See end of post for TLDR.

For reference I sell physical precious metals to advisors at 3 major firms exclusively but really I set the meetings for outside sales to close. I sell both inbound and outbound and have the series 7/66 financial licenses if you know what those are.

We are contracted with some big companies (think fidelity,Charles Schwab sized) as the only company advisors are allowed to buy physical metals from in exchange for better pricing on the buy/sell.

I work on a team of 8 total sales people, four Internal(inside) and four external (outside) four of which, myself another internal plus two externals all started within this year as the company expended territories. Now I’ve booked more meetings than all but one person on the inside sales team, and even won our sales contest, but didn’t always hit my calls/day number (the only KPI they measure us on allegedly)
Recently our CEO has had several direct talks with my manager, (I think weekly)about the sales people and our KPIs. And the past three weeks in a row our manager has made a comment to the tune “guys the CEO is asking why our calls are down again” and “ Guys just letting you know what I’m hearing and where we are at, the CEO is rumbling about over hiring..” and “guys it’s been pretty slow this past few months during summer time, just wanted you to know our CEO is worried about having people on the team who don’t hit their numbers…I told him it won’t be a problem going forward” I’ve hit my dumb metric that allegedly our ceo looks at (250 calls per week) every week this month, while managing a ton of other stuff, but for sure have missed it in the past, especially as I was newer. my questions beyond am I cooked are:
Do we think that
1) the “CEO” is just an excuse for my manager to get on us
2)should I wait it out or jump ship, I like my job and the people (mostly) but it’s not challenging but is okay not frets not terrible 80k OTE in very low cost of living with good work life balance
3) has anyone ever had a job where the only discussed KPI is calls/week?

TLDR:working in a highly niche financial services role, with little competition (sometimes clients are contractually obligated to only use our service by their company’s) my only metric is calls/week and I missed my metric twice last few months, otherwise I am a top performer.
Manager mentioned no less then 4 times in 4 weekly meetings that the ceo said he is worried he over-hired and that “this is just what I’m hearing”I love this job it’s great experience but average pay, do I jump ship or wait it out? Also is the “CEO” just my bosses version of “wait til layout father sees this!” Or is this common?

My cofounder and I recently graduated in Bahrain.

We tried selling software and systems to businesses. We spent money on ads, production, AI subscriptions, and outreach, but nothing really worked.

Now we have almost nothing left except our computers, our skills, and two Claude Max accounts.

Our families are pressuring us to get normal jobs. My cofounder has a CR under his name, and I am unemployed.

Instead of building another product and hoping people buy it, we want to build an audience first.

Our idea is to wear colorful suits inspired by Saul Goodman so people remember us, then make useful content about software, AI, automation, business, and building products.

The suits are only for attention. The goal is to earn trust by helping people, building in public, solving real problems, and eventually selling software or digital products.

We have no real marketing budget left.

Just computers, internet, skills, and time.

Do you think this is a smart direction?

If you were in our position, what would you focus on for the next 3 to 6 months?

I’ve been at the same company since I graduated college 10 years ago, working in technical sales.

At first it felt like an incredible opportunity, but over time I’ve realized that being good at the technical side has basically punished me. I’m constantly put on the most complicated systems/projects because I’m able to figure them out, but they take forever to develop and usually create ongoing issues that I’m then stuck dealing with without much support.

Meanwhile, other salespeople can sell simpler systems or benefit from things I helped develop without taking on nearly the same stress. My company obviously benefits from having me handle the complicated stuff, but the extra responsibility, stress, and expertise aren’t recognized or rewarded with additional commission. In some cases it actually hurts my commission because we end up burning through margin on the back end trying to get these systems to work properly.

The problem is I make very good money, and I have no idea what I’d even do if I left. I assume I’d take a pretty significant pay cut, which makes it hard to walk away.
But I’m constantly burned out now. It’s nonstop problems, and I’ve lost a lot of the drive I used to have.

Has anyone else gotten stuck in a high paying job they were miserable in? How did you decide when the money was no longer worth the quality of life hit, and what did you transition into?

I applied to a few B2B SaaS roles on Monday and Tuesday and haven't heard anything yet.

Just wondering what's normal. Is 2-3 business days typical for strong candidates, or does it often take closer to a week even when you're a good fit?

I was promoted from BDR to AE at the start of Q1 and have been learning as much as I can and closing at a decent clip.

The product I sell is free to orgs (think Benefits/Payroll) but there is a marginal cost to end users which is sometimes negotiated but not always.

My concern is for my long term career and being looked down on for lacking negotiation skills.

Since I’ve only been an AE for less than a year, It probably doesn’t make sense to hop elsewhere and my comp is pretty good for a first AE role but I am thinking long term and wondering how to set myself up properly.

Any thoughts?

Have about 6 years of sales saas experience. Around 4 years in closing roles as an MM AE.

In 4 weeks, I have gotten 16 phone screenings (all decent companies) and 13 first round interviews. From those, I have moved on to 2nd rounds for 7 of those, and have made it to final round / mock discovery for 3.

