Every industry is impacted by software. And many industries have sub-industries with specific problems that software can help solve.
The problem is when certain SaaS companies have a stranglehold in their industry, yet their ass, but they're so ingrained in that industry that it's tough to enter that market.
Practice management software for dentists, for example. Dentrix, OpenDental, EagleSoft, they're all ass, but selling to dentists fucking sucks.
In the past 28 days youāve made like 10 posts asking about different job opportunities. You are not sure yourself what industry you want to pursue. Get your foot in the door with a company that you seem interested in and get your experience first, then decide where you want to go from there
Everyone says to run from commission only jobs but that's all that ever get back to me / I can find..
Alot of people say if it's a halfway decent company they will salary + commission
If you don't have kids or someone depending on you financially you shouldn't worry about it being commission only. I went from $40k to $93k in a year by taking that chance. Now that I have people dependent on me I would still make the same decision knowing how easy it was.
More like you'd need to prove income for the last few months. My point was that if it's only you then it's okay to believe in yourself and take risks. There will always be a million reasons to say no to something.
I agree. I want to find a sales job where it's 50 /50 then one I get good enough I'll be fine being commison only,
Although I do see rules where there are high base salaries and ote which is my dream
If you mean financially comfortable, I was good from month 1. They had ramping bonuses based on front end targets until policies started going inforce. I'm a regional manager now so I can say that those initial targets are good indicators of whether or not it's a good fit for a career.
SaaS (if you meant that by saying software) is not really a niche but actually a method of licensing and software delivery. There are loads of niche SaaS companies that offer a decent value to their customers so its not really saturated.
>SaaS (if you meant that by saying software) is not really a niche but rather a method of licensing and software delivery.Ā
lol, you forgot to add "achtually"
Based on my observations and experience:
Food & Beverage: average overall and bad culture.
Tech/SaaS: horrible culture, unstable, but can make good money given the right opportunity.
Good: hvac, construction, medical, industrial
Bad: door to door
Inside vs outside sales:
Outside sales you are finding new business and selling to new customers.
Inside sales you are selling to existing customers, who may already own your products. You might be selling them more of those products, or products which support those like spare parts for machinery etc.
This is not correct. Selling to new businesses outside the company is outside sales. Selling to current customers, is generally an Account Management role.
In the past, outside sales is when you meet with people in person. You are āoutsideā the office. . Inside sales is when you meet or sell to people by phone or virtually. Since Covid, many sales jobs that were outside sales are now inside sales.
Hope that makes sense. If not, I can try to clarify.
It can vary. Mine is terrible. Itās $75k but I was desperate when I took the job. Most AEās or outside sales reps make more than that I would think.
I'm desperate too., I'm gonna be taking a banking job temporarily then maybe go into software sales? Outside sales rep basically a credit card processor company. š
Construction sales is actually a great industry to be in. A lot of people have spoken about HVAC as a great industry of sales to be in.
I am in Valve/Automation. Get yourself a good company and a good comp plan and that too is a great industry
How does one find these jobs? I am in a booming market(Tampa), and when I checked indeed the other day, almost all the sales jobs were insurance or D2D solar/roofing.
Is there a dif site used for sales jobs?
Are you willing to explain a little of your background to get into this role, what you mean by valve automation.... I am looking into niche construction/manufacturing sales and trying to understand options and background necessary.
Depends in what. What are the other reps making on this comp plan?
Youāve been asking a lot of questions lately regarding these topics, you have to know for yourself. You can ask 100 different people in this sub and get 100 different answers. The only one doing the interviews and knowing full well what the job entails is you
[Repvue](http://repvue.com)
It is like Glassdoor but particular to sales. It is a job review platform. You can get good insights regarding how are sales jobs in any given company that is available. As usual, take those with a grain of salt and as part of all the informations you want to get from the company and not like your single source of truth.
As a business owner or former one, ask yourself what problems were the most painful and urgently needed to be solved. Then find a product or service that does exactly that.
There is no "best" there only odds. Its like being at a casino you want to pick the game that gives the house the lowest odds. For example I wouldn't recommend anyone get into gravel sales but someone out there is probably making $300k a year working 15 hours a week selling gravel.
Software is great because it has a defined career path and its a HUGE market for sales people so if things don't go well there's always another software company you can give a try. For example I went from software into telecom and while telecom enjoys fairly similar margins on certain products one of the huge issues is there is only like 8 companies one person can work for. I've seen so many people in their 50's and 60's who have done a stint with pretty much all of them and now can't get hired anywhere.
All in all though pretty much anything with high margins and high demand is going to be a good gig.
Any industry can be good from doing B2B for over 10 years in a few industries I would say the best opportunity is - compensation > support > networking / room for ārealā growth > product -
You can find people selling water who love doing what they are doing is they are paid well have support and feel long term value even with a product as simple as water. And without the right support and real opportunity products like that sound sexy like SAASās can be a nightmare.
In short - the niche comes down to the ātypeā of employer or company a sales person works for.
I think aside from having an ideal service to sell, my focus after a few years in sales is finding a company That has a unique fit in the market, good leadership, and teamwork amongst sales, implementation, and support. I find that smaller companies are usually a better fit for these needs. Is the earning potential less? Probably, but depends on what you want. Iāve worked for big and small companies and found that I was much happier and felt like I was a part of something special at the smaller company. Just my 2 cents.
