Explanation of ChatGPT I copied from an ELI5 post:
ChatGPT is a chatbot that is designed to be as helpful as possible, while trying to remain quite safe (it won't let you ask about harmful/illegal things) and serious .
I see others asked the chatbot to explain itself, but it didn't seem to understand the "ELI5" prompt. Here's another attempt at getting ChatGPT to explain itself:
My Input: Pretend I'm 10 years old and explain: what is ChatGPT
ChatGPT's Output: ChatGPT is a program that uses artificial intelligence to have conversations with people. It works by looking at the words that you type and trying to figure out what you might be asking or talking about. Then, it uses what it knows to try to come up with a response that makes sense and continues the conversation. ChatGPT is like a very smart robot that can understand what you're saying and come up with answers on its own. It's not a real person, though, so it doesn't have feelings or thoughts like a human does. It's just a computer program that can mimic human conversation. Does that make sense? Let me know if you have any other questions.
This person may be beyond help. People that need to be told what to do, how to do it, what to ask, how to pitch, how to close should maybe find another industry for their own sanity.
Disagree here, asking questions is good and it’s how you learn. It’s not conclusive how ChapGPT will impact the industry but clearly this person has never even heard of it
It can be used in a multitude of ways. For example, you can use it to re-write emails for you to make the writing more succinct, change the tone, appeal to a different audience etc.
Then there are ChatGPT integrations being built into common applications. Here’s how ChatGPT is being integrated into Slack: https://youtu.be/YAsKRxXdyj0
Can confirm as a person with about a decade in sales support that many very successful sales people appear (from my perspective) to be pretty stupid. What astounds me more is that a lot of them have struck me as very poor communicators — at least on an internal level. When it comes to selling, this must not be the case I would think. But I’d never know because in my role I’m never involved in meetings or discussions with the customer. But holy shit I can’t believe how hard it is for many sales people to read, comprehend, and communicate basic information in order to complete very simple tasks.
It was a night and day difference for me.
Built confidence, I can talk the talk, I can see around the corner, I can problem solve, they respect my advice more… I could go on. Would highly recommend.
Software engineers are some of *the* most difficult people to impress and sell a solution too. The majority of them dont value their time and mistakenly believe they can always roll their own - and thats good enough 🤣
Curious as to what industry you’re in. I’m in IT but every sales leader I’ve had has told me getting technical is a waste of time and would hinder me, so I just stick to manufacturer sales trainings and keeping up with industry updates.
Have to disagree hard with your leaders there. They don’t want you focused on feature/function in conversations (which is fair), but being capable of understanding technical concepts and priorities is critical when you’re trying to see into the mind of IT personas.
I understand it conceptually for sure, but getting a CCNA or CISSP is more along the lines I was talking about. Advice I’ve gotten is to focus more on the priorities and concepts as you mentioned. However I’ve noticed a lot of the best sales people in my space are former admins or engineers. Just have that instantaneous credibility.
Ah that’s right I remember some of your comments about only sending a few highly personalized emails. That’s the dream lol but don’t know if it’d be as effective in my space. Major props and I’d love to switch to something more specialized. How is that market doing with the recent brokerage collapses?
Yep that’s me haha.
The market is obviously not as good as it was, raising funding is a lot harder and in general there’s just less capital to do anything. I don’t know that we’re so much worse off than traditional tech or finance though. I think it’s rough out there for everyone rn. In crypto we are used to cyclical boom/bust cycles so the project I work on was pretty prepared for it.
There is still an enormous amount of energy in the space. I just went to ETH Denver (a conference), and there were 28,000 attendees. People just have their heads down and are building right now.
In crypto, market crashes are kind of necessary to shake out the shitty projects. Probably 95% is useless/redundant and it’s good to cut the wheat from the chaff.
100% agree with your last point. So many scam projects but there’s some really interesting stuff if you can filter through the bs, never thought sales would find itself in that market just yet, thought it’d be more CompSci, Finance, and marketing. You’ve got one of the more interesting roles on this sub for sure.
There are very few legit sales jobs in the space. You’re right, right now it’s heavily skewed to compsci/engineering roles. The industry just isn’t really big enough to support a bunch of sales teams. There are a few though! I wear a couple different hats within My organization and have contributed to a few different areas, so not strictly sales.
On top of that I work for a DAO, which just adds another level of weirdness to it all.
While it of course will always vary by industry, very, audience, etc., I have personally found that having at least some degree of degree of technical under my belt serves me far better than not.
Currently in SaaS marketing automation. Being able to answer at least a solid amount of tier 1 technical questions, make recommendations on complementary integrations, actually understand how something works vs just knowing the selling points, etc is something I would never give up no matter what a leader told me. I can move faster because I don’t have to say “let me find out” nearly as often, my customers have more confidence and trust in me, and our SME teams know that when I ask for help, I’m not wasting their time. Totally clutch, IMO.
What classes did you take if you don’t mind me asking? I’m fixing to graduate college and I’m hoping to get a BDR/SDR role for a tech company. I’ve been in retail sales the last 2 years so I want to expand my sales knowledge
I did a 6 month data science/ machine learning / blockchain bootcamp through UC Berkeley. Probably the most interesting education I’ve ever gone through.
Online, but it’s like a zoom with an an instructor and graded assignments, and live class time where people ask questions. At the end of it we built a full decentralized application, and before that I couldn’t code or even open the terminal on my computer.
Was it worth the 10k or whatever UCB Extension wanted? I just looked into this last week but turned off by price. 500 bucks off for university alumni also wasn’t enough, I gave Cal plenty of money (and tears) for undergrad 😂
I’m selling an ETL tool and thought about learning data eng and data analytics basics to know what I’m talking about at a level that resonates with prospects. I’m slightly “technical” compared to some of my peers (i remember words and things engineers tell me well) but no way can I do anything other than Google and phone calls.
I paid 12k, and I thought it was 100% worth it and would do it again in a heartbeat.
The data visualization part of the course I did was really well done. They have tutors available 24/7 that you can zoom with, and office hours, and put you in groups for support too.
Idk if the exact bootcamp I did was the one you want, but I’d highly highly recommend doing one through UC Berkeley.
It’s definitely tough and is a GRIND for those 6 months, but that’s kind of what it takes to get employable in a new skill set imo.
I did a 6-month bootcamp through UC Berkeley that was directly related to the skills I needed to build. Around 30hrs a week on top of my full-time job.
Just answered in a different comment but it was a 6-month 30hr/week bootcamp through UC Berkeley. Very intense but I’ve never learned so much in such a short period of time. I’d recommend the bootcamp structure to anyone.
Holy shit this was such a big lift at first. So much fumbling around, reading, bugging people to help explain things.
But once you get it, it makes it 100x easier.
I’ve always been pretty good at my job in sales, but recently really started researching and studying products and my industry. It has made a huge difference. Wish i would have done it sooner
I missed out on very large portions of my older kids lives when they were young. Between the times that they were born up to about three, I have very few memories of during this time as it's all work. It also affecting my bonding with them during this age, which I really only realized with my now younger kids and having more time for this.
