I don’t think people really get this, or maybe they do and just pretend not to…

But sales is the root of everything. You’re constantly selling:

• to your partner

• to get hired

• to the bouncer who won’t let you in

• to the girl you’re trying to talk to.

You even sell the idea of a threesome (okay, maybe that’s pushing it, but you get my point).

Life is sales. It’s knowing what to say, when to say it, who to say it to. It’s reading the room. Navigating power dynamics. Bringing value. It’s understanding that nobody owes you a thing unless you give them a reason to.

I finished with an IT degree. Never loved it, just saw it as a fallback. But with the market being trash and everyone clinging to “safe” careers, I’ve started to realize that sales is THE career.

The ultimate teacher…

And you either learn how to influence, or life kicks your teeth in, and you might even shit your own teeth out if you’re not cognizant.

So why don’t more people go into sales when it teaches you everything you need to survive and thrive in the real world?

Wanna hear your honest thoughts.

— An IT Guy that fell in love with sales

Change my mind

My organization recently increased our sales quotas by 25% without making any changes to the OTE. This effectively means I’ll be earning less per dollar sold. Is this a common practice across the industry?

Hi, I just received an offer to sell coal from a Latin American country to export to other countries. However, I don't have much knowledge about the industry. Could anyone with experience please share some advice?

Early stage AE here, 5 years experience.

I’ve been selling since COVID, so have sold over $5m in ARR over Zoom. Right now, I’m flying back from visiting one of my top accounts offices in SF.

Holy shit guys and gals- in-person sales is fantastic. We made so much progress in person, I got to shake hands and build awesome relationships, and we’re looking good to get a 6-figure signed very fast.

This isn’t a bluebird either… this would’ve been a highly competitive deal, but they told me that our willingness to lean into the sales cycle to match their urgency was a key driver for picking us as preferred vendor.

I’m positive there are some sales vets in here laughing at the Gen Z’er discovering how the world used to work, but now I’m thinking- I need to do this with every big deal.

How do you all make the most of onsite visits? How do you kick them off when the deal starts in a remote environment?

I remember being completely confused early on in tech sales.

You’d see titles like “Enterprise AE” or “Channel Account Manager” or “Product Marketing Manager” and have no idea how they connect — or what you actually do in those roles.

I recently tried to map it all out in one place: the classic AE path, Customer Success, Solution Engineering, Management, and some of the hybrid roles like Sales Specialist or Demand Gen.

Not saying it’s perfect, but it’s what I wish someone had shown me back then.

Here’s the breakdown, in case it’s useful to anyone: Guide to Tech Sales Career Paths

Curious what paths others here have taken — especially the less linear ones.

I am going to treat sales and hustling like a game mindset

As well as talking to random strangers

Networking, hustling, asking for donations whatever you call it etc

Because I used to take failure and rejection too seriously and I am quite sensitive.

But if you treat Cold calling and sales like a game, you probably get better results than as a profession.

I see those influencers on YouTube approaching to random strangers and they probably have this approach.

Does anyone have any insight on moving to Netskope in the Enterprise space right now?

Any insight is welcome but interested mainly in how they are faring vs Zscaler/Palo/Cato, and what actual attainment is like in the org at the moment.

Look I know this might be controversial but the China tariffs were lowkey the best thing that happened to our company.

We were so comfortable with our US market that we never bothered expanding globally.The tariffs forced us to pivot hard into EU and APAC markets. Yeah the regulatory compliance was a nightmare at first but our just got off a week of meetings with EU counterparts and everyone's optimistic.

In the EU, the purchase cycle typically includes identifying needs, preparing tenders, evaluating bids, and awarding contracts vs in the US (private) involves needs assessment, GPO engagement, and hospital approvals.. typcially more flexibility but still requiring internal processes.

We're going have to push a ton of new knowledge to our field sales agents.. complete overhaul of the knowledge database / LMS.

