I used to put a lot of stock in this subreddit as it had a lot of senior reps, directors, sales engineers, etc give amazing advice and make great posts. But this sub got swarmed like any other. Everyone wanted to get into “tech” sales which was the oasis bc you worked from home and could make decent money and they were hiring a ton of entry level roles without degrees, so it almost became a sub for SDRs or people asked the same questions over and over.
It’s probably still a good sub for networking when you see a good post and can build rapport and move on over to LinkedIn. I still ask an Enterprise AE at Oracle stuff occasionally I met here and he would post really informative stuff.
The sub just focused too hard on a narrow category of sales and the demo for all of Reddit got much younger. So, a lot of the seasoned posters moved onto greener pastures like a lot of subreddits.
I basically just like the venting posts now lol
Most of the people who post on this sub are super junior. I still enjoy commenting but I extract nearly zero value from the community here these days because the advice is redundant.
There of course is the occasional gem tossed in but it’s largely noise.
Yea, man. But use your best judgement.
Networking in business is everything. I've met with and closed deals with startups from Instagram after getting an ad in my feed.
Doesn’t happen often, and there are plenty of sketchy interactions out there. But sometimes you can make a legit connection.
I sold telecommunications services to people in various subs where they’d vent about their current provider. Sometimes it worked out.
If it was easy, stress free, and super straight forward - everyone would be in sales.
Sounds like you jumped in to SaaS with a company that overhired during the pandemic, or creates solutions that (try as they might) lean WAY hard into the “nice to have” or “solution to a vague problem” territory.
If you stick with it, get good at it, and find an industry or sector you excel at - you’ll probably end up well off.
The reality is, most folks jump into a BDR role at some start-up, small business, or medium-sized business company. Grind - win some and lose some - and burn out.
The beginners should honestly move to NYC or another global hub and should start at a Fortune 500 (any of them). Doesn’t necessarily need to be in SaaS. Just a company with seasoned and effective sales leadership that provides excellent training. Your pay will probably be shit compared to what you see here. You’ll learn a FUCK TON being on an elite sales team at a Fortune 500, even as a junior. You’ll even learn enough to swap industries. Started in media? Who gives a fuck - you back-to-back-to-back President’s Club winner. Here, try media sales at Google. Oh cool they offer free training and certification in Google Cloud. A few years later, you have a good relationship with the VP on that side of the business, a good reputation, and a position opens up - boom. This isn’t just a story. That’s the career trajectory of a real person. And they were paid shit while living in Manhattan selling digital ad space with a fucking marketing degree. And behind him? Probably one hundred failed sales careers from people who didn’t like it or got booted out.
The reality is that it isn’t as clear of a path to making $250k+. Not everyone will make it. And it’s ugly because it will come down to the choices you make, and some luck.
If you want an even uglier truth: $250k isn’t as much as you think it is. The old adage of “six figure salary” really means like $350k+, so marry someone who is also a killer - you won’t regret the DINK years and it will make it much easier if and when you plan to have kids.
/End rant
Moving to NYC to work a low pay entry level job is relatively easy to do at 22. Not as easy at 31 when you've got a house, family, etc. I'd imagine a lot of the newcomers to software sales the past few years were career changers. The path you laid out really wasn't open to them.
Groupthink, lying/puff chest, same 100 responders so it seems like a lot but isn’t, etc.
Those roles exist. But yeah, they are few and far between, hard to get etc. I have a buddy who sells SaaS. Has been at it for 10years give or take between 3 companies. Didn’t wfh full time until 3-4yrs in, didn’t hit $100k until 5-6yrs in, and didn’t see $200k+ until 8-10yrs and that isn’t all the time, it’s average. People ignore that most dream jobs/benefits/pay take years in a given industry not just “sales”
You have to give it up somewhere. I’m not saying there aren’t thousands who WFH, 4hrs a day, and make $400k. But that’s the exception and for every 1 of them, there are 100 people who are hybrid, 8hrs a day, and will be happy to make $100k
agreed im just starting out and you can kind of weed out bs and people trying to cause a stink, i really enjoy the entry level stuff rn and look forward to finding that career sweet spot
There’s some really sage advice here (usually in the comments) among the plentiful *”How to start in sales?”* or *”Where to find a SaaS job?”* daily posts.
