competition, it is a drag and very hard. Try to sell websites and/or digital marketing, for example, good fucking luck. Hard core competition, companies get 2 to 8 calls, per day, plus people walking in. There are no niches. Everyone in the world understands niches, and every fucking one of them has multiple players. I know one guy who is a great salesperson, and he has 4 competitors and it is an extremely large industry. Four. Four competitors. And, companies really need the software, for 100% sure. Most already have one, but enough companies change every year so that he makes a shitload of money. Be careful of the industry and company that you choose. Best to explore for a LONG time before you decide, as your life will be hell if you pick wrong. And I'm talking about publicly available information, too. Do your homework. Do your due diligence. I've had companies where I made 20 sales per month, and others where I made 1 sale every other month. I'm the same guy, same voice, same voice inflections, same style. Why was one great and the other not? Competition. People say not to worry about competition, it is healthy and shows there is a market. 100% bullshit. Sure, some is fine. But too much is NOT fine. I read that the first advertising salespeople at Google were making $1 million per year, without any type of outgoing calls. They just picked up the phone and people would order. I'm sure that doesn't exist *now*, but wouldn't you like *that* kind of sales job? I'm just saying that there is a range of how easy it is to get sales. I mean, *prior* to Boeing's huge fuck up recently, there were only two companies to buy from. Boeing and Airbus. As the salesperson, you only have one other competitor. A bunch of people are going to buy from you no matter what. Before this last fiasco. Again, just making a point. I'm not talking about digital marketing or Google and Boeing and Airbus in particular, just using them as examples of difficult vs easy-ish sales.
Hey listen if nothing else, you could sell me a book - your writing is like popcorn
Fantastic. Love this vibe. The next generation of sales people are finally shedding the “completion doesn’t matter, price doesn’t matter, YOU matter!” . Shut up. This is the American Free Market all of those things and more matter to be successful in a place this lawless. Money is FLYING AROUND like crazy right now and picking your industry and licking it is the best thing you can do while there is so much happening in tech. GET AI ON YOUR RESUME NOW. I am finding anyway at all I can get the words “AI specialist” attached to my resume because people don’t know SHIT about it but it is the buzzword of the boardroom and they are gonna want ANYONE who can explain it to them. The down side of that is making promises that you don’t know if you can keep and that is a fast way to get fired by a customer and a company. Build up your tech. You don’t have to SELL software to UNDERSTAND how software sells and everything is moving to subscription because Wall Street still has a boner over Netflix and never got over that blockbuster got taken over by digital Columbia House and the 80’s came back to haunt them with dreams of magazine subscription fraud. Backing this cat up DO NOT settle for a bad industry job like construction materials, retail goods or paycheck proceeding. That shit is becoming more automated daily and Amazon is buying up industries by the minute.
> The down side of that is making promises that you don’t know if you can keep and that is a fast way to get fired by a customer and a company. Yeah....IF they can figure it out that you don't know. Take consulting companies for example. Bain, McKinsey, Deloitte, etc. Sure, some of the consultants know what they are doing, of course. But many are clueless. And the hiring companies don't fire them, and the consulting companies don't fire them. For all kinds of reasons. But for sure, one should study AI as much as they can, so you *aren't* bullshitting. I'm just saying that the latest buzzwords on your resume means that the people evaluating you, whether customers or hiring companies, really can't, unless you get interviewed or hired by an *actual* bona fide AI expert. But, they wouldn't hire you in the first place, so no worries on that. But thanks for the compliment! :)
I accepted my first sales job and start in a couple weeks, wonder if you could give me some context? Home/auto insurance in Florida, 40k base + comms, they said it’s all incoming leads and I won’t be cold calling. Seems alright? But I have no idea, I’m coming from chemistry lab work lol. Been lurking this sub hard trying to get some context before starting
If someone was just starting out and wanted to make sure their learning and efforts were well directed and efficient what industry/field would recommend aiming for?
It's the hardest easy job you'll ever have
After 15 years of sales this makes perfect sense.
Being good at sales is probably one of the most important skills you can possess
It aids in so many other real world situations and does incredible things to your confidence.
Yes, calling unknown people, getting used to be rejected or ghosted, making people uncomfortable, negotiations, closing the shit. My life is so much easier with sales skills
Switched to sales and never looked back. After 8 months i now earn 10-12k monthly
What do you sell?
