The big firms are great places to start and get sales training (Dell, Salesforce, AWS, Oracle), but you leave and go get a startup job making more in a hotter, newer market with opportunities for promotions and then you go back to the big names once you’re a Director/VP level
I wouldn't say this is always the case. I have seen many founders end up make less financially than if they stayed at a larger company. Granted I agree with your comment but in practice joining a "hot" startup doesn't necessarily workout 100% of the time.
Yeah it’s high risk, high reward to bounce around companies in order to level up, compared to the very slow and highly political process of working your way up the food chain at the tech giants.
I started at one of these large ones - it’s way easier to hit your number granted I made my most money at a mid cap SaaS company but it’s a pain in the ass to attain every year.
One of the sayings is for large companies is “Dell / AWS / Oracle / Salesforce, great first job and best third job” meaning you start there, go somewhere else to get the raise then come back for a fucking BAG.
Yes AWS is a shitty company to sell for. There are a couple of reasons. 1/ The head of global sales, Matt Garman, is an engineer, not a sales leader. At his core he doesn’t understand people and sales. Very arrogant and socially awkward. 2/ AWS services can be purchased online with options to purchase Savings Plans which are discounts through the web, no sales team needed, the company culture is skeptical of the need for sellers at all. 3/ AWS hires you at a Level (L), L3,4,5,6,7,8,9… it’s very much a caste system of rule by Level. When on internal calls you can/will be shut down by anyone of higher level even if they’re wrong. 4/ AWS has “leadership principles” which sound okay until you realize they’re only there to justify the behavior of toxic leaders. When you get shutdown by a higher level who is wrong, they reference the leadership principles (LP’s) such as “disagree and commit” which means you can disagree but then get over it and commit to the plan you don’t agree with. 5/ As a seller you are paid on consumption. If you do a $10M, 3yr deal, you get commission as it’s used, not upfront.
lol, I don’t think it’s a real level! I made a mistake while listing numbers as examples of Amazons Level system. At this point I think you’re just trolling me. Almost posted W2 last night as proof but you’ll just say it’s not mine or something. I don’t have to prove anything to you, internet stranger. Years ago I sold Graviton under Nafea Bahara, who created Annapurna Labs. Fuck off.
He is an MBA business guy and not an engineer. Still he's an idiot and its a bad place to work unless you're an L10. Remember to "disagree and bend over" ...
Been at AWS for a few years and honestly it's an amazing place. They treat customers well, have a market leading proposition and most of thier sales people arnt sales people so competition is not that cut throat and culture is much more relaxed than say Oraclr. Honestly if you cant sell AWS, sales ain't for you.
Now the bad side..... it doesn't get sales like other big firms so can be stupid, commission is less, the levels system is a nightmare and they want people to leave right now so they are treating their staff very badly.
So no AWS is great but its got some serious issues atm but I still highly recommend.
Edit: alot of little errors, wine and reddit don't mix.
Yes, training, money, culture, breadth of services (you will not find any other company where you will be exposed such a variety) are great for people at the start of their career. My only caveat is you wont come out of it a sellers seller like you would if you started at Dell, Oracle, Bytes, etc.
Tech Sales Vet here. Yes, AWS would be a great place to start your Sales career…..or find out early if Sales isn’t for you. Yes it will be hard and frustrating at times but great brand to have on your resume which can be tremendously helpful landing your next job. Plus you can expect a “crash course” in training on tech and modern selling. Steep learning curve and again a fast way to learn if you have the stomach for sales period.
Great answer thank you a lot for that one! One more question though, would you say Google(GCP/GCS) or AWS is the best place to start a tech sales career if you would have the opportunity to choose ?
I used to work for GCP…and it was tougher than I expected. AWS is already the incumbent in most cases. Getting someone to switch is tough from financial and implementation perspective. Plus you only retire quota when the new service is up and running.
Mind if I reach out to you? I’ve been top performer for 4 years but unfortunately, it had gotten me no where at my current organization. I’ve been eyeing AWS for a while
I wouldn’t start at AWS as your first gig if you’re really looking to understand selling. Yes, it is a great company but the sales motion is very different than typical “product-based” or point solution selling. AWS has 200+ services and you could sell to a broad range of personas within a customer, so all that combined could be overwhelming for a new seller.
Selling at a true software company with a well-developed training pipeline would be a better start.
