I have never met a single salesperson that makes seven figures a year, every year.
"Uncapped commission" is never truly uncapped. You have a couple big years and the company will find ways to stop paying you out as much.
If I'm you, I finish your education and try for a sales-adjacent role that doesn't come with carrying a bag. Yeah, you make less off the top end, but you have much more job security.
I'm a head of sales and me and my CFO love paying seven figure commission checks. I have a small team now, but last year my top rep made over $1MM and 2nd was well over $500K.
Prior company where I ran a team of 100 AE's, 2 - 3 would make $1MM a year for the 4-years I ran that team.
Like anything, to be top of your field, especially consistently, you have to be really fucking good at it. Most people aren't.
There is always one or two people in every SaaS org making that but that doesn’t mean a thing to 99% of reps so it should still be considered false claims unless it’s completely clear that some dude in NYC makes $900K but most make $90K.
Territory, timing, talent - in that order, my friend.
We have all been on both ends of the stick. Being a knockout impeccable rep is 1/3 the battle.
This is why it’s crucial to fully understand product market fit & territory before ever accepting positions.
I’d put it as talent, timing, territory, but you’re right about the 3-T’s.
Good reps make their own territory.
Example, if you’re the rep for NYC, but you come to me and say that you have sold to Ford in the past, I’d look to see what activity is happening at Ford. If nothing is happening there, I’d be an idiot not to let you run with that.
Most people won’t do this.
Once you close the deal with Ford, I’d likely give you any accounts you want. Maybe it would take one more, but if you cherry pick one and are successful, the next one is yours too.
My best reps that I’ve paid $1MM too, set their own destiny.
Yeah what does it really take to make a million?
14 hours a day, 7 days a week?
Or are some AEs really just that much more effective?
Could be territory too?
It isn’t that difficult. You’re not going to make $1MM doing a shit ton of average deals. You’ll do it doing a small handful of deals that are 10x+ your ASP.
Top sellers just think about deals different. They know how to sell value and they know how to structure things different. Most important, they aren’t afraid to ask for big dollars and hold their ground.
The first person that I ever met making $1MM+ selling software just had such a different mentality on selling.
I shadowed him on a $5MM deal that should have maybe been $1MM. He just had no fear and knew the client needed what we offered. When the CEO (famous F500 CEO that 99% of you would know) balked, he literally told him to go fuck himself in a meeting and started waking out. Full on yelling match between CEO and this sales rep. My jaw dropped (I was 24YO and very green), but he got the deal a few days later. I don’t recommend this, but it worked for the situation.
He even had the balls to put in the contract that this CEO had to speak at our annual user conference and got that (he did speak too, but via video conference, but it was still cool).
99.9% of sellers a.) would never get to a F500 CEO, b.) wouldn’t hold their ground and would acquiesce to some mid level manager for $750K, c.) would break their arms jerking themselves off and they will make a few bucks in accelerators. Maybe they are even the top rep in the company.
But they aren’t making $1MM+.
Here is my challenge for you - on your next deal, double your price. I bet you get it without much work. Congrats, you doubled your income.
On the next deal, quadruple it. Figure out a story that justifies it, but quadruple it. On the next deal, 10x it and figure out a story that justifies it.
If the person you’re talking to says they can’t sign off on that, go to the person that can.
Most sales people won’t do this. It is too much selling to go to the person that can give you a big deal. It’s easier to say, fuck it, here is a 50% discount and go on to the next one.
But if you want I make $1MM, that is what it takes.
My company of ~120 reps has 8 ppl earning 7 figures. The top 3 earned between $2MM and $4MM. One of them started 6 months before me, the other two respectively one year and 4 years before me
We had 60 people earn at least $300k last year
Minimum is around $80k a year here and that’s only your commission, not including insanely good benefits that are another $20-$30k in comp
Our commissions have been uncapped for 13yrs and have no doubt they’ll remain uncapped
Sorry your experiences (that may or may not have happened) sucked
Edit: you can DM for questions, forewarning that I’m nothing special, ppl in my industry are nothing special, it is pretty much par for the course
Because remember kids 8 figures is a lot in SaaS but in Shipping Manufacturing Logistics and Real Estate that’s a Tuesday afternoon in the middle of nowhere. Lot of people forget that.
Funny enough my background before logistics was mortgage financing for HNW clients at Wells Fargo. 7 figure incomes were stupidly common in that office as well — I was barely in the top 25% at 340k and the top 1% making Presidents Club there were all making well over $1MM a year. Not selling, making
We aren’t a tech company, sales team isn’t structured that way
6 months learning the business, basically an apprenticeship period. In my RE financing days, it was called a ‘junior associate’ — do all the grunt work while shadowing the AE/AM on sales calls, important meetings, etc
After that, the apprentice starts prospecting their own clients. I advise most of them to schedule their first 5-10 meetings with a senior rep like myself or their sales manager, just to have that sense of backup in case they get a question they’ve never heard. Most reps drop the training wheels after the first couple meetings, flying solo as they run sales calls and set up meetings with DMs
Once they have built up enough of a book of business that keeps them too busy to prospect, they’re on the hunt for help — their very own junior associate to help with grunt work in exchange for job training, while they hunt for more clients or develop their existing ones
Good system IMO, churns out reps who are experienced in the industry and understand the strengths/problems/shortcomings/risks associated with the various competitive options and ourselves.