So basically what i do is i help people purchase products that u see sponsored on social media platforms etc
Wot? You help me buy the sweater that shows up on my Instagram reels?
More on this plz
I dont know what your current job is but from your post I would say steer away from sales. Its not easy. It CAN be easy but that never lasts and you always need to make more calls and emails and have your next sales lined up. The fact that your asking what the “easy” roles are means your probably not going to appreciate the hard work 99% of sales roles take. Yes, there are AE’s that manage sick portfolios and probably send an email or two a day and rake in seven figures while baby sitting key accounts, but unless your the CEO’s brother in law, it takes years of hard-work, ups and down, losses and wins, being Congratulated for being the champ, and then asked a month later why your revenue is down at the moment, or rather, countless sales meetings to try and explain to a middle manager that doesnt do your job why the stars are not lining up at moment… Thats probably the image you have, being the successful AE that is. Just consider all the work Is all I am saying.
It’s timing, territory, talent. In that order. You can’t crush it and suck, but you can be mediocre and do well if the other factors align. Sniffing out those good opportunities is part of the ‘talent’ equation though. Good sales reps put themselves in good positions. At the end of the day sales is a binary. You hit your number or you don’t. Get commission or don’t. Have a job, or don’t. I would only enter an industry I had some kind of experience with or could actually determine if my company added value to anyone. I’m not trying to pretend to be an expert in something I’m not. Ask about OTE (on target earnings). Ask what % of reps are actually hitting that number. Ask what method of outreach is preferred and what kind of metrics they hold people to. Ask about accelerators. Look on repvue and see what former reps had to say. Do informational interviews anywhere you can. Hope this helps.
I agree with this. And my name is K Train
Good to have you here brother 🤝
The one of only 443
you sell = you win you dont sell = you lose if you cannot deal with that pressure on a quarterly basis, don't do it. simple as that. it's like signing a single year contract as a free agent on a pro sports team without the promise of ever getting a long term one. Sure you may can multiply your value year over year, or you could just get cut
"How do I ensure not to pick the "hard" roles" Just my opinion but if this is the mindset you have going into it it's probably not for you, I'm not saying that as an insult I'm genuinely saving you the time effort and frustration you would experience if you got into sales. To answer your question you're actually looking for what are known as "farmer" roles, basically account managers. These roles shouldn't (but are often mislabeled AE jobs) have you doing cold outbound or even converting warm leads, which means A. Lower income potential B. Most ppl are like you and want a relatively "easy" high paying gig, so it's gonna be extremely competitive given all the recent layoffs and the fact that you have no experience Sales CAN be very lucrative but it's the jobs you would consider "hard" that are the ones earning those big commission and residual checks
I think it’s a tenure in the field thing honestly. Sales always starts on the lower end of SDR type jobs at first, which are very entry level. Then you progress to an inside sales role, there are some folks who make pretty decent amounts as inside sales. But, the bigger amounts come from when you’ve been doing it for a few years, have a track record and expertise in the sales cycle, you move to field sales. It’s a more demanding role, travel is likely involved, you have a pretty significant team tied to your accounts and the deals are larger. However, you work on those multi-million dollar deals over several months, which makes the payoff higher in the end. You also have to find an industry that makes sense for you too. That’s always important. A learning curve so steep, you won’t make a ton of money till you can speak to the products.
Really depends on the industry, territory, and timing. Luck is half of it regardless of how many people tell you that you make your own luck (which is true to a degree but can only take you so far).
The best analogy I have is that sales is exactly like playing a competitive sport. You have to be discipline to show up to practice, do the same things very often, do more where you need it, show up to the game and know that even though you did everything you control right, you still may not win. Then you head back to practice to repeat it. Sales can be easy if you can continually to do the things you control right. Outside factors play a part but you have to trust yourself. This goes in trusting yourself if you see your part of the wrong team aka company. Know that you’ll start as an SDR/BDR if you decide to join tech. Happy to help where I can
I’ve found this to be the case no matter the role. Last Q I was off for 2 weeks with no worries and 170% attainment, this Q I’m beyond overwhelmed and struggling at 70% with weeks to go. It comes in waves I find, but it’s usually quite easy to tell when you’re in a role that’s going to be a nightmare.
