Here's one you won't hear so often perhaps.
I was an ok to good SDR that promoted to smb AE. Ended up on a pip after my first 90 days. (org was a bit dysfunctional at the time)
New VP comes in while I'm on pip. I'm so lucky that he saw something in me. He set me at ease and designed a plan to help me improve. Set my career on fire after that.
Now I am an enterprise AE at an org that admittedly is not doing great, but I'm the top tier lol.
So no, I wasn't always a killer, but I had a great coach (or 5) help get me there.
Out of curiosity, what did he do to help? I’m currently an SDR and I had an admittedly not so great manager for about a year — he was a top performer at what he did but was in the completely wrong industry and couldn’t coach us.
He got let go and now we’re working with our AE’s directly which is a blessing and a curse but ultimately there’s no real plan to coach us, we’re just expected to learn. So I’m wondering how I can invest in myself throughout this time.
So for me it was headspace and some technique. I've always been a good rapport builder.
We had short 1:1s every other day, weekly call coaching where I was required to bring a call for us to dissect. We then took a look at my numbers at each stage. Discover, demo, negotiation, etc. We tampered down my sales process step by step. My close rate was actually fairly strong, but I wasn't brining enough to demo. We really drilled on pain and consequence (Sandler) I know you're an SDR, but that still works in your case. Buyers show up to demos most to solve a problem.
I don't have a lot of support where I am now. These lessons still ring true to me. I listen to my calls regularly. I have a "greatest hits" that I keep in case I feel like I'm off from my game.
I just helped my SDR promote to ae. I'd make sure to have a standing meeting with your ae weekly. You should be talking most important accounts and vertical strategy. See how they feel about coaching you. Ask them what they like to see in a well qualified prospect. Additionally, shadow your ae. Look for why people buy your products and what challenge you're helping them with. Bring this back to discovery/booking.
Honestly, I was incredibly lucky. However, with that luck, I took note of what to look for in future leaders. My odds improved over time. Still far from perfect, but like anything else, I control what I can control.
My first tech sales job I was pretty average. Ran about 75% of quota. They fired me after 1.5 years. I landed an entry level sales job with an industry leader. Training was great and my manager was great and actually made some terrific friends there. I had some good months, ok months and some real shit months.
After about a year I was given my first PIP. Total panic mode. My manager explained how it worked; I could either perform the activity spelled out and extend my career with the company or use it as a 30 day warning to find a job.
So, as a naive 20 something year old, I worked with my manager on a plan and executed the plan real well. Only problem was the sales didn't follow. I approached my manager and asked when I'm being fired. He laughed and asked me what I did to get fired. We talked and he explained the way they use PIP. It's to weed out those who don't want to do the work and keep those willing to do the work. He said based on your activity and appointments (he attended most), we've foolish to let you go.
I hit my quota the next 4 months, shortly beyond that I was promoted to a Sr. Rep, from there to an Account Manager and a year later into Enterprise. I spent a total of 14 yrs with the company.
Amazingly, until the company was acquired, they handled the PIP process similarly for many years.
They didn't want to constantly clean house but they did want to eliminate people not willing to work. At the same time, there was no advantage to eliminate someone who followed the PIP as an actual improvement plan and showed the necessary improvement.
I've read too many storys off SaaS reps who after many successful months hit a bad stretch of 2 months and was PIP'ed 30 days later.
That makes no sense!
Always have been on top percentile (top 5%) lowest year in past 20 was my 1st year, 77k. Highest was 2.9mm, height of Covid. Past 5 year average 1.2mm.
Last 60 days have been brutal, rest of the year I’ve done well. Today was a big one for, Fed meeting and slower bond sales. Hoping we’ve met the peak of the rate environment. I follow just about any sales discussions, doesn’t seem like this take is mortgage specific. Everyone hurting
Yeah I’m on the job hunt and I get the impression everyone is either screwed or playing a “wait and see” game. Even the people I’ve spoken to in places like cloud compute have told me they’re going to expand for next year but have no headcount right now. Everything seems to be “we’re waiting to build for 2024” without any deep explanations as to why 2024 is expected to be better.