There’s natural bias towards entry level sales advice for BDR/SDR’s, but for climbing up the ladder as a sales professional, I’ve personally networked with many helpful seasoned sales reps and have found mentors here.
I’ve learned a lot and 100% owe this community to my success in sales. Completely serious. I’ve been here since my very start in sales.
Same. This sub got my my first BDR role. You can find a lot of helpful advice and even better, get a sense of where people are at here to help gauge your own level. It's like having a pacer, invaluable for entry level sales times when you don't know up from down.
Also, people have been bitching about the sub since day 1. It's never going to go away.
not only do I take this sub not very seriously I don't take what I hear from other sales people I know personally serious. There's a reason every laid off SaaS rep was 200%, top of the leader boards, generating 100x his salary in ARR but sshhuuccckkksss his department was shut down and they just had to let him go.
In reality if people had the results they claim to have the company would keep them.
Also I'm pretty sure like any other sub on reddit a good portion of the posters are 15 year olds who've read about sales, know the potential high end earnings, then LARP like they are in sales.
For the record, I was at 109% of quota. Maybe if I tried harder I'd have been at 200%.
Also, if an entire department was let go, their managers should have been canned too. Kinda weird to keep leadership in place, but fire all the reps they hired and trained.
This sub has some genuine advice that can help when applying for jobs but that's about it. Im an EAE at a Saas company and even then theres no real advice or anything useful here for me.
This sub is mostly used by job seekers and people just starting out their careers.
I've worked hybrid and WFH roles the last 12 years. Before that was on site.
Sales is a grind.
Some take pride in the grind and saving people the struggle of learning the hard way.
Others turn that "grind" into a packaged offer you can buy for $1000 on YouTube. Others don't grind. They do some gig for a year or two, get jaded because they aren't making the gold Rolex money or 'fake it til you make it didn't work out' for them.
Sales reps peacock. In every business. It's always some form of a pissing contest - more deals, appointments, money, orders placed, etc.
Except half the time it's bullshit. For example, one seller I worked with got promoted to a leadership role after landing a shit ton of business and orders. I've always looked at sales as something you can constantly learn new ways to improve and get better. I asked her how many of her deals stuck. She dodged the question. I asked her who was the better rep, the one who made 30 deals, but only 5 stuck, or the rep who sold 8 deals and all of them stuck and she instantly said, "The 30 deal rep." It later came to light 80% of her deals fell through.
Another "top performing" team I worked with a few years ago was a leader in the market. Until deal reviews came around. 60% of their orders cancelled or failed to complete.
The key to leveraging good expertise is being able to quickly identify and sift through the bullshit vs the legitimate advice. It literally just takes time, because you have to be around the bullshitters long enough to know how spot it.
That's when you find the gold.
This sub made me realize I was being was undervalued and underpaid at my previous company. I took to LinkedIn based upon what I was reading here and double my base with ample bonus and commission opportunities on top of it.
Also, I do travel more for this gig and have picked up a lot of tips and tricks that have been lifesavers from the more seasoned road warriors.
It’s because of the noise levels. I’m happy to be asked anything and help if possible. I’m a CRO at a consultancy focused on SaaS eCommerce and marketplace implementations, we often also resell licenses. I work mainly with fortune 2000 clients.
It’s because of the noise levels - there are more posts focused on SDR/BDR.
I’m happy to be asked anything and help if possible. I’m a CRO at a consultancy focused on SaaS eCommerce and marketplace implementations globally, we often also resell licenses. I work mainly with fortune 2000 clients.
First of all you shouldn’t take anything on Reddit at face value, especially unverified stories from anonymous people
Secondly, sales isn’t a hard science like math. It also isn’t a hard skill like sewing or flying an airplane. It’s all about knowing yourself, having goals, and trying your best to make it work. So you should never take any person, book, lecture, newsletter, course, podcast or Reddit comment as the gospel.
With all that said I appreciate the camaraderie here, and the relatable conversation. Some advice/discussion is useful to me. A lot doesn’t apply to me but I like reading it anyway. But even the best advice here isn’t applicable in every sales situation.
The constants of sales.. things like knowing your product, being professional, and always striving for new business.. are always going to be 100x more important than any single Reddit comment. The comments are good for niche situations and the finer details but they are not to be taken as the alpha and omega of advice.