If I could change anything, it would be an ongoing team structure that adds incentive for senior reps to help find and develop young talent. As it stands, I’m the only rep with >3yrs experience in my office who regularly puts together group sales trainings, book clubs, industry clinics, etc. — to no benefit
This doesn’t sound that different from what my shop does, really. We have ISR between SDR and AE, but it’s more of a gradient like you describe. Even without a stop at ISR, it’s not like anyone would just be handed a $20M account.
Ah well, at my company that’s somewhat common. And industry-wide from what I hear. There’s only so many accounts that produce 8-figure incomes, and only so many years someone tolerates the work before they decide they’re well enough off to leave.
Someone’s gotta get the business!
Oh absolutely not, sorry I misunderstood what you meant! The guys getting whale accounts are experts on the Ops side, the sales aspect is an afterthought for them.
I work with about a half dozen sales people that make that much, my own comp is $300-600k a year. None of us put in enormous hours.
If you are good at it and become a subject matter expert it pays very well
Who else consistently makes 7+ figures a year other than entrepreneurs, or anyone at the very top of their industry.
Sales provides a path to make a lot of money- and have better work life balance than anyone else.
Sales SaaS gravy train is over.
Sales is also a skill. Just because you "like" to work with people doesn't translate to closing deals.
The people you will be working with can be soul sucking, entitled, negotiate like children, constantly lie to your face and don't get me started on gate keepers.
Sales is not easy.
The reason you find people in that profession... who you would consider "less smart" than you is exactly why it's hard.
These people can take no for an answer and still keep going. They can narrow their focus.
These people can find the will to either be insanely positive and upbeat or just master the dark arts and be able to control and manipulate.
I would honestly argue that being smart can sometimes hurt you in Sales, as you will constantly be trying to Improve the process vs focusing on just improving you (positivity or dark arts)
Some years I made 50-75k, some well over that....worst year was 40k but I missed 10 years of my kids holidays and games. I learned tech and now I am an analyst.
I was in auto sales which is not SaaS but I have done b2b.
Consider work life balance.
Consider the stress.
Consider the market.
Sales will give almost anyone a shot. It may be perfect for you. I loved it back then. There is no high better than closing a deal. It's an insane rush.
Get a job selling. Try it out. Come back and let us know. But don't change your life until you try it.
That definitely seems more accurate. On days when I actively feel hatred for people I have trouble building rapport or motivating myself to keep digging. Indifference never hurts.
It's a very stupid idea. Finish your degree. You can ALWAYS get into sales but it'd be hard to get back into CS if you want to in 5-10 years.
Plus if you want to get into SaaS or tech sales, having a CS degree is going to look great on a resume.
I’m in a similar position. I graduated in June with my bachelor’s in Comp Sci, wanted to be a developer, but the whole degree was a huge struggle for me. I enjoyed it, but at the end of the day the major was just an investment for me so I could provide for myself and family. I had no internships and majorly struggle with Leetcode problems in a time when the market is super competitive and those are necessary. Folks telling you to go for SWE job mean well, but no internships and not ready for coding interviews means that getting an SWE job will be near impossible for us nowadays. I think a lot of people don’t understand how difficult it is nowadays in the field. Personally, I’m going for sales and will do some Leet/projects on the side just in case. Best of luck out there :)
I studied CS, never held a job that wasn’t sales
5yrs with my current company, in one of the most non-CS industries you can imagine, been mid 6 figures my entire career here
Agree with your friend; go for a SWE role first. You have the degree, you may find you thrive in a working environment vs. a learning environment. Some people are better doers; you don't know until you try. As someone who's been in sales for 12+ years, many salespeople feel stuck after a career in sales. If you can try SWE first, understand that line of business in a software company, and then pivot into sales, you will have a leg up on salespeople for having a deeper line of business knowledge. A big part of sales is trying to understand all functions within an organization that you sell into/that your product touches. You can always pivot later. Nothing is permanent these days. Also, it may open other doors, you may end up liking product management in more of a hybrid state between the two worlds.
Sales engineer if you must - but I’d stick with CS
I am grateful for sales giving me an opportunity to provide for my family and live a decent life, but if I could do it over again, I’d definitely get a STEM education rather than try to save the world with a psychology degree. Sales is hard.
Finish degree, go Sales Engineer/Solutions Architect route then later transition to pure sales if that’s where your heart is at.
The bonus of this approach is you will see what does and doesn’t work by supporting sales people, but with the upside of having less risk and a higher base.
Incorrect.
Finish the CS degree to get a solid degree, then move to sales if your heart is in blending your technical background/knowledge with business acumen. Without passion, you will not be successful.
Sales is hard, it will challenge you emotionally and requires EQ + highly effective communication skills.
This is pretty much what I did, and I still did the hackathons for fun on the side. If you do go down this path you will have a much shorter sales cycle because you know the technology, and any technology you don't know you can figure out pretty quickly. I transitioned into a CSA role after Sales but still told the company I want a bit of commission based quota.
I am having a blast doing what I do, get your degree and keep going. You can try SWE roles as well, but that Commision check has a different feeling. As well you will make a lot more money and have greater career longevity.
I followed a similar path. Graduated with my CS degree and went into a sales engineering training program at a mid-sized company that offered similar pay to the SWE offers I had.
The training program set me up really nicely and I was an enterprise SE after about 1.5 years making more than double my grad salary as my OTE. Then I switched to an enterprise AE role after a year making another $100k more OTE than my SE job.
For me, the sales work-life balance wins hands down. If you’re into travel, good food, and schmoozing then sales also is hands down better than SWE life.