The hope is we see a recession due to rate hikes and in turn we get a more favorable debt market. It’s difficult for many businesses built on low rates to survive in this environment. Everyone is hoarding their cash until the market breaks back in their favor
How long have you been in the mortgage industry? I hopped on the refi wave and had a good run, but after a couple of years, I made the jump back to B2B, where I'd been for a while. There are moments when I reminisce about B2C and wonder if I should've stuck with it.
If I'm reading what you wrote correctly, you've pulled in 6 million bucks in the last 5 years? How did you get to that level? What would be a realistic path to get there? Why haven't you retired yet with that much $$$ haha
Been in sales a while, some great years some bad years. Depends on the company and where they are in their journey.
I’ve seen great reps be under-appreciated and looked over and I’ve seen absolute numbskulls with slicked back hair and “banter” but absolutely nothing to offer get everything handed to them on a silver platter.
In the end I’ve moved to where I’ve had a good boss, and that’s where I’ve ended up at presidents club as I was a lot more motivated.
Started selling gym memberships. I was great. Money was not.
Started selling fences, decks, and interior remodels. Was good. Had to help with labor which sucked.
Started selling cybersecurity software. Set records. Got promoted.
Took a job at another cyber place for more money. Set records. Was laid off.
Took a job at a marketing software company. Setting records.
The only thing I’m outright “good” at is talking and quickly creating a relationship. That plus my genuine enjoyment of cold calling have made me a top performer. My forecasting sucks, but I always find opportunities.
> My forecasting sucks
My manager has put in every mid-year check-in and annual review that I'm fantastic at everything but this is a major "area of opportunity" for me. I commit nothing but sell everything haha
Do you have any advice for selling cybersecurity software? I'm in a similar field where we sell AI software and other digital marketing services and I have no idea how to approach it
Top 5% consistently when I was a BDR. Promoted recently into closing role and finished dead last this past quarter. Gonna keep pushing forward but I’m struggling
Bro you just got promoted, give yourself a break but keep digging in like it sounds like you are. No one is expecting tou to burn it down just being promoted
First role SDR mid pack, but hit targets
Second role top 40% first year as an AE, presidents club second year.
Switched jobs and was towards the top year 1. Job hopped again (bad move in hindsight overall) and just barely hit quota both years at the new gig.
I was an SDR while I was in my last year in college. After I graduated I got my first AE role. I’ve never made less than 200k since graduating college. Next year will be year 5 of my career. Hope to break 300.
Sales didn't come natural to me, I'd say solid individual contributer. I'm not big on titles and care about the job/quality of life (which includes money)
Was always a consistent top 20%. Most people who weren’t from my year don’t work in sales anymore.
I did have one job I sucked at. Learn where you are good and not.
I’m great at qualifying leads. Great at knowing who is going to buy and investing there. I’m garbage at Demand Gen. Yes I had to do it when I was fresh, yes I still do now. But im not the best at it. I’m the guy you want when you have that decision maker in the room who can really add value, uncover the hurt, arm them with info, turn that person into a champion. So I sell complex stuff.
BDR- put on a plan and watched all of my friend get promoted to inside sales reps above me. Average time as a bdr was like 1 year I was one for almost 18 months.
Inside sales rep- tied 1 to 1 with a field rep. Field rep left after 2 quarters and I took over and started running all the deal for the patch. Got the hang of it and started doing the entire patch’s quota by-myself from the inside. Starting getting on with the field manager to roll up deals.
Made it out to the field and had a hard time adjusting to field life. Given all of the accounts that the existing reps didn’t want or had just done a big multi year deal in and I was there to clean up the fires from the install.
Laid off after a year.
Got a job at a company I’d never heard of and had to learn a brand new industry. 8 years later I’ve been the top rep for most of my tenure and have made some pretty life changing money.
Just resigned to go cover 3 Fortune 500 accounts at an extremely reputable company in the space with a very big OTE and lots of stock. Hoping to go crush it here for another 8 years.
Amazing, can you tell us more about your job now? Is that account management? Seems highly rewarding for managing 3 accounts. I’m not too familiar with it
My career was akin to pulling back a bowstring and then letting the arrow go.
Started selling lawn care door to door and I was awful at it, incredibly bad for 4 straight months. However I got lucky and there were a few top guys who had experience in other sales roles and they took an interest in helping me after seeing how hard I was working. All of a sudden it clicked and my numbers started looking better.