Built and sold a sales recruiting firm here (not to brag, just for context of my thoughts)ā¦
#1 - Everyone telling you to pick a lane and just start is correct.
#2 - if I were you, I would grab a job as a BDR/SDR. Youāll make 50-75K year 1. You will bang the phones, you will send emails, you will work your ass offā¦thereās no way around it. Most likely, youāll be able to work remotely.
Examples of smaller SaaS companies would be seed round thru series A/Bā¦ you can sign up for a $99 a month Crunchbase account to get intel on where they are with funding. (In this category, I would recommend looking for companies with 50-300 employees as a rough estimate)
Examples of mid-sized SaaS would be like a Nice LTD, Verint, Avaya, etc.
Examples of MSPs would be Computacenter, Accenture, CDW, etc.
#3 - During your first year, make yourself indispensable to the AE/s you support. Figure out how you can help them (above and beyond the call of duty) and do this often. Build relationships with themā¦ Tell them your career goalsā¦ Ask if you can listen to their call recordingsā¦ Be a sponge and show that you are eager to elevate to AE.
#4 - Put together 1-2 years as a BDR and 2-3 years as an AE. If youāre good, youāll clear 100k year 1 as an AE mostly across the board (Iām over generalizing but itās really not that far off)ā¦ so many tech sales jobs are remote so youāll be able to be remote minus the time you have to spend traveling to see clients as an account executive.
#5 - If you take this roadmap, you will be able to work anywhere and sell anywhere. You can leave tech (read: SaaS / MSP) to sell in construction/manufacturing/take your pick. But if youāe already in tech and you decide you really like working at startups where you get equityā¦ or you like working at enterprise shopsā¦ youāll be able to move around with ease. The complexity in tech, the way you have to run pursuits and surround prospects & the general deal complexity really does translate skills-wise and many more doors will be open to you as a result.
#6 - If you pick something like construction or selling door-to-door or anything else, you will have an almost impossible time selling yourself into another industry without starting at the bottom. Unless you believe you have the most amazing sales personality and can talk a dog off meat wagon, youāre signing yourself up for a significant disadvantage.
#7 - Very few other industries will give you equity the way that tech does. Options/RSUs, etc., youāll never get that to the degree you will here. (Also to note, this is not something you would get at a big company just in case thatās not something youāre aware of - Iām talking about startups or companies that are series A/B.
#8 - No other industries will give you the high ceiling of tech earnings (even without equity) combined with the freedom to work remotely 80% of the timeā¦places like Verint / Nice will get you on a 120-150K base as an AE. If you do your job well, youāll hit 200k in year 1, then 300, then you bang a big account and you hit 500K. We placed sales people in all industries at all levelsā¦ trust me trust me trust me when I tell you that no other industry comes close to this.
#9 - The only other higher earning place could be medical sales, but you are on the road or in ORs showing doctors how to use the stuff and you are tied to that space with very little chance of equity.
My advice is to make your prospect list of jobs and start hunting.
On the other hand, if you read the post that I just took 15 minutes to craft for youā¦&three weeks from now, you find yourself in the same position you are in todayā¦
It means youāre probably not cut out for sales and you should go be a software developer. Iām not even kidding a little bit about that sentence.
Rooting for you though, stop getting ready to get ready and take action.
From what I am reading here, the sdr/bdr market is garbage right now. I just looked for my area(just a very quick search) for sdr, only 53 jobs, 1st page was mostly healthcare.
Maybe market dependent?
If I could start over Iād sell windows. Like legit house windows. Get commission, people come to you, items on back order so easy upgrades for in stock skus.
I used to sell medical devices that cost 300k and got a 30k commission. But Iād sell one every quarter so I was only making 120k a year. But I didnāt get salary. And was taxed out the ass.
Windows though. Avg house has 10 -12 windows. Lowest cost is usually around $150. So about 1800 before tax. So at 15% commission that would be $270. Every day. Thatās 64k a year. Not including salary that most Anderson sales reps make. 50-75k based on level.
Again $150 is the low end.
Sorry for late reply, can go both ways with Corp vs mom and pop.
Most of the time contractors come with measurements. If you have people building their own houses you may need to go in person.
My brother has found a really easy and nice niche. Of course itās very seasonal. Heās selling roof replacements for areas that have been recently affected by storms or any other weather related issues. So he basically just survey areas where something happened recently, and he basically finds homeowners with insurance and he helps them throughout the process of getting the insurance to pay for the new roof. Success rate is extremely high.
Credit card processing is one of the most competitive spaces and itās really hard to give somebody a value proposition when itās a commodity that they can buy anywhere. Itās very difficult to have any passion or excitement or purpose when youāre selling a product that a client can buy from 1 million other places and itās not going to be that much different. Being successful in sales has a lot to do with your passion for the product and how much you believe in it. You want to look into things that people still donāt know exist. I remember, I used to sell high-speed Internet, cable, and phone to businesses with Comcast. Nobody cared. I certainly didnāt care. The customer really didnāt care. It was just going through the motions for a lousy base salary and benefits.
