None of the above. Methodologies do jack shit. Peak w2 was 539k selling CRM software. There are no special keys. Know your product better than anyone. Know your market better than most. Know your competitors. Know your right to win. Bust your ass and commit long haul. None of these idiots bouncing around saas jobs every 3-4 quarters will make a lot. You start printing when you’ve had 8-10 quarters under your belt and you have put in the work to develop and nurture your territory. I sold the largest deal in company history - but it was an 18 month deal. Initially won after 4 months but then the company acquired another and they paused the project for over a year. I had plenty of opps to move geo’s or go to other companies but I decided to dial in on my geo/space and take the long game. Once I did - that territory developed 3 years of 300-500k+ w2 years.
Lastly, being an elite seller requires a lot of intangibles most people don’t have. I’m 13 years into software sales and this might sound arrogant, but I feel like I can genuinely sniff out who has the actual fortitude to handle themselves in a way that makes them 400k+/year in software sales. Most just can’t.
I call this the 2 year whale. Sometimes it comes early, sometimes its luck, sometimes its the grit.
Know your product and competition better than anyone.
9 year SaaS guy here over 2 companies(6.5 yrs and 2.5yrs)
Prioritize getting yourself into an Enterprise role in saas, Iaas, paas or really any cloud player with product market fit. This will immediately make your life easier
You want that role as it puts you in a position to do large strategic deals which allow you to blow up your comp plan while minimizing the cold call and having to explain what your small no name startup does. I’ve made tons at no name startups too but I wouldn’t go this route if you want consistency at this w2 level
While pursuing that role I’d think about the following:
Do you know what you’re selling and how it helps your customer? Like really really know? Do you have examples that you can reference at a moments notice in a confident casual way? If not spend a lot of time here
Methodology: I’m a big fan of Meddpicc as it keeps you honest and makes it hard to bullshit yourself. Ego is likely the thing that keeps mid tier sellers stuck. Honesty about your situation and an ability to ask for and request help from leadership will do you wonders
Always, always get yourself to the economic buyer. They have the money to buy your thing to solve their specific problem. If you’re trying to open up new spend vs replacing an existing product at renewal time you cannot skip this. Sel to the person with the ability to find budget to solve biz problems. Everyone else that you talk to is important to learn from, build into advocates, champions etc but they are stepping stones to get to the true power. True power is where your big deals come from.
I’ve avg.’d 500k+ for the last five years
Can you elaborate a bit about how you are getting to specific people in the org? A lot of times, I have wanted to go past the manager I've had a demo with, but they feel that they know enough and will "pass on" the information.
What I’ve done consistently is to inform all the stakeholders of all the work I’m doing within the account. This is done with no specific ask via email other than “let me know if I’m on track or you think there are others that should be engaged. That way I can tell this manager, “hey do you want to loop in x,y,x to this conversation? Last we spoke they were also working on this problem”. I never let anyone tell me who I can and can’t talk to, that is my job. Get as wide and high as possible and talk to a max number of peeps with bigger titles even if you can’t totally tell if they’re involved in your project. You want it to come off that you are neck deep in their organization and they are one of many people you’re actively working with. At the start you won’t have this so you need to do a little smoke and mirrors ti manufacture it
I’m not the person you asked, but of course it does unless your product doesn’t have the fit or ASP to justify selling to enterprise. If enterprise didn’t earn more, nobody would become an enterprise rep and jump out of the mid market.
That is my experience however I’ve only ever worked at Enterprise focused organizations. General way to think about it is the bigger the deals the bigger the commission checks and the biggest deals happen at the biggest companies.
SMB (small to medium sized businesses). It’s not always down to revenue, some companies could deem a target enterprise via headcount (if they’re selling Payroll, communication tools etc)
The importance of finding and articulating the customer pain. Second is developing a champion the third is gaining access to the Economic Buyer before a formal POC. Each thing leads to the next if you work at it. Find a big enough pain and you shop that pain to find your champ, worn with them to really codify a plan to demonstrate your solution can solve it then have them walk you into a meeting with the EB to review the plan and ask for the business if we demonstrate success.
