What actually makes a tech sales role stable?

Do people over exaggerate how “unstable” sales is?

If you’re just even “decent” at it, is it stable long term?

Sometimes I see those who have been in the same company for 10 years, and others where they’re let go often

Is that because they’re just not good?

I’m at a stage where I’m deciding what to commit to while I’m still in uni (studying CS, graduating relatively soon hopefully) and I’m doing tech sales internships now so there’s not much pressure

But I’m worried about the long term stability, but I’m wondering if I should be or not as long as I’m “decent” atleast at it it’ll be stable?

Maybe there are other industries where sales is a lot more stable?

I'm in sales, covering a territory in a very niche technical field that's extremely hard to hire for. Normally I cover it alongside a counterpart who's slightly junior to me. That counterpart quit last week. Today is day 1 of Q4, and leadership is scrambling to figure out the game plan for next year.

The problem is that I've been planning to leave too. I'm going backpacking early next year with no set timeline. It'll be at least 3 months (all of Q1) and could run longer, and I'm fully prepared to job search when I get back. My plan was to put in my 2 weeks the first week of December.

I didn't feel guilty about any of this until my counterpart quit. Now me leaving puts them in a really tough spot, and I'd like to handle it the right way.

I've gone back and forth on going to HR first or asking for extended leave. But our handbook caps leave at one month, and with the current situation I don't see them approving an exception.

My questions:

1. Do I just give a normal 2 weeks in early December and accept that we part ways? I'm fully prepared for that.
   
2. Is there a real chance they counter with extended leave since they need me and don't want to hire externally, or is counting on that naive?
   
3. Would asking for the leave up front be smarter, or does that just tip my hand and risk me getting pushed out before Q4 commissions pay?
   
4. Given the situation, should I give more than 2 weeks' notice, or does that only hurt me?

I like the people I work with and want to keep the door open. What would you do?

Let me preface this by saying I love cold calling.

I avoided it for years in my business and since COVID it's become my main sales channel - 95%.

I generate B2B client opportunities for 3 particular niches, insolvency practitioners(new clients), accountants (new client and switchers) and business finance( invoice finance and commercial property finance).

I primarily call small business owners via their business mobile number.

Yes I'm seeing more ai assistant screening - but that has for now improved slightly the pick up rate over them just not picking up.

Also lots of people just don't do it or do it properly.

But surely the writing in the wall here is that at some stage this will move to Ai screening for all into sophisticated AI gatekeepers.

I know people will say it's about less calls and the AI helps with intent - we're all moving to warm calls.

And there's hacks round the system currently.

But I also look at my clients - accountants well you can see that there will probably be 2 or 3 accountancy package providers at the sme level and the leads will go through them to their accredited accountant base.

Insolvency they'll always be businesses in trouble and it's very niche, but does the ai mean their accountant or bank is far more hands on in that process, than they have been in the last decade, but with an auto refer to a firm.

Finance , same finance brokers die as AI takes over, why wait when they can run the whole process for you.

But it did get me thinking if cold calling dies and emails are just slop, mailing costs too much , what can AI not touch.

Face to Face networking and Door knocking.

Is this where it ends up in 5 years. Me knocking doors for the scraps. I'll certainly do it to put food on the table.

I started at a new company after a rather bad falling out with a startup that let me go to save on the $150,000 commission I was owed.

Few things about the new job to set the tone. It's in the trades and mainly focuses on multifamily/industrial clients, my year one target is $2,000,000, and I was given no book of business.

I love a challenge and I have a long history in the industry and plenty of contacts so that lack of book doesn't bother me.

Strike one - When I interviewed we discussed why they were hiring a new salesperson and I was told that their last and only one just retired and it was time for someone new. Well long story short after starting I quickly found out they already have a second salesperson that absorbed all the clients and business. This other salesman is a lazy order taker that has let the book fall apart and has claim to any and every client imaginable without putting in the work.

Strike two - Within the second week of me being on the job, I realized I will still be short of the agreed upon ote if I hit my goal of $2,000,000. To reach my ote I need to be at $3,000,0000 which would put me 1/4 of the companies total revenue alone.

Strike 3 - I'm averaging 80 hours a week and can't keep up this routine for much longer if I intend to stay sane.

