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Snatch Duster
Feb 20, 2007

by FactsAreUseless

mutantmanifesto posted:

Question for you sales folks. Let me know if this isn't the right thread for this, I haven't really gotten through all of this sub-forum yet:

My husband needs to break out of retail management. Life is moving forward and we're expecting a baby in a couple of months.

As it turns out, he is exceptionally good at up-selling. He has 8 years of retail experience and 4 years of retail management experience. As far as schooling goes, he's about ~1/3-1/2 way through a BA program.

He currently works at GameStop as an assistant manager and has repeatedly brought his store to #1 in the district and #1 in the North East in sales/credit card apps. Corporate has also informed him that he brought his store to #1 in the company a few months ago on one occasion and asked him to give tips during a company-wide conference call for managers. Unfortunately, while his district manager notices his successes, they don't really acknowledge them formally and are not doing much to forward his career despite his eagerness.

How did you break into sales? I really think he has potential in the field.

He should apply to any inside sales role that also has some outside sales responsibleties. He needs to find a company that sells expensive products to make decent money. He could work at a call center selling poo poo constantly using Straight Line, but to find one that he can make decent living from will be hard.

In my industry, digital marketing, he should look at Hibu and GO Digital. They are great companies for sales folks. 50k base + commission + residuals. My brother is made 145k first year in the industry, his only experience was at a call center and Enterprise Rent Center.

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mutantmanifesto
Nov 6, 2004

Wilson: Why don't you buy your canes at a medical supply store like a normal cripple?
House: Fewer bitchin' choices.

Snatch Duster posted:

He should apply to any inside sales role that also has some outside sales responsibleties. He needs to find a company that sells expensive products to make decent money. He could work at a call center selling poo poo constantly using Straight Line, but to find one that he can make decent living from will be hard.

In my industry, digital marketing, he should look at Hibu and GO Digital. They are great companies for sales folks. 50k base + commission + residuals. My brother is made 145k first year in the industry, his only experience was at a call center and Enterprise Rent Center.

Thank you so much!

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003
To further what Snatch Duster said, your husband will definitely want to get into business to business sales (rather than business to consumer) and typically you need to start with an inside sales role before they'll let you move into outside sales. This could be as basic as cold calling and setting appointments with prospects for the senior inside/outside sales reps, providing account management/inside sales to existing customers, or possibly running the full sales cycle.

You can make plenty of money working inside sales, and if you're good you'll either be promoted internally or you can use the experience to move to a different company/position with more responsibility.

mutantmanifesto
Nov 6, 2004

Wilson: Why don't you buy your canes at a medical supply store like a normal cripple?
House: Fewer bitchin' choices.
Fantastic, thanks guys! Time to start looking around NYC/Long Island.

lazercunt
Oct 26, 2007

It was a narcotics raid, not a Fritos raid.

Has he looked into DM retail roles? While it isn't sales, it's more of a step in the right direction if he can't make it in. C-store DMs usually account for a couple million in sales revenue, and come in a variety of different titles.

Pay still isn't the best, as the DMs I work with make about 40k in salary, but also bonuses.

yospos cru: Wit_sponge, relative_q, roguestar, Model M, Sir_Donkeypunch, tom collins, three, rufo, camh, homeless snail, sex offendin link, pik_d, graph, scaevolus, schultzi, mrbucket, the evan
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Shadowgate
May 6, 2007

Soiled Meat
What region of the US are you in? There are tons of tech sales jobs in most cities.

Waroduce
Aug 5, 2008
You can always sell copiers if you want to but it's a rough industry.


You can make a lot of money, but it's a hardddd grind to establish yourself

mutantmanifesto
Nov 6, 2004

Wilson: Why don't you buy your canes at a medical supply store like a normal cripple?
House: Fewer bitchin' choices.
Most DM positions he's seen require a BA which he hasn't finished. He's probably stuck at store manager level because of it, and even then some companies require a degree.

We're in NYC, on the Long Island border. I'm sure there are literally thousands of positions out here if we knew what to look for!

Pierced Bronson
Dec 26, 2011

shooting laser guns
and eating pussy
Greetings, fam. Thought one or two of you might be interested to know my boss's boss was very receptive to me not wanting to be a sales assistant for much longer, and I'll likely be moved to the position of "genius" (copied from Apple but for BMWs) in a couple months. I won't get rich but I also won't have to do degrading poo poo like fetch other peoples' food for them.

devoir
Nov 16, 2007

Pierced Bronson posted:

Greetings, fam. Thought one or two of you might be interested to know my boss's boss was very receptive to me not wanting to be a sales assistant for much longer, and I'll likely be moved to the position of "genius" (copied from Apple but for BMWs) in a couple months. I won't get rich but I also won't have to do degrading poo poo like fetch other peoples' food for them.

Congratulations, dude.

On a personal note, in my first week after transferring I attended my first Sales Kick Off event after ten years of working other roles in tech.

Holy poo poo.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

devoir posted:

Congratulations, dude.

On a personal note, in my first week after transferring I attended my first Sales Kick Off event after ten years of working other roles in tech.