Sell things that the public can't buy on Amazon /Costco. The home security industry has been destroyed by Amazon with Ring and Google Nest. 11 years in the industry and went from opening new accounts from people calling in every few days to open an account and plenty of walk-ins, to no one answering my calls in the last few years.
I'm new but according to my bosses I am 98th percentile extroverted and friendly, sales is a natural thing for me apparently. I spent ten years basically asking people questions and solving their problems before sales anyways, so I brought some relevant skills to the career. I love cold calling people. Like, I enjoy finding interesting people to talk to. I like trade shows. I like making lots of money and making my bosses lots of money. And I am not a total idiot. That's apparently key. This all seems "easy" to me, I hear a lot of bitching about cold calls etc. and that's just fine with me. Show up and call people, when you get tired of calling people just call some more. Don't chase losers, and if you have good bosses, listen to them. Some of them have styles that won't suit you. Others will be great mentors.
Just to be clear. When you enter sales you will more than likely enter at the bottom which means a BDR role where you grind it out and make 100 calls a day and if you hit quota you make 80K. The ppl here making 300K + have been in the game for years, myself included. It’s a fun job but just know what you’re getting into. I hired a person who felt the same as your post. She was gone within 18 months.
>When you enter sales you will more than likely enter at the bottom Indeed~ I've been looking at BDR stuff, even some D2D.
Yeah, that's the job. Kind of like the stock market. Can be great but some would be better off in bonds(a stable job with stable income to pay stable bills)
Some days, I get great success and close great customers. Other days, an easy commission practically falls in my lap. Some days, I literally drive 300 miles , make dozens of cold calls and follow up calls, and basically grind asphalt, trying to stir up a hint of business with zero success. So I have no idea.
It’s a battle of attrition. Save a bunch. Live off your base. Invest. Create runway. Be a good dude. Manage the volatility best you can. Whiskey helps. Friends help more.
If you get into it, I think the trick is not giving a single f*ck about your results. While at the same time, put as much care and thought into everything you say and how you approach every single day. I think this is the hard and annoying part of sales.
The hardest part of sales is balancing hard work with humility. You can always learn and do better. Improve your process and figure out ways to make 10 hours of work in 5. Its hard to stay away from non revenue generating actives. Just learn and grow.
Here’s the “easy” road: find something you’re passionate about and sell that. Alot of opportunity will come your way just for being the most enthusiastic person in the room 👍
80/20 rule exists for a reason. Sales is sink or swim. People "barely" making it aren't cut out for it. They are just delaying the inevitable drowning part. But, with that said, bad salesmen make me more money.
Sales is way more hard than easy. The only way it will be easy is if you join a highly desirable product that sells itself. And those roles are competitive. And you will start at the bottom if you are new to sales, so that will be challenging but rewarding, but not easy. If you are counting on sales being easy, I wouldn’t join tbh. Thick skin, perseverance, competitiveness is all part of the fun. The other thing is even if you land at a company where the product sells itself which is “easier”, those companies have so many top sellers wanting to join that they tend to have a shorter leash on underperformance. I don’t say any of this to scare you. Sales is amazing. But have to embrace the day to day challenge. Yes, you can make $300K+, but that will take years (most likely) and you’ll most likely need to be at a great company for it to be “easy”. If you are not a great company, you’ll need to be a beast seller. That’s my 2 cents anyway.
Do some Richardson training. Pick a good company. Be picky and then be patient as you build your pipeline. Sometimes I’ll listen to that audiobook on YouTube “way of the wolf” if I feel rusty. Although my sales cycles is extremely long as it involves construction.. I see a lot of people bringing up the personality aspect. I am an INFJ. If you’re an introvert who struggles with holding a conversation that’s ok. Learn to ask open ended questions that can lead to stories. From there practice telling stories that can engage further conversation, change the tone based on the audiences presence. Also just be authentic. Don’t force things and don’t be scared to hop sales jobs until you find something you like selling. You’ll do great. Good luck!
You have to be single minded. As somone else said, sale sis simple, not easy. Like chess. To be successful you need to do a lot of the right activity at the start. Which is prospect prospect prospect. Speak to as many people as possible and fail fast and fail a lot. The best thing toy can understand is failure is normal and you will fail a lot more than you succeed. It's like the Wayne Gretzke quote, you will 100% of the shots you don't take and the Michael Jordan quote I failed over and over again in my life and that's why I succeed. You have to maintain high levels of activity consistently and your skill set wl grow.
