|
Just found this thread. I was previously a Sales Engineer for a well known firewall company and am now a Sr. Sales Engineer for a well known endpoint company. Pretty awesome gig if you don't mind learning new stuff everyday and feeling the constant pressure of quotas looming in on you. Feel free to hit me up if you have any questions or need any advice. Best perk so far is being constantly recruited on LinkedIn. Makes you feel like you chose the right career.
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2017 03:55
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 5, 2024 18:17 |
|
|
bEatmstrJ posted:Best perk so far is being constantly recruited on LinkedIn. Makes you feel like you chose the right career. hi5 Sr Sales Engineer buddy. Are you in the Bay Area?
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2017 06:17
|
|
|
devoir posted:hi5 Sr Sales Engineer buddy. No, I'm down in SoCal. I work from home. My previous employer's US headquarters was in the Bay Area though so I was up there fairly regularly. Current employer is on the East coast.
|
|
#
?
Mar 15, 2017 18:51
|
|
|
I had a customer send formal notice to halt an ongoing project and refuse to pay for the software because we wouldn't push the invoicing date for our software out to August. Time to let the lawyers fight it out to see if I get paid commission I guess.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2017 02:51
|
|
|
bEatmstrJ posted:No, I'm down in SoCal. I work from home. My previous employer's US headquarters was in the Bay Area though so I was up there fairly regularly. Current employer is on the East coast. I am currently remote, but am being relocated to the Bay Area by my current employer, which is nice (yes, it's more expensive, etc). I will miss the flexibility of working from home 100%, but re-gaining the better interpersonal connections in the office is something to look forward to. It also helps for further career progression.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2017 08:22
|
|
|
devoir posted:I am currently remote, but am being relocated to the Bay Area by my current employer, which is nice (yes, it's more expensive, etc). Yeah, with my last gig I spent a lot of time on-site with local customers, but this one is almost 100% remote so I don't get a lot of face time. We're being acquired right now so things might change in the future but its a blessing and a curse. I enjoy the freedom and extra time I have by not driving to meetings all the time, but I lose the personal connection and social aspect.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2017 18:23
|
|
|
I'm an inside sales rep and I just had an awesome phone call with a customer. She called me while I was at lunch five times before leaving a message ("CALL ME BACK ASAP"). She's someone I've never spoken to at a customer I've only had for 3 months (not a new close, it was part of a territory realignment), and I think she just wanted someone to yell at. gently caress my life, how did she get my phone number?
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2017 20:17
|
|
|
Say thanks to whoever you took that territory from.
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2017 20:28
|
|
|
taqueso posted:Say thanks to whoever you took that territory from. It was one of our vendors for customers smaller than inside sales customers 
|
|
#
?
Mar 16, 2017 20:36
|
|
|
Hello sales thread. It's been a long time since I left my last sales job in Industrial Packaging. When I last posted in this thread I was severely frustrated due to a combination of a mature market, low volumes, poor training etc. I gave up on ever returning to sales again. I now work for a chemical company on the procurement side of things. My boss is really good and he's been mentoring me more on how to deal with suppliers. He's been with my company for many years and because we are a distributor the sales and procurement sides of this company are very tightly knit. That being said I'm well aware that my job is glorified data entry with limited salary expectations. I'm getting tired of living paycheque to paycheque. I've once again developed an appetite for selling. Every day I spend working with my boss I've been getting the mentorship and learning I wish I had when I was at my old job. I feel more confident now in properly qualifying my prospects and learning how to avoid getting into paper shuffling RFQS that don't amount to anything. Anyway while my current job is really cushy, the gravy train won't last forever. I think automation and AI is threatening my job prospects in the future. I'd like to start applying to companies that sell data science and AI based solutions. It's a brand new virgin market that threatens to displace over 40% of the workforce. I'd rather not be a casualty and I'm cognizant of the fact that I suck at programming and data science skill sets. But I recognize the value prop, I know how to talk to the technology on a high level and promote it to potential buyers. What are some of the current players in this field that might be looking to recruit some sales talent? If you can't beat em, join em.
|
|
#
?