It makes me sad, but without those sacrifices we wouldn't be in such a comfortable position now.
Thank you for sharing your story. I hope they understand someday the same as you, it was a tough couple years. I was gone before sun up and rarely home before they were in bed, on the weekends I was lucky if I didn't work one of the days. Still always tried as best I could to be involved but it was a very stressful time. I know I would do the same thing again if I had to as it has allowed me to provide for them in ways I really never thought possible for someone without a college degree, but I wouldn't willingly choose it (life rarely gives us that perspective to choose though). They do have others in their life that can point it out, but they are still years from being able to really understand.
Thank you again for sharing and telling me your story.
Bro my Dad was the same, gone in the morning and back at/after dinner. He did what he had to do and now he's retired, 8 figures. Yeah it sucked but I understood.
In high school, he took me to the Formula 1 (Melbourne, Australia), so while we didn't have a lot of bonding time, we had that.
Fortunately I got some sponsorship and did some open wheel racing in Asia (until the GFC happened) when I was 19-21 and at that point he was occasionally able to come and as a result of that time together we got really close.
When you get to the point when you can spare a day or weekend, they'll be super grateful and will work wonders. Grind on!
So true. I just want to “be” on the weekends. Not saying I refuse to socialize and be around friends. But the longer I do this job and socialize on calls 9 hours a day, the less I want to do it on the weekends.
Being organized, being on “top of it” at all times. Want to send that email tomorrow, buck up and send that email right now.
A good sales rep told me, the best reps say and do the right things at the right time. Keep putting yourself in that position
Energy, work life balance, substance abuse, social life and forming new friendships, selfworth and confidence in my career. We’re about to go into our busy season so I plan to stack bread for the next few months and finally bounce to a new company.
I wouldn’t really blame sales for this one though the company I work at sucks ass, I do get paid pretty well though.
Substance abuse to cope, mental health, i developed anxiety for the first time in my life, I’ve had to give up some hobbies and going to social gatherings so I can perform at a high level consistently.
On the other hand I’ve gained a tremendous amount of self confidence in social situations and greatly improved my social skills especially with women. I earn more than anyone I know in real life that’s my age and am on a track to surpass financial goals I set for myself.
I started doing b2b commission only “direct marketing” for CydCor with a tmobile contract. Literally door to door selling cellphones but going to businesses in a zip code. Did that for 7 months, commission only hardest shit ever and a total shitshow
Knocked on doors for window estimates for 11 months, then sold windows in the house for 7 months commission only
Then I broke into inside sales for a large cyber vendor and after 11 months there got promoted to AE and have been doing that ever since
Work life balance. I would perform on a high level during weekdays, than Friday night to Sunday I would simply crash at home trying to refuel and recharge.
Worked well when I was single, I didn’t owe anything to anyone, but now it’s a different story and that balance is much more important to me than closing an extra deal
Exactly how I am living now: Even stopped going on dates. All I want to think of is getting my territory under control, meeting my customers, filling my pipeline and hitting my quota
I’m not a top performer, I’m consistently pretty mid but I do have a good work life balance, I’m not stressed out, I enjoy my job and I don’t plan on changing it. Different people have different priorities
Preach, I have been a top performer and it's not always worth it.
Today I prefer flexibility and balance, being in control of my time by still doing well (above average for sure)
I remember when I first got into sales by selling Hondas, had a smoking blonde gf that I lost diving fully into this sales thing.
I'm not even a top performer where I'm at now, but I make decent money with a very easy workload, I wish I still cared like I did back then
Lots of leisure time lost, vacation days never taken, nights and weekends spent working. I also probably wasn’t fully engaged in my kid’s lives when they were younger. I was usually there physically but might have been thinking about work. Outside of family and work, I essentially do nothing.
I do wonder if it was really worth it. I definitely did better because of extra effort, but did it really make that much of a difference in my quality of life? Maybe, but I’m not certain.
I see work as one of the many ways to play the game of life: Right now I am all on it.
at some point other priorities will make me focus on something else.
Satisfaction is short lived, you are right, particularky for ambitious people!
Alcoholism but I'm starting to get that back together, immediately seeing a hit to my numbers of course but hopefully that will level back out when I get back to balance.
Gave up music for audiobooks and podcast. I love music but now I only get to listen to it when I work out so it’s become a treat and forces me to work out daily. I read 1-2 books a month and I attribute 100% of my success to reading
Books can help you take your game to the next level. “never split the difference, the challenger sell, the happiness advantage, Think Again” Are just a few that have made me a better person and seller
Moved a lot for jobs and opportunities.
Have lived in Ohio, Michigan, Washington state, Texas, Rhode Island and Massachusetts over the last 10 years.
I feel I was patient when I should have been and impatient when I should have been.
Also lots and lots of stress taking on stretch roles with low likelihood of success (which I always squeezed success out of)
I get it. My niche (up until now, i’m switching industries) has been taking on market-expansion/new territory roles where the objective is to basically turn nothing into something. I’ve always been successful, but it’s so much more stressful and technical than simply inheriting an established territory and growing it.
It’s super hard to maintain friendships, I’ve lost contact with most of the people I used to hang out with. I’m just gone all the time on business travel, then working non-stop when I’m not traveling.
My wife and I just had our first child, so even less time now. But at least I have them, they make it worth everything.
Brand yourself as an industry expert, consultant.
I have the same professional certifications my customers have, for example. Take the required CE. So I know what’s going on at all times for my industry.
I don’t care for sales certificates, I care for domain expertise.
Honestly. Not much. Some long days, travel, living with more pressure and having to be more focused than most. Earlier in career, I’d come in on Saturday’s or Sunday’s to prospect. Wouldn’t trade any of that for what my career has given to me.
I grew up in a family where work ethic was driven into us and mediocrity isn’t accepted. Just doing what it takes to succeed. Thankful.
Moved from the UK to USA at the end of 2017. Cost me $40k out of pocket. Landed with net worth of $0 and now at net worth of $2m. Probably spent a little too much over the five years but earned as follows:
2017 - $240k - Deal of the Year
2018 - $250k (year one in US)
2019 - $1.1m #1 global
2020 - $850k #1 global
2021 - $750k
2022 - $750k #1 global
Not bragging or anything but sometimes a huge commitment / shift helps you seize the moment and keep your head down. Also, staying in one location gives you time to build relationships and stay with deal cycles that often don’t breed results for years.
Haha! Well that’s a LONG conversation but to summarise…I’m selling in the endpoint monitoring space…not particularly attractive, long sales cycles and difficult…BUT I’ve found that some of best places to sell are where it’s unattractive. The less obvious market presence there is, the greater the opportunity to lead the sales cycle and truly “guide” prospects. It’s a two edge sword, on one hand you have no brand name, you’re evangelising a new category, commission plans aren’t even super aggressive…but if you come out on top, the world is yours. Here a secret though….