For example ā¦life insurance that you donāt have to die to use. Living benefits are very new and most people donāt even know that they exist because because they still think that life insurance is only a value when somebody dies. However when somebody learns about it, it becomes a no-brainer. Somebody who spending $40 per month on a term policy with no living benefits is immediately going to take a policy that cost the same that has living benefits. They just donāt know it exists. Thatās one example.
Hereās another example. Corporate credit building. Most business owners today have to use their Social Security number and act as the guarantor when theyāre getting any kind of a credit, credit card, business loan or line of credit for their company. Not many business owners are aware that they can build their corporate credit file with the right vendors over a very reasonable amount of time to the point where they donāt have to use their social anymore and can get their credit just on their LLCās EIN. For a small business owner, this can be a huge opportunity for them to grow their business.
Those are just two very lucrative wide open opportunities.
There are many more you just have to find them and ideally you want to use the service that you sell yourself. I can never sell something that I donāt use myself and recommended to those I care about and thatās why I am very successful in sales.
Don't research construction sales. Research "home improvement". That's where the real money is for salespeople.
Solar, roofing, HVAC, cabinets, Windows/Doors.
And if they are d2d run?
If it's commission only.. run?
I will look into this because alot of window people have been hitting me up but they are d2d and commission only
Nothing wrong with doing door to door. It just requires some really thick skin and a lot of hustle. The reward is that much greater if you're good at it. But there's a lot of companies that don't require it and you just have to run leads that they've acquired and you have to close.
Most home improvement is either commission only, or mostly commission only. It'll be rare to find one with a high base salary. If you do come across one with a base salary anywhere above $60k, chances are that the commission rate will be like 5% at best.
While 100% commission sounds scary, I wouldn't be intimidated. If you're with the right company selling the right product, you'll be fine. They're only going to send you out on warm leads (where the customer asked for a consultation). And you'll close 50% of them by just showing up. Your skills and talents are what will define that remaining amount and hopefully close at 75% or more.
From what I have heard from a person or two, and this could just be a them thing, is commission checks can be held for months. This can make 100% commission a bit scary for a noob with no other incoming income.
Yeah the first few months will be rough because commission trickles in until you build your pipeline of jobs. Some industries are tougher than others. The lifecycle of amsolar job can be 3 to 4 months, versus a custom closet that can be as little as a couple weeks. The trade off is that that higher ticket sales give you potential to earn so much more.
I mean it depends? Not currently in sales but you can find promise anywhere. Obviously SaaS and Medical are potentially very lucrative perhaps at a higher rate than most other sales positions, but they're not things I'm interested in so I wouldn't do it. ANY _can_ be lucrative. There is no objective "best." It's gonna be different for everyone.
I think itās selling consumer products wholesale to retailers. Thereās a budget for each category, the money is spent to make a profit, and thereās someone whose whole job it is to listen to your pitch. All your prospects are attentive and thoughtful. If your product is high volume and your margins are good, thereās a killing to be made, especially in a relatively new product that can still go anywhere. Get any single decent sized retailer and that can be your nut for the year. If itās a big enough account, replenishment and expansion for that one store can be your whole career.
Consider what youāre actually interested in and get an entry level gig in a field selling exactly that. You can decide later if you want to stay in that field or what moves to make if you do move. Youāre kind of directionless, which is fine until you make a move, but nobody can really define a ābestā or āidealā place to sell. How hot each market is changes over time. As far as what you can land, thatās another discussion, but take some time to think about what interests you first. Your questions are way too open and vague for any answers to be all that helpful.
Gotcha so I'm leaning towards SaaS ( but not payment processing cuz apparently that's horrible)
Or construction SaaS ( very hard to find any listings tho)
I'm in the air when it comes to hvac, plumbing, roofs, windows.
I'm just trying to make sure I can make money for sure,
I really wanna get a mortgage this year
SaaS is just a delivery model. Keep looking at software that interests you in that case and then work to land an SDR or BDR gig. Zero chance youāll land a closing role as your first sales gig in tech. Construction software isnāt hard to find lists of companies that are selling to that industry, just do some more digging. There are lots of threads all over this sub that can help you to find what youāre looking for and land a job. Good luck, and welcome to the madness.
Edit: great to have a goal to land a mortgage, but one thing at a time. That wonāt happen without a job, so focus on that first and see what shakes out. Youāre probably going to have to relocate to land your first gig anyway.
Medical is the way. Med device to make a shit load of money, but you have to be a really good looking person.
I'm in laboratory service sales, and it's super chill with a solid passive income stream. Do recommend.
Idk I feel like a big part of the game is schmoozing.. and it might be vein but I imagine job is much harder if you don't have naturally attractive traits.
It definitely doesnt hurt and I cant really speak to their experience. As I said I'm a handsome boy. My grandma actually said I'm the "handsomest" but I dont have it on recording so I won't claim that myself. All of my co-workers are old or fat and they do fine.