Apr 3, 2017 19:10
|
|
|
@Kraftwerk, I see https://www.welovesalt.com come up a lot. Even if they don't place you directly/upfront, perhaps talking to them will get you some additional grounding.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2017 01:19
|
|
|
devoir posted:@Kraftwerk, Website is throwing an https warning for me in Chrome.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2017 02:11
|
|
|
tangy yet delightful posted:Website is throwing an https warning for me in Chrome. Hrm, I pasted the URL from Google search results without checking when I did my last post. I get the same cert warning you mentioned. When I go to http://www.welovesalt.com/usa/ I don't get a cert error.
|
|
#
?
Apr 4, 2017 07:04
|
|
|
Lyon posted:I'm curious what other software companies' processes are when it comes to pricing services. We now need to get the VP of services to sign off on every statement of work and the effort before we can book an order. To do that we have to write the statement of work and level of effort which then gets reviewed by services management. They multiply our effort by 1.5-2 and then we need to try and negotiate that # down internally otherwise we get laughed out of the room by prospects when we tell them a simple project will be 300 person days of work. Discovery, discovery, discovery. My primary job currently is selling IT services and my preferred method is to get the perform resource involved in discovery so that we can write a bulletproof estimate of effort and SOW. I also push to do most jobs as T&M. I hate fixed price - the money CAN be better, but you need to be very, very good at controlling scope creep. For pricing, I'm very up front: "I can offer you a senior resource at $XXX/hr who you can put on autopilot and get the job done, working with your team only when he needs access/changes outside his or her permissions. I can put a junior resource on it at $XXX/hr, it will take more time and more project management, but it will help keep costs down. Which is more important - time or money?" The other half of this is to be completely transparent about what this will cost them and what it is costing them ongoing (so when you have a job go from 80 hours to 1600+ you can explain why), and to be vigilant about getting change requests signed on a timely basis.
|
|
#
?
Apr 5, 2017 07:43
|
|
|
Just found this thread. Recently returned to being a salesgoon after doing IT project/QA stuff for the past five years. Now I'm selling new vehicles which is a big change from the products I've sold in the past. A lot of my new coworkers are amazed at why I would give up cushy govt work to do 11 days a fortnight at a car yard. But so far, I'm really excited to be in a retail environment again, especially for a product I'm already passionate about. It's a great environment as well. I have worked some completely scumfuck sales jobs before and expected the same/worse based off the popular perception of car salesmen. It's just not the case at my yard though. I dunno, maybe I lucked out, but even the guys you would expect to be hard nosed bastards are super supportive and very approachable. It's hard work but much more rewarding than pretty much any job I've had. Plus if I'm on target the money can be loving bananas. I've noticed that there have been a few questions in the thread about the recruitment process for sales jobs. I've done some sales recruitment in the past and would be happy to share some resources if anybody would be interested? I've got a set of (essentially SPIN based) questions you can ask as a candidate which closes pretty well. They're also good info gathering tools which may help you cut through interviewer bullshit and determine if the job will meet your expectations. Plus there are some basic interview questions that a lot of people seem to struggle with ("what's your biggest weakness?", that brand of bullshit) which you can turn into good closing opportunities if you're prepared. I've also got some "style guide" stuff for pitching yourself to sales managers to secure an interview which I have had a lot of success with. If any of that sounds interesting let me know, more than happy to share.
|
|
#
?
May 10, 2017 00:58
|
|
|
Sure, I'd be interested in pretty much all of that. Not looking for a new gig at the moment but it never hurts to learn something new.
|
|
#
?
May 11, 2017 20:06
|
|
|
Our company recently provided myself and a few other reps one year of access to LinkedIn Sales Navigator. I'm looking around in it and outside of the ability to search more in-depth don't really see how else to use it from a sales standpoint. Can anyone recommend a quality guide or some personal experience on the best way to utilize it to get appointments?
|
|
#
?