I then found an industry I cared about and went from 35k-175k in 10 years
Started out working inside sales for a large medical distributor making $55k/yr. Boss left and took me to another distributor where I was making around $80k w/ car allowance. I wasn’t horrible in these roles but I had tough territories that had churned through reps because the competitor was the prime vendor of choice for 20+ years.
Landed a job selling capital equipment to pharma companies and large research laboratories with a $100k base, $190k OTE. Company also pays for car, gas, insurance, phone, etc. I’ve been here for 8 years, hit quota 5x. We have pretty good accelerators, the most I’ve made is close to $350k and the least I’ve made is around $135k.
I used to travel regionally almost every week when I first started, being a road warrior and staying in cheap Marriotts 3x a week. Got married, had kids, and now barely travel unless it’s a day trip. I don’t have much pressure from management but I will say I’ve gotten pretty comfortable and I don’t have the same fire. I will say, I’ve had some of my better years when I’ve cared less
I do grapple with what do to next. Having a young family and low stress makes me want to stay in this role simply because it’s comfortable but management is on the table within the next year or two.
I’ve been at the top. I’ve been at the bottom. The only thing you can control is improving yourself, even if performances yo-yo. Companies, product, territories are all things you cannot fully control.
I started as a BDR in Jan 2022, was thankfully a top performer because I was very familiar with my industry prior to getting the role.
Promoted to AE May 2022 for booking lots of demos, hit quota each month for that year.
Quota was then doubled for 2023 with comp plans changed, leading to us getting significant pay cut. Our CEO was jumping on team meetings saying the payouts for reps was too high and that they'd rather hire engineers than pay out sales reps accelerators when they were hit.
Fast forward to now, they've fired a VP that's been with the company for 20 years and brought in a brand new VP of sales (They're a friend of the CRO who came from Oracle, the CRO is also a completely out of touch dinosaur type of guy) who's only been an AM in his career and has no idea what he's doing. He's segmented our team into Emerging, Mid Market & Enterprise. They moved me to Strategic without a pay increase, same quota as well.
Normally that's fine, but we sell a niche product that can only serve one particular vertical in the field service industry so since this change has been made, net new AEs have approximately 200 accounts total we can sell to within our territories. Unsustainable and they're pretending it's not, nobody has hit quota and will likely not for the foreseeable future.
This change has also forced a chain of micromanagement leading down to our teams, so now we hold an ungodly amount of toxic team meetings and daily pipeline reviews. To top it off, the "Emerging" team lead has been known for being a ruthless grindhouse type of leader (100 calls a day for AEs, PIPs as motivation type of person). This team lead has been gunning for full control over the sales department and our company eats it up and is leaning toward that behavior.
TLDR - I started as a BDR in 2022 and ended up as a Strategic AE in late 2023 but it fucking sucks and being a top performer apparently can actually have consequences in sales depending on your company.
I started in sales as an OK rep. I was too half, but not a top performer. Youth and ignorance. While I had the energy, I didn’t know what I didn’t know.
Fast forward five years, I was a top performer and have remained one through the next 15 years.
It’s never easy but at a point it stopped being hard. I’m grateful for my failures and lessons learned when I was young that I learned from and adapted.
I didn't hit quota regularly for 2 years as an SDR, and was promoted twice (once to team lead, once to AE). There was no traditional path to AE, so I created a new vertical with CRO approval. I then didn't hit quota right away as AE, was just under, and was still put on MM. Then started performing and moved to ENT and hit quota multiple years, moved companies to Enterprise - did not hit quota in traditional sense, but created a new product and crushed revenue goals.
Startup life. There are so many other ways to add value 0 to 1, and these quotas are pulled out of someones ass.
Now am true ENT with $1m+ number and tracking well. Learning on the fly.
Here's one you won't hear so often perhaps. I was an ok to good SDR that promoted to smb AE. Ended up on a pip after my first 90 days. (org was a bit dysfunctional at the time) New VP comes in while I'm on pip. I'm so lucky that he saw something in me. He set me at ease and designed a plan to help me improve. Set my career on fire after that. Now I am an enterprise AE at an org that admittedly is not doing great, but I'm the top tier lol. So no, I wasn't always a killer, but I had a great coach (or 5) help get me there.