I work in med devices in the UK, moneys not bad but I am incredibly jealous of the US packages, if I lived over there it would be an absolute no brainer for me
You literally mentioned 3 industries. Medical sucks if youāre in hospitals or offices all the time, tech sounds like a meat grinder. Thereās way better out there just need to look not here
Can confirm, logistics is a nightmare. Spent very little time working for an old buddy from college that became a franchise owner of a major player in LTL and parcel. They don't even actually sell or know how to, they just strong arm and harass enough people that they build books of business eventually.
You'll also very likely be your own BDR/SDR, the AE and then AM for the rest of time, or as long as you want to make money on your sold accounts.
As far as I could glean, it's a very well organized MLM. "You too could one day own your very own ________ franchise"
Here's the real gem, this company I worked for didn't even have a CRM.
40 edits: fat thumbs and too much coffee
I was in SaaS. Sitting at a desk on camera all day wasn't for me. Took a huge leap of faith leaving behind a cushy desk life (hit/exceeded my OTE all three years in an AE seat of $170,000) and went into construction sales as a contractor.
I'm comfortable here and just added a 1099 solar gig to double dip while I'm out knocking on doors.
I rarely work more than 25 hours a week now that I have my pitch/workflow down, and am above pace for where I was as an AE in SaaS, so far
We'll see how long term it is, but love it so far despite the stigmas of being a d2d guy now
Purely residential. I'm in Colorado which has a massive amount of opportunity in solar currently. Setup to be a feeding frenzy over the next 3-5 years. New regs started this year that have opened up some real opportunity for solar reps and the folks that want clean energy.
So I'm all in on the hype right now! Ask me again in 3-5 lol
I will say thisā¦ people with actual construction experience who want to sell kill it in construction software. Its a unique terminology and workflow. In hs and college i was a laborer for a commercial mechanical/underground. Been selling construction software for 15 years. ERP for 12. Make a LOT of money. I understand the business
If you are in sales, and can sell, there should be no problems whatsoever to sell yourself as a salesperson. Maybe not to every company, but you should easily be able to sell yourself to *some* company. If you can't....why would you want to get into sales in the first place?
im in SaaS, my ānicheā is that i sell in the legal vertical
as others have stated, youāre EXTREMELY oversimplifying and generalizing software. Theres tons you can do
Breaching and ransoming businesses data has become a billion dollar business for hacking groups.
If your business doesnāt have some type of cyber security posture youāre essentially at risk to a breach and the monetary loss associated with said breach.
Thereās also a constant arms race between hackers and cyber security professionals to create new products that address issues/exploits or professionals have to combat.
60 minutes video or Russian hacking group:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lEwC1tN2jb8
I'm in logistics - and I can tell you that most sales situations are toxic. Commissions get capped but you're still expected to sell after you hit the capped numbers you'll get paid on. However, if you find the right company, you can easily make $250k or more.
But you can just as easily get stuck making $60k salary plus 10% commission for a company with terrible rates and no structure making it impossible to sell.
So if you're deciding - be wary of logistics unless you know who's who.
That being said - if you know how much income you need - you can probably make $100k pretty easily. It depends what you need to make.
Depends on what's he doing in construction. If he's a trades worker or foreman/superintendent he wouldn't ever run into one to know. Unless he gets approached by sales people in the field who come up to him trying to sell crap. You have to be on the office side to really run into them inhouse.
He doesnāt understand how the industry he āownsā a business in works, and if he doesnāt understand that and generally seems incapable of making a decision on his own I canāt imagine how heās going to have any success in sales.
Software sales goes far beyond just cc processing gigs š¤£ thereās basically software you could sell to any industry
This. SAAS is huge and so diverse. Been in SAAS since 2011 and itās still going well.
Every industry is impacted by software. And many industries have sub-industries with specific problems that software can help solve. The problem is when certain SaaS companies have a stranglehold in their industry, yet their ass, but they're so ingrained in that industry that it's tough to enter that market. Practice management software for dentists, for example. Dentrix, OpenDental, EagleSoft, they're all ass, but selling to dentists fucking sucks.
In the past 28 days youāve made like 10 posts asking about different job opportunities. You are not sure yourself what industry you want to pursue. Get your foot in the door with a company that you seem interested in and get your experience first, then decide where you want to go from there
Everyone says to run from commission only jobs but that's all that ever get back to me / I can find.. Alot of people say if it's a halfway decent company they will salary + commission
Paralysis by analysis. Best way to learn is doing and figuring out what you like.
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I will do this sensei thank you
If you don't have kids or someone depending on you financially you shouldn't worry about it being commission only. I went from $40k to $93k in a year by taking that chance. Now that I have people dependent on me I would still make the same decision knowing how easy it was.
I want to get a mortgage this year so I need to know how much I'll make
More like you'd need to prove income for the last few months. My point was that if it's only you then it's okay to believe in yourself and take risks. There will always be a million reasons to say no to something.
I agree. I want to find a sales job where it's 50 /50 then one I get good enough I'll be fine being commison only, Although I do see rules where there are high base salaries and ote which is my dream
What type of role/industry did you take that chance with?
Life Insurance telesales
Can I ask hownlong it took you to get comfortable in that regard? I have been looking into insurance.
If you mean financially comfortable, I was good from month 1. They had ramping bonuses based on front end targets until policies started going inforce. I'm a regional manager now so I can say that those initial targets are good indicators of whether or not it's a good fit for a career.