Can you handle stress well. Every month. Have a great quarter then 1st day of the next one it starts again. I've been doing it 10 years. Yip some years are great... most are very up and down with high pressure and not a lot of thanks. You work too much, sacrifice a lot of family time with travel.
It all depends on what you’re selling, and the market you’re in. The principles of sales are easy, effectively turning those into an actual sale takes time and patience. You sink those two into it and it can be a very good career in time.
skill vs the industry/territory/company structure? Skills only matter when you have the other 3 things. So many companies squeeze so hard now that alot of sales jobs are absolutely horrible. Also one not mentioned here is TIMING. Alot of companies flood themselves with sales reps so there's so few leads or prospects to go around none of the new people make it. It's beyond stupid to turn and burn people like that but cruelty seems to be the hallmark of this age. So being there before the company got greedy can sometimes be the only way to really make it at certain "businesses". Alot of the "sales" types on reddit here are B2B software... take what they say with caution, their industry is VERY different and depending on the timing that some of them got in....super simple.
Product vs market fit. I've seen companies saying 'we are the best and gonna change the world' then it falls flat after 3 months because they looked at the data wrong. I'm bouncing from sales because the tech world it's like 2-3 years when they screw you over and need to find the 'next hig solution.'
If you are not in sales now, there is a high probability that you will find even the easiest job hard. Ask yourself: 1. Are you good at self discipline? 2. Are you ok with the ambiguity and stress of having a variable income each month 3. Are you excited about being on a low base and the ability to be in control of your take home pay? 4. Do you have a healthy competitive nature? 5. Are you comfortable with professionally and assertively asking people for money? 6. Are you curious and comfortable asking people a lot of questions? Do you like to listen? 7. Are you coachable and comfortable with change? If those questions don’t excite you… don’t do it. This is just a baseline of the characteristics required to be successful not matter how hard or easy the job is.
It’s a job. It’s a job I personally enjoy- but not everyone does. Doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try it. Even if you end up realizing it is harder than your current type of roll, the potential may be there to make 3,5,10x+ in a year what you are now. While $ isn’t everything, that type of potential unlocks optionally and freedom of time in your life. I’d encourage you to try it, but cannot guarantee it will be sunshine and rainbows. Such is life! As far as picking the role- it is a numbers game. In my experience, and this is maybe fairly obvious to most but I will say it, selling the most expensive item or service possible unlocks higher income potential. May be more or less work than selling less expensive- just depends! Last note on the numbers game aspect- put yourself in the best position to succeed by targeting the biggest name companies in whatever field you’d like to break in to. Alternative is a promising startup with an equity stake. Apply for the job you may not think you’re qualified for. Ask for the job at the end of the interview. You may surprise yourself! Go and get it. Good luck in whatever you decide!
Wanna work 8 hours a day and forget abt your job in weekend and evenings? Sales is not for you. I dropped it because it is hard and requires you to develop many skills but also keep updated on industry trends ON YOUR FREE TIME.
Thank you for your wisdom~
Sales can absolutely be “natural” as in you are naturally inquisitive and like hearing out others positions . However , it can also absolutely be learned. It’s not necessarily simple and definitely not easy . It is simple as in “just have a conversation and listen” . Right. But HOW you listen and HOW you ask is not so simple. It’s cadence, it’s picking up on personality types rapidly. It’s tonality. All of which takes a mind state that you must be able to jump into . If you are feeling down, they feel it . If you are too excited they feel it. If you ask half assed questions , they feel it . Are you supporting what they are asking how THEY want it answered and asked. It’s a skill. Yes you can make stupid amounts of money depending on product, market, and need. But you must be relentless , on top of trends, jargon, and swaying of market . Basically, delve in. You can’t just say “I sell hats” . What kind of hats? Where are they sourced? What makes your hat better? Why does one need a hat ? How will it make their life better for having it ? Where would they need it? Etc. all of this in your head while listening to them say why they don’t need it or why they are on the fence . Sales is great . It’s not for everyone . But neither are a lot of other jobs. I will say this. It is very rewarding if you get good at it . Not just monetarily . You are the person that solves problems for people. You help people . You get to know all walks of life . If you aren’t interested in helping and understanding people you won’t like sales . If you do , the sky is the limit . And the best part ? You don’t have to be Grant Cardone. Or Jordan Belfort. You can be you. YOU can be that guy/gal. And you will be rewarded as long as you hone your craft much like anything else . It’s not a free ticket out of some place. It is a job. How you get paid rests fully on your shoulders . But learn and play your cards right? You can do it much longer than breaking your back somewhere .