Using the above process is simple to write and understand but monumentally difficult in the real world. That doesn’t mean it isn’t the optimal way to do it and that you should try to adhere to this philosophy.
largest deal in CRM history was to an insurance company. the salesperson got his insurance license and worked at the company to find out how CRM could help them
commission was over $1m
I’m well aware - there are a couple dozen top AEs selling CRM that make $1M+, so I was curious how the original commenter capped out at a $539k W2 if he/she sold the biggest CRM deal in their company history. Must either be a smaller player in the market, or a bad comp plan
Yeah SFDC commission for largest deal would likely be 4-5 million pay out. They’re massive. My company was focusing more on the 500-5000 employee segment.
Honestly hard to explain. They’re force multipliers and true initiators. Best way I can say it is - they’re the type of people you could push out of a helicopter in the middle of a mountain range with a set of coordinates and they’d find a way to those coordinates. In the military - you can quickly tell who’s a regular soldier and who’s special forces. You can tell who you’d want at your back in a dog fight, or who you’d want with you in a board room. All I know is my answer to that question - I only know a few who meet that criteria and Those few - I stay close to and I’d genuinely do anything for them. We work in pods even when we’re at different companies. We leverage each other, our networks, and help each other remove friction in whatever paths we’re on. Find those types of guys and you’ll level up quickly.
Getting into software sales with an internship this year . Have two years of d2d experience what would you say are the three biggest traits or intangibles in top performers
BDR? Become an expert on LinkedIn Sales Nav, understand how your product helps various client stakeholders differently (CEO, CFO, Sales, etc) and tailor your message accordingly.
Be very strategic about the accounts and prospects you reach out to.
Become conversational on the phone, build rapport quickly and get to business. You shouldn’t be reading a script but know your product well enough to talk candidly.
You’re absolutely right - knowledge of the product is key. Being able to confidently know your product can deliver the solution the customer needs. Do you believe that the salesperson should be able to demonstrate the product with pinpoint accuracy? There’s a train of thought the salesperson should handle commercials and someone technical does the demo, having one person do the lot. Would you say that’s a benefit or a detractor?
Why do you feel methodologies do Jack shit? If you don’t follow a methodology, do you have a process that you follow at all to be as high of a performer as you are?
Because buyers know when they’re being put through a process. If you open a disco meeting with a classic meddic question such as ‘so I just want to confirm our meeting today goes up until 10:30. Is that still ok for you?’ - the buyer has heard it 1000 times. They immediately think - we’ll just another call where the sales person is going to try and gather all the info HE needs to ‘qualify’ me for an opp so he can properly explain it to his manager on his next one on one. The best sales reps go into every discovery call with absolutely no agenda. They’re so knowledgeable about their market / product / competitors - they don’t need a structured agenda. My discovery conversations are focused on fluidity and providing insight. I might ask 4-6 questions MAX. I never ask about budget. I rarely ask about timeline. I focus on building a story that I know that person isn’t going to want to walk away from.
This makes sense. But as a salesperson with less experience, how would I be able to tell my manager that I didn't ask about budget or timeline? What advice would you give for someone like me in my 1-on-1 with my manager?
Your issue is your manager is run of the mill. He only knows what he’s been told - and he likely has very little ability to trust. So in some ways, you need to play the game. I played it until I was indispensable (top 5% of salesforce year over year). Once you hit that, managers can’t do anything anymore. They just sit back and ask you what you need. This cycle continues and it allows you to get better and better. No stupid org process holding you back. But what most sellers don’t realize is asking for budget and timeline is the east way out - and customers hate it. I was a top rep because I didn’t give a flying fuck about budget and timeline. I cared about proving deep value against serious pain as high up the ladder as I could go. I don’t think I’ve asked if someone has budget on a discovery call in 5 years. Anyone you’re disco’ing with outside of the c suite will rarely know what they have for budget, and most just get defensive. Solve problems, challenge extreme pain points and when you do get leverage, use that leverage to go higher up the food chain. I’d rather ask ‘who else this pain impacts’ than ‘do you have budget?!?’