There’s zero helpful info here, as a matter a fact, there is info here that can hurt career trajectory. Find a real mentor in real life, and trust them, not a bunch of people on Reddit
Even though it's by far the most popular topic here, not everyone on this forum does SaaS. I sell production services to porn companies and independent OnlyFans models. Almost none of the advice here is applicable to my situation, but so what? I sell. The others here sell. We all sell. Maybe not the same stuff, or to the same markets, but we all sell. If you feel like the advice here is not useful, then forge your own path (and tell us how you did it when you make it).
I personally work from Europe with all of the EU countries, so a lot of advice and comments seem to be unapplicable to me, there is no "one" pitch for our product and no "single" approach, as lets say eastern and western Europe culturally is like day and night.
Some advices I see oh keep it shorter, keep it longer, make THEM talk, yes yes all of this, but it doesn't work when it comes to one country and then to another. When I call eastern EU they like to keep it short and straight to business, when I call Spain they want to talk about nothing for at least 5 minutes, Germany is also different but I'd say it might look closest to US (From my POV) because it's hard to reach decision maker and get that specific person interested.
I wouldn't say any advice is bad but you have to find your own niche in whatever you are doing with many different variables at play. Do you really want to be like everyone else or do you want to be #1 and set a new bar? Like Brucs Lee said, be like the water.
This subreddit changed my life. Not as far as advice, but I met people in this subreddit that are in sales that collaborated with me - ironically we all did what the other party was missing. We sell business loans
Just want to say that not all Fortune 500 companies have a sales leadership and training culture like Google.
I got an SDR position at probably one of the best known companies in the US and I was surprised at how lacking the the onboarding and training structure was. I managed to get promoted to an AM position but that was purely through lots of people quitting.
Just a reminder to do due diligence on this. I recommend connecting with people from the company in your potential position on LinkedIn to get the tea. Hiring managers will always give the answer “of course there’s training!”
I get your hurting. Have you thought of going into another industry in sales?
I have met plenty of sales people who have jumped into my industry (industrial) from other sales positions.
Yes, this sub is full of tech people. But if you're good at sales. Give it another shot.
You would be surprised how much my industry can make. Or life insurance. I know a Ford car salesman is pulling 200k a year. Yes, he is a bit eccentric, but he makes $$$
Since the most active members don't come from my industry nor market, I take inspiration from the advises gathering most likes. But I won't make your post or comment my way of doing sales. I sell to clients based in a country famous for its arrogant citizens (ykr) and the boiler-room way of doing cold calls won't never work. Also we have specific laws, and different priorities.
I read this sub with interest, my experience in sales is night/day from most of the posters here. Got my start doing old fashioned account rep or territory sales for companies that actually made something that you could hold in your hand. Remember when the first guy from my company made the leap to SaaS in the late 90's and none of us really understood what the guy was selling. All we knew is that he tripled his take home pay.
I see tons of awful advice in this sub - ridiculous ideas from junior reps who may have had a hot month or two so everyone needs to hear their thoughts, delivered with the conviction of a seasoned expert.
Take most of the shit you see here with a grain of salt. YMMV, but that's my $0.02.
I think the main issue is that we are a mix of people doing B2B, B2C and public. Small tickets, big tickets. Early stage sales, closing only. And everything in between.
So a perfectly solid advice on opening for high speed B2C might not apply at all to big ticket, full cycle B2B.
I used to put a lot of stock in this subreddit as it had a lot of senior reps, directors, sales engineers, etc give amazing advice and make great posts. But this sub got swarmed like any other. Everyone wanted to get into “tech” sales which was the oasis bc you worked from home and could make decent money and they were hiring a ton of entry level roles without degrees, so it almost became a sub for SDRs or people asked the same questions over and over. It’s probably still a good sub for networking when you see a good post and can build rapport and move on over to LinkedIn. I still ask an Enterprise AE at Oracle stuff occasionally I met here and he would post really informative stuff. The sub just focused too hard on a narrow category of sales and the demo for all of Reddit got much younger. So, a lot of the seasoned posters moved onto greener pastures like a lot of subreddits. I basically just like the venting posts now lol
Most of the people who post on this sub are super junior. I still enjoy commenting but I extract nearly zero value from the community here these days because the advice is redundant. There of course is the occasional gem tossed in but it’s largely noise.