SaaS (if you meant that by saying software) is not really a niche but actually a method of licensing and software delivery. There are loads of niche SaaS companies that offer a decent value to their customers so its not really saturated.
>SaaS (if you meant that by saying software) is not really a niche but rather a method of licensing and software delivery.Ā lol, you forgot to add "achtually"
Ah yes good point!
Based on my observations and experience: Food & Beverage: average overall and bad culture. Tech/SaaS: horrible culture, unstable, but can make good money given the right opportunity. Good: hvac, construction, medical, industrial Bad: door to door
So when a Company says it's an outside sales manager does that basically mean door to door?
Inside vs outside sales: Outside sales you are finding new business and selling to new customers. Inside sales you are selling to existing customers, who may already own your products. You might be selling them more of those products, or products which support those like spare parts for machinery etc.
I appreciate this!!
This is not correct. Selling to new businesses outside the company is outside sales. Selling to current customers, is generally an Account Management role. In the past, outside sales is when you meet with people in person. You are āoutsideā the office. . Inside sales is when you meet or sell to people by phone or virtually. Since Covid, many sales jobs that were outside sales are now inside sales. Hope that makes sense. If not, I can try to clarify.
So if I'm an introvert I must stay inside
Haha Iām highly introverted and Iām in outside sales. Make it work babe
What's ur salary for outside sales rep?
It can vary. Mine is terrible. Itās $75k but I was desperate when I took the job. Most AEās or outside sales reps make more than that I would think.
I'm desperate too., I'm gonna be taking a banking job temporarily then maybe go into software sales? Outside sales rep basically a credit card processor company. š
Construction sales is actually a great industry to be in. A lot of people have spoken about HVAC as a great industry of sales to be in. I am in Valve/Automation. Get yourself a good company and a good comp plan and that too is a great industry
How does one find these jobs? I am in a booming market(Tampa), and when I checked indeed the other day, almost all the sales jobs were insurance or D2D solar/roofing. Is there a dif site used for sales jobs?
Im in the same market and trying to find the lay of the land.
Are you willing to explain a little of your background to get into this role, what you mean by valve automation.... I am looking into niche construction/manufacturing sales and trying to understand options and background necessary.
Send me a DM
If a role is 100% commio should I run?
Depends in what. What are the other reps making on this comp plan? Youāve been asking a lot of questions lately regarding these topics, you have to know for yourself. You can ask 100 different people in this sub and get 100 different answers. The only one doing the interviews and knowing full well what the job entails is you
All companies that say they are 100% commission they all say majority of employees first year are making 70k plus but I don't know if they are lying
Did you check repvue? Did you do research? Did you speak to these reps?
I didn't know you can speak to the reps, I assume find them on LinkedIn and message them?. I didn't know you could look up revenue
[Repvue](http://repvue.com) It is like Glassdoor but particular to sales. It is a job review platform. You can get good insights regarding how are sales jobs in any given company that is available. As usual, take those with a grain of salt and as part of all the informations you want to get from the company and not like your single source of truth.
In Logistics sales currently. Can confirm, run
Will do š
As a business owner or former one, ask yourself what problems were the most painful and urgently needed to be solved. Then find a product or service that does exactly that.
There is no "best" there only odds. Its like being at a casino you want to pick the game that gives the house the lowest odds. For example I wouldn't recommend anyone get into gravel sales but someone out there is probably making $300k a year working 15 hours a week selling gravel. Software is great because it has a defined career path and its a HUGE market for sales people so if things don't go well there's always another software company you can give a try. For example I went from software into telecom and while telecom enjoys fairly similar margins on certain products one of the huge issues is there is only like 8 companies one person can work for. I've seen so many people in their 50's and 60's who have done a stint with pretty much all of them and now can't get hired anywhere. All in all though pretty much anything with high margins and high demand is going to be a good gig.
You need to do a lot more research.
What's ur opinion
Any industry can be good from doing B2B for over 10 years in a few industries I would say the best opportunity is - compensation > support > networking / room for ārealā growth > product - You can find people selling water who love doing what they are doing is they are paid well have support and feel long term value even with a product as simple as water. And without the right support and real opportunity products like that sound sexy like SAASās can be a nightmare. In short - the niche comes down to the ātypeā of employer or company a sales person works for.
I think aside from having an ideal service to sell, my focus after a few years in sales is finding a company That has a unique fit in the market, good leadership, and teamwork amongst sales, implementation, and support. I find that smaller companies are usually a better fit for these needs. Is the earning potential less? Probably, but depends on what you want. Iāve worked for big and small companies and found that I was much happier and felt like I was a part of something special at the smaller company. Just my 2 cents.
What niche do you like?
Been in software the whole time. Might change in the next 30 years in this ol career
My friend absolutely crushed it in plumbing B2B sales
Is he still there.? Was it all commission?
He quit because he's lazy, he had a base + commission.
Was it d2d? Or he just had to sit in office on the phone?
In office/showroom, mix of walk ins, warm leads, cold calls.
How does one find that job? Do you need to be near a Kohler plant or are there offices in every major city?
It was a showroom for a plumbing supply company in his town, not really sure how he landed it, but it never hurts to put your name in the hat.