Most of our sales cycle starts with building relationships with hospital administrators on Linkedin, so that also means we're restarting that from scratch. Thankfully we got our process/automation down pat that probably with the right tuning we can scale up fast.

Feels weird to admit but getting pushed out of our comfort zone actually made us stronger. Our sales team had to learn new cultures fast but the commission checks will keep them happy.

Let's go.

Hello everyone, so I recently just started a position with a fairly small company in waste management. The general idea is that most businesses get screwed by who ever they choose for their waste disposal needs . So what we do is go in a look how we can save them money . Now I’m the only sales rep and if been going buisness to buisness handing out my cards and flyers . In the process of making a LinkedIn account. Just asking for any tips or avenues that can boost my exposure . I’d like to know what ai platforms I can use , to make me more efficient. And also what I can use to get leads in the field any help is greatly appreciated appreciated.

How do you guys manage the data quality of any Excel/CSV that you import into the ERP or similar system?
I mean the standardisation of data, cleaning it, and fitting the system format.

It seems to take a lot of my time daily. Do you even have similar problems or is it industry-specific?

Evening! I'm looking for thoughts on upskilling, a confession that I make, and some validation to what I've experienced recently.

I have a role now that has been great for over 2 years, but something peculiar is happening. 

My pipeline has cratered. March’s quota attainment was 80% less than February. February I was at 120%. I’m tracking similarly to March now based on run ruate. (2024 I was about 97% for the year). I have not just stopped working. I’m putting in more effort now than the first 2 years combined.

Queue job search. I am having regular interviews with pretty well known SaaS companies. While this feels great, I’m finding that everyone wants enterprise or upmarket sellers with territory/BoB planning, 360 interviews (I have not had to do these in my career before) and 5+ step interview processes beyond the phone screen

As a result, I don’t think I have the chops to work in today’s SaaS “Upmarket” environment at these companies with my skillset. I make up for it by busting my ass. People like me. It helps.

I'm not great at making detailed plans. So, I'll start reviewing gong calls, look at other teammates reviews, and study the trajectory of deals. Has anyone used an external sale coach? Provided that you have, what has been your experience?

Do all B2B SaaS sellers need to be enterprise reps these days? Does my plan on preparing sound ok for what I have available now? With all the increased competition for jobs, are you finding the same when you’re interviewing?

I’m opening up my search to different industries and roles as well, but the timing may be off.

Title says it all.

Used HubSpot at my old job and loved it. The task-based scheduling and reminders was perfect for keeping me on track.

Groove feels like it’s like 70% of the way to being super useful but I can’t quite get it to feel worth the time. Anyone have any success with it?

My company doesn’t let us create our own flows, do isolated actions (like bulk emailing) outside of a flow, or edit the templates within the prebuilt flows, so maybe that’s where I’m just SoL.

Fuck me, I miss HubSpot.

So I said I had ~1 year of SDR experience but I actually have no sales experience. The interview is for an SDR role at a saas company, the product is more of want not a need. My alleged previous sales experience was in the industry I actually used to work in, just not as a sales person.

What kind of questions am I most likely to be blindsided by, without actual sales experience?

I've been able to build solid accounts and relationships (a bit more than transactional) via phone and email over my career. I've visited my accounts like twice over the past few years and I've found that it's hit or miss: it doesn't for SURE lead to an increase in doing business with them.

FWIW, regarding my BEST customers: I've never met them in person.

I have this thought in the back of my head that maybe it's better to not meet some people in person because they like your "Not IRL" personality better...what do the pros here have to say?

P.S. I've made some good business from meeting people in person once, but it's also an ROI thing: if I stay put I can make a ton of calls and send a ton of emails, if I fly all over the place I'll only be able to meet with max 20 ppl a day.

One of the most common cold call objections? “I’m not the decision maker.”