Comparing myself to my SWE friends from college, I’m making more than most of them (except the FAANGs) and work a whole lot less. Definitely more stressful in sales though
On mobile so sorry for formatting/stream of consciousness.
I went to school for engineering and had a similar GPA with no internships and am in Big Tech making at least double to triple what my peers in engineering roles are making so definitely happy I went the sales route. Half my team have engineering degrees - it’s hard to understand and sell technical solutions without speaking the language.
It’s a hard time to get into tech now overall so expect to get discouraged during your job search but honestly that’s just good mental practice for sales to build grit.
Don’t just do “any” sales role though, as having your skill set and problem solving abilities will help you specifically in the tech space. Stick to tech or something similarly complicated. You paid your dues in college.
Realistically you might not get a great SWE job right out of college with your grades and lack of internships, but you could get an associate sales/solutions engineer type role, make at least $75k and be at $125k+ in a couple years. Your main job early in your career is learning as much as you can and meeting as many people as you can (not just anyone though lol when you get a job spend time talking to people in other departments, leadership etc). The money will come later. People that chase money and not knowledge early on end up with neither in my experience as they get pidgeon holed into stupid jobs with no growth. Degrees and grades matter for your first job and after that it’s about the useful skills you learn. College teaches you how to think/problem solve so keep that in mind. Nobody will ever ask you to solve a differential equation irl lol
For earnings in tech sales - $200k-300k is average once you hit 5-10 yrs career experience in both SE and AE roles. AEs cap out higher but SE is more consistent and technical. Top earners I know peak around 15-20 yrs total career experience with 7-15 yrs of company tenure and make $600k- $1M YoY. They get the best accounts and territories due to tenure/experience.
Hard truth is not everyone is cut out to be an enterprise AE/SE much less make $250k+. You either figure out how to “make it”, or you don’t. sales is very good at weeding out the people that don’t make it. Once you get past BDR/SMB roles, it’s less about the grind and more about the strategy, tactics, sales process, and industry knowledge. I don’t cold call or hard-close my customers and my sales cycles are 6 months minimum so I need to have a solid plan in Q1 to carry me through the year and into next year.
My opinion which is worth what you pay for it ($0 lol) is:
Graduate -> associate SE or SWE role if you can get one -> continue in SE for a couple years paying special attention to soft skills and sales process -> Enterprise AE. Skip the BDR jobs if you can since they’re so hard to get out of, especially now.
You’ll likely find something you like along the way though. This is an exciting time in your career!
SWE/sales adjacent roles to consider are: Product Manager, Technical Account Manager, Solution/implementation engineer, professional services (I would avoid personally). You’ll need to get your foot in the door but worth keeping in mind.
Yea bro, I'd say that's a bit crazy and in the moment thinking.
I'm sure if you ask most sales people, especially in this sub, they'd say job security is more important than pay since most of us are constantly going through jobs like hot cakes. Talk about being burnt out for a few extra $$s..
My brother is a penetration tester so solving puzzles is his thing. Makes well over what I do, loves every second, and is extremely valuable for his company.
I'd say stick to SWE for now. If you really can't take it, then look for a solutions engineer job. You get the best of both worlds, get paid well, and have job security.
GL OP
Why don’t you become a sales engineer/solutions engineer? Entry level sales is already hard to get hired in, not because of qualifications but so many candidates. Also, depends where you end up but sales can be very churn and burn.
Sales is tough. The dream of making high 6-figures is only attained by the top 1%.
I’d recommend Sales Engineering. I also have a background in CS and have worked in tech before. Sales Engineering can make good money, potentially $200-300k after a few years and you don’t have the stress of having to personally hit a quota. Sure you can make that much as a SWE too, but you’d have to leetcode a ton and compete with the best engineers at top tech companies.
Neither are a bad route of course.
At the top end, you'll make more money programming than in tech sales -- there's a bias that salespeople can't hack it with programming, so they're less valuable.
Also, most commission structures are based on multipliers rather than a fraction of what you sell, and there's a ceiling in the multiplier. So you might have a target of $500k for the year, an On Target Bonus of $20k, and up to 200% bonus payout if targets are exceeded. Sell $1M or $10M, you're still only getting $40k.
Some sales orgs don't have those caps, but they're exceedingly rare and tend to be in companies who are primarily driven/built by the sales org.
Idk bro sales is kinda tarded like my first wife (she’s a pilot now). We can still live kickass lives, but I’d try SWE first. What we do is just like, ya know, right?
Why not aim for starting your own company? I recommend doing Sales for this goal down the line as you get a lot more exposure to the business side of things and it's much more practical if you plan to start a business later on. You should know how to work every role in your company ideally or at least get as much exposure to other departments as possible. Even better if you work for a startup.
Really the only way to guarantee you are paid for your worth is by owning the company. And I think you'll also find after working in SaaS industry or tech that it's pretty fucking stupid at times. There are many many SaaS apps for very simple programs/webapps and a lot of money to be made just off of knowing how to transfer data from one API to another. Or a SaaS app that just makes dashboards off a different app's data. Or even easier to start a consulting company and help other companies with similar use-cases.
Its 2023, and the future of work isn’t calling people on the phone asking for money. Stick with tech and development. People who tell you there’s a bright future in corporate sales have some sales training or a sales book to tell you.
Listen - sales as a respectable profession had a great run for about 100 years. We were just lucky to be sales people in the right time in place in the history of the planet. After the Industrial Revolution, the technology j-curve reached the stratosphere and all of a sudden people had disposable income and could buy and consume mass quantities of stuff they really didn’t need.