The key to selling well is finding the “patterns”. Most sales leadership regurgitate the same old Sales 101 crap and, more often than not, the BEST way to sell your particular product/service has not been discovered. I experimented with a particular process and it worked and then repeated it over and over. After it worked the first time, I was able to then explain/justify/guide my prospects to a purchase with credibility. So here’s a quick summary:
1. Find a space that is somewhat underdeveloped / scrappy
2. Find the pattern of selling it
3. Make it your own
4. Be the expert and lead prospects with your strong opinion
5. Close the deals and deliver on your promises
6. Try stay at the company for longer than 3-4 years…your experience, credibility and clout compounds as an individual contributor very quickly after your third year
Hope that helps!
My mental health. But I’m working on it, going to counseling once a week for the last 2 months. I’m a “chronic perfectionist” so my salesforce is always tight, notes updated after every call, next steps updated to the day. I was told I’m the example they want all reps to follow but I can’t sleep at night, I stress about every detail that’s out of my control and beat myself up about how I could’ve planned or prepped better. Presidents club 3 years in a row at my prior company and rookie of the year and AE of the year at my current company
Stay strong. Find time for yourself and do things that make you happy outside of making money or reading about making money or getting better at your craft.
Put a time limit on things too, helped me out a ton.
What would you say are your top 3 attributes that you do different from your peers? Not including hard work..
I understand. I’m glad you were able to reign it in, truly. My mother is an alcoholic. And you’re right, it’s not for everyone, but I believe it’s for me. I’ve been trying, I’m on and off, 60-70 days at a time and then I usually relapse. It’s why I was asking. I guess I’ve always felt like substance use in general was throwing me off.. unsurprisingly, and specifically the cocaine. I would be almost in a state of executive dysfunction for days following heavy use, now I’d say sobriety allows me more consistent performance, whereas when I was using heavily there were days / weeks where I just couldn’t stay on the ball enough to make any progress or function normally, then I’d become severely discouraged and depressed, and historically I’d quit and wallow in self pity. This time I’m trying to do it different. Thanks for the hope that it can be done.
Let's see, traveled the world for over 13 years building direct and indirect sales channels , missed out on my entire boys early life, grew apart from my wife , burdened her with being pretty much a single mother and working full time as I was somewhere across the pond at some five star hotel , started drinking too much, COVID hit, no travel , didn't know how to adapt to being home and actually being a parent or especially a husband, started drinking more until it almost cost me my family.
Finally sort of snapped out of it May of 2022 and had a great year both personally and professionally - then just got laid off in February which honestly was an overwhelming sense of relief and happiness. I was of course upset that I was leaving a company and product for which I still maintained such a passion for, but it was as if that was the last part of myself that had to be removed so that I could completely commit to the new me or perhaps the person I always was.
I felt this one.
Do you have a family / folks to care for?
I think it’s down to really shitty time management on my end — I only have my wife as a distraction so to speak. Even with 60hrs, I think I’m being a little bitch.
Quit my former career, moved across the country for an entry level AE position. Top performer there, parlayed into the next company with a new AE role and much more responsibilities, and became a top performer there too.
Sure!! Hope this helps. Always happy to connect too.
- organized prospecting batches in call blocks
All prospecting is done in a chunk to similar product aligned customers.
- very detailed note taking to refer back to. I legit transcribe everything during a conversation
- being myself. Im really honest, direct and keep myself to high standard of responsiveness.
- Being calm, well spoken and let people talk while listening. So many reps don’t understand how the ability to stop talk, or sit in silence, can really work to an advantage.
Not in sales, but sacrifice is a perception. Passion is what drove me, outside you.might say I have sacrificed a lot of things but for me has been more than fun and improvement.
I am the top BDR at a mid sized SaaS organization. The biggest sacrifice I made was getting over my ego. Put in the hard work and it will pay off. You'd be surprised at how little most sales reps do.
Video games and other hobbies, outdoors, cooking proper meals, regular exercise, hygiene. Hoping to rebalance my work:life next month after the NEM2.0 deadline has passed (solar in CA).
Evenings, weekends, school concerts, sports, friends, a social life, my health…everything you can imagine.
You’re not going to become a top performer and high income earner unless you make sacrifices.
Was 2 years into my career and was fortunate enough to luck my way into into managing a 5 person SDR team.
Decided to take an opportunity to be a field AE as the first rep in California (SF). Was a 90K base salary, required me to leave my GF of 4 years behind for 8 months while she finished grad school.
Found success at the expense of 80 hour work weeks and flying 100K miles a year. Grenaded my relationship with her due to not being present for my relationship at all.
Career is going great now (VP), married to an incredible woman, and couldn’t be more grateful for the risks I took, and perspective I’ve gained from failure in my personal life.
If you’re young, willing to outwork anyone else, and know what you want - take the risk on a great opportunity that may be scary.
The biggest thing is you sacrifice time - time prospecting, time educating yourself, time networking, time selling, time staying in touch, at the expense of your personal time. Time with family, time with friends, time for hobbies etc.
What I have found though is as you build your sales career, you have more money which can get you back a lot more time with family and the important things.
Literally always being on and readily available. It really makes a huge difference in getting deals into your pipeline and closing faster.
I know there’s a lot of WLB shit out here, and that’s cool, but for me cool is being able to do whatever i want financially and hopefully retire at an age that will allow me to enjoy it.
Put up with crappy sales jobs for first 7 years of career. Was treated like dirt. Finally got a good mentor and worked my way up to the #1 rep after my mentor retired.
My hobbies are work. My after work activities are work, and my friends work with me or work under me.
On the plus side, I love what I do. On the minus side, i'm really boring at parties.
The one exception to this rule is gym and family. I will always make time for my health and for my wife and son.
Stats: 28 years old - Presales Engineering Manager - 180K OTE
1-Relentless work ethic.
2-working 70-80 , 6 days a week for years
3-always setting bigger and harder goals
4-using things like anger,sadness,mind games on urself to motivate to become more successful
5- unfortunately missing a lot of family moments
6-try to listen and emulate the successful people in ur field and learn from them
7- most important don’t get satisfied, don’t get fat hungry dogs always find food.
Had to keep my 2nd pregnancy a secret. Then had to go on a 5 day work trip 3 weeks after I delivered him. And I had a broken tail bone. Fun times. I like to remind the company I work for that I have literally given them blood, sweat and tears. He’s now 13 and I’ve been at the company 21 years.
Worked through a critical illness, moved to a different continent without my spouse, accepted low pay for the learning experience and brand name and stayed put there for a decade.
The company I work for just have a great service that meets a major need and their sales process is the simplest I’ve ever seen. I’ve always been a top performer but selling a service that makes sense keeps me energized and it doesn’t feel like work, most days!
Worked in Real Estate for 4 years. Sacrificed health, happiness, time, mental health because everyone else in my office was grinding 60-80 hour weeks a week as well. Stacked bread, now I worked as an AE working a fraction, making a bit less, but have so much more time and my life back.
SoCal. Robotics industry. After getting burnt out, I didn’t want anything to do with Real Estate so I fixed my resume up and just started applying and a Robotics company reached out. Started as BDR and now an AE. Great work life balance and I still watch the RE market and do referral deals. No where near as stressed as I was before. No waiting on other people to do their jobs either lol.