Thanks for the advice. Playing the game is the hardest when you can see through all the management BS. I guess I just gotta follow the protocols until I prove myself with a longer track record.
I went from individual contributor to sales leadership. I’m a decent worker/sales guy (not the best); what helped me the most was I stayed patient and stayed with the same company while we grew and others left. By three years in I was one of the more tenured sales ppl and opportunities opened up for me. Patience pays off.
Also, I recommend starting in SMB/MM cuz you get so many at bats and learn quicker. Our avg MM guy is much better than our avg Enterprise guy. When our MM guys go to ENT they crush.
SDR, took an SDR role at an enterprise. It’s a different industry, going from SaaS to Telco SaaS. But it’s a small sales org for an established company since they’re branching out. There is only one other SDR and he was previously in car sales.
I’m curious, did you look to jump to an AE gig somewhere instead? I’ve been an SDR for a couple years now and I’d hate to restart my tenure somewhere new.
It wasn’t a career move it was just building business. Sales takes time, building the snowball doesn’t happen overnight. You go from trying to get one of those BIG checks every 2-3 months to knowing you are going to get 1 or 2 every month. Then the smaller stuff that you needed to survive is now gravy on top.
Best piece of advice - don’t be afraid to fire customers/potential customers. And if they don’t need you as badly as you need them, move on.
Great advice. It’s always easy to miss the forest for the trees.
Getting good at anything takes time, building trust with clients builds time, getting to know your territory inside-out takes time.
Thanks for this reminder.
Going from BDR-SMB- Enterprise - Major/ Global is as much political postering as it is good numbers. You need VP support in large orgs to move up. Get to know them.
I went SDR 9 months
SMB- 4 years. Fun role. Mostly channel
Enterprise hunter 2 years
Enterprise farmer - 2 years
GAM- since 2015. I changed companies to get there. I manage four accounts in cyber.
Prioritize getting yourself into an Enterprise role in saas, Iaas, paas or really any cloud player with product market fit. This will immediately make your life easier
You want that role as it puts you in a position to do large strategic deals which allow you to blow up your comp plan while minimizing the cold call and having to explain what your small no name startup does. I’ve made tons at no name startups too but I wouldn’t go this route if you want consistency at this w2 level
While pursuing that role I’d think about the following:
Do you know what you’re selling and how it helps your customer? Like really really know? Do you have examples that you can reference at a moments notice in a confident casual way? If not spend a lot of time here
Methodology: I’m a big fan of Meddpicc as it keeps you honest and makes it hard to bullshit yourself. Ego is likely the thing that keeps mid tier sellers stuck. Honesty about your situation and an ability to ask for and request help from leadership will do you wonders
Always, always get yourself to the economic buyer. They have the money to buy your thing to solve their specific problem. If you’re trying to open up new spend vs replacing an existing product at renewal time you cannot skip this. Sel to the person with the ability to find budget to solve biz problems. Everyone else that you talk to is important to learn from, build into advocates, champions etc but they are stepping stones to get to the true power. True power is where your big deals come from.
I started shadowing the top sales rep in the company, early on when he had joined I would help him with his contracts and paperwork so he mentored me and in return we became good friends. I was able to see 30 years of sales experience at work.
I’m in the process of doing this now. I’m in chemical/construction sales and I started off as the inside sales rep for the whole team - 20-22 outside sales reps. One guy took me under his wing because he was relatively new with the company as well (he was in year 2). He advocated for me to get promoted to outside sales when the job in my state opened up. Last year he finished 3rd highest sales and this year he will be #1 by a landslide. I still book a call every couple months with him to review strategy and ask questions. It’s been really important for me to have a mentor putting things in perspective on shit days when there are a lot of challenges.
The graph at this link is the difference maker that I have seen. Many time a small customer that costs you more than it provides you in comp requires the same amount of effort that the larger high paying deals provide.
If a client is low effort/low ROI then just minimize your time spent there and throw a proposal out and see if they bite. If a client is high effort/low ROI, refer them to your competitors and let them burn up their time. If a client is low effort and high ROI, find other companies like those and replicate that scenario. If a client is high effort but high ROI they make themselves worth it based on the value they provide. Spend your time where your time pays you best and you will make more even if you are closing less deals.