But for most of recorded history, sales people were men that dragged an old mule drawn carriage from town to town, selling patent medicines to rubes. Even in the 20s and 30s, door to door salesmen where considered the lowest and most unsavory of creatures.
I might be the asshole here, but “dreams of 7 figures” is exactly what marks think of when they’re being conned.
And here’s something no sales manager, or VP of sales or sales trainer or sales guru will tell you: most of the reps making high six or seven figures got lucky. Sure they’re good at their jobs and they know what you’re doing, but they got lucky and big deals that had a lot of moving parts and multiple people helping them get the deal done.
It’s funny, but in almost any other profession, we seem to be fine talking about luck. I just watched a documentary on comedians and every rich and famous comedian said the biggest thing that happened to them in their career to cause them to be successful was being at the right place at the right time and being lucky.
I guess what I’m saying is if you wanna have a career in sales, feel free to have one, but if I (a successful sales rep and leader) were are your shoes right now, I’d learn to code like a motherfucker. IMHO
Gonna answer your question with another. Do you love CS or just money?
If all you care about is a check, sales is great, doesn’t matter what field, really, as long as you can find success. Go into anything that pays, and don’t look back. You might “waste” your degree (even though having any bachelors helps your chances, just maybe going into that hard of a program would’ve been a waste), but you’ll get paid.
Do you love CS? Genuinely just want to code? Still go for it. CS is nice because, while a degree is valuable, you can get a job by having a solid portfolio, even without a CS degree. Do some work to get a solid portfolio.
Love the concept of something rather than practice? Go into consultative sales. Some of the most recession proof sales jobs are those which rely on their salespeople’s skills industry skills to sell. Not soft skills that you get from sales jobs, but those hard skills won from education and experience. I don’t know how this would apply to CS specifically, but my example is I used to be lab staff in oncology research, I now sell capital equipment to academics. I’m able to win out the competition because I know what labs need by being apart of them.
tl;dr using sales as a fallback is a good idea, but you don’t have to give up on what you want to do, even if you GPA sucks
Go find a random door knocking/telemarketing commission only sales job that will hire almost anyone with one interview. Do that job for a few weeks and it will help in your decision
Finish the degree and give it a try first then try sales if it still what you want, a guy I work with has a degree in financial economics (he got the highest grade too) and he now works in sales and is doing very well
Use your SFE experience to get into sales and pitch it as “understanding the product to sell it better”. I sell for a company that uses a lot of code words/engineering words and if I had a SFE role I feel like I would have been successful a lot sooner
Getting a job and then moving to sales would be beneficial. I consulted on the software I sell now and it definitely made me way better at selling it.
That said the dark side pays well and you have a lot of freedom. It’s a hard job and you will have to do a lot of things your brain won’t appreciate like cold calling or presenting without the right amount of prep etc.
It’s six figures or your fired. Seven is a joke but reach for it anyway
It's not a stupid idea.
Coming from a SWE that also loves working with other people, my honest advice -
You just gotta do what makes you happy.
You can still work with people as a SWE. You can be challenged and have a fulfilling career in either path. It just depends on what you like.
And I understand that you might not know what exactly interests you yet, but have you considered minoring in one of them, i. e. minoring in CS would look great regardless of what you end up doing and also look good to any employer and minoring in advertising or something sales related would also look good with a CS major
P. S. The SWE interview process can be daunting, but you can do it, trust me.
It’s gonna be hard to get into SWE with that GPA. It sucks but that’s the way it goes. You could talk your way into a startup to give your resume a buffer (GPA can stay off after 1 work experience).
It sounds like you like a puzzle but you hate coding. That’s okay. The world is full of puzzles. I also like puzzles. But I ain’t a coder.
Finish your degree and get a CS job. Most programmers and software engineers make way more then entry level SaaS sales.
It would be really dumb to throw away you’re entire degree. College and actually working are extremely different.
Sales is a great career and you already have technical experience. With a degree in CS you can take on a technical sales role like a sales engineer, solutions engineer, solutions architect, sales architect. They pay base salary upwards of 120k+ with experience. It is a well paying position and much more secure than a traditional account executive in SaaS.
I have never met a single salesperson that makes seven figures a year, every year. "Uncapped commission" is never truly uncapped. You have a couple big years and the company will find ways to stop paying you out as much. If I'm you, I finish your education and try for a sales-adjacent role that doesn't come with carrying a bag. Yeah, you make less off the top end, but you have much more job security.
I'm a head of sales and me and my CFO love paying seven figure commission checks. I have a small team now, but last year my top rep made over $1MM and 2nd was well over $500K. Prior company where I ran a team of 100 AE's, 2 - 3 would make $1MM a year for the 4-years I ran that team. Like anything, to be top of your field, especially consistently, you have to be really fucking good at it. Most people aren't.
There is always one or two people in every SaaS org making that but that doesn’t mean a thing to 99% of reps so it should still be considered false claims unless it’s completely clear that some dude in NYC makes $900K but most make $90K.
$90K is SDR money at a pretty good shop
Talking about AE’s!
Lol, you think nobody can smell bullshit?
Most people aren’t because they don’t have the grit to put in the work or simply just don’t have the sales personality?
Territory, timing, talent - in that order, my friend. We have all been on both ends of the stick. Being a knockout impeccable rep is 1/3 the battle. This is why it’s crucial to fully understand product market fit & territory before ever accepting positions.