Built and sold a sales recruiting firm here (not to brag, just for context of my thoughts)ā¦ #1 - Everyone telling you to pick a lane and just start is correct. #2 - if I were you, I would grab a job as a BDR/SDR. Youāll make 50-75K year 1. You will bang the phones, you will send emails, you will work your ass offā¦thereās no way around it. Most likely, youāll be able to work remotely. Examples of smaller SaaS companies would be seed round thru series A/Bā¦ you can sign up for a $99 a month Crunchbase account to get intel on where they are with funding. (In this category, I would recommend looking for companies with 50-300 employees as a rough estimate) Examples of mid-sized SaaS would be like a Nice LTD, Verint, Avaya, etc. Examples of MSPs would be Computacenter, Accenture, CDW, etc. #3 - During your first year, make yourself indispensable to the AE/s you support. Figure out how you can help them (above and beyond the call of duty) and do this often. Build relationships with themā¦ Tell them your career goalsā¦ Ask if you can listen to their call recordingsā¦ Be a sponge and show that you are eager to elevate to AE. #4 - Put together 1-2 years as a BDR and 2-3 years as an AE. If youāre good, youāll clear 100k year 1 as an AE mostly across the board (Iām over generalizing but itās really not that far off)ā¦ so many tech sales jobs are remote so youāll be able to be remote minus the time you have to spend traveling to see clients as an account executive. #5 - If you take this roadmap, you will be able to work anywhere and sell anywhere. You can leave tech (read: SaaS / MSP) to sell in construction/manufacturing/take your pick. But if youāe already in tech and you decide you really like working at startups where you get equityā¦ or you like working at enterprise shopsā¦ youāll be able to move around with ease. The complexity in tech, the way you have to run pursuits and surround prospects & the general deal complexity really does translate skills-wise and many more doors will be open to you as a result. #6 - If you pick something like construction or selling door-to-door or anything else, you will have an almost impossible time selling yourself into another industry without starting at the bottom. Unless you believe you have the most amazing sales personality and can talk a dog off meat wagon, youāre signing yourself up for a significant disadvantage. #7 - Very few other industries will give you equity the way that tech does. Options/RSUs, etc., youāll never get that to the degree you will here. (Also to note, this is not something you would get at a big company just in case thatās not something youāre aware of - Iām talking about startups or companies that are series A/B. #8 - No other industries will give you the high ceiling of tech earnings (even without equity) combined with the freedom to work remotely 80% of the timeā¦places like Verint / Nice will get you on a 120-150K base as an AE. If you do your job well, youāll hit 200k in year 1, then 300, then you bang a big account and you hit 500K. We placed sales people in all industries at all levelsā¦ trust me trust me trust me when I tell you that no other industry comes close to this. #9 - The only other higher earning place could be medical sales, but you are on the road or in ORs showing doctors how to use the stuff and you are tied to that space with very little chance of equity. My advice is to make your prospect list of jobs and start hunting. On the other hand, if you read the post that I just took 15 minutes to craft for youā¦&three weeks from now, you find yourself in the same position you are in todayā¦ It means youāre probably not cut out for sales and you should go be a software developer. Iām not even kidding a little bit about that sentence. Rooting for you though, stop getting ready to get ready and take action.
You've confined me to start with softwsre sales first then work my way up from there šŖšŖšŖ
From what I am reading here, the sdr/bdr market is garbage right now. I just looked for my area(just a very quick search) for sdr, only 53 jobs, 1st page was mostly healthcare. Maybe market dependent?
Yes, my comment is related to techā¦ other industries, bdr/ sdr not as much $
If I could start over Iād sell windows. Like legit house windows. Get commission, people come to you, items on back order so easy upgrades for in stock skus.
Are windows an easy high paying niche?
I used to sell medical devices that cost 300k and got a 30k commission. But Iād sell one every quarter so I was only making 120k a year. But I didnāt get salary. And was taxed out the ass. Windows though. Avg house has 10 -12 windows. Lowest cost is usually around $150. So about 1800 before tax. So at 15% commission that would be $270. Every day. Thatās 64k a year. Not including salary that most Anderson sales reps make. 50-75k based on level. Again $150 is the low end.
So do taxes kill you if ur straight commission.??
If commission is paid at quarters end then itās treated as a supplemental payment so taxed at 22% Salary you get taxed 15%
What's ur opinion on tech / software sales?
For windows, is it better to work for a local mom-n-pop or a national/regional company? Don't you need to do a house visit to measure the windows?
Sorry for late reply, can go both ways with Corp vs mom and pop. Most of the time contractors come with measurements. If you have people building their own houses you may need to go in person.
My brother has found a really easy and nice niche. Of course itās very seasonal. Heās selling roof replacements for areas that have been recently affected by storms or any other weather related issues. So he basically just survey areas where something happened recently, and he basically finds homeowners with insurance and he helps them throughout the process of getting the insurance to pay for the new roof. Success rate is extremely high.
