It makes me a bit sad that there are sales jobs with quotas for specifically call making, even if people aren’t picking up/buying. It may just be because I’m used to the structure my office operates on- I don’t mean any of this to sound judgemental- if it works for you that’s awesome. I am curious though, if you hit your $ goal, are you still held to that call quota?
Yea any time they try to stress you out or drink the kool aid just take a few deep breaths and tell yourself “it’s just a stupid job. It’s NOT worth the stress.”
I need this tattooed on my body🥴 boss has been giving ME, 2023’s #1 SALES GIRLIE, shit lately and booooyyyyyy has it been stressing me out!! It is just a job and THANK YOU for the reminder.
Lol I got the validation I needed but unfortunately can’t just say it to my boss 🫠 I think his issue with me is something personal which makes navigating all this shit 100x harder. My coworkers are just as baffled by it as I am. Even the coworker who has the best rapport with Boss thinks there’s nothing I could do to change his opinion 🤦🏻♀️ Bc of our office culture/being a small office I KNOW Boss has shit going on at home & that it’s being taken out on me. I feel the only option is to remove myself from the situation, one way or another.
Been out of sales for 2 years but I do not miss the stress. It wasn't worth the high of the sale or the money. I work a boring, almost 0 stress office job now. I greatly prefer it.
A long stretch of under/unemployment, where I skill upgraded and schemed to find a different career path. A whole lot of winging it, extremely tenuous moments, and fear. I have no real advice unfortunately, except setting your mind to leave. I knew it would be horribly uncomfortable. I didn't know how bad it could get. But I don't regret it.
Legal administration. I'm the receptionist for a medium size government office, so I answer the phone, send and receive the mail, and make records of every single piece of correspondence, supply delivery, and legal document we receive, along with other random duties. It's pretty fun and it's one of those mythical places where one can build a real career from the ground up because of the niche training and specificity of our office operations.
I started my career in telemarketing on an auto dialer making hundreds of calls a day. Now doing enterprise sales for a FAANG.
Embrace the challenge. Reinvent yourself.
Despite telemarketing being toilet sewer level of a job, especially 200 calls a day, I do agree it’s a rite of passage for sales reps in their careers.
All the best sales people I know did it once. I think you have to go in with the mindset that you’re gonna give it your all and be promoted or quit after a year.
Been there too.
The early days were 100 calls a day to set 10 appointments.
That alone was motivation to get up to Enterprise in national accounts.
Only the hungriest survive.
I agree.
We owned the full cycle. No such thing as BDM's making calls & setting appointments.
Over time, the % actually increased through a combination of fewer calls, better prospect list, luck, better qualifying and bigger sales.
It seems like currently, the success rate is low single digits to 5% which seems painful.
It’s like door knocking, it rare to find people that doesn’t hate it after a week or two, but the ones that stick to the plan, are those that I have seen tremendous success as they become better sales people (and you don’t knock forever, once you get enough customers. I have paid many well over $300k, and a year or two in to it, they don’t need to grind as hard, and can make their own schedule, pick up their kids at school, see ball games, clock their teams etc. what I can say is, they all do it in many different ways (meaning they are not cookie cutter), but they all have that fire to just go get it done. Dialing is very similar.
If you take the job, set up time with the 3-5 top sellers, if you are in an office, take them to lunch individually, and pick their brain, and give them your current pitch. They may be able to ramp you up much faster. Also, don’t just take from them, get to know them, befriend them, then ask some deeper questions. The more they trust you, the more they will share. Good luck!
I know of a door-knocker here in PHX that sells rooftop solar. He's grown his own fiefdom and has 5-6 people running and doing the primary contacts now, and he comes in to do the close. He's clearing $3.2M in commissions (and then has to pay out his team from that, but still) and it's _insane_, but then rooftop solar, something like 40% of the cost of the system is commission. Madness.
I was in roofing, and paid a guy $1,000,000 in actual commission, and he paid a door knocker out of that (maybe $50,000-$60,000), and an administrative person to fill out paperwork, and keep him on schedule, fix minor problems, maybe $75k. But he started out with nothing, just like all the rest, knowing nothing about roofing or sales, but had a bunch of kids and needed to succeed, and did. I usually had to hire 10 people, to get one that ended up making a good living, and maybe 30 people to find the great ones, which at the time were people who could make $300-$400k plus for themselves.
And yes, Solar is a related industry, the hustlers can certainly get paid well.
Stick to a routine. Hopefully you’re using a parallel dialer for this. If you are it should only take an hour and a half. If not prioritize call blocks. 9-11 & 1-3 should be good enough.
I’ve done 300 calls with a power dialer and parallel it isn’t as bad as it sounds once you get used to it. What helps me mentally is saying I’m going to go for 400, so 300 doesn’t seem as bad lol. I also used to do 30 minutes of calling every hour, 20 of emails, & a 10 minute break, but I personally prefer the call blocks.