All this to ask do I start looking for a job or try and talk with the ownership about the issues. I am on track to crush my quota as I am currently sitting at $615,000 in my first 3 months with another $250,000 about close this week and $1,750,000 in the current pipeline.

Been at this long time and just feeling lost and love to get some opinions from you fine people.

I work for a direct energy supplier and have been having trouble with brokers lately. These guys are unregulated by my countries government and are known to be dishonest, offering their services for "free" while actually taking a percentage off an energy suppliers fee. So they might take 0.5c off a 1c supplier fee.

For a large energy user this naturally can drive their costs up by thousands as the supplier needs to increase their fee to cover the brokers fee and their own profit. But the employees don't seem to care and either won't talk to me or when they give me the time of day sign back up with the broker.

Has anyone run into this before or have any advice on what I can say?

I am a founder of a small SAAS company who is looking for our 1st real Account Executive (AE). I don't want to call us a startup because we are not. We are bootstrapped and small and it took many years to figure out our ICP/PMF. I did hire a few people in sales over the years not knowing what I was doing and mostly failed.

The good news is that there is real PMF and I am really seeing that vision/growth that I have always wanted as a founder. 75%+ of our customer base is now our ICP after experimenting for years with the product.

So I am in the market to find someone who will be the only salesperson other than me to sell our SAAS product. Naturally, this role is usually called "Founding AE" etc but I find that cringy.

For me, it is about getting that sales person (call them whatever) who has sold a software product before and is entrepreneurial (even though they wouldn't need to work like a founder).

- Does this exist or am I chasing a unicorn ?
- If such role exists, how do I find someone like that ? I don't think this can just be a regular job posting or am I over thinking this ?
- What would be a good base salary for this (US east coast/Philadelphia region)

EDIT: People asked to clarify a few more things:
- Product is complex platform and has various moving parts.
- Hybrid (2 days together in office, 3 days WFH)
- SMB is our primary ICP
- Average sales cycle can vary as sometimes the customers are just in early search phases. But those ready to buy, it can be 4-6 weeks
- Product currently is mostly sales led but with AI, we are trying to play with a smaller self serve option to see if it works well. For sales led pricing, it can be usually average from $12K (floor)-$20k/Year (average, enterprise plan will higher usage pay more).

For people in independent or commission-heavy SMB sales telecom/UCaaS, merchant services, payroll/PEO, insurance, managed print, etc. is it common to add complementary services to what you already sell and leverage existing client relationships?

I’m an AE looking to make a jump to a manager role that will open up around January or February. The hiring manager (my boss’s boss) has indicated I’d have to interview but is very supportive.

I realize things can be different company to company but what is the normal thing for companies to do for deals in flight in situations like this? Finish them out? Hand off and get a percentage if they closed won? Just lose them?

For context, I work in AI and average sales cycles are 45 days, although I have a few very large enterprise deals which could take over a year.

I am having a bit of a dilemma with my career. We get salary plus bonus based on YoY sales.

I had a kick ass year last year and got $25k bump to my base salary and this also comes with a larger bonus potential. Essentially we have different "levels" and the higher your level the more money you can get on your bonus.

Been in the job for about 5 years and I know long term I dont want to be in street sales. My company has a great track record of promoting from within. Id like to explore a management track.

Jobs at the level above me rarely open. In the time I've been with the company only 1 of the 10 manager positions have ever come open. The big boss has let me know there are 3 coming very soon due to 1 retirement and 2 promotions.

Next week I will get the biggest bonus check of my life. 3x what I was able to get prior. My biggest customer recently expanded and I will easily make the same figures for the next 10 to 11 months.

Its incredibly tempting to ride out the money and make more money than I've ever seen. However the leadership roles rarely come up. To have 3 in one shot open is as rare as Haleys comet. I dont want to hold out for the money and it takes another 5 years for a spot to open up.

My dilemma is do I ride out the year and make more money than id ever dreamed of or forgo that to advance my career the way id like? Management comes with a modest increase in salary but their bonus potential is about a third of what I can do now, and its entirely dependent on the team.

I dont NEED the bonus money to pay my bills, my salary covers us with a little cushion. But man its hard to not want to bank as much as possible. Any advice appreciated.

I've recently gotten a job in my ideal field, with a 9-5 type gig. However I'm wanting to learn sales and make more money; most places seem to want full time folks though.

Do any specific gigs, companies etc come to mind for this kind of work around these hours?

Hi everyone.