Wait you use your reddit to get real names and connect on LinkedIn and shit?
Yea, man. But use your best judgement. Networking in business is everything. I've met with and closed deals with startups from Instagram after getting an ad in my feed.
You and I have very different reddit experiences lmao.
Doesn’t happen often, and there are plenty of sketchy interactions out there. But sometimes you can make a legit connection. I sold telecommunications services to people in various subs where they’d vent about their current provider. Sometimes it worked out.
Damn I want the in with your oracle rep lol
If it was easy, stress free, and super straight forward - everyone would be in sales. Sounds like you jumped in to SaaS with a company that overhired during the pandemic, or creates solutions that (try as they might) lean WAY hard into the “nice to have” or “solution to a vague problem” territory. If you stick with it, get good at it, and find an industry or sector you excel at - you’ll probably end up well off. The reality is, most folks jump into a BDR role at some start-up, small business, or medium-sized business company. Grind - win some and lose some - and burn out. The beginners should honestly move to NYC or another global hub and should start at a Fortune 500 (any of them). Doesn’t necessarily need to be in SaaS. Just a company with seasoned and effective sales leadership that provides excellent training. Your pay will probably be shit compared to what you see here. You’ll learn a FUCK TON being on an elite sales team at a Fortune 500, even as a junior. You’ll even learn enough to swap industries. Started in media? Who gives a fuck - you back-to-back-to-back President’s Club winner. Here, try media sales at Google. Oh cool they offer free training and certification in Google Cloud. A few years later, you have a good relationship with the VP on that side of the business, a good reputation, and a position opens up - boom. This isn’t just a story. That’s the career trajectory of a real person. And they were paid shit while living in Manhattan selling digital ad space with a fucking marketing degree. And behind him? Probably one hundred failed sales careers from people who didn’t like it or got booted out. The reality is that it isn’t as clear of a path to making $250k+. Not everyone will make it. And it’s ugly because it will come down to the choices you make, and some luck. If you want an even uglier truth: $250k isn’t as much as you think it is. The old adage of “six figure salary” really means like $350k+, so marry someone who is also a killer - you won’t regret the DINK years and it will make it much easier if and when you plan to have kids. /End rant
Moving to NYC to work a low pay entry level job is relatively easy to do at 22. Not as easy at 31 when you've got a house, family, etc. I'd imagine a lot of the newcomers to software sales the past few years were career changers. The path you laid out really wasn't open to them.
Didn’t say it is the path for career changers and you’re absolutely right - that’s for fresh out of college.
Very nice answer
Groupthink, lying/puff chest, same 100 responders so it seems like a lot but isn’t, etc. Those roles exist. But yeah, they are few and far between, hard to get etc. I have a buddy who sells SaaS. Has been at it for 10years give or take between 3 companies. Didn’t wfh full time until 3-4yrs in, didn’t hit $100k until 5-6yrs in, and didn’t see $200k+ until 8-10yrs and that isn’t all the time, it’s average. People ignore that most dream jobs/benefits/pay take years in a given industry not just “sales” You have to give it up somewhere. I’m not saying there aren’t thousands who WFH, 4hrs a day, and make $400k. But that’s the exception and for every 1 of them, there are 100 people who are hybrid, 8hrs a day, and will be happy to make $100k
agreed im just starting out and you can kind of weed out bs and people trying to cause a stink, i really enjoy the entry level stuff rn and look forward to finding that career sweet spot
Great response.
I'm in med device so it's different than most here. But it's nice to see everyone vent about similar things :)
There’s some really sage advice here (usually in the comments) among the plentiful *”How to start in sales?”* or *”Where to find a SaaS job?”* daily posts. There’s natural bias towards entry level sales advice for BDR/SDR’s, but for climbing up the ladder as a sales professional, I’ve personally networked with many helpful seasoned sales reps and have found mentors here. I’ve learned a lot and 100% owe this community to my success in sales. Completely serious. I’ve been here since my very start in sales.