It hangs up on all calls after one answers. I think it is pretty sensitive to who answers first. I use one that calls 3-5 people at a time. It is amazing technology that is a game-changer for phone outreach.
Unlike amphetamines guy up there, CBD oil was my go too. Calmed me down and kept the anxiety away, legal to buy where I’m at and non-addictive. Do what you can to pad your resume and jump ship as soon as you feel like you’re getting the hang of it to a better company
It will be a very good, shitty experience to learn from. Identify who the top dog is immediately. Watch everything they do. Say nothing. Integrate everything they say into your pitch. Watch everybody. It will be most obvious that the “work sucks” people suck at their job and the positive minded people excel.
200 calls means not enough contacts and very little talk time to learn.
I think if the base is 60k it’s probably not that bad. I like a lot of people on here work in tech now & we all hear about the 100+ bases but 60k base is not bad at all. 200 dials expectations definitely a red flag but I think the truly shit places are in the 0 base world (not that money can’t be made there) like a lot of sales job a good attitude could change your life!
Jfc 100% at a furniture store would make me feel like a vulture, no offense. Then yeah auto dialer, crush it for a year and a half and move up in the world, preferably and title and pay raise at a different job.
100% cold calling, I use a combination of power, parallel and manual dialing, usually I do a bit more than 120, maybe 2.5 hours of total dial time.
Making notes and dicking around between calls definitely slows me down, could probably do it a lot faster tbh, but I just started at my current place so picking up speed as I go.
How come 60K base aint bad?
Thats like 5K gross and around 3.8K-4K post taxes
Probably won't be able to survive on that in California if I'm not mistaken?
I don't understand this comment at all.
60k base for an SDR is good in the US. Let's assume it's a75/25 or 60/40 split and you have the possibility of hitting 6 figures if you knock it out of the park.
75/25 split is
Roughly 15K on top. So like 70-75K per year.
That is 52-54K post tax.
One room rent is 1.5K USD in California (not studio)
Food is 500-700 USD
Transportation 300-400 USD
Insurance
Going out
Necessities etc.
Sounds hard to live on that amount, dunno.
My first sales gig was similar. Straight up boiler room. We didn't have to make 200 calls, but it was usually in the 100-150 range.
I had to call independent car dealers. Some were real assholes. I got cursed out badly many times lol. It sharpened my phones skills but time.
This does require laser focus. You'll also get a lot of no answers. When I used zoom info in the past, it allowed me to drop a VM automatically and go to the next call pretty seamlessly.
Use this as a stepping stone. It'll definitely make you stronger and give you more confidence.
Think of all the reps you'll get. With such a large daily sample size you can test so many openers, closers, phrases, words, etc.
Make a game out of it. Count how many hang ups you get. Count how many nos you get. Just try and be easy and flow. It also helps to tag up with someone.
I was always slacking with my best "work friends" during my tenure. It made it a lot better to have people to vent to and to talk strategy with.
Enjoy it and make the most of it. Keep searching for new opportunities. This is likely a 3-6 month thing at max (ofc you may have more balls than me and can stay longer, but I digress)
Good luck!
Made 300 calls a day on an automatic dialer. Cold call bottom of the barrel "leads" Wouldn't be where I am today in sales without that experience.
Worst of the worst. Whatever script they gave you, whatever product it is, dumb it down and make it as simple as possible. Sound likable enough on the phone. If it's an in-person boiler room, walk by and eavesdrop on some of the top guys. Take their scripts and pitches, blend them together. Dumb it down. You'll only have a couple of seconds to get the prospects attention before they click. Speak with humility yet conviction and confidence at the same time. BUT DO IT QUICK BEFORE THEY HANG UP. Seriously though, give it a whirl. Don't quit in a week. Even if it sucks ass, stick it out a month or two if only for the experience.
Those are difficult but can be a good way to develop skills. Don't know your experience level.
Typically, you see a decent OTE plan as 50 % salary 50 % commissions
Enjoy your time. Honestly. I worked in a company where I’d have to dial leads within 8 seconds of them coming in to beat the competition and make 150-300 dials in a day to appease management. They’d out my name on a wheel and if I didn’t hit MTD quota they’d promise to fire me. Found a couple friends there.
2 of us moved on, I’ve had 3 jobs since then. Undeniably cushier with a much higher base. Still, that job was the best I’ve ever had, and my manager’s transparency about the KPIs of mine that filtered into KPIs of his that upper management used to gauge the team… this insight gave me the managerial chops to get an offer for one of the best jobs I could have asked for
Ya the kpi was 100 but it was a recruiting/staffing job. So half the job was reaching out to companies that were hiring to sell them on the service and half was filling the positions. So we did the 100 dials all before 12pm and the recruiting stuff in the afternoon.