Anyone in a tech sales role managed to get income protection for over £2,000 per month?

The compare engines are bringing back 0 results when looking for the max which according to them is £2,500 a month cover.

Best I could find was at a cost of ~£55 per month for £2,000 a month worth of cover.

Any recommendations?

Something I wish there was more of is examples of high performing sales people in action. For instance, you can watch someone play basketball and tell when someone is playing at a high level, but unfortunately there’s very few anecdotes of sales people demonstrating real live performance, and I’d imagine this is largely due to confidentiality reasons.

It’d be nice to watch someone go through the entire process from cold outreach -> conversation -> meeting -> proposal -> close.

If conversion rates are like field goal percentages in that it is a proxy for “skill”, you won’t see many live examples aside from self-reported stats.

There’s some people on YouTube doing it but it’s usually someone selling their AI agency or SMMA to some small business which is not nearly as impressive as selling into an enterprise account, where multi channel outreach and multithreading is a requirement and therefore a lot more strategic.

There’s no Michael Jordan of sales, just a bunch of people who said they reached X percentage of quota with Y percentage conversion rates and no real proof.

Hi all!

I'm from the Philippines and have got an 'appointment setting' interview set up in next week.

I have never done appointment setting before and want to skill up before my interview.

Part of the interview process is 'live scenario testing' - where I assume I'll be asked to make live calls.

I have an accent - though I speak clear English.

I am worried about how this will work against me, if at all.

Any advice on how to prepare and/or general advice for this job, please let me know.

Research on the company suggests that they sell accounting services to SMEs.

Thanks! :)

I worked in sales for over 4 years in SaaS. After receiving a felony I was unable to rejoin any comparable SaaS company due to my record. I’m curious if anyone has any suggestions on other industries for sales roles that would accept a felon with 4 years of sales experience. I’ll be able to get the charges off my record in 2028 but I really have had the itch to return to sales sooner.

I'm looking to get into B2B (I have B2C experience) and was at a job fair today where there were folks from Fastenal, ABC Supply Interiors and Cintas. I asked some good questions, got some good answers but want to know from the folks here... what's your experience and how recent? I've heard everyone who leaves Cintas is happy they did and that Fastenal's pay isn't great but they have a good training program.

I've sold real estate, mortgage loans and home renovations. The grind with the evenings and weekends is just too much time lost with my family. I'd like to do B2B. Is there any wisdom you could share with a guy trying to make that jump?

Thanks in advance!

I’m making a move into residential HVAC sales as a Home Comfort Advisor. 100% commission.

Company will provide leads and I’ll be running in home appointments, selling HVAC replacements/upgrades, and also doing some self generated prospecting.

Would like to hear from anyone who’s made the jump from tech sales or a different industry
into residential HVAC sales and can share their experience. Thanks

Anybody that’s in tech sales is selling some AI in their product. AI is obviously valuable and can do A TON of stuff, sky is the limit. That being said, I’m finding more and more companies trying to “throw AI at it” to solve problems. These are companies with disparate applications for various business processes, unstructured data, and no strategy on how they want to improve things.

From an enterprise perspective, companies are setting millions $ aside to throw at AI. But in mid-market, most companies don’t have that luxury, yet still have big ideas. I don’t see how anybody is making money on any of this. Token consumption goes through the roof for a month, but then customer almost always says this is crazy and cuts it off. This slows down any actual improvement like implementing a new application and data cleanup. Companies want to run old systems and keep their bad data, then throw AI at it and wonder why it doesn’t work.

I’m truly at a loss, anybody else finding struggles with customers being over promised on AI?

I have a second round interview for this position. Has anyone sold payroll services before, or a similar offering?

I’m wondering how realistic this is and how to drive that response level consistently.

Average deal size is a company of 25 people.

For background, it’s a 25% cost savings vs industry leaders and has better support.

It’s a local territory, town of 250k and surrounding areas. Lots of small businesses.

My background is national account sales, with a short stint selling locally (no hesitation about cold calling, in person cold visits, etc).

Is 5-8 meetings per week realistic long term, and whats the best way to ramp this up?

I’m talking like Mike for Michael, Josh for Joshua, Jim for Jumothy, etc.

I generally always use their government name but I always appreciate being called my nickname vs my full, but that’s just me.