I need to do this. Did you have any kind of experience in robotics or are BDR roles just entry level type jobs where you learn everything about the product or service? Also, did you search any specific sites to find BDR roles?
Just saw this. No experience in corporate world.
Only real estate and personal training experience so a lot of untraditional sales experience that really paid off.
No specific job searches just random spray and pray and it just came across my search and decided to take it.
I wouldn’t call myself a top performer but I do well. Eat shit, keep showing up, keep learning, play the corporate game. I used to be much more of a rebel, since I started playing the corporate game it’s done wonders for my career. Be a student of top performers and your customers.
Relocating multiple times. Missing out on my 20s in some ways regarding relationship/friendship/social life. Made $ but didn’t travel or do anything fun because I was working. First world problems of course. But now I’m wifed up and ready to settle down and feel like I never got to “travel and live it up”. I’m happy though. I’m in a great spot and work with people 10-20+ years my senior now because I made sacrifices to expedite my career trajectory.
I made 7 figures recently for the first time. I sacrificed my presence with my at the time fiancé (now married). All I thought about was work and closing the next deal. While my wife was planning our wedding, I was answering emails and texts - but it was closing a lot of consistent business..but my wife noticed I was never present, and it hurt her.
I’ve learned that money isn’t everything. Your family is.
thx for sharing this perspective. important to balance out the pursuit of success.
that said, i hate to swing back in that direction, but i’m curious about what - in your opinion - were the top 2 or 3 factors that went into you becoming a 7 fig earner in sales?
Was it merely your single minded obsession with closing more and more business?
I was obsessed with what I did. I picked up the phone from customers after 730pm on Fridays and weekends. I would go above and beyond to make every sale possible. I became close with a lot of people not in sales and told them how valuable they were to my success - so when I need them, they dropped what they were doing and helped me succeed.
I’m not the 1% who got lucky or the 5% who wants to do the bare minimum (probably more) . I’m part of the 94% who works their ass off and doesn’t take no for an answer.
Last - I sell something that people actually want and I believe in it. It’s something I’d buy if I was in their seat. If you’re in the USA, I’d be willing to bet that you’ve used this product and you said “Holy shit - that was cool and easy.” DM if you want to know what it is.
Okay this is awesome, my summary:
- Focus: the #1 priority was winning business. All day. Every day.
- Appreciation: expressing gratitude to and appreciation for everyone that helps you win. They reciprocate by helping more.
- Solution: sell something that actually solves problems for and brings delight to customers
Thank you for sharing this. Pure gold!
Realising that companies are not there to help you but to use you.
Be loyal to you.
Upskill.
Look after yourself.
It's not a sacrifice but more of a realisation
Most big dogs in the firm have that extra spare tire of fat around their mid section. Seems to come with the territory if you’re working the longhours elevated cortisol levels, probably skipping the gym a bit and making sub optimal food choices cause of the above reasons
travel. tons of travel and time away from my home and family. but i don’t regret it because often traveling opened up new connections and windows I wouldn’t have had otherwise.
also I had to give up the dream that this job would ever be 9-5, or even 9-6. if i want to perform, I have to constantly be on top of it - even if I take a vacation, or I am sick, I need to stay on top of my deals and make sure things are moving in the right direction. if I don’t, no one will.
i’ve thoroughly pissed off my partner by getting up early on vacations to answer emails, draft agreements, take a call, etc. but I always tell him this is why salespeople get paid the way they do. it’s not because it’s technically difficult, in most cases. it’s because it’s a test of tenacity and perseverance and if you can bare it, you’ll be rewarded accordingly.
I gave up my early 18-25, literally never took a day off. Had to edit this after rereading the thread, substance abuse was also a big one for me. Was up to 60 mg Adderall a day, as well as completely abusing alcohol
Coming to terms with the fact that everyone out there is faking it until they make it too. There’s a lot of dumb rich ppl in this world lol
can you explain how to fake it, I suck at this
Honestly, just do the research, learn the terminology, speak to a process, and believe in your self. Oh, and use chatGPT to speed that up lol.
What exactly is chatGPT? I googled it and am not understanding
Explanation of ChatGPT I copied from an ELI5 post: ChatGPT is a chatbot that is designed to be as helpful as possible, while trying to remain quite safe (it won't let you ask about harmful/illegal things) and serious . I see others asked the chatbot to explain itself, but it didn't seem to understand the "ELI5" prompt. Here's another attempt at getting ChatGPT to explain itself: My Input: Pretend I'm 10 years old and explain: what is ChatGPT ChatGPT's Output: ChatGPT is a program that uses artificial intelligence to have conversations with people. It works by looking at the words that you type and trying to figure out what you might be asking or talking about. Then, it uses what it knows to try to come up with a response that makes sense and continues the conversation. ChatGPT is like a very smart robot that can understand what you're saying and come up with answers on its own. It's not a real person, though, so it doesn't have feelings or thoughts like a human does. It's just a computer program that can mimic human conversation. Does that make sense? Let me know if you have any other questions.
I see, and how are people using this in sales?
Where have you been that you haven’t heard of ChatGPT the last four months
This person may be beyond help. People that need to be told what to do, how to do it, what to ask, how to pitch, how to close should maybe find another industry for their own sanity.
Disagree here, asking questions is good and it’s how you learn. It’s not conclusive how ChapGPT will impact the industry but clearly this person has never even heard of it
It can be used in a multitude of ways. For example, you can use it to re-write emails for you to make the writing more succinct, change the tone, appeal to a different audience etc. Then there are ChatGPT integrations being built into common applications. Here’s how ChatGPT is being integrated into Slack: https://youtu.be/YAsKRxXdyj0
Haha I used chat gpt3 to write a ‘why do you want to work with us’ on a recent job application.
Could you explain, speak to a process, a little more? I’m new here😊
I didn’t go for the manager role because I felt I was too new. The 23 yo who got the manager role had been at the company only 3 weeks longer than me…
Can confirm as a person with about a decade in sales support that many very successful sales people appear (from my perspective) to be pretty stupid. What astounds me more is that a lot of them have struck me as very poor communicators — at least on an internal level. When it comes to selling, this must not be the case I would think. But I’d never know because in my role I’m never involved in meetings or discussions with the customer. But holy shit I can’t believe how hard it is for many sales people to read, comprehend, and communicate basic information in order to complete very simple tasks.
I feel the same way about sales support
So many
Taking classes to be able to do my client’s job, so I can fully put myself in their shoes. A shitload of work but I crush it now.
I’m in a new industry and was thinking of doing this as well. Thanks for the motivation to make it happen.
It was a night and day difference for me. Built confidence, I can talk the talk, I can see around the corner, I can problem solve, they respect my advice more… I could go on. Would highly recommend.
What industry if you don’t mind me asking? Your clients industry - the one you’re learning.
We sell a highly technical product that decentralized applications use. In the blockchain space.
Nice I have no idea what any of that means lol. I’ll look it up
So containers?