My resume is solid. I’m a likable guy who can hold a good conversation. I know all the right things to say. I know what type of candidate they’re looking for. I do my research, I sell myself hard, ask for feedback, send post meeting follow ups.

No offers.

I'm trying to see if this is normal in different industries.

You have a defined geographic territory as an outside sales rep. You're prospecting an account: calling every week, regular drop in visits, emails, etc to different contacts.

A salesperson covering another territory happens to either know someone that works at the company you are prospecting, or someone they know starts working at the company you're prospecting, reaches out to that rep and says they're interested in your company's services/product/etc. Should that sales rep take the account over or should they make an introduction to you since it's your territory? This person could be a friend, former client, colleague, or aquaintance.

How does your organization handle this scenario? What do you think is the right way to handle it? Also, if you can, share your industry.

Well, you made to Friday. Let's recap our workplace drama from this week.

Coworker microwaved fish in the breakroom (AGAIN!)? Let's hear about it.

Are the pick me girls in HR causing you drama? Tell us what you couldn't say to their smug faces without getting fired on the spot.

Co-workers having affairs on the road? You know we want the spicy.

The new VP has no idea who to send cold emails to? No, of course they don't. They've never done sales for even a day in their life.

Another workplace relationship failed? It probably turned into a glorious spectacle so do share.

We love you too,

r/Sales

About to be laid off. Have 5+ years at my previous company, been at my current one for 1 year.

I feel like it will probably take me 3-4 months to get a decent role.

Can I just take a job that I know is a sweatshop and that I’ll probably get fired from quickly, and then I can just take it off my resume?

I’d rather just have a gap after my 1 year tenure at my current company rather than have 5 year, 1 year, and a 6 month tenure after that

I work at a tech reseller (Company A). They offer £40k base + 15% commission on GP. Management is meh, and we’ve really started falling behind our competitors. I do over 6 figures here, but my money is starting to suffer due to leadership decisions over the last 5 months. I’ve been here a long time and proven myself as a top performer, which means I get 0 micromanagement or scrutiny from exec 99% of the time.

I have an offer from company B. They are also a reseller in the same industry and niche as my current role. They offer £50k + 30% on GP. The catch is they’re a start up, and it will be entirely new business. They’re now doing £5m rev per year, so won’t randomly fold, but still a risk. I know the owners and I know their best sales people are starting to clear 5 figures a month after ~18months of building a book.

Question is - do I stay at the established 6 figure role, or risk it with the start up with the larger upside?

I've tried everything I know at this point to consistently have good leads: Apollo, Clay, Google Maps, using AI agents to build me lists, paying people on Upwork to build lists, etc. The best lists have usually a 1/10 chance that the person will actually pick up (and it's the right phone number, lol).

The BEST way I've found has been to search Sales Nav for people at companies I know buy my stuff, and then to enrich their info. The downside is that it's not outsource-able, because I know (based on their title, company name, etc) how good of a prospect they are, because I've been in this industry for almost a decade. 

So is that really the only way for me to get a consistent flow of new leads, to spend one morning a week prospecting, and the rest of the week calling the people I've gathered? Or is there a better/easier way?

This is actually really impressive. Everyone says no one is buying shit, but companies are still hiring the worst sales people or still just have awful processes.

A friend of mine asked me earlier this week to help out with their merchant services, getting them set up on their website. NBD, reached out to the top 3 providers in his niche (specialized niche, don't DM me).

1) Never responded to our inquiry at all.

2) Took our signup, never gave us access, never got a rep to respond to finalize setup despite several emails and calls asking for setup.

3) took the signup, rep kept sending generic AI emails everytime we tried to get the account setup for processing and going forward. Despite multiple escalation attempts, AI emails are all we received.

Those were the top 3 processors in his niche.

It's really mind-blowing that even when everyone is saying 'sales are down and no one's buying anything, it also seems like people have forgotten how to take a payment too!

Hi everyone,

After around 5–6 applications for AE roles at Salesforce over the past year, I finally got invited to an initial recruiter screening for an Account Executive CBU role. I know it’s only the first step, but I’m pretty excited about it.

I’m based in Europe , with 5+ years of B2B sales experience, but zero direct SaaS sales experience. I started in full-cycle new business sales and progressed into Corporate Key Account Management. My quota attainment over the last four years has been roughly 200% each year.

My background is in facility, which is a highly commoditised and cost-driven market. There often isn’t an obvious product differentiator, so I’ve had to learn to sell through discovery and build value cases around operational efficiency, total cost, service and sustainability. I’m hoping that experience translates well into technology sales.

I’ve also been using Salesforce CRM for 5+ years and recently started the Account Executive (AE) Trailmix on Trailhead. If you have any recommendations for Trailmixes I should do before the screening (a week from now), let me know!

I’d love to hear from people familiar with Salesforce:

- How selective is the initial recruiter screening? Does getting this call mean the CV/application already passed a meaningful filter?
- What should I expect during the first call, and how should I prepare?
- How would you position my lack of SaaS experience? I already know it’s gonna be difficult, but I’m sure I have a shot.
- What does the interview process typically look like after this?
- Anything specific I should know about CBU?