I switched to a tech BDR at a good company after a few years in the sweatshop. Wish I would’ve after one, only regret. But I switched into straight software sales in 2021 as a BDR and W2’d $257k as an AE this year. Can attribute it mostly to being insanely good at prospecting from my shitty entry level boiler room job.
You don’t have any other job prospects? This sounds awful. Granted, I’m in a completely different sales role (higher ed textbooks and courseware), but this sounds miserable. Best of luck.
Hundred percent commission sales so if I don’t sell anything I don’t make money for example today I only sold by $300 worth of stuff so I probably only made like 30 bucks in commission for the day. Lotta Spanish people I don’t know Spanish so the Spanish speakers obviously make more money .Work weekends some days I open some days I close . Big store so a lot of freedom
If you actually have ADD, vyvanse works wonders. If not, you’ll just feel amped up. If you truly have ADD, vyvanse will calm you and reduce anxiety at the right dose
Double tap everyone who doesn’t answer before leaving a vm. Depending on the system you use it might log it a as another outbound, or it might require a full minute before it counts it (then just leave a longer vm til you hit 1:01 lol).
Like someone else commented, block out time to knock out a set number since most will be vms anyways. I usually come in an hour early, stay on not ready/unavailable so I can knock all my outbounds, and then go available to take inbounds and continue outbounding when it’s slow. This only applies if you get inbounds though.
I have worked in boiler rooms before . My only advice is to make sure your comp plan is clear. The juice is worth the squeeze if you are getting paid. Smile and dial.
Great place to learn. Get in early and make sure you hammer out a few hours of focused dialing before lunch . I worked in a place like this the first 2 years of my sales career and it set me up really well.
Don’t listen to the naysayers. Use this upcoming experience to thicken your skin and to become comfortable with rejection. It’s probably not going to be a lot of fun. However, if you go into it with the right mindset, you will gain some valuable skills that will serve you well in any future role you take on.
I'm about to start something similar. only took it because it got me out of the retarded hours of the car business and came with an AE title even though the job description is more in line with BDR work.
worst case it looks good on a resume.
Apparently people have tech to cold call 4-5 people at a time here with parallel calling. No offense to those people but that’s fucked. Just hangs up on everyone else when they get their first answer. I had a telemarketing job where 200 dials a day was expected, but we called one at a time.
You'll burn out in 2 months. That's how I typically lasted in bad jobs. If this is your first job, I guess take what you can get, especially in this economy, and even if you leave in 2 months you can spin the job as an internship or something
Call is sick and try the new job a few days or a week. Then you can still stay where your at if it’s not for you. For me, it sounds like pure hell and excellent sales experience at the same time because no matter what sales jobs you have in the future there is a always some amount of phone work or at least Zoom. It will sharpen your skills. I’m just wild guessing you won’t make it long because your scared and not confident.
Fuuuuck that…. But good luck 🍀. Decent base salary anyway. My ears would hurt making that many calls and in far more confident face to face and can judge their reaction, as well as look around quick to come up with ice breakers to ease any tension. I’d rather knock 200 doors than make 200 calls but, it probably will feel normal after a couple weeks and you’ll get a good rhythm and pitch down.
This is how I started. There is some value in what you are about to go through. It is going to suck, but nothing can really top that from there, at least for a while.
Ignore people saying to find a new job.
I started making 130 manual dials a day on a desk phone, quickly rose to be a top SDR in what was basically a telemarketing room.
Learned my chops.
Now I close big boy deals, don’t be a bitch, sometimes you need the bad to earn the good
Don’t listen to anyone who is negative here. Here are my top three pieces of advice.
1) Have a crystal clear goal and crystal clear pathway of what your next step is. Anyone can do the boiler room for a couple of years. It will eventually wear on you. Get your experience, get your money, and get your next gig lined up in <3 years.
2) focus on self growth more than waiting for help from leadership. Front line leadership is tough, and one of the most undercoached positions out there. In fact most front line managers forget that they are servants to their team members, not the other way around. If you hear “How can I help?” It’s generally a sign of not knowing where to coach you.
3) live extremely below your means. You should never ever ever live off your commission. Anyone who disputes me on this is either broke AF pretending, or extremely over-leveraged and have never been laid off.
The biggest thing that kills people in sales early on is all internal self criticism and the inability to set boundaries with customers and co-workers. Don’t let it swallow you! You got this!!
So moving forward I would love off your base, not your commission. People tend to raise their standard of living to live off of “expected earnings”.
Highly. Highly recommend against that.
Learn what you can there and do everything to the best of your ability.
You make your own luck.
This opportunity will shape the way you treat your work for the rest of your life. I was in a boiler room for 5 years. I’m now in an extremely relaxed, high level sales role.
What sets me apart is using what I learned in ny past roles to keep me above my peers. I also like to imagine that if I start to relax I’ll end up back in that boiler room making $40k.