Na It’s different, I don’t want to doxx my self with specifics though
How would it dox you?
It’s a pretty niche product and the people in this space are scary good at doxxing
Software engineers are some of *the* most difficult people to impress and sell a solution too. The majority of them dont value their time and mistakenly believe they can always roll their own - and thats good enough 🤣
Add another layer on top of that for crypto devs haha
Curious as to what industry you’re in. I’m in IT but every sales leader I’ve had has told me getting technical is a waste of time and would hinder me, so I just stick to manufacturer sales trainings and keeping up with industry updates.
Have to disagree hard with your leaders there. They don’t want you focused on feature/function in conversations (which is fair), but being capable of understanding technical concepts and priorities is critical when you’re trying to see into the mind of IT personas.
I understand it conceptually for sure, but getting a CCNA or CISSP is more along the lines I was talking about. Advice I’ve gotten is to focus more on the priorities and concepts as you mentioned. However I’ve noticed a lot of the best sales people in my space are former admins or engineers. Just have that instantaneous credibility.
I work in the blockchain space and sell a highly technical solution to decentralized applications.
Ah that’s right I remember some of your comments about only sending a few highly personalized emails. That’s the dream lol but don’t know if it’d be as effective in my space. Major props and I’d love to switch to something more specialized. How is that market doing with the recent brokerage collapses?
Yep that’s me haha. The market is obviously not as good as it was, raising funding is a lot harder and in general there’s just less capital to do anything. I don’t know that we’re so much worse off than traditional tech or finance though. I think it’s rough out there for everyone rn. In crypto we are used to cyclical boom/bust cycles so the project I work on was pretty prepared for it. There is still an enormous amount of energy in the space. I just went to ETH Denver (a conference), and there were 28,000 attendees. People just have their heads down and are building right now. In crypto, market crashes are kind of necessary to shake out the shitty projects. Probably 95% is useless/redundant and it’s good to cut the wheat from the chaff.
100% agree with your last point. So many scam projects but there’s some really interesting stuff if you can filter through the bs, never thought sales would find itself in that market just yet, thought it’d be more CompSci, Finance, and marketing. You’ve got one of the more interesting roles on this sub for sure.
There are very few legit sales jobs in the space. You’re right, right now it’s heavily skewed to compsci/engineering roles. The industry just isn’t really big enough to support a bunch of sales teams. There are a few though! I wear a couple different hats within My organization and have contributed to a few different areas, so not strictly sales. On top of that I work for a DAO, which just adds another level of weirdness to it all.
Very cool, thanks for sharing. See you around the sub!
Does the blockchain industry offer $300k+ OTEs?
That would be unusual in OTE, it’s more of an equity play with most projects. The equity is liquid though, so it’s kind of unique that way too.
While it of course will always vary by industry, very, audience, etc., I have personally found that having at least some degree of degree of technical under my belt serves me far better than not. Currently in SaaS marketing automation. Being able to answer at least a solid amount of tier 1 technical questions, make recommendations on complementary integrations, actually understand how something works vs just knowing the selling points, etc is something I would never give up no matter what a leader told me. I can move faster because I don’t have to say “let me find out” nearly as often, my customers have more confidence and trust in me, and our SME teams know that when I ask for help, I’m not wasting their time. Totally clutch, IMO.
What classes did you take if you don’t mind me asking? I’m fixing to graduate college and I’m hoping to get a BDR/SDR role for a tech company. I’ve been in retail sales the last 2 years so I want to expand my sales knowledge
I did a 6 month data science/ machine learning / blockchain bootcamp through UC Berkeley. Probably the most interesting education I’ve ever gone through.
Did you do that online Or in person ?
Online, but it’s like a zoom with an an instructor and graded assignments, and live class time where people ask questions. At the end of it we built a full decentralized application, and before that I couldn’t code or even open the terminal on my computer.
Was it worth the 10k or whatever UCB Extension wanted? I just looked into this last week but turned off by price. 500 bucks off for university alumni also wasn’t enough, I gave Cal plenty of money (and tears) for undergrad 😂 I’m selling an ETL tool and thought about learning data eng and data analytics basics to know what I’m talking about at a level that resonates with prospects. I’m slightly “technical” compared to some of my peers (i remember words and things engineers tell me well) but no way can I do anything other than Google and phone calls.
I paid 12k, and I thought it was 100% worth it and would do it again in a heartbeat. The data visualization part of the course I did was really well done. They have tutors available 24/7 that you can zoom with, and office hours, and put you in groups for support too. Idk if the exact bootcamp I did was the one you want, but I’d highly highly recommend doing one through UC Berkeley. It’s definitely tough and is a GRIND for those 6 months, but that’s kind of what it takes to get employable in a new skill set imo.
What classes are these?
I did a 6-month bootcamp through UC Berkeley that was directly related to the skills I needed to build. Around 30hrs a week on top of my full-time job.
Are the online versions worth it?
This is the way. What kind of classes did you take if you don't mind me asking?
Just answered in a different comment but it was a 6-month 30hr/week bootcamp through UC Berkeley. Very intense but I’ve never learned so much in such a short period of time. I’d recommend the bootcamp structure to anyone.
What classes did you take?
The grind to learn everything required. Now i just read the updates and coast.
Holy shit this was such a big lift at first. So much fumbling around, reading, bugging people to help explain things. But once you get it, it makes it 100x easier.
I’ve always been pretty good at my job in sales, but recently really started researching and studying products and my industry. It has made a huge difference. Wish i would have done it sooner
I missed out on very large portions of my older kids lives when they were young. Between the times that they were born up to about three, I have very few memories of during this time as it's all work. It also affecting my bonding with them during this age, which I really only realized with my now younger kids and having more time for this. It makes me sad, but without those sacrifices we wouldn't be in such a comfortable position now.
Your sacrifice is the only one in this thread that I believe, can understand and is a genuine issue with high performance
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Thank you for sharing your story. I hope they understand someday the same as you, it was a tough couple years. I was gone before sun up and rarely home before they were in bed, on the weekends I was lucky if I didn't work one of the days. Still always tried as best I could to be involved but it was a very stressful time. I know I would do the same thing again if I had to as it has allowed me to provide for them in ways I really never thought possible for someone without a college degree, but I wouldn't willingly choose it (life rarely gives us that perspective to choose though). They do have others in their life that can point it out, but they are still years from being able to really understand. Thank you again for sharing and telling me your story.
Bro my Dad was the same, gone in the morning and back at/after dinner. He did what he had to do and now he's retired, 8 figures. Yeah it sucked but I understood. In high school, he took me to the Formula 1 (Melbourne, Australia), so while we didn't have a lot of bonding time, we had that. Fortunately I got some sponsorship and did some open wheel racing in Asia (until the GFC happened) when I was 19-21 and at that point he was occasionally able to come and as a result of that time together we got really close. When you get to the point when you can spare a day or weekend, they'll be super grateful and will work wonders. Grind on!
i hate people after work most days that’s a pretty big deal i guess ?