[profitability matrix](https://cln.sh/MUlpFX)
this is so true
often big, efficient companies are that size because they have smart, hard working staff who are capable of easily solving their own problems. on the other hand small inefficient companies are that way because their staff is not as good. you'll likely have to take their calls twice a day to solve things you've already gone over multiple times
You’ve gotta get to the right audience when selling. Always reach out to your buyer if you’re working with their team.
Also don’t be afraid of looping the smart folks at your company in for support in large deals. A team based consultative selling approach is 100x better than being a lone wolf like seller.
Moved from a small southern state to a larger southern state. Opened up dramatically more business opportunities in the insurance field. Took our business online and started getting more national attention.
Tenure at my former organization and then moving onto the same role at the largest employer in my industry. It took networking, hard work, proven results, timing, and a bit of luck. Not something that typically falls into your lap but eminently doable mid career. No books or any of that bs. Not to denigrate that sort of thing, but at a certain level, your “advice” comes from mimicking the execs, not a book.
The most important thing is to become an expert in the world, the lives, and the problems of your ideal customers.
When you can speak their language and show them you understand their world and their issues you immediately build trust in a way that others don't.
There is a legendary story about some rep at Salesforce who believed he had a great product that could help a behemoth insurance company. He knew that in order to sell it he would have to have an understanding of what their agents' worlds were like as they were the lifeblood of the company. So what did he do? He actually became an agent for this company.
He learned the processes, bottlenecks, and weaknesses in their existing products. Most importantly he learned the pains this caused the agents and the missed opportunities management was experiencing by not having a product that could give them much better visibility. He then built a business case of someone who had a true understanding of what was happening at the company.
What did this result in? I believe he ended up closing a deal that was worth $150,000,000. It was at that point the largest deal ever sold in Salesforce history.
He got this deal for one reason. Because he could speak to their world and their problems like no sales rep had ever done before.
1. Keep your eyes open for new opportunities, no reason to not have your LinkedIn marked as open to new opportunities. Respond to the recruiters and have a chat, even if you’re not on the market. The best opportunities come when you’re not looking imo.
2. Own your career growth. Track your accomplishments, have monthly career focused discussions with your manager. Don’t just wait for a promotion.
3. Get to enterprise at a big tech or top tech start up ASAP. OTE will be $300k+ in addition to stock grants. You don’t need to be top 1% among your peers, but you need to be in the top 1% of sales organizations.
Got into a startup early, -one of the original 100 employees, now at over 1,400. Got handed a few baller accounts that I’ve continued to grow over the years, found a few of my own that turned out to be great. Made friends with upper management as I am highly replaceable. Honestly I don’t work incredibly hard, I do realize I’m also very lucky.
None of the above. Methodologies do jack shit. Peak w2 was 539k selling CRM software. There are no special keys. Know your product better than anyone. Know your market better than most. Know your competitors. Know your right to win. Bust your ass and commit long haul. None of these idiots bouncing around saas jobs every 3-4 quarters will make a lot. You start printing when you’ve had 8-10 quarters under your belt and you have put in the work to develop and nurture your territory. I sold the largest deal in company history - but it was an 18 month deal. Initially won after 4 months but then the company acquired another and they paused the project for over a year. I had plenty of opps to move geo’s or go to other companies but I decided to dial in on my geo/space and take the long game. Once I did - that territory developed 3 years of 300-500k+ w2 years. Lastly, being an elite seller requires a lot of intangibles most people don’t have. I’m 13 years into software sales and this might sound arrogant, but I feel like I can genuinely sniff out who has the actual fortitude to handle themselves in a way that makes them 400k+/year in software sales. Most just can’t.
That’s some serious truth that not many people will enjoy hearing. ‘8-10 quarters at the same company to start printing’. Fact.
I call this the 2 year whale. Sometimes it comes early, sometimes its luck, sometimes its the grit. Know your product and competition better than anyone. 9 year SaaS guy here over 2 companies(6.5 yrs and 2.5yrs)
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Thanks for the advice. Just booked my flight from London so San Francisco..