It shows up in a bunch of ways: “You’d need to talk to my boss.” “I don’t have any buying power” “You’d have to talk to X”

And over and over, I hear reps fumble it: “Ok have a good one” “Okay, I’ll try someone else.” “Alright, sorry for bothering you!”

While sometimes it may actually be the wrong person (obviously don’t push then) - if your targeting is on and you know that the person is part of your buying committee, it’s worth pushing. (Rarely will your first convo be with the EB aka check signer)

Here’s all you need to say to get past this.

“Totally get that. I know in any software decision there would be multiple people involved. I thought you would be a great person to start with since you are involved in xxx way.

Opposed to grabbing time Thursday or Friday later this week? If you like what you see we can bring it up the chain, if not no worries you learned something new about the space”

It works because it’s the truth and you empower the prospect + de pressure the call to action.

Happy calling my friends

The company I work for is European manufacturer. Because we work under EX WORKS terms, our USA customers act as the importer on record and will be responsible for paying the Tariffs. In our case 31% Tariffs April 9th.

It’s going to be a rough year and a huge boost for our USA competitors. Wish us luck.

Curious to hear about anyone’s experience or thoughts on these remote closing sales agencies… about 5yrs ago before it was all over SM I went through one, from the training, mock call, close etc then landed my dream job which was outside of their job board.. Found out it wasn’t going to fit my lifestyle nor how I wanted to live, left after a few years.

Fast forward, building a book of business for my current job (residual based), have 20-30hrs I could see myself being a remote closer per week.

I’ve been recruited by 2-3 of these agencies in the past, I understand the #’s, commission, and then at the end of every call is the “with a small investment of XYZ we can get you started today..”.

Do any of these agencies actually hire already talented/qualified closers and just allow them to be good at what they are hired to do? I understand the business model, imo it’s sleezy to present the opportunity, then try pitching people on another. Curious to hear the thoughts or feedback from the community and/or those who have found success with it.

Most sales books just teach how to pitch (the literal easiest part). But almost nothing out there covers how to navigate org charts, identify the champion, economic buyer, gatekeeper, ego, or how to manage timing, influence, and internal politics.

I’m starting to think books are just lead magnets for sales training programs that actually teach the real stuff.

If that’s true, that’s bleak.

Have any of you found good resources that actually teach this?

How do y'all know it's time to start seriously looking to jump ship? Here's my specific situation:

I'm new to traditional sales. Started in September, started selling in December. Overall it's been good, but I have no frame of reference. Let me outline my factors leading me to these thoughts

Negatives:

The BIGGEST thing is that contracts mean literally nothing. I do residential sales. Signed contracts are supposed to be the close, right? Wrong. Our customers can cancel the contract with zero consequence from date signed until the date the job is complete (which can be two weeks!)

Service quality doesn't match price. Reps are taught if we walk out of a home without a signature we probably won't ever hear from the customer again. We offer comparable service to other companies at double the price. Why? Haven't figured that out.

STRONG encouragement to push unneeded services. This one is mostly ignorable, but frustrating nonetheless.

Oversaturated sales room. I'm the newest sales guy so this definitely isn't a complaint when I'm the problem. However, according to the other sales folk as well as our numbers compared to similar regions with fewer sales guys, there are too many people going after the same fish.

Enough badmouthing, let's talk positivity.

Security. Damn near impossible to get fired from this company (unless you use gas station cbd supplements but that's a different story)

Good pay. Absolutely horrendous base but the commission is pretty good. (I think? Again, I have no frame of reference. Top guy in the region made like $230k last year, typical is 80-100k)

Pretty chill. I work a lot of hours but I'm not micromanaged or really pressured much.

One of my managers fuckin ROCKS. Seriously, dude is a champ. The other manager, well he's okay. He's got some downsides but I like the guy well enough.

What do we think, o more experienced salespeople of reddit? Is it time to search for greener pastures?