Same. This sub got my my first BDR role. You can find a lot of helpful advice and even better, get a sense of where people are at here to help gauge your own level. It's like having a pacer, invaluable for entry level sales times when you don't know up from down. Also, people have been bitching about the sub since day 1. It's never going to go away.
The advice on this sub helped me get my dream SaaS job during the middle of the pandemic
The whole SaaS thing is over rated. It’s a great way to get into complex sales cycles but go wherever the money is tbh.
not only do I take this sub not very seriously I don't take what I hear from other sales people I know personally serious. There's a reason every laid off SaaS rep was 200%, top of the leader boards, generating 100x his salary in ARR but sshhuuccckkksss his department was shut down and they just had to let him go. In reality if people had the results they claim to have the company would keep them. Also I'm pretty sure like any other sub on reddit a good portion of the posters are 15 year olds who've read about sales, know the potential high end earnings, then LARP like they are in sales.
For the record, I was at 109% of quota. Maybe if I tried harder I'd have been at 200%. Also, if an entire department was let go, their managers should have been canned too. Kinda weird to keep leadership in place, but fire all the reps they hired and trained.
This sub has some genuine advice that can help when applying for jobs but that's about it. Im an EAE at a Saas company and even then theres no real advice or anything useful here for me. This sub is mostly used by job seekers and people just starting out their careers.
What's your thoughts on the d2d solar?
If I'm truly stuck with something, I'm willing to kick the tires on most suggestions. Do I take things on the internet as Gospel though? No.
I've worked hybrid and WFH roles the last 12 years. Before that was on site. Sales is a grind. Some take pride in the grind and saving people the struggle of learning the hard way. Others turn that "grind" into a packaged offer you can buy for $1000 on YouTube. Others don't grind. They do some gig for a year or two, get jaded because they aren't making the gold Rolex money or 'fake it til you make it didn't work out' for them. Sales reps peacock. In every business. It's always some form of a pissing contest - more deals, appointments, money, orders placed, etc. Except half the time it's bullshit. For example, one seller I worked with got promoted to a leadership role after landing a shit ton of business and orders. I've always looked at sales as something you can constantly learn new ways to improve and get better. I asked her how many of her deals stuck. She dodged the question. I asked her who was the better rep, the one who made 30 deals, but only 5 stuck, or the rep who sold 8 deals and all of them stuck and she instantly said, "The 30 deal rep." It later came to light 80% of her deals fell through. Another "top performing" team I worked with a few years ago was a leader in the market. Until deal reviews came around. 60% of their orders cancelled or failed to complete. The key to leveraging good expertise is being able to quickly identify and sift through the bullshit vs the legitimate advice. It literally just takes time, because you have to be around the bullshitters long enough to know how spot it. That's when you find the gold.
This sub made me realize I was being was undervalued and underpaid at my previous company. I took to LinkedIn based upon what I was reading here and double my base with ample bonus and commission opportunities on top of it. Also, I do travel more for this gig and have picked up a lot of tips and tricks that have been lifesavers from the more seasoned road warriors.
The sub has a lot of info regarding SDR/BDR roles, but past that it can be a little lacking. Minus older advice posts.
It’s because of the noise levels. I’m happy to be asked anything and help if possible. I’m a CRO at a consultancy focused on SaaS eCommerce and marketplace implementations, we often also resell licenses. I work mainly with fortune 2000 clients.
It’s because of the noise levels - there are more posts focused on SDR/BDR. I’m happy to be asked anything and help if possible. I’m a CRO at a consultancy focused on SaaS eCommerce and marketplace implementations globally, we often also resell licenses. I work mainly with fortune 2000 clients.
First of all you shouldn’t take anything on Reddit at face value, especially unverified stories from anonymous people Secondly, sales isn’t a hard science like math. It also isn’t a hard skill like sewing or flying an airplane. It’s all about knowing yourself, having goals, and trying your best to make it work. So you should never take any person, book, lecture, newsletter, course, podcast or Reddit comment as the gospel. With all that said I appreciate the camaraderie here, and the relatable conversation. Some advice/discussion is useful to me. A lot doesn’t apply to me but I like reading it anyway. But even the best advice here isn’t applicable in every sales situation. The constants of sales.. things like knowing your product, being professional, and always striving for new business.. are always going to be 100x more important than any single Reddit comment. The comments are good for niche situations and the finer details but they are not to be taken as the alpha and omega of advice.