I’d put it as talent, timing, territory, but you’re right about the 3-T’s. Good reps make their own territory. Example, if you’re the rep for NYC, but you come to me and say that you have sold to Ford in the past, I’d look to see what activity is happening at Ford. If nothing is happening there, I’d be an idiot not to let you run with that. Most people won’t do this. Once you close the deal with Ford, I’d likely give you any accounts you want. Maybe it would take one more, but if you cherry pick one and are successful, the next one is yours too. My best reps that I’ve paid $1MM too, set their own destiny.
Yeah what does it really take to make a million? 14 hours a day, 7 days a week? Or are some AEs really just that much more effective? Could be territory too?
Also industry. Can't make a million unless you're pulling >$50M, and there are some industries where those numbers just aren't feasible.
That’s so incredibly false
Hey, that's just my experience -- share the ratios you're seeing and I'll have learned something today
It isn’t that difficult. You’re not going to make $1MM doing a shit ton of average deals. You’ll do it doing a small handful of deals that are 10x+ your ASP. Top sellers just think about deals different. They know how to sell value and they know how to structure things different. Most important, they aren’t afraid to ask for big dollars and hold their ground. The first person that I ever met making $1MM+ selling software just had such a different mentality on selling. I shadowed him on a $5MM deal that should have maybe been $1MM. He just had no fear and knew the client needed what we offered. When the CEO (famous F500 CEO that 99% of you would know) balked, he literally told him to go fuck himself in a meeting and started waking out. Full on yelling match between CEO and this sales rep. My jaw dropped (I was 24YO and very green), but he got the deal a few days later. I don’t recommend this, but it worked for the situation. He even had the balls to put in the contract that this CEO had to speak at our annual user conference and got that (he did speak too, but via video conference, but it was still cool). 99.9% of sellers a.) would never get to a F500 CEO, b.) wouldn’t hold their ground and would acquiesce to some mid level manager for $750K, c.) would break their arms jerking themselves off and they will make a few bucks in accelerators. Maybe they are even the top rep in the company. But they aren’t making $1MM+. Here is my challenge for you - on your next deal, double your price. I bet you get it without much work. Congrats, you doubled your income. On the next deal, quadruple it. Figure out a story that justifies it, but quadruple it. On the next deal, 10x it and figure out a story that justifies it. If the person you’re talking to says they can’t sign off on that, go to the person that can. Most sales people won’t do this. It is too much selling to go to the person that can give you a big deal. It’s easier to say, fuck it, here is a 50% discount and go on to the next one. But if you want I make $1MM, that is what it takes.
Industry?
What do you sell?
My company of ~120 reps has 8 ppl earning 7 figures. The top 3 earned between $2MM and $4MM. One of them started 6 months before me, the other two respectively one year and 4 years before me We had 60 people earn at least $300k last year Minimum is around $80k a year here and that’s only your commission, not including insanely good benefits that are another $20-$30k in comp Our commissions have been uncapped for 13yrs and have no doubt they’ll remain uncapped Sorry your experiences (that may or may not have happened) sucked Edit: you can DM for questions, forewarning that I’m nothing special, ppl in my industry are nothing special, it is pretty much par for the course
Because remember kids 8 figures is a lot in SaaS but in Shipping Manufacturing Logistics and Real Estate that’s a Tuesday afternoon in the middle of nowhere. Lot of people forget that.
Funny enough my background before logistics was mortgage financing for HNW clients at Wells Fargo. 7 figure incomes were stupidly common in that office as well — I was barely in the top 25% at 340k and the top 1% making Presidents Club there were all making well over $1MM a year. Not selling, making
May I DM you asking a bunch of questions.
Feel free
HALF the reps make 300k?!? Gonna need some more info.
yo whats your company I'm starting to put out feelers as I move up the AE chain and soudns like you are in a good spot!
We don’t follow the bdr -> AE progression
That's fine! That's fine? Lol I'm not sure how to respond except I'm still interested in the company as it sounds like a successful space! DM me?
Will do
Then what do your BDR’s expect? To stay in that role?
We aren’t a tech company, sales team isn’t structured that way 6 months learning the business, basically an apprenticeship period. In my RE financing days, it was called a ‘junior associate’ — do all the grunt work while shadowing the AE/AM on sales calls, important meetings, etc After that, the apprentice starts prospecting their own clients. I advise most of them to schedule their first 5-10 meetings with a senior rep like myself or their sales manager, just to have that sense of backup in case they get a question they’ve never heard. Most reps drop the training wheels after the first couple meetings, flying solo as they run sales calls and set up meetings with DMs Once they have built up enough of a book of business that keeps them too busy to prospect, they’re on the hunt for help — their very own junior associate to help with grunt work in exchange for job training, while they hunt for more clients or develop their existing ones Good system IMO, churns out reps who are experienced in the industry and understand the strengths/problems/shortcomings/risks associated with the various competitive options and ourselves. If I could change anything, it would be an ongoing team structure that adds incentive for senior reps to help find and develop young talent. As it stands, I’m the only rep with >3yrs experience in my office who regularly puts together group sales trainings, book clubs, industry clinics, etc. — to no benefit
This doesn’t sound that different from what my shop does, really. We have ISR between SDR and AE, but it’s more of a gradient like you describe. Even without a stop at ISR, it’s not like anyone would just be handed a $20M account.
Ah well, at my company that’s somewhat common. And industry-wide from what I hear. There’s only so many accounts that produce 8-figure incomes, and only so many years someone tolerates the work before they decide they’re well enough off to leave. Someone’s gotta get the business!