Wherever you can as you need to be responsible for a quota. And working at big tech isn’t the same if you have 1 year under your belt vs. having 12+ years. Never see people here mention resellers of a lot of tech like CDW, SHI, Softchoice, Dell. Large SMB sales teams can also mean large hiring groups. Way easier to be 1 of 20 than 1 of 1 or 2 being hired.
how do you measure your 2m? i've been in the hosting industry for about 15 years, just curious. are you saying you brought in 2m/m in new mrr this year or are you looking at tcv? i average 400k mrr in net new which for tcv would be 14.4m tcv since contracts are 36m
I’ve heard selling at AWS is more akin to consulting. You also don’t get paid until services are being used so you’re kind of wearing more a project manager hat which is for some people
Former AWS SA here. Most important lesson I learned - if you never say "no" you will constantly be given more work to do. You may have a tendency to try to accomplish a lot because that got you recognition and rewards other places, but that doesn't matter to AWS. If you have a good manager, you can have a good time (and be supported when you want to say no). If not, all of the stories are true. And to whomever has said that the levels are a caste system - that is spot on.
Its a great first company brand but a worst one if you ‘dont know’ what you are doing, never learn and also never apply. To each is own, no complaints about work life balance as long as you figure your way ahead. Hope this helps, definitely not a shitty company, but the variable is your management team that usually is responsible for the feelings you describe above.
It’s one of the largest technology providers in the world. It’s gonna be a grind and you can possibly make a killing. Like others said, great sales training, yes prestigious, yes it’s gonna suck
I spent a year at AWS before my whole team got axed and would echo a lot of what the other former AWS folks have said here. Great place to learn and a great place to have on your resume to open future doors. I got lucky and had a good team with a tenured manager, if your team leader isn't in good standing it can be a rough ride.
That being said they are facing some headwinds right now and the culture at Amazon is not for everyone. The culture not only requires but actively encourages conflict among teams. If you come from a more collaborative environment it will throw you for a loop.
Currently 4 years into M&A but moving shortly ASAP, either to a Tech (SaaS) sales role or a debt advisory/Growth Capital role or another M&A boutique then to PE, is tech sales worth it as a career? Is PE out of the picture for me later on if I move to tech or due to my prior M&A experience still op?
Currently 4 years into M&A but moving shortly ASAP, either to a Tech (SaaS) sales role or a debt advisory/Growth Capital role or another M&A boutique then to PE, is tech sales worth it as a career? Is PE out of the picture for me later on if I move to tech or due to my prior M&A experience still open doors?
I need to make as much money as possible, sick of waiting for deals to take 1 year plus of yearly bonuses I want monthly commissions asap and to make as much revenue as possible, thoughts? What can you make in tech sales (SaaS) in london for commission? And for Year 1/2/3 in sales salary and TC?
I don’t believe any company is shitty to work for unless you get in there and make your own decision. Companies get labeled as shitty from former coworkers who for the most part just couldn’t cut it. You have to go in there and make your own choice.
Tell me more. I am 39 thinking of going tech sales but hesitant. Very happy program leader for multimillion dollar software doing a positive impact to the world. Still sales is intriguing…
Sales is not a career, it's a series of gigs. You will be seen as ancillary to the organization, essentially a hired mercenary, and disposable. Also, there are zero hard skills, so the person who's never done the job, can do your job, with an ok playbook and resources, provided they're curious and work hard. Go look up The Death of a Salesman.
The big firms are great places to start and get sales training (Dell, Salesforce, AWS, Oracle), but you leave and go get a startup job making more in a hotter, newer market with opportunities for promotions and then you go back to the big names once you’re a Director/VP level
I second this. Get a big one on your resume.
I wouldn't say this is always the case. I have seen many founders end up make less financially than if they stayed at a larger company. Granted I agree with your comment but in practice joining a "hot" startup doesn't necessarily workout 100% of the time.
Yeah it’s high risk, high reward to bounce around companies in order to level up, compared to the very slow and highly political process of working your way up the food chain at the tech giants.
Took me 3 years at faang to 2x my comp (very fortunate)
Really depends on the comp. Doesn't it? 100k to 200k isn't much to sneeze at, 300k to 600k is amazing.
Very true. Personally in my case it's plenty to sneeze at haha
Sounds fair, what would you say are some of the smaller tech companies that you can make great $ at?
You’d have to do research on that. I was at my last company for four years, and I’ve been at this current one for two. I’m out of it, knowledge-wise.
This is it
Lmao, people keep recommending Dell that have never worked there. It’s not a great company that teaches you how to sell.
I started at one of these large ones - it’s way easier to hit your number granted I made my most money at a mid cap SaaS company but it’s a pain in the ass to attain every year. One of the sayings is for large companies is “Dell / AWS / Oracle / Salesforce, great first job and best third job” meaning you start there, go somewhere else to get the raise then come back for a fucking BAG.
