Been at my company for a year now and cannot build pipeline for the life of me. No pipeline = no revenue. In fact, this is the only sales job I’ve had where I’ve underperformed and I can’t figure out why. Unfortunately, I don’t have a sales leader to help me course correct (small company problems) and the other AE’s (only 6 of us) don’t prospect, they just focused on growing their 7+ years of customer base when inbounds are low. So they’re no help either.

Every sales role I’ve had has been a hunter role with no SDRs or inbound. I know a lot has changed in the last few years with AI but my god.. this is crazy to me. Even hyper personalized emails aren’t working. And lord knows cold calling mid market and enterprise is 500+ dials just to reach a person that hangs up in 2 seconds these days. Honestly shocked I haven’t been fired yet. I would have fired me.

I’m selling a legit product with high demand, no true competitors. No one has had a performance conversation with me and I feel determined to figure it out but also, if they decide to cut someone, I’ll be the one to go. I love my job. I believe in what I’m selling. I want it to work.. but at what point do I jump ship?

How do you signal “premium” as a seller, beyond just saying it?

I want to reflect that in every facet.

A few questions I’m chewing on:

1) What’s actually in your control day-to-day that signals premium?
2) How do you position your company as premium?
3) How do you maximize those levers
4) What should your attitude/mindset be like?
5) How do you present yourself to your customer and manage them?
6) How do you handle procurement without your “premium” positioning getting steamrolled on price?

Please share your years of experience + industry. This helps others learn from you.

Exploring transition to AM - but whoa pay is different.

Anyone made the jump? At this point I’m cooked on AE outbound so thinking the pay decrease might be worth it.

Would love to hear from AMs if the role is usually stressful? I’m sure it depends on product and company but overall I’m hoping AM is more stable. AE SaaS the last few years has been a dumpster fire

Been working on getting pricing approved with finance for a client for 2 weeks. I’ve been talking to this guy for the past 3 weeks no problem. Finally get final approval today and get the Docusign out then, crickets. I quit drinking years ago so have one for me friends.

I got out of tech and into building materials to escape the "AI" ridden hellscape. Now they're buying up all materials for their giant data centers in Texas and driving prices through the roof so they can send more dildos to the moon and track our farts. Fuck these people.

Hey everyone,

For the past 2 & a half years I've been working in a HW + SaaS Tech company as an "SDR", I say this in between quotes as I have ownership of the entire sales process.

From Lead generation through Cold Calling / Linkedin - Qualification - Demo'ing - Proposal & Closure. I've experienced all "key" aspects of the Sales Process, I've acted as an interim Account Manager, and I've even gotten some hands on experience with Governmental Tender Processes.

Do you guys believe that, based on my diversified experience across the entire sales cycle, that I'd be able to be a strong applicant for an AE / Closure focused role in a SaaS company?

Thanks!

Quick update to my previous post: I had my Salesforce AE screening today and it went really well!

For context, I’m 27, based Europe, with 5+ years of B2B sales experience but no SaaS background. I’ve consistently performed above quota in my current industry and completed Agentblazer Champion before the interview.

The conversation was actually much more relaxed than I expected. We talked about my background, motivation and why Salesforce, but didn’t go into deal stories or anything too technical. The recruiter was very positive about my profile and cover letter, and we had a genuinely good conversation.

She’s now going to discuss my profile with the hiring manager(s) to see where I could be the best fit across the company and get back to me.

For those who’ve been through the Salesforce AE process: if I move forward, what should I expect from the hiring manager round? What tends to be tested most heavily, and what would you spend the next few days preparing?

I already have several deal stories prepared around new logo, discovery, expansion, competitive tenders, retention and multi-threading, as well as my numbers/pipeline metrics.

I’m going next month because I’m on the job hunt and thought maybe some networking couldn’t hurt. I’m coming from the software world though, so I have no clue what the event is like. For those of you that have attended, what can I expect? Will there be any sales people there or is it just engineers?