Holy poo poo.

Kickoff meeting for a new project/customer or an internal sales meeting? Kickoff meetings for big customers can be a blast. I've attended a couple when I was on the training team at my company and you always eat and drink well, definitely had some shaky mornings at the customer.

In my current role I handle all the low budget/long shot prospects so usually just the project team guys go and I join remotely. I have a couple big opportunities that I'm hoping come in and make life a little more interesting.

devoir
Nov 16, 2007

Lyon posted:

Kickoff meeting for a new project/customer or an internal sales meeting? Kickoff meetings for big customers can be a blast. I've attended a couple when I was on the training team at my company and you always eat and drink well, definitely had some shaky mornings at the customer.

In my current role I handle all the low budget/long shot prospects so usually just the project team guys go and I join remotely. I have a couple big opportunities that I'm hoping come in and make life a little more interesting.

It was a start of financial year internal event. An absolutely mindblowing way to start a new position, and a really good opportunity to build relationships with the remote members of the team (of which I'm one).

I know it's a skewing factor and wide-eyed newbieness, but those fours days really had a motivating, positive influence on me beyond starting the new job.

Snatch Duster
Feb 20, 2007

by FactsAreUseless

devoir posted:

It was a start of financial year internal event. An absolutely mindblowing way to start a new position, and a really good opportunity to build relationships with the remote members of the team (of which I'm one).

I know it's a skewing factor and wide-eyed newbieness, but those fours days really had a motivating, positive influence on me beyond starting the new job.

This will be you soon.

lazercunt
Oct 26, 2007

It was a narcotics raid, not a Fritos raid.

devoir posted:

It was a start of financial year internal event. An absolutely mindblowing way to start a new position, and a really good opportunity to build relationships with the remote members of the team (of which I'm one).

I know it's a skewing factor and wide-eyed newbieness, but those fours days really had a motivating, positive influence on me beyond starting the new job.

I do love kickoff meetings, biannual meetings, and the like. Since (in my current position, not the :yotj: one) I'm field sales, I don't see people beyond my immediate team very often. So there's always lots of alcohol and catching up to do.

Congrats to Bronson as well.

It feels good to be at the end of the monthly sales cycle without much work to do, just get some great merchandising done, a little bit more selling, and go back to the alma mater for some alcohol

yospos cru: Wit_sponge, relative_q, roguestar, Model M, Sir_Donkeypunch, tom collins, three, rufo, camh, homeless snail, sex offendin link, pik_d, graph, scaevolus, schultzi, mrbucket, the evan
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devoir
Nov 16, 2007

Snatch Duster posted:

This will be you soon.


I'm in Sales Engineering, so hopefully less of a burnout risk than being a sales exec. If not, I look forward to looking like a really old Walter White.

lazercunt posted:

I do love kickoff meetings, biannual meetings, and the like. Since (in my current position, not the :yotj: one) I'm field sales, I don't see people beyond my immediate team very often. So there's always lots of alcohol and catching up to do.

Congrats to Bronson as well.

It feels good to be at the end of the monthly sales cycle without much work to do, just get some great merchandising done, a little bit more selling, and go back to the alma mater for some alcohol

There was so much goddamn alcohol and fun times. Funnily enough the remote folks were some of the best to hang out with.

Shbobdb
Dec 16, 2010

by Reene
I'm in a major valley right now. Part of it is my fault, I slacked off in a way I shouldn't have at my peak. That's my fault. It was a really high peak, so it's given me some time but I've been walking through the valley long enough that the mountain has passed beyond the horizon. It is just a flat plain of suck.

I'll bounce back, but I'm feeling pretty low right now.

Snatch Duster
Feb 20, 2007

by FactsAreUseless

devoir posted:

I'm in Sales Engineering

Is that fancy way of saying sales support?

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

Snatch Duster posted:

Is that fancy way of saying sales support?

No, sales support is usually helping with contracts, RFPs, references, booking orders, etc.

Sales engineering is also sometimes called technical sales. Sales engineers do support the sales reps but typically in a more technical/product focused way. At my company tech sales handles all the product demonstrations (that's pretty much all they do is visit prospects with the account manager and then build the product demo). They will also help answer the really tough questions on RFPs but that's more of a favor to the account managers rather than part of their actual job description.

I sell software but I imagine this is common when selling other similarly complex/technical products.

asio
Nov 29, 2008

"Also Sprach Arnold Jacobs: A Developmental Guide for Brass Wind Musicians" refers to the mullet as an important tool for professional cornet playing and box smashing black and blood

Shbobdb posted:

I'm in a major valley right now. Part of it is my fault, I slacked off in a way I shouldn't have at my peak. That's my fault. It was a really high peak, so it's given me some time but I've been walking through the valley long enough that the mountain has passed beyond the horizon. It is just a flat plain of suck.

I'll bounce back, but I'm feeling pretty low right now.