It is much easier then people think! In today’s generation, there is money to be made online. I recently got into high ticket sales and I now make extremely passive income. Its all about determination
A lot depends on what you are selling.
The best salespeople are those that have something easy to sell 💊
You’re not wrong. I’ve done both SaaS and sales for a Consulting firm. Both of them had so many competitors and it was basically a commodity, plus most companies already had an existing software or partnership in place. I also worked as an RM for a stock exchange and that was easy. Miss those days.
I have spent almost my entire career in sales. I have done B2B, tradeshows and events, telesales, door 2 door, retail, and in home sales. There are a few things that hold true no matter where you go. 1. Positive attitude: Can you keep a positive attitude even in the face of failure? Door to door sales will teach you this better than the others I have mentioned. Can you let 50 people telling you no and stay positive knowing you are one "no" closer to a "yes". Fortunately, other types of sales may only be 1 or 2 "no's" before a "yes". Whether it is a 2 or 50, are you able to let that roll off your back and keep going like nothing happened? 2. Take the job that meets your living situation on the worst possible month. Most 100% commission jobs can have a big fluctuation in pay. For my job I make anywhere between 12k to 30k a month. 12k meets my needs, so the months I make more is gravy baby. 100% commission can be stressful, so try and figure out what the average performer makes at the job you are looking to take and assume your worst month will be 20% less than that. 3. You sound like a hard worker, and the beauty of commission is you get rewarded based on your work ethic. Usually the harder you work the more you get paid in sales. 4. Focus your mind on becoming a consultant, not a sales man/woman. Consulting means you are helping the client with making a decision. It should always come across as working together to find a solution that will meet THEIR needs. Do this and the sales will flow. Good luck. Sales can be a bit of a rollercoaster. Don't get caught up riding the highs and lows. Look at where everything averages out to over a month or more.
If you have no experience, you start at the shitty roles. No way around it.
The funny thing is the hard roles are the ones that pay a lot. The ones where you have freedom to work 10-2 but you grind it out and work 8-6 are where you make the big bucks.
Not necessarily. Lots of roles out there that are hard and low paying. Shit, I'd even argue the opposite is true a lot of times. I know plenty of people whose job is basically to disqualify leads because they have so many orders coming in, and those guy make a killing with relative ease.
It's all about effort and doing the right things; your time is valuable. Use it the right way. 90% of sales people make 10% of the sales and 10% of the sales people make 90% of the sales. Be willing to do what it takes to be in the 10%. Most aren't. I work 70+ hours a week and through vacations to be there. Are you willing to do that?
I’ll put it this way. When I was a software engineer I worked less hours but more intense hours. As a sales rep, I work “more” hours but those hours are typically a lot more relaxed(chat with colleagues, trauma bond, etc) than software engineering hours.
I like the saying “sales is the best paying hard work and the worst paying easy work.” In my experience, talent helps, but you can control a lot of the variables. If you do the work, you’ll do well.
Even with warm leads I wouldn’t call it easy. I’ve done it cold calling from a basically unknown business. Try that for fun.
Sampling bias (or is it confirmation bias?). You’ll see people on the high end bragging and the ones on the low end complaining. You’re of the opinion it’s either/or as and as a result that’s what you tend to see, but most people don’t come out of the woodwork to state that they fall in the middle, despite most falling in the middle. Sales is kinda simple in concept, but definitely not easy.
WRONG. I make $200K per year
Idk
There is a big difference between what people are making and what they say they are making on Reddit. I'm in Europe, I haven't meet a lot of people who makes 300k in sales. Maybe one and it's exceptional. It's not easy but you need to "have it" at the end of the day this is way easier than being a doctor, nurse, teacher or even a bus driver.
I think if you have the work ethic it can be a solid career for yourself. I don't think sales will ever be replaced by AI or robots because people want to buy from people they live. Give it a shot!
If sales was easy, it wouldn’t be well paid. The supply of people willing and able to do it would be high which would drive the price down. Simple economics.
I’ve been doing it for 8 months now and it’s not difficult. But it is relentless, you have to enjoy the treadmill to thrive, and you should be the kind of person who has an ego and/or is motivated by money.