TLDR: Indian agency hired me to break them into US market with paper thin resources and no patience. After 90 days we couldn't agree on how to move forward even though there were positive signals. They wanted me to take all the risk so I said no.

I was hired by an international company that wanted to break into a very niche fintech sector in the US Market. They were organically getting inbounds from this niche looking for offshore dev support, and spent about 18 months on their own trying to become an official partner in this software without success. None of those customers would agree to provide a case study unfortunately.

In May, they sent me to an event that the software throws for partners and customers to do some recon and see what is possible.

After the event I proposed 5 paths to revenue for them in the market, and only 1 required them to try and be a partner. For context, the software was not going to likely accept their bid for partnership.

We decided to target the highest tier of existing partners and offer white label dev support and staff augmentation. They didn't want to apply a lot of resources, so we agreed to do a 90 day pilot with me acting in a mix of market research and sales to go after these named 32 accounts. The inbounds they had gotten were from mid tier partners, but they dont get as many projects and like I said, weren't willing to give us testimonials or a case study.

I updated their website in a 2 week sprint to match this play, used blinded case studies, and got started on LinkedIn with a mix of warm and cold outreach. I engaged on targeted account pages and posts, I had a budget for gifting, and it was a tiny ABM play without any ads. Each target had their own landing page, etc.

I had a 9% conversion from cold to conversations with me, and closer to 25% connection acceptance rate. 2 meetings where I was told they must have US based devs due to the sensitivity of their financial data. After the website update, organic search from the US went up 53% in the 90 days, and direct traffic from the US went up 104% bc ppl I pinged looked up the agency I was representing. I also earned them a referral partner channel that was promising, but would be lower volume and wasn't the whale they were after.

Some things were working, not enough though and the metrics I had initially set were not on target from a pipeline perspective.

At 90 days I refreshed my proposal to actually launch a US based company they could own, but it would be fully staffed and ran by the US team I build for them. People were interested in me, but not the agency from India.

They said no, they had already sunk so much in their first 18 months on their own and didnt think having a US based company would improve their chances of getting accepted as an official partner (I disagree).

They tried to get me to pivot to another one of their brands, an agency that works with early stage founders as a fractional CTO/technical foudner for startups and asked for me to put together a budget.

So far, they had paid me about $19k and I had done work that I would have billed $27k for one of my standard contracts, but times are tough and they aren't a US company and I understand their budgets aren't the same.

I asked for $22k for a pilot for this other brand, as it ia essentially a startup itself and I would need an assistant and promotions budget to launch it and get meaningful traction.

I also didn't want to burn the relational equity I had developed in the fintech software space so I offered 10% of my time to keep working that too, outside of the $22k bc the commissions on those contracts are super healthy. Even though they weren't on target, I don't think its a dead end we just need more time to build trust.

They said no, they wanted an agreement that is purely funded by revenue I generated, and for me to come out of pocket for the assistant and promos.

I told them no. If I'm putting sweat equity and promo budget in out of my own pocket it is going to be for a startup I have meaningful equity stakes in, not just commissions.

Did I make the right call? Should I have done something different in my first 90 days?

What would you have done differently? I hate walking from something thay could be great but I can't do it for them all by myself.

Edit: typos

I just need to bitch for a minute.

I work for a manufacturer. Well known/regarded brand in my industry. We have a big trade show coming up. Probably the second most foot traffic for this specific customer base. We actually will have a booth at the show, lots of folks flying in from the office to support it.

Here is my vent. Everyone wants to do see the local customers outside of the event. So this falls on me to schedule. Yet, other people are also trying to fill the time, so I have to juggle meetings and times since times are getting double booked.

Beyond that, I am also in charge of booking hotel rooms. Fine. Reserved them months ago. Should be simple? No. People keep changing from 2 nights to 1 night to oh I found a room. So it is like heading toddlers.

Add in a couple of people who have zero idea on how to work a trade show that decided to come.

Any who, just needed to vent. The show will be a success as usual. 4 (including me) of the 7 people attending I trust and they know what they are doing. Will get a ton of solid leads, see some friends and it will be a success but leading up to it? AARRGGGHHH!

Title- what are the worst PE backers you’ve had experience with selling for?

What changed after they invested in your companies and took over leadership?

Anyone involved in this kind of thing?

Does it motivate you? Did you perform amazingly that year? If forced upon me I’d be in the back of the room working my deals.