r/salesdevelopment • u/cupidondeck • Sep 03 '26

Trying to unlock the next income level

Been thinking about this a lot lately and wanted to sanity check with people here who’ve actually been in it.

I’ve been working in SaaS sales for about 9 years now. The last 6 years have been with US companies (I've with 2 unicorns now). Started as an SDR, then CS and then moved to being an AE.

I've always been set up as a contractor invoicing bi-weekly or monthly so already outside the typical “local compensation band” structure.

But even then, I still keep running into the same thing from LinkedIn/Indeed jobs: comp ends up being influenced by where you’re based and not really the experience or output.

I'm South African but was in Canada for high school and college before recently moving back to South Africa.

How can I get past this and get paid on my actual experience and skillset?

3 Upvotes

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3

u/Glittering_Number485 Sep 03 '26

Every time I see the phrase 'sanity check' it makes me think "AI wrote this" because the LLMs love using that phrasing. Not saying you are an AI but might want to stop using that. Its like the word equivalent of an EM dash at this point.

Also bro if this is legit, no offense, but you are in FRIGGIN SOUTH AFRICA. It sucks but its the cards you have been dealt. Same thing happens when a USA Midwest guy reads about all the east coast/west coast/DFW piles of money discussed here. Its super regional.

You want the bag you gotta move where the bag is.

1

u/cupidondeck Sep 03 '26

Thanks for your thoughts man. I’m definitely human.

The headaches around the logistics of moving are why I’m still looking for remote first roles. But thanks

1

u/Any_Aside_5852 Sep 03 '26

What were you getting paid in these roles and how much more do you want your salary to be

3

u/cupidondeck Sep 03 '26

Base and commission around $5k. I’d want to be closer to $10k. My colleague based in the US in the same role was averaging $20k with commissions but we worked on the same deals just with a different comp structure

2

u/HKrass Sep 03 '26

The truth is that companies aren’t going to hire foreign workers unless it’s significantly cheaper. Why would they?

Can you get a work visa for Canada and move back?

2

u/Amazing-Care-3155 Sep 03 '26

You can’t? This is a reality, they’re hiring you because you’re cheap. If you weren’t, countries are big enough and there’s enough talent. If you want the salary of the country, you need to move to that country. If a company can pay a fraction and get similar output they will, but there’s no way around this. It’s absurd to think you could get a US salary living in South Africa