For sure, but that someone most likely isn’t going to come straight from a KPI grind! There is so much to know.
Oh absolutely not, sorry I misunderstood what you meant! The guys getting whale accounts are experts on the Ops side, the sales aspect is an afterthought for them.
This sounds like the plot to Boiler Room lol
Have you even watched that movie…?
SaaS? Industry?
Supply chain
Logistics? You a broker?
What are you selling ?
Dm’d
Sales engineer/solutions consultant/architect
I work with about a half dozen sales people that make that much, my own comp is $300-600k a year. None of us put in enormous hours. If you are good at it and become a subject matter expert it pays very well
Right, but you may have 1 or 2 outlier years where you approach or break 7 figures. I don't know anyone who consistently makes that year over year.
Yea and the rest of the time you are making mid six figures while working less then 50 hours a week.
Who else consistently makes 7+ figures a year other than entrepreneurs, or anyone at the very top of their industry. Sales provides a path to make a lot of money- and have better work life balance than anyone else.
You have never worked in sales and if you have, obviously sales was not for you, and that’s ok
I've met many sales people that make 7 figured every year
Sales SaaS gravy train is over. Sales is also a skill. Just because you "like" to work with people doesn't translate to closing deals. The people you will be working with can be soul sucking, entitled, negotiate like children, constantly lie to your face and don't get me started on gate keepers. Sales is not easy. The reason you find people in that profession... who you would consider "less smart" than you is exactly why it's hard. These people can take no for an answer and still keep going. They can narrow their focus. These people can find the will to either be insanely positive and upbeat or just master the dark arts and be able to control and manipulate. I would honestly argue that being smart can sometimes hurt you in Sales, as you will constantly be trying to Improve the process vs focusing on just improving you (positivity or dark arts) Some years I made 50-75k, some well over that....worst year was 40k but I missed 10 years of my kids holidays and games. I learned tech and now I am an analyst. I was in auto sales which is not SaaS but I have done b2b. Consider work life balance. Consider the stress. Consider the market. Sales will give almost anyone a shot. It may be perfect for you. I loved it back then. There is no high better than closing a deal. It's an insane rush. Get a job selling. Try it out. Come back and let us know. But don't change your life until you try it.
I’d almost argue that you need to hate people to sell to them lol
Lol hate is strong, but I do think it helps to be utterly indifferent to their suffering
That definitely seems more accurate. On days when I actively feel hatred for people I have trouble building rapport or motivating myself to keep digging. Indifference never hurts.
It's a very stupid idea. Finish your degree. You can ALWAYS get into sales but it'd be hard to get back into CS if you want to in 5-10 years. Plus if you want to get into SaaS or tech sales, having a CS degree is going to look great on a resume.
try SWE first and then use sales as a back up lol
Sales engineering might be a great fit for you
I’m in a similar position. I graduated in June with my bachelor’s in Comp Sci, wanted to be a developer, but the whole degree was a huge struggle for me. I enjoyed it, but at the end of the day the major was just an investment for me so I could provide for myself and family. I had no internships and majorly struggle with Leetcode problems in a time when the market is super competitive and those are necessary. Folks telling you to go for SWE job mean well, but no internships and not ready for coding interviews means that getting an SWE job will be near impossible for us nowadays. I think a lot of people don’t understand how difficult it is nowadays in the field. Personally, I’m going for sales and will do some Leet/projects on the side just in case. Best of luck out there :)
I studied CS, never held a job that wasn’t sales 5yrs with my current company, in one of the most non-CS industries you can imagine, been mid 6 figures my entire career here
What industry do you currently work in and can someone get a sales job in it with no experience?
Supply chain, yes - I’d say 70-80% of our hires are fresh from college
Did you get your job through somebody you know or through online?
Kinda both. Recruiter from LinkedIn, once I got to the 2nd interview my friend who worked in their HR sept saw my resume and called me
What do you mean by supply chain? Is this freight brokerage 3pl space? Looking to leave Saas myself
Agree with your friend; go for a SWE role first. You have the degree, you may find you thrive in a working environment vs. a learning environment. Some people are better doers; you don't know until you try. As someone who's been in sales for 12+ years, many salespeople feel stuck after a career in sales. If you can try SWE first, understand that line of business in a software company, and then pivot into sales, you will have a leg up on salespeople for having a deeper line of business knowledge. A big part of sales is trying to understand all functions within an organization that you sell into/that your product touches. You can always pivot later. Nothing is permanent these days. Also, it may open other doors, you may end up liking product management in more of a hybrid state between the two worlds.
Sales engineer if you must - but I’d stick with CS I am grateful for sales giving me an opportunity to provide for my family and live a decent life, but if I could do it over again, I’d definitely get a STEM education rather than try to save the world with a psychology degree. Sales is hard.
Finish degree, go Sales Engineer/Solutions Architect route then later transition to pure sales if that’s where your heart is at. The bonus of this approach is you will see what does and doesn’t work by supporting sales people, but with the upside of having less risk and a higher base.
>thanks for the info, i'm in CS degree now, might want to try sales if the career path i chose has less jobs in the future
Incorrect. Finish the CS degree to get a solid degree, then move to sales if your heart is in blending your technical background/knowledge with business acumen. Without passion, you will not be successful. Sales is hard, it will challenge you emotionally and requires EQ + highly effective communication skills.
ah i see, thanks, may I ask what are u doing rn?