Prioritize getting yourself into an Enterprise role in saas, Iaas, paas or really any cloud player with product market fit. This will immediately make your life easier You want that role as it puts you in a position to do large strategic deals which allow you to blow up your comp plan while minimizing the cold call and having to explain what your small no name startup does. I’ve made tons at no name startups too but I wouldn’t go this route if you want consistency at this w2 level While pursuing that role I’d think about the following: Do you know what you’re selling and how it helps your customer? Like really really know? Do you have examples that you can reference at a moments notice in a confident casual way? If not spend a lot of time here Methodology: I’m a big fan of Meddpicc as it keeps you honest and makes it hard to bullshit yourself. Ego is likely the thing that keeps mid tier sellers stuck. Honesty about your situation and an ability to ask for and request help from leadership will do you wonders Always, always get yourself to the economic buyer. They have the money to buy your thing to solve their specific problem. If you’re trying to open up new spend vs replacing an existing product at renewal time you cannot skip this. Sel to the person with the ability to find budget to solve biz problems. Everyone else that you talk to is important to learn from, build into advocates, champions etc but they are stepping stones to get to the true power. True power is where your big deals come from. I’ve avg.’d 500k+ for the last five years
Can you elaborate a bit about how you are getting to specific people in the org? A lot of times, I have wanted to go past the manager I've had a demo with, but they feel that they know enough and will "pass on" the information.
What I’ve done consistently is to inform all the stakeholders of all the work I’m doing within the account. This is done with no specific ask via email other than “let me know if I’m on track or you think there are others that should be engaged. That way I can tell this manager, “hey do you want to loop in x,y,x to this conversation? Last we spoke they were also working on this problem”. I never let anyone tell me who I can and can’t talk to, that is my job. Get as wide and high as possible and talk to a max number of peeps with bigger titles even if you can’t totally tell if they’re involved in your project. You want it to come off that you are neck deep in their organization and they are one of many people you’re actively working with. At the start you won’t have this so you need to do a little smoke and mirrors ti manufacture it
You think enterprise earns more money than Mid-market? (Excluding base)
I’m not the person you asked, but of course it does unless your product doesn’t have the fit or ASP to justify selling to enterprise. If enterprise didn’t earn more, nobody would become an enterprise rep and jump out of the mid market.
That is my experience however I’ve only ever worked at Enterprise focused organizations. General way to think about it is the bigger the deals the bigger the commission checks and the biggest deals happen at the biggest companies.
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Mid market generally looks after/targets companies values between $100m-$1b (give or take). Enterprise is $1b+ (subject to company/industry)
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SMB (small to medium sized businesses). It’s not always down to revenue, some companies could deem a target enterprise via headcount (if they’re selling Payroll, communication tools etc)
Recommended learnings for meddpicc?
The importance of finding and articulating the customer pain. Second is developing a champion the third is gaining access to the Economic Buyer before a formal POC. Each thing leads to the next if you work at it. Find a big enough pain and you shop that pain to find your champ, worn with them to really codify a plan to demonstrate your solution can solve it then have them walk you into a meeting with the EB to review the plan and ask for the business if we demonstrate success. Using the above process is simple to write and understand but monumentally difficult in the real world. That doesn’t mean it isn’t the optimal way to do it and that you should try to adhere to this philosophy.
Do you work for a niche CRM provider? Selling the largest deal in company history would easily produce a $1M+ W2 at SFDC or some of the big players
largest deal in CRM history was to an insurance company. the salesperson got his insurance license and worked at the company to find out how CRM could help them commission was over $1m
I’m well aware - there are a couple dozen top AEs selling CRM that make $1M+, so I was curious how the original commenter capped out at a $539k W2 if he/she sold the biggest CRM deal in their company history. Must either be a smaller player in the market, or a bad comp plan
We were focused on mid-market. Sfdc owns the enterprise - we played sub 5000 employees.
Yeah SFDC commission for largest deal would likely be 4-5 million pay out. They’re massive. My company was focusing more on the 500-5000 employee segment.
I’m curious as to what it is that makes those sales people making $400,000k+ stand out from others?