May 17, 2017 15:56
|
|
|
I used it for a few months with my previous company and came to pretty much the same conclusion. I suppose if you have no CRM it could have more benefit but I 99% of the time just used it for the searching like you said. I suppose you could leverage the notifications on "talking points" via company/person related news that the sales navigator provides but I didn't find it useful in that regard.
|
|
#
?
May 18, 2017 23:55
|
|
|
LinkedIn is good for lead generation if you're selling a product that can be targeted at fairly specific titles. I used to sell IT security software and I would search for people with Desktop Support or something similar on LinkedIn and then cold call the hell out of them.The problem is there are so many generic titles that mean different things in different industries and hell titles even get used differently in companies that are in the same industry. Customer Support Specialist could be tech support, sales, a call center, etc. Same thing for Director of Quality that could mean something completely different between software, pharma, financial, etc. I haven't used LinkedIn for that in a while so I'm sure the process has changed but I used to get a lot of my own leads that way.
|
|
#
?
May 19, 2017 13:10
|
|
|
Interview question specific to sales, more specifically IT sales. Last few interviews I've had they asked specifically about my previous income, which is a question I can dodge - but a few have asked for recent W2s. I know this is policy at some companies (Salesforce) but I'm not turning that over to someone after an initial interview. I'd prefer not to discuss my current income at all, it does me no good to answer that. Is this common now during the interview process, is this something anyone here would expect to be asked (and be comfortable answering)?
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2017 04:34
|
|
|
Also with the questions, how do enterprise sales folks spend their time? My calendar right now is sth like: 10% internal meetings (big company, lots of reporting and stakeholder engagement) 30% sales meetings, demos etc 30% thought leadership like speaking at conferences / other lead Gen activity 10% servicing existing clients and their needs 20% random stuff, travel and so on Is this fairly normal for selling somewhat big ticket software?
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2017 05:13
|
|
|
Beefeater1980 posted:Also with the questions, how do enterprise sales folks spend their time? My calendar right now is sth like: drat that 30% thought leadership is nice. We do zero of that. It's really a shame. What do you sell (generally) and what do you speak about at conference generally with regards to your industry/software? Obviously you can't get too salesy during those types of presentations so I'm curious what you speak about. I'd love to get more time for those kind of activities. Mine is probably similar except that instead of 30% on thought leadership we do 30% with existing clients and 10% on other lead gen activities.
|
|
#
?
Jun 12, 2017 07:07
|
|
|
Any of your companies moved/moving to TripActions instead of Concur for travel/hotel bookings?
|
|
#
?
Jun 21, 2017 13:39
|
|
|
Shooting Blanks posted:Interview question specific to sales, more specifically IT sales. Last few interviews I've had they asked specifically about my previous income, which is a question I can dodge - but a few have asked for recent W2s. I know this is policy at some companies (Salesforce) but I'm not turning that over to someone after an initial interview. I'd prefer not to discuss my current income at all, it does me no good to answer that. Is this common now during the interview process, is this something anyone here would expect to be asked (and be comfortable answering)? I got asked this question and was asked to furnish W2's. It's hard to get around it gracefully and I'm fairly certain you're not required to furnish that info, but it's kind of tricky when they can walk away from hiring you if you don't. What i've found is that its usually HR that wants this info and there is often a disconnect between HR and the hiring manager who has certain expectations of what you're worth and what they are expecting to pay you, regardless of how much you're currently getting. Although my W2's showed quite a bit less than I mentioned (I fudged a bit) it wasn't brought up and I was still offered a 50% salary increase. My next job didn't ask for W2's but they did ask what I was making at the time. I told them I turned down an offer for X dollars from another company, which was true, but X dollars was also significantly more than I was making at the time. They wound up offering me well over X dollars and I accepted.
|
|
#
?
Jun 22, 2017 00:29
|
|
|
lord1234 posted:Any of your companies moved/moving to TripActions instead of Concur for travel/hotel bookings? We moved from Concur's travel and booking (still use it for expense management/reporting) to Egencia. Why did your company move off Concur?
|
|
#
?