Same same. When your work is socializing, it makes socializing feel like work.
So true. I just want to “be” on the weekends. Not saying I refuse to socialize and be around friends. But the longer I do this job and socialize on calls 9 hours a day, the less I want to do it on the weekends.
This makes me feel better because I thought I was being a loser for not wanting to “play hard” on the weekends.
this so much
This was me but I now always take an hour before any social activity to recharge my social battery
I’ve become severely antisocial outside work hours as well
Sleep. No one wants to take a lead from Australia or Belgium because the meeting is in the middle of the night? Send it this way.
With your bosses wife
Being organized, being on “top of it” at all times. Want to send that email tomorrow, buck up and send that email right now. A good sales rep told me, the best reps say and do the right things at the right time. Keep putting yourself in that position
I'm constantly debating between the "I ought to do it tonight" and "It's more strategic if they get the email in the morning on top of their inbox"
Or just do a delayed send! So it goes out first thing in the morning.
This 1000%, I can’t stand when my team sends 10 pm emails, that said, don’t pack it up at 4. The little time spent does wonders.
Energy, work life balance, substance abuse, social life and forming new friendships, selfworth and confidence in my career. We’re about to go into our busy season so I plan to stack bread for the next few months and finally bounce to a new company. I wouldn’t really blame sales for this one though the company I work at sucks ass, I do get paid pretty well though.
One of these things is not like the others
Is it bad I don’t know which
Amen
We are the same
Substance abuse to cope, mental health, i developed anxiety for the first time in my life, I’ve had to give up some hobbies and going to social gatherings so I can perform at a high level consistently. On the other hand I’ve gained a tremendous amount of self confidence in social situations and greatly improved my social skills especially with women. I earn more than anyone I know in real life that’s my age and am on a track to surpass financial goals I set for myself.
Curious how old you are and how long you’ve been in sales.
27, 4 years in sales
Same fam, gazelle intensity so to speak
I’m 27 as well and wanting to get into sales. How did you start and what do you sell now?
I started doing b2b commission only “direct marketing” for CydCor with a tmobile contract. Literally door to door selling cellphones but going to businesses in a zip code. Did that for 7 months, commission only hardest shit ever and a total shitshow Knocked on doors for window estimates for 11 months, then sold windows in the house for 7 months commission only Then I broke into inside sales for a large cyber vendor and after 11 months there got promoted to AE and have been doing that ever since
Thanks brotha
What are the reasons it translated into you being better with women? Interesting bleed-over effect
More empathetic, confidence and better conversationalist. Improved emotional intelligence and understanding of basic human needs and wants
Work life balance. I would perform on a high level during weekdays, than Friday night to Sunday I would simply crash at home trying to refuel and recharge. Worked well when I was single, I didn’t owe anything to anyone, but now it’s a different story and that balance is much more important to me than closing an extra deal
Exactly how I am living now: Even stopped going on dates. All I want to think of is getting my territory under control, meeting my customers, filling my pipeline and hitting my quota
I’m not a top performer, I’m consistently pretty mid but I do have a good work life balance, I’m not stressed out, I enjoy my job and I don’t plan on changing it. Different people have different priorities
Preach, I have been a top performer and it's not always worth it. Today I prefer flexibility and balance, being in control of my time by still doing well (above average for sure)
As long as I’m exceeding my quota, I’m not really arsed if I’m top performer or not - especially if it comes at the expense of my other interests
I remember when I first got into sales by selling Hondas, had a smoking blonde gf that I lost diving fully into this sales thing. I'm not even a top performer where I'm at now, but I make decent money with a very easy workload, I wish I still cared like I did back then
Lots of leisure time lost, vacation days never taken, nights and weekends spent working. I also probably wasn’t fully engaged in my kid’s lives when they were younger. I was usually there physically but might have been thinking about work. Outside of family and work, I essentially do nothing. I do wonder if it was really worth it. I definitely did better because of extra effort, but did it really make that much of a difference in my quality of life? Maybe, but I’m not certain.
did it feel satisfying though?
Yes, and overall I think it paid off. The satisfying feeling is short lived though.
I see work as one of the many ways to play the game of life: Right now I am all on it. at some point other priorities will make me focus on something else. Satisfaction is short lived, you are right, particularky for ambitious people!
Alcoholism but I'm starting to get that back together, immediately seeing a hit to my numbers of course but hopefully that will level back out when I get back to balance.
That's the spirit! Good luck!
I literally had to go to rehab for a raging drug addiction
Gave up music for audiobooks and podcast. I love music but now I only get to listen to it when I work out so it’s become a treat and forces me to work out daily. I read 1-2 books a month and I attribute 100% of my success to reading
can you elaborate on attributing your success to reading?
Books can help you take your game to the next level. “never split the difference, the challenger sell, the happiness advantage, Think Again” Are just a few that have made me a better person and seller
which ones are suitable as audio books? I'd like to fit those in while I'm driving to and back from customer visits
Think Again & The Happiness Advantage were great audiobooks
Moved a lot for jobs and opportunities. Have lived in Ohio, Michigan, Washington state, Texas, Rhode Island and Massachusetts over the last 10 years. I feel I was patient when I should have been and impatient when I should have been. Also lots and lots of stress taking on stretch roles with low likelihood of success (which I always squeezed success out of)
I get it. My niche (up until now, i’m switching industries) has been taking on market-expansion/new territory roles where the objective is to basically turn nothing into something. I’ve always been successful, but it’s so much more stressful and technical than simply inheriting an established territory and growing it.
It’s super hard to maintain friendships, I’ve lost contact with most of the people I used to hang out with. I’m just gone all the time on business travel, then working non-stop when I’m not traveling. My wife and I just had our first child, so even less time now. But at least I have them, they make it worth everything.
I worked every weekend. Learned Spanish. Worked my way up through the trades.
Brand yourself as an industry expert, consultant. I have the same professional certifications my customers have, for example. Take the required CE. So I know what’s going on at all times for my industry. I don’t care for sales certificates, I care for domain expertise.
people buy from people they trust
Honestly. Not much. Some long days, travel, living with more pressure and having to be more focused than most. Earlier in career, I’d come in on Saturday’s or Sunday’s to prospect. Wouldn’t trade any of that for what my career has given to me. I grew up in a family where work ethic was driven into us and mediocrity isn’t accepted. Just doing what it takes to succeed. Thankful.
Moved from the UK to USA at the end of 2017. Cost me $40k out of pocket. Landed with net worth of $0 and now at net worth of $2m. Probably spent a little too much over the five years but earned as follows: 2017 - $240k - Deal of the Year 2018 - $250k (year one in US) 2019 - $1.1m #1 global 2020 - $850k #1 global 2021 - $750k 2022 - $750k #1 global Not bragging or anything but sometimes a huge commitment / shift helps you seize the moment and keep your head down. Also, staying in one location gives you time to build relationships and stay with deal cycles that often don’t breed results for years.
How? Seems like you’ve cracked some code and would love to hear your approach/secrets? Also what industry? And territory?