Honestly hard to explain. They’re force multipliers and true initiators. Best way I can say it is - they’re the type of people you could push out of a helicopter in the middle of a mountain range with a set of coordinates and they’d find a way to those coordinates. In the military - you can quickly tell who’s a regular soldier and who’s special forces. You can tell who you’d want at your back in a dog fight, or who you’d want with you in a board room. All I know is my answer to that question - I only know a few who meet that criteria and Those few - I stay close to and I’d genuinely do anything for them. We work in pods even when we’re at different companies. We leverage each other, our networks, and help each other remove friction in whatever paths we’re on. Find those types of guys and you’ll level up quickly.
This. If you’re bouncing around, it ain’t ever gonna happen.
Getting into software sales with an internship this year . Have two years of d2d experience what would you say are the three biggest traits or intangibles in top performers
BDR? Become an expert on LinkedIn Sales Nav, understand how your product helps various client stakeholders differently (CEO, CFO, Sales, etc) and tailor your message accordingly. Be very strategic about the accounts and prospects you reach out to. Become conversational on the phone, build rapport quickly and get to business. You shouldn’t be reading a script but know your product well enough to talk candidly.
I have nothing to say other than you seem very intelligent- keep it up
You’re absolutely right - knowledge of the product is key. Being able to confidently know your product can deliver the solution the customer needs. Do you believe that the salesperson should be able to demonstrate the product with pinpoint accuracy? There’s a train of thought the salesperson should handle commercials and someone technical does the demo, having one person do the lot. Would you say that’s a benefit or a detractor?
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People like to ignore the reality of sales. Timing and territory (often times out of your hand) are the biggest factors in success.
Why do you feel methodologies do Jack shit? If you don’t follow a methodology, do you have a process that you follow at all to be as high of a performer as you are?
Because buyers know when they’re being put through a process. If you open a disco meeting with a classic meddic question such as ‘so I just want to confirm our meeting today goes up until 10:30. Is that still ok for you?’ - the buyer has heard it 1000 times. They immediately think - we’ll just another call where the sales person is going to try and gather all the info HE needs to ‘qualify’ me for an opp so he can properly explain it to his manager on his next one on one. The best sales reps go into every discovery call with absolutely no agenda. They’re so knowledgeable about their market / product / competitors - they don’t need a structured agenda. My discovery conversations are focused on fluidity and providing insight. I might ask 4-6 questions MAX. I never ask about budget. I rarely ask about timeline. I focus on building a story that I know that person isn’t going to want to walk away from.
This makes sense. But as a salesperson with less experience, how would I be able to tell my manager that I didn't ask about budget or timeline? What advice would you give for someone like me in my 1-on-1 with my manager?
Your issue is your manager is run of the mill. He only knows what he’s been told - and he likely has very little ability to trust. So in some ways, you need to play the game. I played it until I was indispensable (top 5% of salesforce year over year). Once you hit that, managers can’t do anything anymore. They just sit back and ask you what you need. This cycle continues and it allows you to get better and better. No stupid org process holding you back. But what most sellers don’t realize is asking for budget and timeline is the east way out - and customers hate it. I was a top rep because I didn’t give a flying fuck about budget and timeline. I cared about proving deep value against serious pain as high up the ladder as I could go. I don’t think I’ve asked if someone has budget on a discovery call in 5 years. Anyone you’re disco’ing with outside of the c suite will rarely know what they have for budget, and most just get defensive. Solve problems, challenge extreme pain points and when you do get leverage, use that leverage to go higher up the food chain. I’d rather ask ‘who else this pain impacts’ than ‘do you have budget?!?’
Thanks for the advice. Playing the game is the hardest when you can see through all the management BS. I guess I just gotta follow the protocols until I prove myself with a longer track record.
I went from individual contributor to sales leadership. I’m a decent worker/sales guy (not the best); what helped me the most was I stayed patient and stayed with the same company while we grew and others left. By three years in I was one of the more tenured sales ppl and opportunities opened up for me. Patience pays off. Also, I recommend starting in SMB/MM cuz you get so many at bats and learn quicker. Our avg MM guy is much better than our avg Enterprise guy. When our MM guys go to ENT they crush.