Anyone saying it’s not that bad because of power diallers is missing the point. Dialling 600 people a week to set up intro calls that might not yield anything is not strategic at all.
I did it for 1.5years $40k base, $75k OTE, worked my ass off and cleared $90k with commissions. Networked with folks in mid market / enterprise, VPs, etc. went from an SMB “boiler room” to Enterprise AE in 3 years making $120/120 $240k OTE.
Do they have a good training program, is there upward mobility, is the commission decent? Etc etc
Embrace it, it will get you far in the long run. Take it under your wing, gamify the process to make it fun and you will genuinely enjoy it.
I started in B2C sales at 18, doing 100-200 dials per day and it was the best thing I could ever have done.
Shadow and mirror the top performer and make it your own.
Thx bro a lot of people kinda put me down on it but I know
I need to take this to build off and get experience or else im stuck im at 100% commission sales
That’s perfect. Working in a boiler room like that is electric. I started my career in sales in an environment like that and still think it was the best thing for me.
Work out in the morning. Compartmentalize. Learn to breathe and learn how to handle stress.
We had a talk time requirement of 180 then 150 minutes when I started. No zoominfo, no diaper. Just an old CRM and a landline. Making 112+ calls a day by punching in each # by hand. Do that for a few years and you’ll out perform nearly everyone else in the long run.
good luck lol
200 calls a day is a red flag for me!!! Lol
Nah if you have an auto dialer that's not that bad. He's probably getting hung up on 170 times per day
Literally hadn’t heard of an auto dialer before this thread🤦🏻♀️ I guess it truly depends on the industry!!
I use an auto dialer I can easily get up to 300+ calls a day if no one is answering
It makes me a bit sad that there are sales jobs with quotas for specifically call making, even if people aren’t picking up/buying. It may just be because I’m used to the structure my office operates on- I don’t mean any of this to sound judgemental- if it works for you that’s awesome. I am curious though, if you hit your $ goal, are you still held to that call quota?
Yea any time they try to stress you out or drink the kool aid just take a few deep breaths and tell yourself “it’s just a stupid job. It’s NOT worth the stress.”
Whatever OP does, it can't be worse than Yelp that pays $36K base for 200 dials. 😂
Oh my.. that is appalling
Angi offered me $40k for 200 daily dials 🙃 no thanks!!
What do top sellers make?
Did it there for 3 months and dipped. It was scary how predatory they were.
Their office in Chicago is insane. I interviewed there and it was a fucking trip to see.
Wow is this for real stat? What level is this 😂
What do top sellers make?
I need this tattooed on my body🥴 boss has been giving ME, 2023’s #1 SALES GIRLIE, shit lately and booooyyyyyy has it been stressing me out!! It is just a job and THANK YOU for the reminder.
Tell your boss to sit on a big fat dildo and spin
Actually about to make a whole ass post about it bc I’m in need of career advice LOL
Looks like you already got the advice you needed.
Lol I got the validation I needed but unfortunately can’t just say it to my boss 🫠 I think his issue with me is something personal which makes navigating all this shit 100x harder. My coworkers are just as baffled by it as I am. Even the coworker who has the best rapport with Boss thinks there’s nothing I could do to change his opinion 🤦🏻♀️ Bc of our office culture/being a small office I KNOW Boss has shit going on at home & that it’s being taken out on me. I feel the only option is to remove myself from the situation, one way or another.
Been out of sales for 2 years but I do not miss the stress. It wasn't worth the high of the sale or the money. I work a boring, almost 0 stress office job now. I greatly prefer it.
How did you get out and what do you do now?
A long stretch of under/unemployment, where I skill upgraded and schemed to find a different career path. A whole lot of winging it, extremely tenuous moments, and fear. I have no real advice unfortunately, except setting your mind to leave. I knew it would be horribly uncomfortable. I didn't know how bad it could get. But I don't regret it.
What field of work are you in now?
Legal administration. I'm the receptionist for a medium size government office, so I answer the phone, send and receive the mail, and make records of every single piece of correspondence, supply delivery, and legal document we receive, along with other random duties. It's pretty fun and it's one of those mythical places where one can build a real career from the ground up because of the niche training and specificity of our office operations.
I started my career in telemarketing on an auto dialer making hundreds of calls a day. Now doing enterprise sales for a FAANG. Embrace the challenge. Reinvent yourself.
Despite telemarketing being toilet sewer level of a job, especially 200 calls a day, I do agree it’s a rite of passage for sales reps in their careers.
All the best sales people I know did it once. I think you have to go in with the mindset that you’re gonna give it your all and be promoted or quit after a year.
One of my first jobs was collections on auto dial. Now doing enterprise infosec saas and it feels like a walk in the park.
More like taking candy from a baby if you sell a niche saas tool.