Jun 24, 2017 16:43
|
|
|
bEatmstrJ posted:I got asked this question and was asked to furnish W2's. It's hard to get around it gracefully and I'm fairly certain you're not required to furnish that info, but it's kind of tricky when they can walk away from hiring you if you don't. What i've found is that its usually HR that wants this info and there is often a disconnect between HR and the hiring manager who has certain expectations of what you're worth and what they are expecting to pay you, regardless of how much you're currently getting. Although my W2's showed quite a bit less than I mentioned (I fudged a bit) it wasn't brought up and I was still offered a 50% salary increase. My next job didn't ask for W2's but they did ask what I was making at the time. I told them I turned down an offer for X dollars from another company, which was true, but X dollars was also significantly more than I was making at the time. They wound up offering me well over X dollars and I accepted. This is kind of what I expected. In an initial interview I'll just say "Hey, my W2 has sensitive info, can we hold on that until further into the hiring process? I don't want to send it unnecessarily" and then sell myself to the actual hiring manager. Thanks!
|
|
#
?
Jun 26, 2017 03:06
|
|
|
Shooting Blanks posted:This is kind of what I expected. In an initial interview I'll just say "Hey, my W2 has sensitive info, can we hold on that until further into the hiring process? I don't want to send it unnecessarily" and then sell myself to the actual hiring manager. Thanks! Ideally you'll want to be talking to the hiring manager long before you ever talk to HR. In a perfect world, furnishing info to HR should just be a formality after they have selected you for the job. Talk to some recruiters who can get you face to face with hiring managers instead of going through the resume wastebin process with HR.
|
|
#
?
Jun 27, 2017 23:35
|
|
|
There are a lot of experienced folks in this thread, I'm at a crossroads in my life and would like to leverage your wisdom. Below are a few details about me. Currently I'm an Account Manager at a SAAS company that caters to the Telecom vertical. I have five years of experience total as an Account Manager, a degree in Political Science, and I'm also very charismatic. I am located in the greater Los Angeles Area. My goals are simply to be happy, and earn enough to support my family. I really enjoy learning new technologies inside and out. That passion allowed me to learn my employers incredibly complex software in 3 months. I recently on-boarded a giant in the Telecom field with nearly no support. When I talked to my employers regarding a Sales Position I was told my technical insight with the software was currently too valuable and in demand to have me go elsewhere. The problem with that is there no professional development for me in being the guy that understands a complex software nobody else is willing to learn. I'm still only earning a pittance which is why I'm actively looking elsewhere. I'm currently only getting offers from Recruiters that are interesting in hiring me for a Sales Role. All our discussions they've always been centered around ROI. I've turned down a few offers due to the compensation not meeting my needs. What companies and what roles should I be applying for? Should I bite the bullet, and go into sales? I know I wouldn't enjoy a position that required I drive around the city all day. Working in a software company I've also picked up programming but i'm nowhere near the level required to obtain a job in that field.
|
|
#
?
Jul 1, 2017 00:44
|
|
|
What are your job duties as an account manager? All technical/project management for customers or is there contract, renewal, and revenue goals? If there are revenue goals in your role right now, how are you doing and do you like it? How big is your current company and did you speak to the VP sales or to your manager about moving over?
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2017 17:30
|
|
|
sleep with the vicious posted:What are your job duties as an account manager? All technical/project management for customers or is there contract, renewal, and revenue goals? If there are revenue goals in your role right now, how are you doing and do you like it? How big is your current company and did you speak to the VP sales or to your manager about moving over? My job as an account manager is a mix of both, I have Project Management responsibilities and revenue goals. We don't have hard Quotas due to us working toward an uphill battle of fulfilling every promise that was made in the Sales Process. I typically upsell all my clients on a maintenance plan, last month I sold one with a value of $108,000.00 to an existing customer. I really enjoy the discovery process of finding out how the customers business works from there identifying potential sales has always been easy to me as long as our tool actually meets their needs. Currently I'm also the only person that can sell most of the features we offer other than the President of the Company so I'm often called to present and sell customers on these features when other teams can't. Our company is less than 50 employees, we occupy a big space in the Telecom World but we aren't mid sized yet. I spoke to my Manager who told me I wouldn't be a good fit for Sales, and that my talents were best served performing technical tasks and helping our clients. The President and the VP of Operations have both trained me in sales as well. The primary issue is that I won't earn more here without getting a counter offer from another employer. In looking for another opportunity I want to make sure it's going to be something with longevity.