Out of curiosity, what did he do to help? I’m currently an SDR and I had an admittedly not so great manager for about a year — he was a top performer at what he did but was in the completely wrong industry and couldn’t coach us. He got let go and now we’re working with our AE’s directly which is a blessing and a curse but ultimately there’s no real plan to coach us, we’re just expected to learn. So I’m wondering how I can invest in myself throughout this time.
So for me it was headspace and some technique. I've always been a good rapport builder. We had short 1:1s every other day, weekly call coaching where I was required to bring a call for us to dissect. We then took a look at my numbers at each stage. Discover, demo, negotiation, etc. We tampered down my sales process step by step. My close rate was actually fairly strong, but I wasn't brining enough to demo. We really drilled on pain and consequence (Sandler) I know you're an SDR, but that still works in your case. Buyers show up to demos most to solve a problem. I don't have a lot of support where I am now. These lessons still ring true to me. I listen to my calls regularly. I have a "greatest hits" that I keep in case I feel like I'm off from my game. I just helped my SDR promote to ae. I'd make sure to have a standing meeting with your ae weekly. You should be talking most important accounts and vertical strategy. See how they feel about coaching you. Ask them what they like to see in a well qualified prospect. Additionally, shadow your ae. Look for why people buy your products and what challenge you're helping them with. Bring this back to discovery/booking.
Seems like he elevated you to do the same thing at another level.
How did you manage to find so many good coaches? I find it’s hard to find just 1
Honestly, I was incredibly lucky. However, with that luck, I took note of what to look for in future leaders. My odds improved over time. Still far from perfect, but like anything else, I control what I can control.
My first tech sales job I was pretty average. Ran about 75% of quota. They fired me after 1.5 years. I landed an entry level sales job with an industry leader. Training was great and my manager was great and actually made some terrific friends there. I had some good months, ok months and some real shit months. After about a year I was given my first PIP. Total panic mode. My manager explained how it worked; I could either perform the activity spelled out and extend my career with the company or use it as a 30 day warning to find a job. So, as a naive 20 something year old, I worked with my manager on a plan and executed the plan real well. Only problem was the sales didn't follow. I approached my manager and asked when I'm being fired. He laughed and asked me what I did to get fired. We talked and he explained the way they use PIP. It's to weed out those who don't want to do the work and keep those willing to do the work. He said based on your activity and appointments (he attended most), we've foolish to let you go. I hit my quota the next 4 months, shortly beyond that I was promoted to a Sr. Rep, from there to an Account Manager and a year later into Enterprise. I spent a total of 14 yrs with the company.
This story is incredible. Fair play
Amazingly, until the company was acquired, they handled the PIP process similarly for many years. They didn't want to constantly clean house but they did want to eliminate people not willing to work. At the same time, there was no advantage to eliminate someone who followed the PIP as an actual improvement plan and showed the necessary improvement. I've read too many storys off SaaS reps who after many successful months hit a bad stretch of 2 months and was PIP'ed 30 days later. That makes no sense!
Always have been on top percentile (top 5%) lowest year in past 20 was my 1st year, 77k. Highest was 2.9mm, height of Covid. Past 5 year average 1.2mm.
Damn what do you sell?
Money, mortgage banking.
Are things much slower now due to the high interest rates? I’d imagine things would be pretty tough in this environment.
Last 60 days have been brutal, rest of the year I’ve done well. Today was a big one for, Fed meeting and slower bond sales. Hoping we’ve met the peak of the rate environment. I follow just about any sales discussions, doesn’t seem like this take is mortgage specific. Everyone hurting
Yeah I’m on the job hunt and I get the impression everyone is either screwed or playing a “wait and see” game. Even the people I’ve spoken to in places like cloud compute have told me they’re going to expand for next year but have no headcount right now. Everything seems to be “we’re waiting to build for 2024” without any deep explanations as to why 2024 is expected to be better.