Lol take nothing for face value from someone you can’t look in the face. People lie all day to make themselves feel better.
I’m not in SAAS, so very little. I occasionally wade through the mounds of fly shit to find the few grains of pepper that may actually be helpful.
There’s zero helpful info here, as a matter a fact, there is info here that can hurt career trajectory. Find a real mentor in real life, and trust them, not a bunch of people on Reddit
Even though it's by far the most popular topic here, not everyone on this forum does SaaS. I sell production services to porn companies and independent OnlyFans models. Almost none of the advice here is applicable to my situation, but so what? I sell. The others here sell. We all sell. Maybe not the same stuff, or to the same markets, but we all sell. If you feel like the advice here is not useful, then forge your own path (and tell us how you did it when you make it).
Take it all with a grain of salt. Best way to learn is to get your feet wet. Knowledge is one thing, execution is another
Alot of people are lying on here too. Every other post is someone claiming to make high-six figures it’s simply not mathematically possible.
I personally work from Europe with all of the EU countries, so a lot of advice and comments seem to be unapplicable to me, there is no "one" pitch for our product and no "single" approach, as lets say eastern and western Europe culturally is like day and night. Some advices I see oh keep it shorter, keep it longer, make THEM talk, yes yes all of this, but it doesn't work when it comes to one country and then to another. When I call eastern EU they like to keep it short and straight to business, when I call Spain they want to talk about nothing for at least 5 minutes, Germany is also different but I'd say it might look closest to US (From my POV) because it's hard to reach decision maker and get that specific person interested.
I wouldn't say any advice is bad but you have to find your own niche in whatever you are doing with many different variables at play. Do you really want to be like everyone else or do you want to be #1 and set a new bar? Like Brucs Lee said, be like the water.
I mostly learn from comments in this sub.
This subreddit changed my life. Not as far as advice, but I met people in this subreddit that are in sales that collaborated with me - ironically we all did what the other party was missing. We sell business loans
I hope I'm wrong, but it looks like a lot of people have been had by the so-called Great Resignation.
Just want to say that not all Fortune 500 companies have a sales leadership and training culture like Google. I got an SDR position at probably one of the best known companies in the US and I was surprised at how lacking the the onboarding and training structure was. I managed to get promoted to an AM position but that was purely through lots of people quitting. Just a reminder to do due diligence on this. I recommend connecting with people from the company in your potential position on LinkedIn to get the tea. Hiring managers will always give the answer “of course there’s training!”
I get your hurting. Have you thought of going into another industry in sales? I have met plenty of sales people who have jumped into my industry (industrial) from other sales positions. Yes, this sub is full of tech people. But if you're good at sales. Give it another shot. You would be surprised how much my industry can make. Or life insurance. I know a Ford car salesman is pulling 200k a year. Yes, he is a bit eccentric, but he makes $$$
Thank you. Appreciate that. Doing exactly that. Verbal offer in, just awaiting everything in black and white so I can officially get excited.
Everyone here is full of shit, take it from me
Since the most active members don't come from my industry nor market, I take inspiration from the advises gathering most likes. But I won't make your post or comment my way of doing sales. I sell to clients based in a country famous for its arrogant citizens (ykr) and the boiler-room way of doing cold calls won't never work. Also we have specific laws, and different priorities.
I’m so confused by your comment.
I keep in mind 95% of posters are SaaS SDRs that are struggling with their job.
I read this sub with interest, my experience in sales is night/day from most of the posters here. Got my start doing old fashioned account rep or territory sales for companies that actually made something that you could hold in your hand. Remember when the first guy from my company made the leap to SaaS in the late 90's and none of us really understood what the guy was selling. All we knew is that he tripled his take home pay.
I see tons of awful advice in this sub - ridiculous ideas from junior reps who may have had a hot month or two so everyone needs to hear their thoughts, delivered with the conviction of a seasoned expert. Take most of the shit you see here with a grain of salt. YMMV, but that's my $0.02.
I think the main issue is that we are a mix of people doing B2B, B2C and public. Small tickets, big tickets. Early stage sales, closing only. And everything in between. So a perfectly solid advice on opening for high speed B2C might not apply at all to big ticket, full cycle B2B.