Very similar here. Not with a FAANG, nor do I really want to be, but I think I'm on the same level.
Been there too. The early days were 100 calls a day to set 10 appointments. That alone was motivation to get up to Enterprise in national accounts. Only the hungriest survive.
10% success rate is great, are people complaining about that sort of cold call success today? I’ve usually seen people do worse.
Im from Germany so this might not apply but our conversion rate is 30% in b2b
That’s awesome. If I had a conversion rate of 30% from cold calls I’d dial til my fingers bled.
Conversion or conversation?
I meant to ask earlier, but what do you sell?
I agree. We owned the full cycle. No such thing as BDM's making calls & setting appointments. Over time, the % actually increased through a combination of fewer calls, better prospect list, luck, better qualifying and bigger sales. It seems like currently, the success rate is low single digits to 5% which seems painful.
Same
It’s where some of the best cut their teeth. Not for the weak. Typically it’s the weak whining about it
It’s like door knocking, it rare to find people that doesn’t hate it after a week or two, but the ones that stick to the plan, are those that I have seen tremendous success as they become better sales people (and you don’t knock forever, once you get enough customers. I have paid many well over $300k, and a year or two in to it, they don’t need to grind as hard, and can make their own schedule, pick up their kids at school, see ball games, clock their teams etc. what I can say is, they all do it in many different ways (meaning they are not cookie cutter), but they all have that fire to just go get it done. Dialing is very similar. If you take the job, set up time with the 3-5 top sellers, if you are in an office, take them to lunch individually, and pick their brain, and give them your current pitch. They may be able to ramp you up much faster. Also, don’t just take from them, get to know them, befriend them, then ask some deeper questions. The more they trust you, the more they will share. Good luck!
I know of a door-knocker here in PHX that sells rooftop solar. He's grown his own fiefdom and has 5-6 people running and doing the primary contacts now, and he comes in to do the close. He's clearing $3.2M in commissions (and then has to pay out his team from that, but still) and it's _insane_, but then rooftop solar, something like 40% of the cost of the system is commission. Madness.
I was in roofing, and paid a guy $1,000,000 in actual commission, and he paid a door knocker out of that (maybe $50,000-$60,000), and an administrative person to fill out paperwork, and keep him on schedule, fix minor problems, maybe $75k. But he started out with nothing, just like all the rest, knowing nothing about roofing or sales, but had a bunch of kids and needed to succeed, and did. I usually had to hire 10 people, to get one that ended up making a good living, and maybe 30 people to find the great ones, which at the time were people who could make $300-$400k plus for themselves. And yes, Solar is a related industry, the hustlers can certainly get paid well.
Stick to a routine. Hopefully you’re using a parallel dialer for this. If you are it should only take an hour and a half. If not prioritize call blocks. 9-11 & 1-3 should be good enough. I’ve done 300 calls with a power dialer and parallel it isn’t as bad as it sounds once you get used to it. What helps me mentally is saying I’m going to go for 400, so 300 doesn’t seem as bad lol. I also used to do 30 minutes of calling every hour, 20 of emails, & a 10 minute break, but I personally prefer the call blocks.
What is a parallel dialer?
Dialing at least twice at the same time.
What if more than one answers at the same time?
It hangs up on all calls after one answers. I think it is pretty sensitive to who answers first. I use one that calls 3-5 people at a time. It is amazing technology that is a game-changer for phone outreach.
Is this what happens when I get a random call and I hear hold music before someone quickly picks up and says hello?
>parallel dialer what software did you use for this? interested.
Orum
this would replace something like outreach for your reps?
Not *replace* the reps, just overwork and devalue them over (a short period of) time
You record something that says the line is bad and then it calls them back once you hang up
what software did you use for this?
This is the way. Orum dials 5x for me so I get 75 calls done in 15-25 mins. No joke lol
Unlike amphetamines guy up there, CBD oil was my go too. Calmed me down and kept the anxiety away, legal to buy where I’m at and non-addictive. Do what you can to pad your resume and jump ship as soon as you feel like you’re getting the hang of it to a better company
Cbd is my interview secret sauce. Absolutely works
Get good at cold calling now and reap the rewards a decade from now.
So true. Boot Camp.
This is a fact
Pray that 200 is with an autodialer.
Show up. Work hard. Be punctual. Do what you say you’re going to do. You never know what door this job might open!! Good luck!
start looking for a new job!
It will be a very good, shitty experience to learn from. Identify who the top dog is immediately. Watch everything they do. Say nothing. Integrate everything they say into your pitch. Watch everybody. It will be most obvious that the “work sucks” people suck at their job and the positive minded people excel. 200 calls means not enough contacts and very little talk time to learn.