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2017 17:57
|
|
|
Can you guys recommend any good resources for learning how to do sales funnels for a website that sells a service?
|
|
#
?
Jul 3, 2017 18:57
|
|
|
I have an interview for an Account Executive role at an IPO in Santa Monica tomorrow. I'll definitely make sure to ask what the value proposition is. What are some other good questions to ask?
|
|
#
?
Jul 4, 2017 18:13
|
|
|
Lyon posted:drat that 30% thought leadership is nice. We do zero of that. It's really a shame. What do you sell (generally) and what do you speak about at conference generally with regards to your industry/software? Obviously you can't get too salesy during those types of presentations so I'm curious what you speak about. I'd love to get more time for those kind of activities. I sell legal tech/solutions of various types, mix of software and services. I do small, invite-only events for the key buyers in my industry, and share industry knowledge and key trends: personal anecdotes about how some customers are teching up (maintaining client confidentiality of course), conceptual pieces that I write for myself on where the tech is leading, and panel discussions/webinars. I keep it entirely off sales - the main benefit is having them talk to each other. The less I talk about our stuff, the more (and better qualified) leads we get from them. Sometimes we do a very small 4-5 person dinner at a nice restaurant. Key thing is to let them network and keep it fairly small.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2017 12:04
|
|
|
JackDarko posted:I have an interview for an Account Executive role at an IPO in Santa Monica tomorrow. I'll definitely make sure to ask what the value proposition is. What are some other good questions to ask? What's the typical sales cycle, are there customers willing to be reference points are a couple that spring to mind.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2017 14:32
|
|
|
Impromptu Flip posted:Sure, I'd be interested in pretty much all of that. Not looking for a new gig at the moment but it never hurts to learn something new. JackDarko posted:I have an interview for an Account Executive role at an IPO in Santa Monica tomorrow. I'll definitely make sure to ask what the value proposition is. What are some other good questions to ask? Well, never been a better time to post this I guess. Here's a list of general info gathering questions you can use. I don't use all of them, a lot of them should get covered off by the employer during the course of the interview anyway. But as someone who recently jumped both-feet first and completely blindly into an 11 day a fortnight job, it never hurts to ask them even if they seem stupid. Just don't ask a question where the information has been plainly given during the interview/recruitment process. Questions to ask during a sales interview Qualifying Questions
Pre close questions:
Closer:
How Paramecium gets interviews for sales jobs (Good thing I'm a salesgoon because I am poo poo at titles) The Easy Path: AKA the entry level position. You should be able to secure an interview over phone or email without a huge expenditure of time or effort. The main thing is your pitch, obviously. Phone works best for this approach but it can work well over email too. The first thing you have to do is establish your Brags. This will form the basis of your pitch. Don't bullshit on these. There should be at least three reasons you can come up with for any job ad as to why you would be perfect for that role. Pulling a random entry level sales position off seek.com:  Pretty boilerplate entry level phone sales job. Lets say you're in the market for such a position and you have no previous phone sales related work history. Maybe you worked a waitstaff job, or did retail work or something. A basic set of three brags which should get your foot in the door: - Comfortable in customer-focused environments - I'm eager to start a sales career - I present well over the phone. Call the number associated with the ad. Once you get through to the company contact/hiring manager/recruiter: 1 - Introduce yourself 2 - Make sure they understand which job you're inquiring about. If you can, determine when interviews are being held 3 - "I think I'd be perfect for this role because..." - Hit them with the Brags. Don't qualify any of them at this stage, just fire them off ONE TWO THREE 4 - "I've got time available during [date when interviews were on]. Does [specific time in the morning] or [specific time in the afternoon] suit you better?" So an example of the above might sound like, if everything goes to plan: "Good Morning! My name is James Goonfellow and I'm very interested in the Event Client Management position you've currently got advertised. Are you the right person to speak to about that role?" (yes) "Fantastic! I just