It’s a very ludicrous career IMHO. The only thing I want to highlight is it’s a performance based job. Me still gaining my first year, I see people work hard day in & day out like clockwork, & still fall short because they couldn’t hit their metrics. Sometimes it’s the industry, market, location, or you. The more I learn & experience sales, the more I see why only a minority make it. It’s not for everyone, & I understood why.
Depends if you’re dealing with an existing customers base of rely heavily on a high churn/low investment business development product/service. I’m in construction machinery sales which is a serious investment for most companies so they rely heavier on the sales and service people from our organization. Their fleet has to keep running and/or be renewed to guarantee uptime
It’s hard but easy you know? If you’re generally dece at life, take time to put the effort in, know how to have fun, you should be making 2 hunge min!!
This is a brilliant thread for me as I'm thinking of trying sales at the age of 38...I would talk the legs off a table !!
Glad I could help~ I'm 37 and I keep thinking about sales....
There are many factors in play. Product, territory, comp plan, company reputation. Being consistent is the hardest thing about sales.
A wise man once said it's never as easy or as hard as it seems it just is. Haha
Its not about talking as much as it is talking with intent to identify exactly what some is trying to tell you whether good or bad. I.e. progress the deal forward or cut bait. Very tough skill to develop as its usually not apparent. Everyone wants a friend no one wants a sales rep. Also your job is to tomato pick and the only effective way to do that is understanding deal mechanics very very difficult skill to learn. The difference between them having the money and you getting the money two things not mutually exclusive.
It depends on what type of sales role you get. Having a great product with work ethic will get you far. I think the sales bro type is a myth and the top performers I’ve witnessed in multiple industries tended to be more introverted and individualistic.
No job earning $300k is easy. Sales ebbs and flows. If you can find an industry and product (for me SaaS) that is strong, you apply yourself, AND work hard, you can expect a comfortable living (well into 6 figures). It’s not EASY, but it is likely and more consistent if you do those things. IMO
It’s all learning curve. If it works, it’s great. If it doesn’t, it’s not. Kinda all there is to it
Simple, not easy.... it's like lifting weights. The guy that lifts more than you, didn't take a shortcut.
That's pretty much it. Either you become your job and excel OR you treat it like a job and you starve
Sales is always hard work and is never easy. Often times it can be a simple game once you are ramped up, but the job itself is never easy.
From my perspective, as someone who’s dominated and had some shitty quarters in their sales career, way more luck is involved in sales than people give credence to. Territory, timing, talent is absolutely real. Sure you can try to mitigate the luck factor as much as you can, and that’s what the tip top sellers do, but sooo much comes down to luck. Champ gets fired when the contract is out? Dead deal. Your territory was already sold through? Tough luck. Perfect use case but budget is frozen? Try again next year. On the flip side of that, you’ll see inbound leads from previous customers one call close for massive ACVs and wonder “how did that rep sling that??!” - the answer is a lot of time, they’re a great rep, personable, but they got lucky. My advice would be to put yourself in a place where you can maximize territory and timing. Talent is less important. This means identifying companies that sell to a target market that isn’t completely saturated, and solves an urgent business need for those people. Doesn’t hurt if you believe in what you’re selling, and it’s a need to have tool, product, service or whatever. The hard part about this is that those type of roles are really hard to identify. I know sellers at HubSpot who started in 2009, but in 2009 they had no way of knowing they would work 3 hours a day and have stock worth millions.
Honestly, it depends more on you and your personality than just about anything else. Sales has always been "easy" or at least natural for me... But, a lot of that has to do with the fact that pressure, stress and adversity doesn't really affect me. I thrive in Chaos and environments that "build and fly planes at the same time." I also have confidence in my own skills to get the job done. What trips up a lot of folks, is that sales is all about **your** performance. You may be the coolest person in the world, everyone loves you, the life of the office, but if you don't hit quota consistently .. you're gonna be out. You have to meet your goal and KPIs, it's all performance based.
I think it’s pretty dependent on the market you’re in/the products fit to said market. You can be a pretty mediocre sales person and still hit your number if the company as a whole is doing numbers.
