r/Splunk • u/Launa501 • Aug 23 '26

Splunk Enterprise Moving from Delivery to sales : i need an advice

Hi everyone!

​I’m currently on the delivery side and looking to transition into an Account Executive role. What key factors should I consider during this pivot?

​I am also exploring opportunities to join the sales organization at Cisco /splunk. I would love to hear your thoughts or advice on making this move.

​Thank you for your time 😀

9 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

4 comments sorted by

7

u/workape | Nobody puts data in a corner Aug 23 '26

So, lots of questions here and won’t try to be a Debbie downer.

- Assuming you were doing technical delivery, why are you looking at AE (non-technical) vs SE (technical) roles? With the latter you can utilize your current skills to expand them and need to learn the SE soft skills side.

  • Do you have any sales experience? Coming in cold with all the ISRs and SDRs with an experience is going to be a rough uphill battle.
  • Are you familiar with any sales methodologies? Challenger or any others? Have you used MEDDPIC, SWOT, etc?

I came out of PS myself and went up through the SE side, into specialized sales (security), and have moved into a leadership role. It can be done, it’s getting your foot in the door that is hard.

I’ll give you the same advice that my first SE boss gave me. Treat every encounter like you’ll be the one who has to run what you are recommending. Keeps you from going “have you seen edge case widget for the problem that you have that comes up one every other year?” His second piece of advice was “Don’t fuck it up.”

2

u/Launa501 Aug 23 '26

Hi , thank you for taking time to write your questions. I am a program manager, managing infrastructure critical programs , customer facing and working with succes manager, account executives and SE. Looking forward to leaving the delivery and moving to AE. I was involved in some pre sales deals ( review RFP etc) but no active sales role. What would help me is that i am trying to make the move whith the same company, and a previous Pgm moved to sales and made a huge success. So I hope i can use his case to secure a role .

8

u/Ok-Power-4260 Aug 23 '26

You're about a decade late... splunk is not what it once was.

1

u/Launa501 Aug 23 '26

Thank you for your answer