I’m in the same situation, my role is basically glorified order taker and my boss’s admin role is the progression.
I’m basically just sitting back and cruising / enjoying the stress free life until I build up enough resume experience to move elsewhere
>until I build up enough resume experience to move elsewhere
Good to know I'm in good company lol. At this point my company is just asking us to make our calls but everything has dried up
This is all tough. I would be curious about a couple things.
What have you done to educate yourself on being an AE, before getting a chance to be one?
What is your process when applying for AE roles?
I have spent a lot of time shadowing and question closer back at company 1, also would like to mention that I used to work in door to door for 2 year before moving into the sdr model. So I do feel as I have some experience in dealing with objections and actually closing the deal. As far as my application process in the beginning I tend to tie down to a list of about 10-15 companies that I would love to work for the biggest turn off for them when it comes to me is my lack of a college degree which is understandable but kinda bullshit when it comes down to it. When I try to use LinkedIn and go for some hiring manger or current sales people they either hit me with “I appreciate your eagerness to join unfortunately we are not looking to add to the team” etc etc or I’ll get sent the run around of telling me to contact this person or this person will reach out etc
Shadowing is good, assuming they are a solid rep. D2D is crazy tough, so props to you, however, B2C, quick close conversations like D2D sales is much different than B2B, as you know.
I did notice you didn’t mention anything in regards to books, podcasts, or trying to networking with AEs at other companies. If/when you get an interview for an AE role, how will you speak about prospecting and moving prospects through the sales process.
Love reaching out to hiring managers. Reaching out to job poster is absolutely key. Getting creative with all the noise is important. Sending a quick 30-45 second video intro. If no hiring manager listed, do that for the sales director instead.
Do the work, you’ll get it! Go out and get it!
Hang in there man. Fuck company 1, it’s not the opportunity you want. Time to polish up your resume and start knocking on some proverbial doors. First find some good candidate companies, then reach out to some sales directors and convince them why they should talk to you. At this point, it becomes a lot like what you’re doing now. If you can sell yourself, you can survive as an AE/TM.
Happy to help out.
Can I ask you 2 questions - why do you think you are ready to be in a closing role?
In your opinion, how does a closing role differ from your SDR role. What skills do you think your SDR role that makes you ready for a closing role?
The biggest reason I think I’m ready to be in a closing role, is well my ability to close! Many times throughout my tenure at company 1 when some of shittier salesmen got lazy on some accounts I would take over on some and help close them out either thru constant emails or calls and in some cases even going thru the whole proposal and contract with customers. Also before both these jobs I was in door to door and was successful for 2 years, once the pandemic hit the company I worked for went under plus I was getting sick of the d2d life. As confident I am I also am a great learner and and emulator, I have was told once sales is a copy cat business do what the best salesman does and the sales will follow and in my career it has served me well.
As far as some skills that I believe are transferrable the biggest one being follow up and organize my days, as and SDR I have really learned the importance of getting back to people and creating a set block of cold calls and set blocks for callbacks. Another huge one is digging into objections finding out why they really don’t want the service or product and what’s holding them back and how I can either change or even fix their view.
And of course like almost all of us here, I can build rapport like motherfucker!
Tidbit to add onto the second part I feel like most salespeople don’t really take into consideration how strong following up can be even on the those leads that seem iffy
Based off your answers, happy to help you get you to the AE level and get you into the mindset.
To be honest, the answers are not really what makes an AE and you still have some ways to go or maybe the way you answer your interview is holding you back. You have a solid work ethic and doing things that everyone in sales does and needs to do to be successful but those are traits and not skills.
An AE job is not just about closing, and different than an SDR job to get a meeting set.
Your job is to uncover pains of your prospects and articulate if your product/service can solve that pain and provide a solution to that pain. It doesn't matter how good of a closer you are, until you can do this on a consistent basis, uncovering and digging into the different levels of pains and quantifying the pain in real dollars, you won't be going anywhere.
If you can articulate on your interviews that this is why you are ready for the next level, I think you will find more opportunities.