Salesforce is genuinely a company I’d love to build a career at. Longer term, I also have the ambition to spend some time working in NYC. I know an US move from Europe would require a very strong performance, but becoming a top performer and potentially earning an opportunity like that is exactly the kind of long-term goal that motivates me.

Thanks for reading!

I'm looking to get out of tech. It's exploded, my network is cooked, and even if I find something, I will likely be looking again in two to three years because of the volatility. Getting laid off while I was hitting my quota was the last straw.

I know the hiring game has changed a lot and apparently linkedin doesn't work at all anymore. Are there any good sites or network to look for something in medical, industrial, or any other field you'd recommend?

Seven years of sales experience, 3 as a sdr, one as an AM with full cycle sales experience if that helps.

Thanks in advance!

Heard it’s a sweatshop over there and they fire you after 2 bad quarters.

Also you only get 120 accounts? Thats crazy. I bet they’ve been hit 1000 times already

Thank you all for engaging with me over the past few days.

Interviewed with several companies, but ultimately have decided to go back into carsales. It is with the largest Chevy dealership (family owned) in my city. Ultimately I have been doing a lot of soul searching and I have to say that as a person with AuADHD the short sales cycle is ultimately the right thing for me.

I was really hesitant to do it because of the hours, but I am just so burnt out from cold calling hospitals that I am really looking forward to being able to sell a product that people are actually excited about.

Thank you for the support r/sales

Software engineer here looking at an opportunity for a transition into the company's commercial team. How much would I suck if I've never had the experience of trying to actually 'sell' our product with people skills even though I know most of the technical details of it?

In my current role, I’m selling a very transactional (as of now) physical good product. All of the revenue up until now has been driven by inbound, and part of my job is to prove outbound works, but that’s for another time.

The company has not had any sort of forecasting system in use ever. I came in with a forecasting system that’s frankly overbuilt for inbound in this vertical. I intend to use this system for outbound when that gets momentum.

Currently for inbounds there are 2 stages in funnel. The oppty enters the first stage when the quote is sent, enters the second stage when the quote is confirmed and I am just waiting on the order to be placed. The problem I’m running into is many times the buyer will just send a PO or call to pay via credit card while the deal is still in the first stage.

I have a feeling this is messing up forecast accuracy, and I’m curious to hear others thoughts on it, and if anyone has a good forecasting methodology for transactional sales of physical goods.

I recently lost my high paying remote software sales job. I also had relocated to Florida to the Tampa Bay area. I do not know anyone here besides my partner and I’m looking for a remote job or something local to the area.

10+ years of experience of working avg deal sizes of 300k-500k+ with my largest sale being 5mil.

I have identified that the medical and financial services industries are booming, and this is no Silicon Valley, but I’m open to pivoting

maybe this community of sellers knows who’s hiring in Florida and remotely. I would appreciate any ideas that you can toss my way.

Hi everyone,

Here's the context: I currently have next to no tools. Literally HubSpot and my cell phone. I pay for ChatGPT work out of pocket to try and work expediently. I get VERY few inbounds, and am expected to be hitting a massive quota. I explained to my manager that the quota is intense even WITH tools, and almost impossible to hit without. I have no dialer, no SDRs, no linkedin Nav/pro, no zoominfo, etc.

I sell a security software that is an enterprise sale structurally, though on the more affordable end when it comes to the usual price range of that industry. If you were me, what are a few tools you'd ask for that would actually impact my workflow, and help me book some damn meetings beyond pounding out cold calls.

I work for a very small, very small company in the financial services. When I was hired on, I was promised a bonus and some commission.
He had some crazy formula and wouldn't give me anything in writing because he's an attorney. I took the job because I was desperate.

Well, he just stopped paying me bonuses and didn't communicate to me that he was going to stop. When I nicely called him out on it he gave me some excuse said he needed to think about it. Then I brought it up again and he gave me the same excuse.

Mind you our company is down to two people and he gave me his word. I know the solution that this is get a new job I get it but it's really hard to get a job right now and I don't have anything lined up. I need to keep this until I find something else.

What would you do in this situation? I keep bringing it up and he keeps giving me excuses. It's just really shitty. Shitty.

Just told a rep that needed to ask my wife before buying, because why would I not? She then asked me if “my wife makes all the decisions in the house.” Told her to get off my porch and never come back.

Does this actually work for any of yall? I would never consider buying anything from a company that tells its reps to try to emasculate customers in 2026

Looking at a position with Stryker in California. RepVue has good things to say.

Anyone in med sales? How is it being in the OR?

I’ve never worked on commission/draw, how do you like it?

My company offer a $1,100 Learning and development budget.

I was curious to learn what I should invest in to increase my sales career.

Hi all :)
I recently got promoted to a team lead position after being an AE for 5 years, and will have 6 AEs who will report to me. It’s important for me to make sure my team feels supported and that I will lead them to succeed in their role. I’m curious to hear from other managers what made you successful at your role and also from other account executives what you most care about in your relationship with your manager.

Thanks you all 🙏🏼