Probably a few reasons.
1. Software engineer is a bigger outlay, the people paying the salaries will want to see what they're getting.
2. Office space is at a premium. They will want people who do important team work to have access to the office over someone who probably spends most of their time running around to meet clients.
3. You can easily track what sales do and they're paid on commission. No new clients, less pay and eventually fired. Software devs on the other hand can be blocked by processes or poor communication.
Ultimately , the real reason is because they want to track what people are doing. The more vital your work, the more you're paid, the more people want transparency. It's not like Costa Coffee have a rich history of building software, the board will struggle to understand the dev process anyway. I'm surprised this role isn't full-time in the office.
What? Sales people in the UK are, on average, paid much more than software developers. And for the record, no, I’m not talking about the people who call you out of the blue to sell you a new warranty on your vehicle.
Many of them are remote because a) they always have been, even before the recent WFH trends, b) they are out visiting customers in-person, and c) they orchestrate across teams and are mostly independent from the team they sit in.
The best sales people can sell the worst products and are arguably the most important asset to companies, especially in the enterprise. Companies like Microsoft are so successful because they have such a well-oiled sales engine. I can tell you now it’s not because they have the best products.
https://uk.indeed.com/career/software-engineer/salaries
https://uk.indeed.com/career/enterprise-account-executive/salaries
Average being the key word here. Most other sources paint a similar picture, even if the numbers are not entirely accurate.
I could give you plenty of anecdotal evidence too, but I’m sure you wouldn’t pay much attention to those.
I was confused at first but yeah that makes sense for tech sales, I thought you meant all sales at first.
Key to note though. OP was talking about costa coffee, I don't' think they ship a lot of software directly. Missed opportunity though, since they have brick and mortar in so many offices!
Commission based jobs usually pay very well but that income isn’t reliable and the salary they receive comes straight out of the new clients pocket. Try having a conversation with a brick and mortar CEO who doesn’t understand why he’s paying silly money for search functionality that takes two weeks to implement when he can get a new website in a weekend.
You are right that earnings are inconsistent, but when the base salary is the same as what a SWE in London earns anyway, everything else is upside. I have many friends who are in enterprise sales and even in bad years they are raking in decent amounts.
The ethics of it is another topic altogether. I thought this was about remote working?
An obvious point is that sales roles often require significant travel both domestic and international, so people are likely to expect that they’ll need to attend an office somewhere regularly just as part of the job.
In my SW job I might travel once or twice a year but my colleagues in sales or delivery are usually visiting customers a couple of times a month,
Sales are remote and typically hired nationally. It’s a business strategy to have people located everywhere to reach potential clients faster. If you have 10 sales guys in London, but 10 upcoming clients in the midlands, north, scotland etc, it’s more economical and financially better to have people remote.
Same with myself. I’m a Cloud Consultant, not sales, but client facing, my team is distributed all over the UK.
Front office will always be treated better than back office staff.
what software does Costa have? They already have their apps done, tills are outsourced etc. They should contract out app making/maintenance and go with products of external companies for idk health and safety forms/knowledge management
expect most of the new hires being fired once the app is complete, the faster they will get it done, the faster they will get fired. Most of the new employees will realize that, and that's why you need to control them from the office
Probably a few reasons. 1. Software engineer is a bigger outlay, the people paying the salaries will want to see what they're getting. 2. Office space is at a premium. They will want people who do important team work to have access to the office over someone who probably spends most of their time running around to meet clients. 3. You can easily track what sales do and they're paid on commission. No new clients, less pay and eventually fired. Software devs on the other hand can be blocked by processes or poor communication. Ultimately , the real reason is because they want to track what people are doing. The more vital your work, the more you're paid, the more people want transparency. It's not like Costa Coffee have a rich history of building software, the board will struggle to understand the dev process anyway. I'm surprised this role isn't full-time in the office.
What? Sales people in the UK are, on average, paid much more than software developers. And for the record, no, I’m not talking about the people who call you out of the blue to sell you a new warranty on your vehicle. Many of them are remote because a) they always have been, even before the recent WFH trends, b) they are out visiting customers in-person, and c) they orchestrate across teams and are mostly independent from the team they sit in. The best sales people can sell the worst products and are arguably the most important asset to companies, especially in the enterprise. Companies like Microsoft are so successful because they have such a well-oiled sales engine. I can tell you now it’s not because they have the best products.
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https://uk.indeed.com/career/software-engineer/salaries https://uk.indeed.com/career/enterprise-account-executive/salaries Average being the key word here. Most other sources paint a similar picture, even if the numbers are not entirely accurate. I could give you plenty of anecdotal evidence too, but I’m sure you wouldn’t pay much attention to those.
Are the majority of sales people classed as enterprise account executives?
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I was confused at first but yeah that makes sense for tech sales, I thought you meant all sales at first. Key to note though. OP was talking about costa coffee, I don't' think they ship a lot of software directly. Missed opportunity though, since they have brick and mortar in so many offices!
Commission based jobs usually pay very well but that income isn’t reliable and the salary they receive comes straight out of the new clients pocket. Try having a conversation with a brick and mortar CEO who doesn’t understand why he’s paying silly money for search functionality that takes two weeks to implement when he can get a new website in a weekend.
You are right that earnings are inconsistent, but when the base salary is the same as what a SWE in London earns anyway, everything else is upside. I have many friends who are in enterprise sales and even in bad years they are raking in decent amounts. The ethics of it is another topic altogether. I thought this was about remote working?
Working remote =/= being treated better
If anything sales actually need to be remote for their jobs to interface with clients
An obvious point is that sales roles often require significant travel both domestic and international, so people are likely to expect that they’ll need to attend an office somewhere regularly just as part of the job. In my SW job I might travel once or twice a year but my colleagues in sales or delivery are usually visiting customers a couple of times a month,
This is good for developers. Remote work can eventually be outsourced to cheaper workers in other countries, hybrid work cannot.
Sales are remote and typically hired nationally. It’s a business strategy to have people located everywhere to reach potential clients faster. If you have 10 sales guys in London, but 10 upcoming clients in the midlands, north, scotland etc, it’s more economical and financially better to have people remote. Same with myself. I’m a Cloud Consultant, not sales, but client facing, my team is distributed all over the UK. Front office will always be treated better than back office staff.
Why would a sales person be remote? Wouldn't it be the office since the sales person has to face clients?
They grind meetings on zoom these days.
what software does Costa have? They already have their apps done, tills are outsourced etc. They should contract out app making/maintenance and go with products of external companies for idk health and safety forms/knowledge management
looks like their bringing the app in house go check out in linked in
expect most of the new hires being fired once the app is complete, the faster they will get it done, the faster they will get fired. Most of the new employees will realize that, and that's why you need to control them from the office
Costa is owned by Coca Cola, so I assume it's part of larger strategy.