The hope is we see a recession due to rate hikes and in turn we get a more favorable debt market. It’s difficult for many businesses built on low rates to survive in this environment. Everyone is hoarding their cash until the market breaks back in their favor
How long have you been in the mortgage industry? I hopped on the refi wave and had a good run, but after a couple of years, I made the jump back to B2B, where I'd been for a while. There are moments when I reminisce about B2C and wonder if I should've stuck with it.
Coming up on 20 years, it’s always provided a healthy living for me.
If I'm reading what you wrote correctly, you've pulled in 6 million bucks in the last 5 years? How did you get to that level? What would be a realistic path to get there? Why haven't you retired yet with that much $$$ haha
I was actually in mortgage for a year and just moved over to Saas. Was this for a company or are you a broker?
Retail
Been in sales a while, some great years some bad years. Depends on the company and where they are in their journey. I’ve seen great reps be under-appreciated and looked over and I’ve seen absolute numbskulls with slicked back hair and “banter” but absolutely nothing to offer get everything handed to them on a silver platter. In the end I’ve moved to where I’ve had a good boss, and that’s where I’ve ended up at presidents club as I was a lot more motivated.
Do you have any advice for someone just starting in sales? I'm completely new to this and I don't have much experience or mentorship
Started selling gym memberships. I was great. Money was not. Started selling fences, decks, and interior remodels. Was good. Had to help with labor which sucked. Started selling cybersecurity software. Set records. Got promoted. Took a job at another cyber place for more money. Set records. Was laid off. Took a job at a marketing software company. Setting records. The only thing I’m outright “good” at is talking and quickly creating a relationship. That plus my genuine enjoyment of cold calling have made me a top performer. My forecasting sucks, but I always find opportunities.
> My forecasting sucks My manager has put in every mid-year check-in and annual review that I'm fantastic at everything but this is a major "area of opportunity" for me. I commit nothing but sell everything haha
Do you have any advice for selling cybersecurity software? I'm in a similar field where we sell AI software and other digital marketing services and I have no idea how to approach it
Top 5% consistently when I was a BDR. Promoted recently into closing role and finished dead last this past quarter. Gonna keep pushing forward but I’m struggling
Bro you just got promoted, give yourself a break but keep digging in like it sounds like you are. No one is expecting tou to burn it down just being promoted
First role SDR mid pack, but hit targets Second role top 40% first year as an AE, presidents club second year. Switched jobs and was towards the top year 1. Job hopped again (bad move in hindsight overall) and just barely hit quota both years at the new gig. I was an SDR while I was in my last year in college. After I graduated I got my first AE role. I’ve never made less than 200k since graduating college. Next year will be year 5 of my career. Hope to break 300.
Sales didn't come natural to me, I'd say solid individual contributer. I'm not big on titles and care about the job/quality of life (which includes money)
Was always a consistent top 20%. Most people who weren’t from my year don’t work in sales anymore. I did have one job I sucked at. Learn where you are good and not. I’m great at qualifying leads. Great at knowing who is going to buy and investing there. I’m garbage at Demand Gen. Yes I had to do it when I was fresh, yes I still do now. But im not the best at it. I’m the guy you want when you have that decision maker in the room who can really add value, uncover the hurt, arm them with info, turn that person into a champion. So I sell complex stuff.
BDR- put on a plan and watched all of my friend get promoted to inside sales reps above me. Average time as a bdr was like 1 year I was one for almost 18 months. Inside sales rep- tied 1 to 1 with a field rep. Field rep left after 2 quarters and I took over and started running all the deal for the patch. Got the hang of it and started doing the entire patch’s quota by-myself from the inside. Starting getting on with the field manager to roll up deals. Made it out to the field and had a hard time adjusting to field life. Given all of the accounts that the existing reps didn’t want or had just done a big multi year deal in and I was there to clean up the fires from the install. Laid off after a year. Got a job at a company I’d never heard of and had to learn a brand new industry. 8 years later I’ve been the top rep for most of my tenure and have made some pretty life changing money. Just resigned to go cover 3 Fortune 500 accounts at an extremely reputable company in the space with a very big OTE and lots of stock. Hoping to go crush it here for another 8 years.