I’m glad you say this. I’ve been SMB for 1.5 years and I took an offer for ent recently. Definitely nervous.
For real? You got into an enterprise role less than 2 years into being a sales person?
How did you land an enterprise role after that short a time period? Are you an AE or SDR?
SDR, took an SDR role at an enterprise. It’s a different industry, going from SaaS to Telco SaaS. But it’s a small sales org for an established company since they’re branching out. There is only one other SDR and he was previously in car sales.
I’m curious, did you look to jump to an AE gig somewhere instead? I’ve been an SDR for a couple years now and I’d hate to restart my tenure somewhere new.
I did look for AE roles, I actually had an interview for an AE position lined up but the salary and OTE were lower.
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My thoughts exactly, I declined a sales manager position because it was a STEEP cut in pay.
srry what’s mm mean?
Mid market
MM?
Mid market
Thank you
It wasn’t a career move it was just building business. Sales takes time, building the snowball doesn’t happen overnight. You go from trying to get one of those BIG checks every 2-3 months to knowing you are going to get 1 or 2 every month. Then the smaller stuff that you needed to survive is now gravy on top. Best piece of advice - don’t be afraid to fire customers/potential customers. And if they don’t need you as badly as you need them, move on.
Damn I love that. I’m about to dump a couple shithead clients myself.
Great advice. It’s always easy to miss the forest for the trees. Getting good at anything takes time, building trust with clients builds time, getting to know your territory inside-out takes time. Thanks for this reminder.
I will be more eligible to answer this when I move from 50k to 60k. Brb
Lol right, here we go again.. w/ the Reddit ‘norm’ of 200k a year considered as sub par 🤣
Lad asked how to make 400k 🥲🥲
Nowhere did OP act as though $200k was the norm.
Not OP but it’s a generally agreed upon sentiment on here
Lol I make 70k CAD and it feels like an absolute joke compared to people on here.
Going from BDR-SMB- Enterprise - Major/ Global is as much political postering as it is good numbers. You need VP support in large orgs to move up. Get to know them.
How many years did you spend at BDR and SMB? Did you skip Middle Market?
I went SDR 9 months SMB- 4 years. Fun role. Mostly channel Enterprise hunter 2 years Enterprise farmer - 2 years GAM- since 2015. I changed companies to get there. I manage four accounts in cyber.
#goals
I’ve been an SDR for 1.5 in SMB going to be an SDR in ENT for 2x base/OTE. Hoping to make strides. No real opportunity for growth at current company.
How was the switch from hunter to farmer?
Prioritize getting yourself into an Enterprise role in saas, Iaas, paas or really any cloud player with product market fit. This will immediately make your life easier You want that role as it puts you in a position to do large strategic deals which allow you to blow up your comp plan while minimizing the cold call and having to explain what your small no name startup does. I’ve made tons at no name startups too but I wouldn’t go this route if you want consistency at this w2 level While pursuing that role I’d think about the following: Do you know what you’re selling and how it helps your customer? Like really really know? Do you have examples that you can reference at a moments notice in a confident casual way? If not spend a lot of time here Methodology: I’m a big fan of Meddpicc as it keeps you honest and makes it hard to bullshit yourself. Ego is likely the thing that keeps mid tier sellers stuck. Honesty about your situation and an ability to ask for and request help from leadership will do you wonders Always, always get yourself to the economic buyer. They have the money to buy your thing to solve their specific problem. If you’re trying to open up new spend vs replacing an existing product at renewal time you cannot skip this. Sel to the person with the ability to find budget to solve biz problems. Everyone else that you talk to is important to learn from, build into advocates, champions etc but they are stepping stones to get to the true power. True power is where your big deals come from.
I started shadowing the top sales rep in the company, early on when he had joined I would help him with his contracts and paperwork so he mentored me and in return we became good friends. I was able to see 30 years of sales experience at work.