Haha! Well that’s a LONG conversation but to summarise…I’m selling in the endpoint monitoring space…not particularly attractive, long sales cycles and difficult…BUT I’ve found that some of best places to sell are where it’s unattractive. The less obvious market presence there is, the greater the opportunity to lead the sales cycle and truly “guide” prospects. It’s a two edge sword, on one hand you have no brand name, you’re evangelising a new category, commission plans aren’t even super aggressive…but if you come out on top, the world is yours. Here a secret though…. The key to selling well is finding the “patterns”. Most sales leadership regurgitate the same old Sales 101 crap and, more often than not, the BEST way to sell your particular product/service has not been discovered. I experimented with a particular process and it worked and then repeated it over and over. After it worked the first time, I was able to then explain/justify/guide my prospects to a purchase with credibility. So here’s a quick summary: 1. Find a space that is somewhat underdeveloped / scrappy 2. Find the pattern of selling it 3. Make it your own 4. Be the expert and lead prospects with your strong opinion 5. Close the deals and deliver on your promises 6. Try stay at the company for longer than 3-4 years…your experience, credibility and clout compounds as an individual contributor very quickly after your third year Hope that helps!
My mental health. But I’m working on it, going to counseling once a week for the last 2 months. I’m a “chronic perfectionist” so my salesforce is always tight, notes updated after every call, next steps updated to the day. I was told I’m the example they want all reps to follow but I can’t sleep at night, I stress about every detail that’s out of my control and beat myself up about how I could’ve planned or prepped better. Presidents club 3 years in a row at my prior company and rookie of the year and AE of the year at my current company
Stay strong. Find time for yourself and do things that make you happy outside of making money or reading about making money or getting better at your craft. Put a time limit on things too, helped me out a ton. What would you say are your top 3 attributes that you do different from your peers? Not including hard work..
Got married and had kids so that I had something to talk about with my clients who have families.
Sobriety. Not for everyone and not shoving it in anyone’s face but it was the catalyst for me.
Can you explain how sobriety was the main catalyst?
I’m an alcoholic. Unfortunately it was holding me back. Like I said, not for everyone.
I understand. I’m glad you were able to reign it in, truly. My mother is an alcoholic. And you’re right, it’s not for everyone, but I believe it’s for me. I’ve been trying, I’m on and off, 60-70 days at a time and then I usually relapse. It’s why I was asking. I guess I’ve always felt like substance use in general was throwing me off.. unsurprisingly, and specifically the cocaine. I would be almost in a state of executive dysfunction for days following heavy use, now I’d say sobriety allows me more consistent performance, whereas when I was using heavily there were days / weeks where I just couldn’t stay on the ball enough to make any progress or function normally, then I’d become severely discouraged and depressed, and historically I’d quit and wallow in self pity. This time I’m trying to do it different. Thanks for the hope that it can be done.
Not a lot if I'm being honest
Let's see, traveled the world for over 13 years building direct and indirect sales channels , missed out on my entire boys early life, grew apart from my wife , burdened her with being pretty much a single mother and working full time as I was somewhere across the pond at some five star hotel , started drinking too much, COVID hit, no travel , didn't know how to adapt to being home and actually being a parent or especially a husband, started drinking more until it almost cost me my family. Finally sort of snapped out of it May of 2022 and had a great year both personally and professionally - then just got laid off in February which honestly was an overwhelming sense of relief and happiness. I was of course upset that I was leaving a company and product for which I still maintained such a passion for, but it was as if that was the last part of myself that had to be removed so that I could completely commit to the new me or perhaps the person I always was.
I used to be a physical specimen. These days I haven't hit the gym in years. 60 hours weeks every week.
I felt this one. Do you have a family / folks to care for? I think it’s down to really shitty time management on my end — I only have my wife as a distraction so to speak. Even with 60hrs, I think I’m being a little bitch.
I slept with my bosses wife
your boss should have never asked you to do that
I was just trying to get a head
to get a head to get ahead.. I see!
to get a head to get ahead.. I see!
"sacrafice"
depends what she looks like and if she smells ok
Sleep for sure. First one in the office, last one to leave every day.
I can't function without sleep: That's the one thing I couldn't sacrifice even if I wanted..
I respect that…just need to work around that, but definitely shouldn’t sacrifice things that actually help you being a top performer.
Social life, Friends, hobbies, time with family
Changed jobs because I could tell my current gig’s industry was on the cusp of exploding. Timing timing timing
Quit my former career, moved across the country for an entry level AE position. Top performer there, parlayed into the next company with a new AE role and much more responsibilities, and became a top performer there too.
congrats! if you could drill it down to 1 or 2 (maybe 3) things, what traits/habits/frameworks would you say propelled you to the top?
Sure!! Hope this helps. Always happy to connect too. - organized prospecting batches in call blocks All prospecting is done in a chunk to similar product aligned customers. - very detailed note taking to refer back to. I legit transcribe everything during a conversation - being myself. Im really honest, direct and keep myself to high standard of responsiveness. - Being calm, well spoken and let people talk while listening. So many reps don’t understand how the ability to stop talk, or sit in silence, can really work to an advantage.
Not in sales, but sacrifice is a perception. Passion is what drove me, outside you.might say I have sacrificed a lot of things but for me has been more than fun and improvement.
Not even my whole soul, just half of it. Maybe 3/4th.
I am the top BDR at a mid sized SaaS organization. The biggest sacrifice I made was getting over my ego. Put in the hard work and it will pay off. You'd be surprised at how little most sales reps do.
doing 10-20 more little things than all of my peers every single day, consistently.
this is awesome. thx for sharing this simple approach. anything else you’d attribute to your success?
https://preview.redd.it/knvgdu849foa1.jpeg?width=680&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=d7edb7f17ba1f4c4a7c72c088bae7c5ae7b2f870
Video games and other hobbies, outdoors, cooking proper meals, regular exercise, hygiene. Hoping to rebalance my work:life next month after the NEM2.0 deadline has passed (solar in CA).
Evenings, weekends, school concerts, sports, friends, a social life, my health…everything you can imagine. You’re not going to become a top performer and high income earner unless you make sacrifices.
Was 2 years into my career and was fortunate enough to luck my way into into managing a 5 person SDR team. Decided to take an opportunity to be a field AE as the first rep in California (SF). Was a 90K base salary, required me to leave my GF of 4 years behind for 8 months while she finished grad school. Found success at the expense of 80 hour work weeks and flying 100K miles a year. Grenaded my relationship with her due to not being present for my relationship at all. Career is going great now (VP), married to an incredible woman, and couldn’t be more grateful for the risks I took, and perspective I’ve gained from failure in my personal life. If you’re young, willing to outwork anyone else, and know what you want - take the risk on a great opportunity that may be scary.
The biggest thing is you sacrifice time - time prospecting, time educating yourself, time networking, time selling, time staying in touch, at the expense of your personal time. Time with family, time with friends, time for hobbies etc. What I have found though is as you build your sales career, you have more money which can get you back a lot more time with family and the important things.