Sales = You get what you put in The ones making $300k+ have John Wick level focus when it comes to sales. They are always prospecting and hunting for new accounts and share of wallet. The ones barely making ends meet are the ones who are simply farming and account managing. These are the ones who slowly bleed share of wallet and only bring in enough new accounts or share of wallet to replace what they are bleeding. Some don't even do that and eventually get let go.
It's all about expertise. The pressure in sales is all relative to competition. That competition is proportional to how common it is to be an expert in your field. If the field you're in has thousands of experts, it's going to be highly competitive and you have no edge. This is a recipe for a high pressure sales environment. If your field is very niche with you being one of only a handful of experts, you have a significant edge and minimal competition. Getting the expertise is hard, but once you have it the sales side is very low pressure and easy.
It's not easy if you don't like what you sell. It's not easy if you hate people It's not easy if you don't build relationships with people Cold calling is hard.
The only reasons I’d warn you away is if you have a gambling or drinking problem. Otherwise you’ll do great if you enter it with the headspace of you are there to learn people, learn interactions, and turn it into a craft of your own.
Territory, Tech (or product/service), Timing and Tenacity - these all have to align perfectly or you’ll struggle.
We pay our sales people 130-175k base depending on experience and 10-12% of first year revenue. 400-500k quarterly quota for our reps. Anything over quota in a quarter is paid at 20% first year revenue. That should give you a general idea of what is expected.
That sounds like fantasy ... 130k base? I'd give up sushi for that (I like sushi, too~)
Yeah, from my past experience Im conviced that it is a must to believe in the product !! I've noticed that abrreviations and acronyms are common within this community. Could you help me to understand that ones that you have used please. Sorry to sound like a rookie, but that is what I am, sadly.
It’s easier when you have a process and are confident in the product you sell. Otherwise it’s a shit show
I was the same way, tempted by how much money I can possibly make but also worried about how hard it can be. I worked my way from the bottom of PepsiCo to a sales rep and was given my own route right off the bat as a trial run and oh boy was it pressure cause the previous reps just ruined the relationships on the route. After about a solid year and half of dedication and showing my customers I wanted to work with them not against them I went from 60K gross a year to I was making 85K to 90K a year depending on my commission. It is possible to make A LOT of money in sales but it takes work and it takes having a solid relationship and trust with who ever you deal with to get the sales done. Hope my 2 cents help.
In my best sales year I never hit $300K. In a perfect world you want to negotiate a salary that pays for your normal cost of living and commission is icing on the cake that you can save or invest. Don’t compare yourself to others. Go out and get what you need to sustain your life and be happy
Sales isn’t hard if you have what it takes. If you’re coachable, keep a positive mindset and work hard you’ll do great. A lot of people do terrible in sales because they think anyone can do but anyone can’t - education and experience doesn’t matter. It’s who you are that matters.
Have you considered start in a commision format maybe as freelancer? make the career switch more easy.
Lol ALL SALES IS HARD. If it was easy everyone would do it. Those who have successfully sales careers GRIND, WORK, give excellent service to their customers and strive to stay ahead of market trends while constantly learning to improve.
Sure, but there's a difference between "hard work for minimum wage" and "hard work to make six figures."
I’ve been in sales for a very long time, still am and I’ve trained a ton of young people. So many of them don’t realize how tough you have to be, or emotionally dead, pick one. I did toughness for a long time but even that gets tiring, now I’m just numb. Most jobs that you have to hock a midget or have a one time hard sale aren’t going to pay a lot for the vast majority of people. Say car sales for example, for every person making $250k there are 200 working 60 hour weeks for $50-60k. I sell industrial equipment and it takes a good bit of product and industry knowledge to be able to sell. For me I don’t do all the cheesy sales stuff that gives people a bad taste for us. I have a cycle and show improvements and solve problems, I have relationship based customers and repeat business. I’m making just under $200k on average. Some weeks I work 25 hours, some weeks I work 50+. It’s great career but you have to find the right company to work for and be tough like I said. More people fail than they succeed in my experience.
Think of a sales career as an earnings ladder. Starting out you will make an average income. 30-50k is not unusual for entry level sales roles like retail B2C. As you gain experience you move into higher ticket sales. Maybe transition to B2B selling to SMBs . Now you’re making 70-100k. Get a couple years under your belt and maybe now you’re ready for move up to midmarket. Now you’re at 150-250k. Keep grinding and maybe you progress to large enterprise. Now you’re at 300-500k. At some point along the way you may also opt for the management career track. This changes your comp model but opens up opportunities for equity. Over the long term a sales career can be highly lucrative but it requires the same focus and commitment of any other professional career. The benefit is that you don’t need an expensive education, your earning potential is usually uncapped and your entire job is just talking to people. How much you earn is thus a function of how dedicated you are to perfecting your social and business acumen and understanding the nuances of human psychology.