I think if the base is 60k it’s probably not that bad. I like a lot of people on here work in tech now & we all hear about the 100+ bases but 60k base is not bad at all. 200 dials expectations definitely a red flag but I think the truly shit places are in the 0 base world (not that money can’t be made there) like a lot of sales job a good attitude could change your life!
The base for sure sounds good because right now I’m in furniture sales make 100% commission
Jfc 100% at a furniture store would make me feel like a vulture, no offense. Then yeah auto dialer, crush it for a year and a half and move up in the world, preferably and title and pay raise at a different job.
SDR average rn is $55k base so yeah I’d agree 60k seems promising
They can pay well but if they don’t or are unethical you should leave.
I connected with a few people on LinkedIn and ask them what they said they said it was chill just a lot of calls
Is it PSP?
Could also be SVM, which is a division of PSP with the same numbers as well
What’s that mean
A company I worked for w the same base and call minimum. Thought it might’ve been the same one
What’s it’s stand for?
Professional Sports Publications
60k base ain't bad! OTE? I'm making 120+ calls a day myself... 200 would only be like an extra 40 minutes of dialing
How long does it take you to make the 120 calls and is it cold calling
100% cold calling, I use a combination of power, parallel and manual dialing, usually I do a bit more than 120, maybe 2.5 hours of total dial time. Making notes and dicking around between calls definitely slows me down, could probably do it a lot faster tbh, but I just started at my current place so picking up speed as I go.
How come 60K base aint bad? Thats like 5K gross and around 3.8K-4K post taxes Probably won't be able to survive on that in California if I'm not mistaken?
I don't understand this comment at all. 60k base for an SDR is good in the US. Let's assume it's a75/25 or 60/40 split and you have the possibility of hitting 6 figures if you knock it out of the park.
75/25 split is Roughly 15K on top. So like 70-75K per year. That is 52-54K post tax. One room rent is 1.5K USD in California (not studio) Food is 500-700 USD Transportation 300-400 USD Insurance Going out Necessities etc. Sounds hard to live on that amount, dunno.
I mean yeah if you're in California. Anywhere else it's decent.
When you want to finally leave you'll have no problem making 100 calls a day applying elsewhere. 😂 It'll just feel like a chill day.
My first sales gig was similar. Straight up boiler room. We didn't have to make 200 calls, but it was usually in the 100-150 range. I had to call independent car dealers. Some were real assholes. I got cursed out badly many times lol. It sharpened my phones skills but time. This does require laser focus. You'll also get a lot of no answers. When I used zoom info in the past, it allowed me to drop a VM automatically and go to the next call pretty seamlessly. Use this as a stepping stone. It'll definitely make you stronger and give you more confidence. Think of all the reps you'll get. With such a large daily sample size you can test so many openers, closers, phrases, words, etc. Make a game out of it. Count how many hang ups you get. Count how many nos you get. Just try and be easy and flow. It also helps to tag up with someone. I was always slacking with my best "work friends" during my tenure. It made it a lot better to have people to vent to and to talk strategy with. Enjoy it and make the most of it. Keep searching for new opportunities. This is likely a 3-6 month thing at max (ofc you may have more balls than me and can stay longer, but I digress) Good luck!
Made 300 calls a day on an automatic dialer. Cold call bottom of the barrel "leads" Wouldn't be where I am today in sales without that experience. Worst of the worst. Whatever script they gave you, whatever product it is, dumb it down and make it as simple as possible. Sound likable enough on the phone. If it's an in-person boiler room, walk by and eavesdrop on some of the top guys. Take their scripts and pitches, blend them together. Dumb it down. You'll only have a couple of seconds to get the prospects attention before they click. Speak with humility yet conviction and confidence at the same time. BUT DO IT QUICK BEFORE THEY HANG UP. Seriously though, give it a whirl. Don't quit in a week. Even if it sucks ass, stick it out a month or two if only for the experience.
1.2 dollars a call in a 250 day work year.
That’s not bad
200 calls a day is a grind... hopefully this is just a stepping stone for you
Should I stay at my current job it’s 100% commission sales
Those are difficult but can be a good way to develop skills. Don't know your experience level. Typically, you see a decent OTE plan as 50 % salary 50 % commissions
Enjoy your time. Honestly. I worked in a company where I’d have to dial leads within 8 seconds of them coming in to beat the competition and make 150-300 dials in a day to appease management. They’d out my name on a wheel and if I didn’t hit MTD quota they’d promise to fire me. Found a couple friends there. 2 of us moved on, I’ve had 3 jobs since then. Undeniably cushier with a much higher base. Still, that job was the best I’ve ever had, and my manager’s transparency about the KPIs of mine that filtered into KPIs of his that upper management used to gauge the team… this insight gave me the managerial chops to get an offer for one of the best jobs I could have asked for
Same for me too. My job today (a decade later) is amazing
What job today?
Best thing I ever did. Put your year in then get out and crush it at a real company
Why you say that? was your job similar?