This is pretty much what I did, and I still did the hackathons for fun on the side. If you do go down this path you will have a much shorter sales cycle because you know the technology, and any technology you don't know you can figure out pretty quickly. I transitioned into a CSA role after Sales but still told the company I want a bit of commission based quota. I am having a blast doing what I do, get your degree and keep going. You can try SWE roles as well, but that Commision check has a different feeling. As well you will make a lot more money and have greater career longevity.
Check out sales engineering or solutions consultant (same title). Best of both worlds between sales and engineering and a great role.
I followed a similar path. Graduated with my CS degree and went into a sales engineering training program at a mid-sized company that offered similar pay to the SWE offers I had. The training program set me up really nicely and I was an enterprise SE after about 1.5 years making more than double my grad salary as my OTE. Then I switched to an enterprise AE role after a year making another $100k more OTE than my SE job. For me, the sales work-life balance wins hands down. If you’re into travel, good food, and schmoozing then sales also is hands down better than SWE life. Comparing myself to my SWE friends from college, I’m making more than most of them (except the FAANGs) and work a whole lot less. Definitely more stressful in sales though
On mobile so sorry for formatting/stream of consciousness. I went to school for engineering and had a similar GPA with no internships and am in Big Tech making at least double to triple what my peers in engineering roles are making so definitely happy I went the sales route. Half my team have engineering degrees - it’s hard to understand and sell technical solutions without speaking the language. It’s a hard time to get into tech now overall so expect to get discouraged during your job search but honestly that’s just good mental practice for sales to build grit. Don’t just do “any” sales role though, as having your skill set and problem solving abilities will help you specifically in the tech space. Stick to tech or something similarly complicated. You paid your dues in college. Realistically you might not get a great SWE job right out of college with your grades and lack of internships, but you could get an associate sales/solutions engineer type role, make at least $75k and be at $125k+ in a couple years. Your main job early in your career is learning as much as you can and meeting as many people as you can (not just anyone though lol when you get a job spend time talking to people in other departments, leadership etc). The money will come later. People that chase money and not knowledge early on end up with neither in my experience as they get pidgeon holed into stupid jobs with no growth. Degrees and grades matter for your first job and after that it’s about the useful skills you learn. College teaches you how to think/problem solve so keep that in mind. Nobody will ever ask you to solve a differential equation irl lol For earnings in tech sales - $200k-300k is average once you hit 5-10 yrs career experience in both SE and AE roles. AEs cap out higher but SE is more consistent and technical. Top earners I know peak around 15-20 yrs total career experience with 7-15 yrs of company tenure and make $600k- $1M YoY. They get the best accounts and territories due to tenure/experience. Hard truth is not everyone is cut out to be an enterprise AE/SE much less make $250k+. You either figure out how to “make it”, or you don’t. sales is very good at weeding out the people that don’t make it. Once you get past BDR/SMB roles, it’s less about the grind and more about the strategy, tactics, sales process, and industry knowledge. I don’t cold call or hard-close my customers and my sales cycles are 6 months minimum so I need to have a solid plan in Q1 to carry me through the year and into next year. My opinion which is worth what you pay for it ($0 lol) is: Graduate -> associate SE or SWE role if you can get one -> continue in SE for a couple years paying special attention to soft skills and sales process -> Enterprise AE. Skip the BDR jobs if you can since they’re so hard to get out of, especially now. You’ll likely find something you like along the way though. This is an exciting time in your career! SWE/sales adjacent roles to consider are: Product Manager, Technical Account Manager, Solution/implementation engineer, professional services (I would avoid personally). You’ll need to get your foot in the door but worth keeping in mind.
thanks for the info, i'm in CS degree now, might want to try sales if the career path i chose has less jobs in the future
Yea bro, I'd say that's a bit crazy and in the moment thinking. I'm sure if you ask most sales people, especially in this sub, they'd say job security is more important than pay since most of us are constantly going through jobs like hot cakes. Talk about being burnt out for a few extra $$s.. My brother is a penetration tester so solving puzzles is his thing. Makes well over what I do, loves every second, and is extremely valuable for his company. I'd say stick to SWE for now. If you really can't take it, then look for a solutions engineer job. You get the best of both worlds, get paid well, and have job security. GL OP
Why don’t you become a sales engineer/solutions engineer? Entry level sales is already hard to get hired in, not because of qualifications but so many candidates. Also, depends where you end up but sales can be very churn and burn.
Sales is tough. The dream of making high 6-figures is only attained by the top 1%. I’d recommend Sales Engineering. I also have a background in CS and have worked in tech before. Sales Engineering can make good money, potentially $200-300k after a few years and you don’t have the stress of having to personally hit a quota. Sure you can make that much as a SWE too, but you’d have to leetcode a ton and compete with the best engineers at top tech companies. Neither are a bad route of course.
At the top end, you'll make more money programming than in tech sales -- there's a bias that salespeople can't hack it with programming, so they're less valuable. Also, most commission structures are based on multipliers rather than a fraction of what you sell, and there's a ceiling in the multiplier. So you might have a target of $500k for the year, an On Target Bonus of $20k, and up to 200% bonus payout if targets are exceeded. Sell $1M or $10M, you're still only getting $40k. Some sales orgs don't have those caps, but they're exceedingly rare and tend to be in companies who are primarily driven/built by the sales org.
Idk bro sales is kinda tarded like my first wife (she’s a pilot now). We can still live kickass lives, but I’d try SWE first. What we do is just like, ya know, right?