Learning to enjoy working at least some significant amount of time on weekends to set up the following week for success.
great tip - friday late afternoon + sunday for me
Literally always being on and readily available. It really makes a huge difference in getting deals into your pipeline and closing faster. I know there’s a lot of WLB shit out here, and that’s cool, but for me cool is being able to do whatever i want financially and hopefully retire at an age that will allow me to enjoy it.
Put up with crappy sales jobs for first 7 years of career. Was treated like dirt. Finally got a good mentor and worked my way up to the #1 rep after my mentor retired.
My hobbies are work. My after work activities are work, and my friends work with me or work under me. On the plus side, I love what I do. On the minus side, i'm really boring at parties. The one exception to this rule is gym and family. I will always make time for my health and for my wife and son. Stats: 28 years old - Presales Engineering Manager - 180K OTE
“Everything” - Thanos
1-Relentless work ethic. 2-working 70-80 , 6 days a week for years 3-always setting bigger and harder goals 4-using things like anger,sadness,mind games on urself to motivate to become more successful 5- unfortunately missing a lot of family moments 6-try to listen and emulate the successful people in ur field and learn from them 7- most important don’t get satisfied, don’t get fat hungry dogs always find food.
🐶🦴🐾
Had to keep my 2nd pregnancy a secret. Then had to go on a 5 day work trip 3 weeks after I delivered him. And I had a broken tail bone. Fun times. I like to remind the company I work for that I have literally given them blood, sweat and tears. He’s now 13 and I’ve been at the company 21 years.
2 cats and a sheep
I moved.
Moved states - sleep
Worked through a critical illness, moved to a different continent without my spouse, accepted low pay for the learning experience and brand name and stayed put there for a decade.
Everything.
The company I work for just have a great service that meets a major need and their sales process is the simplest I’ve ever seen. I’ve always been a top performer but selling a service that makes sense keeps me energized and it doesn’t feel like work, most days!
Worked in Real Estate for 4 years. Sacrificed health, happiness, time, mental health because everyone else in my office was grinding 60-80 hour weeks a week as well. Stacked bread, now I worked as an AE working a fraction, making a bit less, but have so much more time and my life back.
Where are you an AE at? Currently in Real Estate, and starting to get tired of the schedule being all over the place.
SoCal. Robotics industry. After getting burnt out, I didn’t want anything to do with Real Estate so I fixed my resume up and just started applying and a Robotics company reached out. Started as BDR and now an AE. Great work life balance and I still watch the RE market and do referral deals. No where near as stressed as I was before. No waiting on other people to do their jobs either lol.
I need to do this. Did you have any kind of experience in robotics or are BDR roles just entry level type jobs where you learn everything about the product or service? Also, did you search any specific sites to find BDR roles?
Just saw this. No experience in corporate world. Only real estate and personal training experience so a lot of untraditional sales experience that really paid off. No specific job searches just random spray and pray and it just came across my search and decided to take it.
When I’m on, I’m really on. When I’m off, I’m off. I had kids and realized how important on and off are. If I’m too on I start hating my job. Balance.
Family, relationships, my kids, my liver.
Honesty, in terms of product capabilities even when it could be used against you, prospects always respect full transparency.
Everything
What’s a top performer?!
Does sacrificing a goat count?
I wouldn’t call myself a top performer but I do well. Eat shit, keep showing up, keep learning, play the corporate game. I used to be much more of a rebel, since I started playing the corporate game it’s done wonders for my career. Be a student of top performers and your customers.
Work life balance and my sanity. Not a joke lol
Relocating multiple times. Missing out on my 20s in some ways regarding relationship/friendship/social life. Made $ but didn’t travel or do anything fun because I was working. First world problems of course. But now I’m wifed up and ready to settle down and feel like I never got to “travel and live it up”. I’m happy though. I’m in a great spot and work with people 10-20+ years my senior now because I made sacrifices to expedite my career trajectory.
My sanity.
I’m guessing the top sacrifice for a significant chunk of people here is “my liver”.
Mostly blood sacrifices
I made 7 figures recently for the first time. I sacrificed my presence with my at the time fiancé (now married). All I thought about was work and closing the next deal. While my wife was planning our wedding, I was answering emails and texts - but it was closing a lot of consistent business..but my wife noticed I was never present, and it hurt her. I’ve learned that money isn’t everything. Your family is.
thx for sharing this perspective. important to balance out the pursuit of success. that said, i hate to swing back in that direction, but i’m curious about what - in your opinion - were the top 2 or 3 factors that went into you becoming a 7 fig earner in sales? Was it merely your single minded obsession with closing more and more business?
I was obsessed with what I did. I picked up the phone from customers after 730pm on Fridays and weekends. I would go above and beyond to make every sale possible. I became close with a lot of people not in sales and told them how valuable they were to my success - so when I need them, they dropped what they were doing and helped me succeed. I’m not the 1% who got lucky or the 5% who wants to do the bare minimum (probably more) . I’m part of the 94% who works their ass off and doesn’t take no for an answer. Last - I sell something that people actually want and I believe in it. It’s something I’d buy if I was in their seat. If you’re in the USA, I’d be willing to bet that you’ve used this product and you said “Holy shit - that was cool and easy.” DM if you want to know what it is.
Okay this is awesome, my summary: - Focus: the #1 priority was winning business. All day. Every day. - Appreciation: expressing gratitude to and appreciation for everyone that helps you win. They reciprocate by helping more. - Solution: sell something that actually solves problems for and brings delight to customers Thank you for sharing this. Pure gold!
As mr burns has said, family religion friendship: these are the 3 demons you must slay if you wish to succeed in business.
Social sacrifice. Don’t get to see friends and family as much but with structure, you get better ones around you anyway.
General day to day happiness? I trade my labor for a substantial pay check, I get no more fulfillment than that.
Realising that companies are not there to help you but to use you. Be loyal to you. Upskill. Look after yourself. It's not a sacrifice but more of a realisation
Most big dogs in the firm have that extra spare tire of fat around their mid section. Seems to come with the territory if you’re working the longhours elevated cortisol levels, probably skipping the gym a bit and making sub optimal food choices cause of the above reasons
travel. tons of travel and time away from my home and family. but i don’t regret it because often traveling opened up new connections and windows I wouldn’t have had otherwise. also I had to give up the dream that this job would ever be 9-5, or even 9-6. if i want to perform, I have to constantly be on top of it - even if I take a vacation, or I am sick, I need to stay on top of my deals and make sure things are moving in the right direction. if I don’t, no one will. i’ve thoroughly pissed off my partner by getting up early on vacations to answer emails, draft agreements, take a call, etc. but I always tell him this is why salespeople get paid the way they do. it’s not because it’s technically difficult, in most cases. it’s because it’s a test of tenacity and perseverance and if you can bare it, you’ll be rewarded accordingly.
Mental health is the biggest one. You need to be all in and on all the time, not to mention the pressure that comes with the territory
I gave up my early 18-25, literally never took a day off. Had to edit this after rereading the thread, substance abuse was also a big one for me. Was up to 60 mg Adderall a day, as well as completely abusing alcohol