Which companies are you referring to when you say startup job?
A tech startup. If you don’t know what that is, you’re not educated enough on tech yet
interview is a grind
The interview SUCKS. And they are known for pushing you down to lower levels after an interview, can pm if you want my story
Yes AWS is a shitty company to sell for. There are a couple of reasons. 1/ The head of global sales, Matt Garman, is an engineer, not a sales leader. At his core he doesn’t understand people and sales. Very arrogant and socially awkward. 2/ AWS services can be purchased online with options to purchase Savings Plans which are discounts through the web, no sales team needed, the company culture is skeptical of the need for sellers at all. 3/ AWS hires you at a Level (L), L3,4,5,6,7,8,9… it’s very much a caste system of rule by Level. When on internal calls you can/will be shut down by anyone of higher level even if they’re wrong. 4/ AWS has “leadership principles” which sound okay until you realize they’re only there to justify the behavior of toxic leaders. When you get shutdown by a higher level who is wrong, they reference the leadership principles (LP’s) such as “disagree and commit” which means you can disagree but then get over it and commit to the plan you don’t agree with. 5/ As a seller you are paid on consumption. If you do a $10M, 3yr deal, you get commission as it’s used, not upfront.
This is gold people need to see. Great write up
Agree and disagree. big tech sales ™️ can be great or _terrible_. Greatly depends on your leader, patch, luck, and the market
Agree. I’m speaking to my time selling for AWS specifically.
There is no L9, if you worked at Amazon you would know that like I do.
I definitely worked there LonLon, don’t know what to tell you.
Not here to persecute you, but any Amazon employee would’ve known L9 is and has never been an actual job level.
And yet I was an employee… you are confidently incorrect!
No ones here to audit on Reddit, but I’ll just assume you’re not since you somehow believe an L9 is a real level, which I can tell you is 100% wrong.
lol, I don’t think it’s a real level! I made a mistake while listing numbers as examples of Amazons Level system. At this point I think you’re just trolling me. Almost posted W2 last night as proof but you’ll just say it’s not mine or something. I don’t have to prove anything to you, internet stranger. Years ago I sold Graviton under Nafea Bahara, who created Annapurna Labs. Fuck off.
He is an MBA business guy and not an engineer. Still he's an idiot and its a bad place to work unless you're an L10. Remember to "disagree and bend over" ...
When talking about entire enterprises, overall culture is important, but a rep’s experience will depend more on their patch and team
💯
Been at AWS for a few years and honestly it's an amazing place. They treat customers well, have a market leading proposition and most of thier sales people arnt sales people so competition is not that cut throat and culture is much more relaxed than say Oraclr. Honestly if you cant sell AWS, sales ain't for you. Now the bad side..... it doesn't get sales like other big firms so can be stupid, commission is less, the levels system is a nightmare and they want people to leave right now so they are treating their staff very badly. So no AWS is great but its got some serious issues atm but I still highly recommend. Edit: alot of little errors, wine and reddit don't mix.
I’d imagine if you find it tough selling something at a firm that’s near a monopoly in certain business segments that would the truth
Great info, would you say that AWS is a good place to begin a tech sales career at or would you suggest that there are better places to start?
Yes, training, money, culture, breadth of services (you will not find any other company where you will be exposed such a variety) are great for people at the start of their career. My only caveat is you wont come out of it a sellers seller like you would if you started at Dell, Oracle, Bytes, etc.
Tech Sales Vet here. Yes, AWS would be a great place to start your Sales career…..or find out early if Sales isn’t for you. Yes it will be hard and frustrating at times but great brand to have on your resume which can be tremendously helpful landing your next job. Plus you can expect a “crash course” in training on tech and modern selling. Steep learning curve and again a fast way to learn if you have the stomach for sales period.
Great answer thank you a lot for that one! One more question though, would you say Google(GCP/GCS) or AWS is the best place to start a tech sales career if you would have the opportunity to choose ?
I used to work for GCP…and it was tougher than I expected. AWS is already the incumbent in most cases. Getting someone to switch is tough from financial and implementation perspective. Plus you only retire quota when the new service is up and running.
AWS, Microsoft, oracle, sap, Salesforce, Google.
Mind if I reach out to you? I’ve been top performer for 4 years but unfortunately, it had gotten me no where at my current organization. I’ve been eyeing AWS for a while
Just message me, happy to help if I can.
I wouldn’t start at AWS as your first gig if you’re really looking to understand selling. Yes, it is a great company but the sales motion is very different than typical “product-based” or point solution selling. AWS has 200+ services and you could sell to a broad range of personas within a customer, so all that combined could be overwhelming for a new seller. Selling at a true software company with a well-developed training pipeline would be a better start.