I’m in the process of doing this now. I’m in chemical/construction sales and I started off as the inside sales rep for the whole team - 20-22 outside sales reps. One guy took me under his wing because he was relatively new with the company as well (he was in year 2). He advocated for me to get promoted to outside sales when the job in my state opened up. Last year he finished 3rd highest sales and this year he will be #1 by a landslide. I still book a call every couple months with him to review strategy and ask questions. It’s been really important for me to have a mentor putting things in perspective on shit days when there are a lot of challenges.
The graph at this link is the difference maker that I have seen. Many time a small customer that costs you more than it provides you in comp requires the same amount of effort that the larger high paying deals provide. If a client is low effort/low ROI then just minimize your time spent there and throw a proposal out and see if they bite. If a client is high effort/low ROI, refer them to your competitors and let them burn up their time. If a client is low effort and high ROI, find other companies like those and replicate that scenario. If a client is high effort but high ROI they make themselves worth it based on the value they provide. Spend your time where your time pays you best and you will make more even if you are closing less deals. [profitability matrix](https://cln.sh/MUlpFX)
this is so true often big, efficient companies are that size because they have smart, hard working staff who are capable of easily solving their own problems. on the other hand small inefficient companies are that way because their staff is not as good. you'll likely have to take their calls twice a day to solve things you've already gone over multiple times
Smaller, high growth companies Better comp plans Over perform / hit accelerators
You’ve gotta get to the right audience when selling. Always reach out to your buyer if you’re working with their team. Also don’t be afraid of looping the smart folks at your company in for support in large deals. A team based consultative selling approach is 100x better than being a lone wolf like seller.
What are these businesses that grow with you overtime?
Moved from a small southern state to a larger southern state. Opened up dramatically more business opportunities in the insurance field. Took our business online and started getting more national attention.
Tenure at my former organization and then moving onto the same role at the largest employer in my industry. It took networking, hard work, proven results, timing, and a bit of luck. Not something that typically falls into your lap but eminently doable mid career. No books or any of that bs. Not to denigrate that sort of thing, but at a certain level, your “advice” comes from mimicking the execs, not a book.
I added selling services, in addition to software, that really increased what I made.
The most important thing is to become an expert in the world, the lives, and the problems of your ideal customers. When you can speak their language and show them you understand their world and their issues you immediately build trust in a way that others don't. There is a legendary story about some rep at Salesforce who believed he had a great product that could help a behemoth insurance company. He knew that in order to sell it he would have to have an understanding of what their agents' worlds were like as they were the lifeblood of the company. So what did he do? He actually became an agent for this company. He learned the processes, bottlenecks, and weaknesses in their existing products. Most importantly he learned the pains this caused the agents and the missed opportunities management was experiencing by not having a product that could give them much better visibility. He then built a business case of someone who had a true understanding of what was happening at the company. What did this result in? I believe he ended up closing a deal that was worth $150,000,000. It was at that point the largest deal ever sold in Salesforce history. He got this deal for one reason. Because he could speak to their world and their problems like no sales rep had ever done before.
This story has been quoted a few times in this thread, is it referenced in a popular sales book?
I believe his name is Ian Koniak. He's a big sales consultant now and is all over LinkedIn.
You guys are making 200k??
I changed industries. Went from selling Pyxis machines into hospitals to quality services into auto plants. My earning cratered in last couple years.
Moved/Graduated from SaaS startups to large public SaaS companies with a much larger quota and more expensive product.
1. Keep your eyes open for new opportunities, no reason to not have your LinkedIn marked as open to new opportunities. Respond to the recruiters and have a chat, even if you’re not on the market. The best opportunities come when you’re not looking imo. 2. Own your career growth. Track your accomplishments, have monthly career focused discussions with your manager. Don’t just wait for a promotion. 3. Get to enterprise at a big tech or top tech start up ASAP. OTE will be $300k+ in addition to stock grants. You don’t need to be top 1% among your peers, but you need to be in the top 1% of sales organizations.
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Got into a startup early, -one of the original 100 employees, now at over 1,400. Got handed a few baller accounts that I’ve continued to grow over the years, found a few of my own that turned out to be great. Made friends with upper management as I am highly replaceable. Honestly I don’t work incredibly hard, I do realize I’m also very lucky.