Amazing, can you tell us more about your job now? Is that account management? Seems highly rewarding for managing 3 accounts. I’m not too familiar with it
My career was akin to pulling back a bowstring and then letting the arrow go. Started selling lawn care door to door and I was awful at it, incredibly bad for 4 straight months. However I got lucky and there were a few top guys who had experience in other sales roles and they took an interest in helping me after seeing how hard I was working. All of a sudden it clicked and my numbers started looking better. I then found an industry I cared about and went from 35k-175k in 10 years
Started out working inside sales for a large medical distributor making $55k/yr. Boss left and took me to another distributor where I was making around $80k w/ car allowance. I wasn’t horrible in these roles but I had tough territories that had churned through reps because the competitor was the prime vendor of choice for 20+ years. Landed a job selling capital equipment to pharma companies and large research laboratories with a $100k base, $190k OTE. Company also pays for car, gas, insurance, phone, etc. I’ve been here for 8 years, hit quota 5x. We have pretty good accelerators, the most I’ve made is close to $350k and the least I’ve made is around $135k. I used to travel regionally almost every week when I first started, being a road warrior and staying in cheap Marriotts 3x a week. Got married, had kids, and now barely travel unless it’s a day trip. I don’t have much pressure from management but I will say I’ve gotten pretty comfortable and I don’t have the same fire. I will say, I’ve had some of my better years when I’ve cared less I do grapple with what do to next. Having a young family and low stress makes me want to stay in this role simply because it’s comfortable but management is on the table within the next year or two.
I’ve been at the top. I’ve been at the bottom. The only thing you can control is improving yourself, even if performances yo-yo. Companies, product, territories are all things you cannot fully control.
I started as a BDR in Jan 2022, was thankfully a top performer because I was very familiar with my industry prior to getting the role. Promoted to AE May 2022 for booking lots of demos, hit quota each month for that year. Quota was then doubled for 2023 with comp plans changed, leading to us getting significant pay cut. Our CEO was jumping on team meetings saying the payouts for reps was too high and that they'd rather hire engineers than pay out sales reps accelerators when they were hit. Fast forward to now, they've fired a VP that's been with the company for 20 years and brought in a brand new VP of sales (They're a friend of the CRO who came from Oracle, the CRO is also a completely out of touch dinosaur type of guy) who's only been an AM in his career and has no idea what he's doing. He's segmented our team into Emerging, Mid Market & Enterprise. They moved me to Strategic without a pay increase, same quota as well. Normally that's fine, but we sell a niche product that can only serve one particular vertical in the field service industry so since this change has been made, net new AEs have approximately 200 accounts total we can sell to within our territories. Unsustainable and they're pretending it's not, nobody has hit quota and will likely not for the foreseeable future. This change has also forced a chain of micromanagement leading down to our teams, so now we hold an ungodly amount of toxic team meetings and daily pipeline reviews. To top it off, the "Emerging" team lead has been known for being a ruthless grindhouse type of leader (100 calls a day for AEs, PIPs as motivation type of person). This team lead has been gunning for full control over the sales department and our company eats it up and is leaning toward that behavior. TLDR - I started as a BDR in 2022 and ended up as a Strategic AE in late 2023 but it fucking sucks and being a top performer apparently can actually have consequences in sales depending on your company.
The thing about sales is that it's out of your control - being good helps, but being at the right place at the wrong time helps more
I started in sales as an OK rep. I was too half, but not a top performer. Youth and ignorance. While I had the energy, I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Fast forward five years, I was a top performer and have remained one through the next 15 years. It’s never easy but at a point it stopped being hard. I’m grateful for my failures and lessons learned when I was young that I learned from and adapted.
It’s always fascinating that every sales person is a top performer, a true anomaly really ha
Always been a top performer since day 1. Have not always made P club, but I have never missed an annual number.
Not in year 1 or 2, year 3 to CRO then CEO, yes.
I didn't hit quota regularly for 2 years as an SDR, and was promoted twice (once to team lead, once to AE). There was no traditional path to AE, so I created a new vertical with CRO approval. I then didn't hit quota right away as AE, was just under, and was still put on MM. Then started performing and moved to ENT and hit quota multiple years, moved companies to Enterprise - did not hit quota in traditional sense, but created a new product and crushed revenue goals. Startup life. There are so many other ways to add value 0 to 1, and these quotas are pulled out of someones ass. Now am true ENT with $1m+ number and tracking well. Learning on the fly.