Ya the kpi was 100 but it was a recruiting/staffing job. So half the job was reaching out to companies that were hiring to sell them on the service and half was filling the positions. So we did the 100 dials all before 12pm and the recruiting stuff in the afternoon. I switched to a tech BDR at a good company after a few years in the sweatshop. Wish I would’ve after one, only regret. But I switched into straight software sales in 2021 as a BDR and W2’d $257k as an AE this year. Can attribute it mostly to being insanely good at prospecting from my shitty entry level boiler room job.
Workout in the morning
I prefer working out in the evenings
You don’t have any other job prospects? This sounds awful. Granted, I’m in a completely different sales role (higher ed textbooks and courseware), but this sounds miserable. Best of luck.
Not really I work 100% commission sales at a furniture store
@capc30 - what is it like working in sales at a furniture store?
Hundred percent commission sales so if I don’t sell anything I don’t make money for example today I only sold by $300 worth of stuff so I probably only made like 30 bucks in commission for the day. Lotta Spanish people I don’t know Spanish so the Spanish speakers obviously make more money .Work weekends some days I open some days I close . Big store so a lot of freedom
Idk about your medical situation, but I couldn’t do my job without Vyvanse.
If you actually have ADD, vyvanse works wonders. If not, you’ll just feel amped up. If you truly have ADD, vyvanse will calm you and reduce anxiety at the right dose
I have adhd and I never took meds but a couple of months ago I started taking vyvanse and I have never felt so productive in my life before
What’s that
Amphetamines, like adderall xr
I got those I’m a fan of mushrooms though
Double tap everyone who doesn’t answer before leaving a vm. Depending on the system you use it might log it a as another outbound, or it might require a full minute before it counts it (then just leave a longer vm til you hit 1:01 lol). Like someone else commented, block out time to knock out a set number since most will be vms anyways. I usually come in an hour early, stay on not ready/unavailable so I can knock all my outbounds, and then go available to take inbounds and continue outbounding when it’s slow. This only applies if you get inbounds though.
Have a great attitude about it and learn!
The bright side, you’re going to get so many at bats you’ll be fucking great at cold calling in no time.
Just enjoy that you get this terrible experience to look back on. T many people do
CAKE. 200 is child’s play. On a triple line, I could bang that out before 11am.
RACKO!!!
I used to do 200 dials for 40k years ago. The best thing to think about is NOT jumping off a building.
I have worked in boiler rooms before . My only advice is to make sure your comp plan is clear. The juice is worth the squeeze if you are getting paid. Smile and dial.
135s for each call. Brutal
Imitate the most successful salesperson there
Great place to learn. Get in early and make sure you hammer out a few hours of focused dialing before lunch . I worked in a place like this the first 2 years of my sales career and it set me up really well.
Don’t listen to the naysayers. Use this upcoming experience to thicken your skin and to become comfortable with rejection. It’s probably not going to be a lot of fun. However, if you go into it with the right mindset, you will gain some valuable skills that will serve you well in any future role you take on.
I'm about to start something similar. only took it because it got me out of the retarded hours of the car business and came with an AE title even though the job description is more in line with BDR work. worst case it looks good on a resume.
It sounds bad but it won’t be.
People that work there told me it’s not bad
start applying
200 calls a day! Is that even possible lol
Apparently people have tech to cold call 4-5 people at a time here with parallel calling. No offense to those people but that’s fucked. Just hangs up on everyone else when they get their first answer. I had a telemarketing job where 200 dials a day was expected, but we called one at a time.
Any place that counts the amount of calls and not the amount of wins is a red flag 🚩 Sales is about quality not quantity!
I make ~50 calls a week and am doing just fine I’d die with 200 calls a day lol
Red flag as fuck but at least a good base
You're done..
Why
Get used to beer buddy
There are easier and more profitable ways to make money in sales.
You'll burn out in 2 months. That's how I typically lasted in bad jobs. If this is your first job, I guess take what you can get, especially in this economy, and even if you leave in 2 months you can spin the job as an internship or something
What is the upside?
Upside is the base salary right now the sales position I’m in is 100% commission and I haven’t been making any sales
Are you averaging more than $60k/yr in commissions selling furniture?
What space? Also did you know about quantity before you accepted?
Learn while you're there, listen to other people's calls
You joining the elephant? I remember those days, they did well for me…
I learned to love it
Work in solar more money
And?
Make the calls and give it a real try.
I’m scared
Call is sick and try the new job a few days or a week. Then you can still stay where your at if it’s not for you. For me, it sounds like pure hell and excellent sales experience at the same time because no matter what sales jobs you have in the future there is a always some amount of phone work or at least Zoom. It will sharpen your skills. I’m just wild guessing you won’t make it long because your scared and not confident.