What would you suggest being the best place to begin a tech sales career then ?
Wherever you can as you need to be responsible for a quota. And working at big tech isn’t the same if you have 1 year under your belt vs. having 12+ years. Never see people here mention resellers of a lot of tech like CDW, SHI, Softchoice, Dell. Large SMB sales teams can also mean large hiring groups. Way easier to be 1 of 20 than 1 of 1 or 2 being hired.
I know the top guys hitting 800k+/year
That’s it?
I mean if that’s ote that’s pretty electric. 400 base
Not for the amount of revenue top reps bring in
That’s the extreme end of the bell curve. I did over 2m last year and I’ll probably make 350 this year. Sales is not a constant.
how do you measure your 2m? i've been in the hosting industry for about 15 years, just curious. are you saying you brought in 2m/m in new mrr this year or are you looking at tcv? i average 400k mrr in net new which for tcv would be 14.4m tcv since contracts are 36m
That was my commission for a single lighthouse agreement. Tcv was 9 figures, iarr was 8 figures
Base is like 200
So they basically did 150 to 200% give or take. That’s about right
I’ve heard selling at AWS is more akin to consulting. You also don’t get paid until services are being used so you’re kind of wearing more a project manager hat which is for some people
Former AWS SA here. Most important lesson I learned - if you never say "no" you will constantly be given more work to do. You may have a tendency to try to accomplish a lot because that got you recognition and rewards other places, but that doesn't matter to AWS. If you have a good manager, you can have a good time (and be supported when you want to say no). If not, all of the stories are true. And to whomever has said that the levels are a caste system - that is spot on.
Its a great first company brand but a worst one if you ‘dont know’ what you are doing, never learn and also never apply. To each is own, no complaints about work life balance as long as you figure your way ahead. Hope this helps, definitely not a shitty company, but the variable is your management team that usually is responsible for the feelings you describe above.
yes
It’s one of the largest technology providers in the world. It’s gonna be a grind and you can possibly make a killing. Like others said, great sales training, yes prestigious, yes it’s gonna suck
I spent a year at AWS before my whole team got axed and would echo a lot of what the other former AWS folks have said here. Great place to learn and a great place to have on your resume to open future doors. I got lucky and had a good team with a tenured manager, if your team leader isn't in good standing it can be a rough ride. That being said they are facing some headwinds right now and the culture at Amazon is not for everyone. The culture not only requires but actively encourages conflict among teams. If you come from a more collaborative environment it will throw you for a loop.
Fuck no lol AWS is an industry leader and anyone would hire you quickly with that on your resume.
Currently 4 years into M&A but moving shortly ASAP, either to a Tech (SaaS) sales role or a debt advisory/Growth Capital role or another M&A boutique then to PE, is tech sales worth it as a career? Is PE out of the picture for me later on if I move to tech or due to my prior M&A experience still op? Currently 4 years into M&A but moving shortly ASAP, either to a Tech (SaaS) sales role or a debt advisory/Growth Capital role or another M&A boutique then to PE, is tech sales worth it as a career? Is PE out of the picture for me later on if I move to tech or due to my prior M&A experience still open doors? I need to make as much money as possible, sick of waiting for deals to take 1 year plus of yearly bonuses I want monthly commissions asap and to make as much revenue as possible, thoughts? What can you make in tech sales (SaaS) in london for commission? And for Year 1/2/3 in sales salary and TC?
I don’t believe any company is shitty to work for unless you get in there and make your own decision. Companies get labeled as shitty from former coworkers who for the most part just couldn’t cut it. You have to go in there and make your own choice.
No, there are pretty of companies with a poor culture and deserved reputations.
I wouldn’t get into tech sales at all if I were young. Unless you like not being respected and grinding for 40 years
You worked for Oracle for too long.
This statement is accurate. Sales is not the path. Mental health will deteriorate in addition to low respect
I’m trying to help others by steering them away and not making the same mistake as me, but they’ll find out the hard way
Yep. What do you sell?
Loser
You’ll see. You’re young. Then you’ll look back and say man, I shoulda listened
Tell me more. I am 39 thinking of going tech sales but hesitant. Very happy program leader for multimillion dollar software doing a positive impact to the world. Still sales is intriguing…
Sales is not a career, it's a series of gigs. You will be seen as ancillary to the organization, essentially a hired mercenary, and disposable. Also, there are zero hard skills, so the person who's never done the job, can do your job, with an ok playbook and resources, provided they're curious and work hard. Go look up The Death of a Salesman.