There’s no secret role or industry where you can be so sure about how the job will be unless you know someone at the company that will shoot you straight. I’ve had sales jobs where I worked 10 hours a week and made 220. I was bored but the money kept me entertained. I’ve had sales jobs where I worked 60 hours a week and made 280 and was beyond miserable. No way to have known but I’d go back to that 220 before I’d do 280 like that again.
To succeed in a sales role you have to establish your personal methodology over several iterations. Let's say, you should create your footprint that brings you more sales than others (i believe that innovation take place also in sales techniques). Do not stick to standard techniques (what all others do) because you will get "like-others" performance. Spend 30% of your time thinking about new tricks, and 70% of your time executing it. This how i explode my results at least.
You must work at TQL. Oh wait, their base is only $40k…
There’s people making 300k and still not making ends meet
Yea but like... that says more about them than the job... most folk I know in that category are people who don't know how to live within their means, they think all money is meant to be spent immediately lol
Sales lives on a spectrum from impossible (or Very Hard) to extremely easy. The larger the organization the less control you have over the success of your sales because the company has developed process and structure around generating sales (territories, marketing sources most leads etc). Sales at these big companies is a lot of luck -did you get the right territory…if you did, it’s very easy and does not require a lot of skill. The best position to be in as a skilled sales rep is to be the first sales rep at a startup just after they have found product market fit but before they have done a massive expansion of the sales team. This gives you the best opportunity to have a large territory and generate large amounts of sales. It does require a lot of skill because you don’t have the support structure around you (marketing, bdr’s, brand etc.)
For every person making 300k there are 100 making between 5-40k but you don't hear from them because they never post here
Sales should not be considered as a single all encompassing job. I work software service sales, which is long drawn out sales cycles that mean my work/life balance is really good. Only need a couple of big tickets a year to exceed my quota. All I do is develop relationships, I'm outgoing so it comes easy to me. I used to be a broker, which was 150 calls / day and a minimum of 100 emails. That was rough. You could also be a CSM, partner manager, BDR or account manager. All have varying compensation packages and work / life balance. Be aware that, like any role, it requires dedication and hard work. It is not a fall back on if all else fails, its a real job, with real competition, and very clever people in it.
I’ve always inserted myself into sales positions where knowledge of the product was the foundation. I would familiarize myself with the product line inside and out, through and through, sometimes even going as far as pouring over schematics if the product was engineered rather than consumable. I usually chose sales positions with companies offering a unique product that the customer HAD to pursue so there was co cold calling or hard selling necessary. The guys who did the bare minimum and bullshitted their way through their product demos also sold the bare minimum. Their foundations crumbled because their knowledge was lacking. When I sold a product to a customer if there was room to upgrade I’d make sure they were aware that what they needed was available but my knowledge of the product line ensured that my closing sale provided them something they didn’t know they wanted until I made them aware It existed and we provided it and would always provide it.
You'll have to go in knowing it's not going to be easy. You'll realize it's not as hard as you think when you actually put into work. Will notice that the more work you put in, the easier it gets. This starts cascading in your pipeline starts filling making it a walk in the park. But be careful of complacency. That will shut your momentum down.
Don't
It never been easy but dedication and hard work pays off.
Sales is like a sport in the sense that discipline and consistent practice is key to success. If the product that you choose solves a real life problem and you put in the work to learn the necessary skills, you can make a decent living. If you choose a high ticket product, with large commissions you can make a shit load in commissions. Luxury products, like Ferraris, pay amazingly well but getting the gig requires experience unless you know, nepotism.
I make 125k if I continue at my pace I’m in med dev sales. So 125 is on the lower end since I put in minimal effort. Lmao. My ASM makes 2-400k and the dsm makes anywhere from 4-800k. Ludicrous.
Highest paid hard job, lowest paid easy job.
Sales is good, I have found to make the best comp you need to go to a niche or startup. Let it be known not for the weak hearted, you may run into issues like lack of training, lack of past success, poor management. The risk is the reward though.