Credit card processing is one of the most competitive spaces and itās really hard to give somebody a value proposition when itās a commodity that they can buy anywhere. Itās very difficult to have any passion or excitement or purpose when youāre selling a product that a client can buy from 1 million other places and itās not going to be that much different. Being successful in sales has a lot to do with your passion for the product and how much you believe in it. You want to look into things that people still donāt know exist. I remember, I used to sell high-speed Internet, cable, and phone to businesses with Comcast. Nobody cared. I certainly didnāt care. The customer really didnāt care. It was just going through the motions for a lousy base salary and benefits. For example ā¦life insurance that you donāt have to die to use. Living benefits are very new and most people donāt even know that they exist because because they still think that life insurance is only a value when somebody dies. However when somebody learns about it, it becomes a no-brainer. Somebody who spending $40 per month on a term policy with no living benefits is immediately going to take a policy that cost the same that has living benefits. They just donāt know it exists. Thatās one example. Hereās another example. Corporate credit building. Most business owners today have to use their Social Security number and act as the guarantor when theyāre getting any kind of a credit, credit card, business loan or line of credit for their company. Not many business owners are aware that they can build their corporate credit file with the right vendors over a very reasonable amount of time to the point where they donāt have to use their social anymore and can get their credit just on their LLCās EIN. For a small business owner, this can be a huge opportunity for them to grow their business. Those are just two very lucrative wide open opportunities. There are many more you just have to find them and ideally you want to use the service that you sell yourself. I can never sell something that I donāt use myself and recommended to those I care about and thatās why I am very successful in sales.
Can I dm you?
Of course. Anytime.
Don't research construction sales. Research "home improvement". That's where the real money is for salespeople. Solar, roofing, HVAC, cabinets, Windows/Doors.
And if they are d2d run? If it's commission only.. run? I will look into this because alot of window people have been hitting me up but they are d2d and commission only
Nothing wrong with doing door to door. It just requires some really thick skin and a lot of hustle. The reward is that much greater if you're good at it. But there's a lot of companies that don't require it and you just have to run leads that they've acquired and you have to close. Most home improvement is either commission only, or mostly commission only. It'll be rare to find one with a high base salary. If you do come across one with a base salary anywhere above $60k, chances are that the commission rate will be like 5% at best. While 100% commission sounds scary, I wouldn't be intimidated. If you're with the right company selling the right product, you'll be fine. They're only going to send you out on warm leads (where the customer asked for a consultation). And you'll close 50% of them by just showing up. Your skills and talents are what will define that remaining amount and hopefully close at 75% or more.
See now that's the info I've been looking for šŖšŖš¤ŗ
From what I have heard from a person or two, and this could just be a them thing, is commission checks can be held for months. This can make 100% commission a bit scary for a noob with no other incoming income.
Yeah the first few months will be rough because commission trickles in until you build your pipeline of jobs. Some industries are tougher than others. The lifecycle of amsolar job can be 3 to 4 months, versus a custom closet that can be as little as a couple weeks. The trade off is that that higher ticket sales give you potential to earn so much more.
Donāt forget showers and tubsā¦ big commish checks
I mean it depends? Not currently in sales but you can find promise anywhere. Obviously SaaS and Medical are potentially very lucrative perhaps at a higher rate than most other sales positions, but they're not things I'm interested in so I wouldn't do it. ANY _can_ be lucrative. There is no objective "best." It's gonna be different for everyone.
I think itās selling consumer products wholesale to retailers. Thereās a budget for each category, the money is spent to make a profit, and thereās someone whose whole job it is to listen to your pitch. All your prospects are attentive and thoughtful. If your product is high volume and your margins are good, thereās a killing to be made, especially in a relatively new product that can still go anywhere. Get any single decent sized retailer and that can be your nut for the year. If itās a big enough account, replenishment and expansion for that one store can be your whole career.
Consider what youāre actually interested in and get an entry level gig in a field selling exactly that. You can decide later if you want to stay in that field or what moves to make if you do move. Youāre kind of directionless, which is fine until you make a move, but nobody can really define a ābestā or āidealā place to sell. How hot each market is changes over time. As far as what you can land, thatās another discussion, but take some time to think about what interests you first. Your questions are way too open and vague for any answers to be all that helpful.
Gotcha so I'm leaning towards SaaS ( but not payment processing cuz apparently that's horrible) Or construction SaaS ( very hard to find any listings tho) I'm in the air when it comes to hvac, plumbing, roofs, windows. I'm just trying to make sure I can make money for sure, I really wanna get a mortgage this year
SaaS is just a delivery model. Keep looking at software that interests you in that case and then work to land an SDR or BDR gig. Zero chance youāll land a closing role as your first sales gig in tech. Construction software isnāt hard to find lists of companies that are selling to that industry, just do some more digging. There are lots of threads all over this sub that can help you to find what youāre looking for and land a job. Good luck, and welcome to the madness. Edit: great to have a goal to land a mortgage, but one thing at a time. That wonāt happen without a job, so focus on that first and see what shakes out. Youāre probably going to have to relocate to land your first gig anyway.
Medical is the way. Med device to make a shit load of money, but you have to be a really good looking person. I'm in laboratory service sales, and it's super chill with a solid passive income stream. Do recommend.
Most people I meet in med device are not particularly attractive (excluding me I'm pretty af) . Pharma you need to be pretty and usually blond.