saw the advertisement, have I missed the opportunity to be interviewed for the role?" (No, we're doing interviews from Monday next week) "That's great to hear. I think I'd be perfect for this role because I'm eager to start a career in sales, I have a background in customer service roles, and I present well in person or over the phone. I've got some time available next Monday, can we schedule an interview?" (Sure) "I have some time free around 11AM or mid-afternoon, which would suit you better?" If they're not gagging for you by this point then your pitch or your brags sucked. This approach may seem weird, especially since they haven't seen your resume yet. I've spoken to hundreds of sales managers in my former life as a Sales Recruitment Consultant and I vouch for this approach. Even if you're looking at a more senior position requiring specific experience or whatever, you will at least get them excited to look at your resume even if you don't land the interview right away. I've seen people with pure gold on their resume who couldn't present for poo poo and had so much trouble finding work. Then I've called in for them using the above technique - the amount of times I heard "Bugger this other bloke, are you looking for work?" would make your head spin. The Adverse Path/"The Pivot": Lets say you've done Sales Rep work for a FMCG company. You're sick of selling booze to ski resorts, and you see the following ad pop up:  "Well, that looks like a great package but I don't have any experience in A&D sales, and I don't really have any professional contacts who are builders or architects. How will I ever enter the amazing and fast paced world of CONCRETE AND WATERPROOFING?!" Fret not, gentlegoon. All hope is not yet lost. As above, figure out what your three Brags are. You're obviously going to have to work a little harder before. In this example, think back to when you started in that FMCG role. Maybe you started there with no understanding of the market, and no contacts, but you worked LinkedIn hard and built a loyal base up quickly. Maybe you busted your arse to learn your product inside and out and got record sales in your second ever quarter. You're going to have to pitch broad on your general sales skills since you can't address specific points in the job ad. You're also going to have to do a small lead-in to your pitch - why are you making this career pivot? You've got to be authentic and to the point - two sentences max. "I want to move into Concrete and Waterproofing because I've always had a passion for the architectural industry. Honestly being a specifications representative would be a dream come true for me, and this looks like a great opportunity for both of us", something like that. Say it out loud to an empty room to make sure you don't sound like a Penis. Call the number associated with the job ad. If you go through to a recruiter, that's great. If you're speaking with the decision maker at the company, that's even better. The first thing you need to ascertain on the phone call is if they would be willing to train up/mentor the right candidate. If they are, lead with your precursory statement which should smoothly transition into your three brags. Then close with the interview, as above. Happy to go into more detail on any of that. I've spent like an hour and a half on this post and it's nearly midnight and I have a full on manflu so I have no idea if this poo poo is even helpful or good. I'll do another post on "Ways to answer trap questions without sounding like a complete deadshit" some other time if people found this content to be of any use whatsoever 
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2017 14:36
|
|
|
That should get copy/pasted in the job hunting thread, too, great stuff paramecium.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2017 16:26
|
|
|
Skim reading that at work, but that's a good post. Thanks for writing it.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2017 16:29
|
|
|
That's a great post man. The line about "if you don't ask for the sale you won't get it" is so loving important for any type of sale or negotiation. Hell thats just great general life advice. Ask for things you want, don't sit back and hope someone recognizes you want them.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2017 16:40
|
|
|
Thank you so much paramecium it really means a lot. I wasn't a good fit for the role but I pitched him on why I'm still a great candidate.
|
|
#
?
Jul 6, 2017 16:47
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 5, 2024 18:17 |
|
|
That was a really fantastic post. On the closer, I use the "Can you think of any reason you wouldn't do this?" question a lot in my pitches, typically if conversation is flagging a bit near the end. It's a good question and where there are problems it helps to flush them out.
|
|
#
?
Jul 7, 2017 00:23
|
|