Since I’ve been in construction sales, I’ve had a few appointments where usually an elderly couple who don’t get out much fight over answering discovery questions and rapport building questions. Sometimes they’re both oblivious to the other but other times they keep talking over one another while scowling at the other one.

What are some assertive ways to handle these situations? Usually I look back and forth while both are talking and act like I’m not keeping up but I want to be more direct with the messaging and I’m worried about making either customer felt left out or more attended to.

I work on the finance side and sometimes pay sales reps a referral fee when they send me a customer and the deal funds. It’s paid the same day — straight to their personal or business account.

Some of my coworkers think I shouldn’t be doing this, but from my point of view, it helps the rep make extra money and helps the customer get what they need.

Just curious — is this common or considered bad practice? Any of you in sales ever been paid for referring financing, or know people who do it?

Trying to figure out if I’m crossing a line or just doing business smarter.

I come from an Indian American background…and let’s say childhood wasn’t great. Parents fucking screaming at the top of their lungs for every little thing and I was the only child stuck in the crossfire. I found myself being the “mediator” in such situations. Mom and Dad fight and mom decides she won’t cook enough for Dad? He sits there in the corner pouting with an empty plate, just watching us eat and go to bed hungry.

Mom gets upset about something? “Fine take him to baseball, i’ll just stay at home”. This pretty much continued on until I was at least 18.

Then all of a sudden, these 2 fucks grow old, start making 6 figure salaries, purchase investment properties and now they are all mellowed out. They get to live a nice and calm life.

And where does that leave me? A bitch ass people pleaser who always wants to keep peace even if a lead wants to kick me in the mouth. I am simply unable to be the aggressive one even when I know I should be.

I am a late twenty something male who is a doormat. I sometimes view my coworkers and I wish i could be 10% of the man they are. They straight up aren’t afraid to talk down to disrespectful people.

Meanwhile what do I do? Try to calm them down while they insult me, and unable to stand up for myself.

Guys, I am lost. My personality is enough to “give me a good salary” but I will never be one of the top dogs like you guys.

Hi all! I’m not trying to make this a platform to promote a tool however I had questions to ask!

I know that in sales, talking points, objections as well as comparisons between your company and the lead are very nerve racking and time consuming processes.

Have you all found a tool that can do this quickly or are you still looking for that tool? Essentially I am looking for a rebuttal or validation on this problem/solution

Thank you for reading!

So right now I’m currently in the MCA world, (I know scumbag product. I’m looking to get out) the sales process is a lot more similar to car sales than it is to Tech and SaaS. I have 4 years in the industry, with 2 as a JR and 2 as a SR which would be the equivalent of SDR and AE in the real sales world.

I’ve been applying only to AE roles for the most part just because my current role is a closing role. After a lot of skimming through posts on here, I’ve really only accepted this week my closing experience doesn’t earn me the right for an AE role in Tech/SaaS just yet.

My new approach, I’m going to be going for is targeting entry level SDR roles. With the intent to grind it out for 2 years if I can ideally land at the right company and get promoted from within.

I’m going to be putting together a list of 10 companies between tech, SaaS, and AI related sales of where I believe I can succeed, find the hiring managers and SDR managers using Apollo and introduce myself and my interest in the company. Would it be bad to apply to BDR/SDR roles at companies I already I applied to for as an AE?

I want to explain to them that although my title is Senior/AE where I am now, I’m still not ready to be one in the new industry. I’d like to learn from the ground up as it’d be more beneficial long term for my career. I want it to be known obviously down the road I want to be an AE, it’s not something I’m going to be constantly asking for as an annoyance. (I’ve seen that this could be a stigma for managers when they see people with prior AE experience targeting the SDR role)

I applied to owner.com as a BDR and it felt like they turned me down as I had AE on my resume. It was the only question I was asked when I reached out to the hiring manager letting them know I applied, and was turned down not long after.

Im not sure if this would be the equivalent of talking my way out of a sale. I’m curious how car salesman went about approaching this if they had closing experience?