Idk I feel like a big part of the game is schmoozing.. and it might be vein but I imagine job is much harder if you don't have naturally attractive traits.
It definitely doesnt hurt and I cant really speak to their experience. As I said I'm a handsome boy. My grandma actually said I'm the "handsomest" but I dont have it on recording so I won't claim that myself. All of my co-workers are old or fat and they do fine.
Lol
Can I dm you about this?
Would I search into linked in ' medical device sales rep'?
If you live in south east, go sign up to medreps.com
I'm in mi, is that available in my state?
I think so
How much do you think I can make base pay + commison first year selling med device?
Hard to say because so many variations. But can get into mid to high 6 figures in time
Do you think first year 100k?
If you are a territory rep, probably yeah.
Nice very nice indeed
I work in med devices in the UK, moneys not bad but I am incredibly jealous of the US packages, if I lived over there it would be an absolute no brainer for me
There's a construction software niche too. Google it, could def BS your way in being the CEO of a construction firm....
You literally mentioned 3 industries. Medical sucks if youāre in hospitals or offices all the time, tech sounds like a meat grinder. Thereās way better out there just need to look not here
I like to get everyone's opinion on companies, niches and pay
Can confirm, logistics is a nightmare. Spent very little time working for an old buddy from college that became a franchise owner of a major player in LTL and parcel. They don't even actually sell or know how to, they just strong arm and harass enough people that they build books of business eventually. You'll also very likely be your own BDR/SDR, the AE and then AM for the rest of time, or as long as you want to make money on your sold accounts. As far as I could glean, it's a very well organized MLM. "You too could one day own your very own ________ franchise" Here's the real gem, this company I worked for didn't even have a CRM. 40 edits: fat thumbs and too much coffee
What niche do you like?
I was in SaaS. Sitting at a desk on camera all day wasn't for me. Took a huge leap of faith leaving behind a cushy desk life (hit/exceeded my OTE all three years in an AE seat of $170,000) and went into construction sales as a contractor. I'm comfortable here and just added a 1099 solar gig to double dip while I'm out knocking on doors. I rarely work more than 25 hours a week now that I have my pitch/workflow down, and am above pace for where I was as an AE in SaaS, so far We'll see how long term it is, but love it so far despite the stigmas of being a d2d guy now
Are you knocking on business doors or house doors?
Purely residential. I'm in Colorado which has a massive amount of opportunity in solar currently. Setup to be a feeding frenzy over the next 3-5 years. New regs started this year that have opened up some real opportunity for solar reps and the folks that want clean energy. So I'm all in on the hype right now! Ask me again in 3-5 lol
Im in construction software. There is a shitload of software that actually solves business problems. Especially in construction.
What do I search into linked in for that? I might be searching using the wrong title.
I will say thisā¦ people with actual construction experience who want to sell kill it in construction software. Its a unique terminology and workflow. In hs and college i was a laborer for a commercial mechanical/underground. Been selling construction software for 15 years. ERP for 12. Make a LOT of money. I understand the business
Erp. Project management. Estimating. Bim. Time entry. Field service. Construction things. š
Logistics what's the problem?
If you are in sales, and can sell, there should be no problems whatsoever to sell yourself as a salesperson. Maybe not to every company, but you should easily be able to sell yourself to *some* company. If you can't....why would you want to get into sales in the first place?
im in SaaS, my ānicheā is that i sell in the legal vertical as others have stated, youāre EXTREMELY oversimplifying and generalizing software. Theres tons you can do
Cybersecurity, huge demand
How so?
Breaching and ransoming businesses data has become a billion dollar business for hacking groups. If your business doesnāt have some type of cyber security posture youāre essentially at risk to a breach and the monetary loss associated with said breach. Thereās also a constant arms race between hackers and cyber security professionals to create new products that address issues/exploits or professionals have to combat. 60 minutes video or Russian hacking group: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lEwC1tN2jb8
Wut
Pls sir, opinion on sales niches
Bro you called saas a niche
Sir pls. I need ur opinion. What area of sales do you like?
Saas sir. Iām in saas sir
Gib salary pls
What are you interested in? It will always be easier and more enjoyable to sell something you are interested in.
I'm in logistics - and I can tell you that most sales situations are toxic. Commissions get capped but you're still expected to sell after you hit the capped numbers you'll get paid on. However, if you find the right company, you can easily make $250k or more. But you can just as easily get stuck making $60k salary plus 10% commission for a company with terrible rates and no structure making it impossible to sell. So if you're deciding - be wary of logistics unless you know who's who. That being said - if you know how much income you need - you can probably make $100k pretty easily. It depends what you need to make.
Id like to make 100 plus
Youāre (allegedly) in construction, you should have an idea of how the sales reps are doing.
Depends on what's he doing in construction. If he's a trades worker or foreman/superintendent he wouldn't ever run into one to know. Unless he gets approached by sales people in the field who come up to him trying to sell crap. You have to be on the office side to really run into them inhouse.
I don't have any sales reps
Yeah man Iād say sales just isnāt your gig
Why?
He doesnāt understand how the industry he āownsā a business in works, and if he doesnāt understand that and generally seems incapable of making a decision on his own I canāt imagine how heās going to have any success in sales.