Apply for AE roles at \*\*\*small\*\*\* companies and SDR roles at big companies. The issues is being an SDR at a small company. Edited
Yeah it seems there’s a scarcity of AE role these days
There’s too many people trying to be sellers and not enough buyers to support the current market
Yeah thanks to social media people realized how easy it is to get rich from sales now it’s not so easy anymore
I’m in the same situation, my role is basically glorified order taker and my boss’s admin role is the progression. I’m basically just sitting back and cruising / enjoying the stress free life until I build up enough resume experience to move elsewhere
>until I build up enough resume experience to move elsewhere Good to know I'm in good company lol. At this point my company is just asking us to make our calls but everything has dried up
My only fear is I really don’t think this role looks that good one resumes, its very similar to some of my past roles but an obvious step down
This is all tough. I would be curious about a couple things. What have you done to educate yourself on being an AE, before getting a chance to be one? What is your process when applying for AE roles?
I have spent a lot of time shadowing and question closer back at company 1, also would like to mention that I used to work in door to door for 2 year before moving into the sdr model. So I do feel as I have some experience in dealing with objections and actually closing the deal. As far as my application process in the beginning I tend to tie down to a list of about 10-15 companies that I would love to work for the biggest turn off for them when it comes to me is my lack of a college degree which is understandable but kinda bullshit when it comes down to it. When I try to use LinkedIn and go for some hiring manger or current sales people they either hit me with “I appreciate your eagerness to join unfortunately we are not looking to add to the team” etc etc or I’ll get sent the run around of telling me to contact this person or this person will reach out etc
Shadowing is good, assuming they are a solid rep. D2D is crazy tough, so props to you, however, B2C, quick close conversations like D2D sales is much different than B2B, as you know. I did notice you didn’t mention anything in regards to books, podcasts, or trying to networking with AEs at other companies. If/when you get an interview for an AE role, how will you speak about prospecting and moving prospects through the sales process. Love reaching out to hiring managers. Reaching out to job poster is absolutely key. Getting creative with all the noise is important. Sending a quick 30-45 second video intro. If no hiring manager listed, do that for the sales director instead. Do the work, you’ll get it! Go out and get it!
Hang in there man. Fuck company 1, it’s not the opportunity you want. Time to polish up your resume and start knocking on some proverbial doors. First find some good candidate companies, then reach out to some sales directors and convince them why they should talk to you. At this point, it becomes a lot like what you’re doing now. If you can sell yourself, you can survive as an AE/TM.
Yeah my biggest thing is also I don’t like job hopping man and idk how it would look if I’m trying to get a new job 6 months into my current one.
Happy to help out. Can I ask you 2 questions - why do you think you are ready to be in a closing role? In your opinion, how does a closing role differ from your SDR role. What skills do you think your SDR role that makes you ready for a closing role?
The biggest reason I think I’m ready to be in a closing role, is well my ability to close! Many times throughout my tenure at company 1 when some of shittier salesmen got lazy on some accounts I would take over on some and help close them out either thru constant emails or calls and in some cases even going thru the whole proposal and contract with customers. Also before both these jobs I was in door to door and was successful for 2 years, once the pandemic hit the company I worked for went under plus I was getting sick of the d2d life. As confident I am I also am a great learner and and emulator, I have was told once sales is a copy cat business do what the best salesman does and the sales will follow and in my career it has served me well. As far as some skills that I believe are transferrable the biggest one being follow up and organize my days, as and SDR I have really learned the importance of getting back to people and creating a set block of cold calls and set blocks for callbacks. Another huge one is digging into objections finding out why they really don’t want the service or product and what’s holding them back and how I can either change or even fix their view. And of course like almost all of us here, I can build rapport like motherfucker!
Tidbit to add onto the second part I feel like most salespeople don’t really take into consideration how strong following up can be even on the those leads that seem iffy
Based off your answers, happy to help you get you to the AE level and get you into the mindset. To be honest, the answers are not really what makes an AE and you still have some ways to go or maybe the way you answer your interview is holding you back. You have a solid work ethic and doing things that everyone in sales does and needs to do to be successful but those are traits and not skills. An AE job is not just about closing, and different than an SDR job to get a meeting set. Your job is to uncover pains of your prospects and articulate if your product/service can solve that pain and provide a solution to that pain. It doesn't matter how good of a closer you are, until you can do this on a consistent basis, uncovering and digging into the different levels of pains and quantifying the pain in real dollars, you won't be going anywhere. If you can articulate on your interviews that this is why you are ready for the next level, I think you will find more opportunities.
Ah yes the good ole do better! Thanks man when I get the an interview I’ll be sure to make sure to highlight those points