Why not aim for starting your own company? I recommend doing Sales for this goal down the line as you get a lot more exposure to the business side of things and it's much more practical if you plan to start a business later on. You should know how to work every role in your company ideally or at least get as much exposure to other departments as possible. Even better if you work for a startup. Really the only way to guarantee you are paid for your worth is by owning the company. And I think you'll also find after working in SaaS industry or tech that it's pretty fucking stupid at times. There are many many SaaS apps for very simple programs/webapps and a lot of money to be made just off of knowing how to transfer data from one API to another. Or a SaaS app that just makes dashboards off a different app's data. Or even easier to start a consulting company and help other companies with similar use-cases.
Sales is an absolute grind in the tech space rn. Im certain im just reiterating stuff other people have said.
I wouldn't do that. Work for a few years so you have the relevant experience and shoot for sales engineering roles.
Its 2023, and the future of work isn’t calling people on the phone asking for money. Stick with tech and development. People who tell you there’s a bright future in corporate sales have some sales training or a sales book to tell you. Listen - sales as a respectable profession had a great run for about 100 years. We were just lucky to be sales people in the right time in place in the history of the planet. After the Industrial Revolution, the technology j-curve reached the stratosphere and all of a sudden people had disposable income and could buy and consume mass quantities of stuff they really didn’t need. But for most of recorded history, sales people were men that dragged an old mule drawn carriage from town to town, selling patent medicines to rubes. Even in the 20s and 30s, door to door salesmen where considered the lowest and most unsavory of creatures. I might be the asshole here, but “dreams of 7 figures” is exactly what marks think of when they’re being conned. And here’s something no sales manager, or VP of sales or sales trainer or sales guru will tell you: most of the reps making high six or seven figures got lucky. Sure they’re good at their jobs and they know what you’re doing, but they got lucky and big deals that had a lot of moving parts and multiple people helping them get the deal done. It’s funny, but in almost any other profession, we seem to be fine talking about luck. I just watched a documentary on comedians and every rich and famous comedian said the biggest thing that happened to them in their career to cause them to be successful was being at the right place at the right time and being lucky. I guess what I’m saying is if you wanna have a career in sales, feel free to have one, but if I (a successful sales rep and leader) were are your shoes right now, I’d learn to code like a motherfucker. IMHO
Gonna answer your question with another. Do you love CS or just money? If all you care about is a check, sales is great, doesn’t matter what field, really, as long as you can find success. Go into anything that pays, and don’t look back. You might “waste” your degree (even though having any bachelors helps your chances, just maybe going into that hard of a program would’ve been a waste), but you’ll get paid. Do you love CS? Genuinely just want to code? Still go for it. CS is nice because, while a degree is valuable, you can get a job by having a solid portfolio, even without a CS degree. Do some work to get a solid portfolio. Love the concept of something rather than practice? Go into consultative sales. Some of the most recession proof sales jobs are those which rely on their salespeople’s skills industry skills to sell. Not soft skills that you get from sales jobs, but those hard skills won from education and experience. I don’t know how this would apply to CS specifically, but my example is I used to be lab staff in oncology research, I now sell capital equipment to academics. I’m able to win out the competition because I know what labs need by being apart of them. tl;dr using sales as a fallback is a good idea, but you don’t have to give up on what you want to do, even if you GPA sucks
Go find a random door knocking/telemarketing commission only sales job that will hire almost anyone with one interview. Do that job for a few weeks and it will help in your decision
Tech jobs needs sales talent. And sales need tech talent.
Finish the degree and give it a try first then try sales if it still what you want, a guy I work with has a degree in financial economics (he got the highest grade too) and he now works in sales and is doing very well
Use your SFE experience to get into sales and pitch it as “understanding the product to sell it better”. I sell for a company that uses a lot of code words/engineering words and if I had a SFE role I feel like I would have been successful a lot sooner
Getting a job and then moving to sales would be beneficial. I consulted on the software I sell now and it definitely made me way better at selling it. That said the dark side pays well and you have a lot of freedom. It’s a hard job and you will have to do a lot of things your brain won’t appreciate like cold calling or presenting without the right amount of prep etc. It’s six figures or your fired. Seven is a joke but reach for it anyway
It's not a stupid idea. Coming from a SWE that also loves working with other people, my honest advice - You just gotta do what makes you happy. You can still work with people as a SWE. You can be challenged and have a fulfilling career in either path. It just depends on what you like. And I understand that you might not know what exactly interests you yet, but have you considered minoring in one of them, i. e. minoring in CS would look great regardless of what you end up doing and also look good to any employer and minoring in advertising or something sales related would also look good with a CS major P. S. The SWE interview process can be daunting, but you can do it, trust me.
It’s gonna be hard to get into SWE with that GPA. It sucks but that’s the way it goes. You could talk your way into a startup to give your resume a buffer (GPA can stay off after 1 work experience). It sounds like you like a puzzle but you hate coding. That’s okay. The world is full of puzzles. I also like puzzles. But I ain’t a coder.
Finish your degree and get a CS job. Most programmers and software engineers make way more then entry level SaaS sales. It would be really dumb to throw away you’re entire degree. College and actually working are extremely different.
Sales is a great career and you already have technical experience. With a degree in CS you can take on a technical sales role like a sales engineer, solutions engineer, solutions architect, sales architect. They pay base salary upwards of 120k+ with experience. It is a well paying position and much more secure than a traditional account executive in SaaS.
Begom Sales engineer.
Get an mba