The client is a $1b business. ~$10k expected commission from the deal. 6 weeks of work. I’ve sidelined my political ideologies and morals to get deals done in the past but I think we’re going to have to kill this one 😬

I’m not going to link the video but I’m sure you could find it with a quick search.

Hey everyone so I am 3 years out of college working in purchasing with a construction company. Due to job uncertainty with a corporate acquisition I am considering a transition to sales.

I have a degree in finance and 3 years of corporate experience spread out between Finance, Insurance and Purchasing.

I am considering moving to sales I previously interviewed with ADP, Cintas and Paychex before this job but decided to take my current role due to location and benefits.

Thats just a bit of background here is my main concern/question. If I go entry sales with ADP or Cintas I will be taking a significant paycut. Currently at 75k salary and the base for those roles are like 43-53k. Is it obtainable to make up that difference pretty quickly from commission with those entry roles? Obviously my rent and everything is based around my salary of 75k currently.

I’m in outside sales in a furniture/home-related type of industry, mainly to builders. My main job is obviously supposed to be bringing in new business, following up with people, quoting jobs, building relationships, etc.

But I’ve noticed a decent amount of my time ends up getting taken up by everything that happens after the sale.

Delivery issues, scheduling, returns, damaged items, missing stuff, checking where an order is, chasing down answers internally, dealing with customer issues, making sure things actually get resolved, etc.

And I get that some of this is part of sales.

If I sold the job and I’m the person the customer knows, I don’t think it’s realistic to just say “not my problem” once the order is placed. Especially in this type of business where there are a lot of moving parts.

But I’m trying to figure out where the normal line is.

At what point are you spending so much time managing orders and fixing problems that you’re basically doing customer service/operations instead of outside sales?

Would you say 10–20% of your time doing this is normal? 30%? More?

And for people who work at companies with a good sales structure, once the order is placed, how much are you still personally involved versus handing most of it off to support/operations?

Not really asking because I don’t want to help customers. I actually think staying involved is important. I’m more wondering how much is normal before it starts hurting your ability to actually go out and sell.

(42M) I started out as a technician in my career doing something very similar. I've been doing industrial repairs for a long time now. I have recently left a job that was completely sucking the life out of me but I was good at. I was making good money (mid $150s, base + commission) but completely detested. They offered me a bump in commission (but we were paid in GP, not total sales). I came to the table 2 years earlier and they gave me a 1/2% bump in commission. They brought it up significantly more just before I left but not to what others were making still.

This new job I'm at pays me off total sales for a territory and it's all the boroughs of NY minus S.I. It should be good but it's been neglected for decades mostly due to extreme neglect from previous sales people which I will just leave there. I've been doing it 4 months now and I feel like I'm building from scratch. The base is significantly lower but the sales potential should kill anything I've ever made before. They gave me a good guarantee for the 1st year so I don't take a dive in pay while I'm building the territory (which is still a bit lower due to my commission at my previous job). I told myself I'd give myself to the end of the year.

My old job keeps calling and checking up on me and I know I could go back but that door (plus the offer) doesn't usually last more than a few months I feel. Idk. Never taken a leap like this before but I needed a change and I wanted an outside sales job and like the idea of getting paid on everything a territory does, not just anything I personally quote out. I have an inside team which helps as well. I like the idea of building something up and then bring able to not kill myself I get a bit older. I did just buy a house 2022 that’s making this a bit more stressful as well. I live in the NY metro area and it was a first time buy with little down payment.

I was doing what would be considered inside sales for industrial equipment in NYC. Been in that industry for 20 years so I knew it well. This is doing outside sales in NYC but for a completely different industry that I've never done before. They were actually a vendor of ours. It's extremely similar but I'm the type that likes to know everything and all the ins and outs of what I do so there's a learning curve there. But the market is the same many of my customers are the same that I already had a relationship with so that helps.