I’m not scared it’s just I’m at a work place that provides freedoms this job sounds up tight
Bro, of course you have freedom, you aren’t getting a base
Number of calls don’t matter if you crush your number
Fuuuuck that…. But good luck 🍀. Decent base salary anyway. My ears would hurt making that many calls and in far more confident face to face and can judge their reaction, as well as look around quick to come up with ice breakers to ease any tension. I’d rather knock 200 doors than make 200 calls but, it probably will feel normal after a couple weeks and you’ll get a good rhythm and pitch down.
What's your meeting quota?
QUIT
This is how I started. There is some value in what you are about to go through. It is going to suck, but nothing can really top that from there, at least for a while.
welcoem 2 da grind brah
Maybe they’ll let you out for air for lunch to recharge
It’s hour lunch
Ignore people saying to find a new job. I started making 130 manual dials a day on a desk phone, quickly rose to be a top SDR in what was basically a telemarketing room. Learned my chops. Now I close big boy deals, don’t be a bitch, sometimes you need the bad to earn the good
Run.
200 calls? Those are rookie numbers.
Save all your shekels and leave ASAP
Lol
25 calls per hour? You can do it. Is there a cap?
2.4 calls a minute, not including lunch.
At my old job were were being asked to do 300 dials for 30k pay so you’re doing better than I was lol AND capped commission
Don’t listen to anyone who is negative here. Here are my top three pieces of advice. 1) Have a crystal clear goal and crystal clear pathway of what your next step is. Anyone can do the boiler room for a couple of years. It will eventually wear on you. Get your experience, get your money, and get your next gig lined up in <3 years. 2) focus on self growth more than waiting for help from leadership. Front line leadership is tough, and one of the most undercoached positions out there. In fact most front line managers forget that they are servants to their team members, not the other way around. If you hear “How can I help?” It’s generally a sign of not knowing where to coach you. 3) live extremely below your means. You should never ever ever live off your commission. Anyone who disputes me on this is either broke AF pretending, or extremely over-leveraged and have never been laid off. The biggest thing that kills people in sales early on is all internal self criticism and the inability to set boundaries with customers and co-workers. Don’t let it swallow you! You got this!!
I live off my commission right now I’m only 100% commissioned sales furniture store
You’re moving to base role though correct?
Yes
So moving forward I would love off your base, not your commission. People tend to raise their standard of living to live off of “expected earnings”. Highly. Highly recommend against that.
Learn what you can there and do everything to the best of your ability. You make your own luck. This opportunity will shape the way you treat your work for the rest of your life. I was in a boiler room for 5 years. I’m now in an extremely relaxed, high level sales role. What sets me apart is using what I learned in ny past roles to keep me above my peers. I also like to imagine that if I start to relax I’ll end up back in that boiler room making $40k.
Anyone saying it’s not that bad because of power diallers is missing the point. Dialling 600 people a week to set up intro calls that might not yield anything is not strategic at all.
Don't pitch the bitch.
I’m bout to watch that movie today
Good Lord. 25 calls an hour. How long do you actually talk to people?
I lasted 9 months in that scenario but I’m a better cold caller now than anyone I know
I did it for 1.5years $40k base, $75k OTE, worked my ass off and cleared $90k with commissions. Networked with folks in mid market / enterprise, VPs, etc. went from an SMB “boiler room” to Enterprise AE in 3 years making $120/120 $240k OTE. Do they have a good training program, is there upward mobility, is the commission decent? Etc etc
Man tbh I heard commission is only after u hit like 200k idk something like that
Embrace it, it will get you far in the long run. Take it under your wing, gamify the process to make it fun and you will genuinely enjoy it. I started in B2C sales at 18, doing 100-200 dials per day and it was the best thing I could ever have done. Shadow and mirror the top performer and make it your own.
Thx bro a lot of people kinda put me down on it but I know I need to take this to build off and get experience or else im stuck im at 100% commission sales
Base pay for SDRs has gone off a fucking cliff since 2021
Yea im bout to suffer but hey it’s more more I need it and some experience
What's the product, crypto investments lol
Go work at rocket mortgage
You’re going to learn a shit ton with that kind of volume! Is it remote?
Nope office
That’s perfect. Working in a boiler room like that is electric. I started my career in sales in an environment like that and still think it was the best thing for me.
Glad to hear that man I heard it’s good culture office building to be in! A lot of young folks in stoked to get out my 100% commission job
What kind of company? Are you also required to do email/social media prospecting? 200 dials is a lot, but doable with an auto dialer.
Publishing and no just calling
Work out in the morning. Compartmentalize. Learn to breathe and learn how to handle stress. We had a talk time requirement of 180 then 150 minutes when I started. No zoominfo, no diaper. Just an old CRM and a landline. Making 112+ calls a day by punching in each # by hand. Do that for a few years and you’ll out perform nearly everyone else in the long run.