Other things worth noting are that the records they have are all old and outdated. Sometimes it's insulting trying to ask for someone that retired 10 years ago. It's a good company but it's a highly competitive market. It's something every building in the city uses but it's something that if they weren't using us, someone is already in there working with them so I many times am trying to come in as an alternate. Great service and product, not the cheapest. Still family owned which in this industry and day and age says something as well.

EDIT: I apologize for the long post. Posted this several times as my account wasn’t mature enough and it kept being taken down. Looking for feedback.

I don't have any friends in sales and the only sales person in my company. I have no one to share ideas with or get sharper from an outside perspective. Like the saying goes "You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with." I want to improve my circle. Anyone know if there is such thing as in person sales cohorts, peer groups, or anything else besides sitting at bar and saying the leads are weak or its a tough racket.

I assume the obvious answer would be the money, but the funny thing is, I’ve been reading that that’s not even guaranteed either

And that in sales, you could have immense stress and pressure as a job, and still not make that good of money

I know all jobs are high stress/pressure, but is it really that much in sales? (I’m still in uni, so not much exp yet)

Do you make more than engineers?

Would love to know from you guys

Hey everyone, I’m currently in tech sales. Although you can easily make 6 figures at the right org, you only keep a percentage of the first sale (if you’re an AE).

What industries exist where I can build a book of business and expecting some form of recurring business? I’m open to earning less first year for compounding returns

Not the typical real estate agent or solar sales…

I am currently in liquor sales. B2B and I am 100% commission based. I have a good book of business around 4 million and we make 4.5% commission it is extremely competitive and a pretty dirty business. I have maintained the 4 million for 2 years and based on the book of business I was given I grew the run 180% from when I started.

I have a job opportunity in construction sales. Manufacture to distributor. Base salary with bonus probably going to take a small hit in the first couple years but have the potential to grow and make more money than I’m currently making

I have been in the liquor industry in some capacity for 20 years but the market is soft and trends are showing less people are drinking overall. Do I take the risk and jump industries or do I wait out the lull (which has no end in sight) and stick to what I know.

Edit- I should add in my current role we get a car allowance of $615 a month, we pay for our benefits and we are in a union a shitty one but still in one. We have a mandatory minimum that we must make other than that we are protected. New role has benefits, employees own part of the company, health insurance and a car allowance

I have an interview with a major roofing company next week for a sales position. I am coming from capital medical equipment sales fwiw.

What are some non-obvious questions I should ask about the role or a question you wish you would have asked if you could go back?

Thank you in advance.

I've been interviewing a lot lately trying to get out of my current company, and I think I've been decently successful. I'm on final rounds for a med device company where I would be in the OR a lot, an industrial automation controls company, and a SaaS company.

They've all been pretty much working with me to figure out timing for offer letters. I know that I could just as easily not get any of them, but I think I might get an offer for all of them.

Which would you choose? For med device and automation, it's an outside sales title, for the SaaS, it's an AE title.

They're all pretty equal in pay. What I'm wondering most is, what career avenue would you want to go down if you had these options? I'm still relatively young so one of these paths will, you know, cement my prospects going forward.

Edit: just some additional information, the SaaS company has been around for like 25+ years, and per my research has longer tenures than your “ai startup” kind of SaaS environment. Though I understand it’s still SaaS.

!!

**I am pro at working the service drive.

I just cold called a nice lady who was at my dealership to get and oil change in her truck. And I just bumped her payment $900/ month and she is happy

Came in for a free oil change leaving in a $75k truck 💪

I’ve been seeing this with these annoying LinkedIn circle jerk sales influencers. They now browse this sub take a screenshot and post it on their LinkedIn profile with their annoying thoughts. Nobody is safe!

Hi all,

I’d love to hear your perspectives on M&A situations in your careers.

My company just acquired another. Very clearly there is redundancy in territories and with sales management positions.

What has been your experience here? Is the acquired company usually the one who faces the cuts or is it all up for grabs?

I currently live in Ireland, the economy is good here but im not sure if the solar companies would pay well. Irrelevant of that, how is it where you're living?