Know any killers you can spend a day with? I've just finally managed to beef up a slow month and it's going to finish strongly, but I spent a day in the last week with this guy who's just the terminator. Acted like a hard reset on my brain and the high is going to kick off next month really well.

devoir
Nov 16, 2007

Lyon posted:

No, sales support is usually helping with contracts, RFPs, references, booking orders, etc.

Sales engineering is also sometimes called technical sales. Sales engineers do support the sales reps but typically in a more technical/product focused way. At my company tech sales handles all the product demonstrations (that's pretty much all they do is visit prospects with the account manager and then build the product demo). They will also help answer the really tough questions on RFPs but that's more of a favor to the account managers rather than part of their actual job description.

I sell software but I imagine this is common when selling other similarly complex/technical products.

Yup. Basically we're intended to handle the technical discussions and aspects of the sale. The line varies depending on the rep, the relationship and the opportunity.

Coming from handling enterprise escalations, it's nice to be working on scenarios the complete opposite of when the poo poo has completely hit the fan and the customer is contemplating cancellation or downgrading.

I'm also in software. hi5. Thank god it's SaaS.

big business man
Sep 30, 2012

Does anyone here have any information on Cigital? I got a tentative offer for an inside sales position. I know it is salary + commission, but nothing beyond that.

I currently make ~$44k, but i'm a bit hesitant to jump.

Kraftwerk
Aug 13, 2011
i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

I have a lead on a new position. This time around I'd be working for a company that sells highly customized industrial packaging. They got a lot of big name customers since you need to have special packaging designed by engineering teams to ship things like medical equipment or aircraft engines.

The position would have me working from home with company issued equipment. They said I'd go through a multi-month training process followed by job shadowing other account execs as they go about their business with the customers. Once done I'd simply be given an account to manage. Apparently each sale is a highly customer centric in depth process requiring me to understand what parameters the customer wants to ship their multimillion dollar product under. I'd take those customer concerns, bring them to the engineering team and work out a solution which I take back to the customer and work with the customer to implement. The process takes about 11-12 months. I'm told I'll be traveling about 5 days a month and I could end up going to Europe, South America or elsewhere. A travel allowance is also provided and they'll compensate me for my car use by about 11-12 cents a kilometer or something.

My salary would rise up considerably. I expect to be paid a sizable base (60k) with another 30k in commissions. I will eventually be required to operate self sufficiently after about 1 year and then generate my own leads in addition to the leads given to me by the lower tier sales staff. There's also vacation time, the usual run of benefits though the retirement benefits aren't as good as my company. My company will match retirement contributions 1:1 up to 8%. This company does 25% matching up to 4%.

Is this a good deal? I am worried they won't pay me enough to cover the use of my car and that I will run my car into the ground within 5 years which requires me to get a new one. In spite of a 40% pay increase and the possibility of even more earnings in commissions I'm worried my actual pay will be much lower because of how quickly I will degrade my car and forced to buy a new one. Also the working from home thing makes sense but still feels a little shady to me.

Snatch Duster
Feb 20, 2007

by FactsAreUseless

Kraftwerk posted:

I have a lead on a new position. This time around I'd be working for a company that sells highly customized industrial packaging. They got a lot of big name customers since you need to have special packaging designed by engineering teams to ship things like medical equipment or aircraft engines.

The position would have me working from home with company issued equipment. They said I'd go through a multi-month training process followed by job shadowing other account execs as they go about their business with the customers. Once done I'd simply be given an account to manage. Apparently each sale is a highly customer centric in depth process requiring me to understand what parameters the customer wants to ship their multimillion dollar product under. I'd take those customer concerns, bring them to the engineering team and work out a solution which I take back to the customer and work with the customer to implement. The process takes about 11-12 months. I'm told I'll be traveling about 5 days a month and I could end up going to Europe, South America or elsewhere. A travel allowance is also provided and they'll compensate me for my car use by about 11-12 cents a kilometer or something.

My salary would rise up considerably. I expect to be paid a sizable base (60k) with another 30k in commissions. I will eventually be required to operate self sufficiently after about 1 year and then generate my own leads in addition to the leads given to me by the lower tier sales staff. There's also vacation time, the usual run of benefits though the retirement benefits aren't as good as my company. My company will match retirement contributions 1:1 up to 8%. This company does 25% matching up to 4%.

Is this a good deal? I am worried they won't pay me enough to cover the use of my car and that I will run my car into the ground within 5 years which requires me to get a new one. In spite of a 40% pay increase and the possibility of even more earnings in commissions I'm worried my actual pay will be much lower because of how quickly I will degrade my car and forced to buy a new one. Also the working from home thing makes sense but still feels a little shady to me.

That is hell of a lot work for a job with a 90k FYOT. Unless you want to travel that much for work and hardly ever seeing the sights, I would say take it. If you are in it just for the money you can easily find jobs where you don't travel at all for the same pay.

Kraftwerk
Aug 13, 2011
i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

Snatch Duster posted:

That is hell of a lot work for a job with a 90k FYOT. Unless you want to travel that much for work and hardly ever seeing the sights, I would say take it. If you are in it just for the money you can easily find jobs where you don't travel at all for the same pay.

Normally it's a 70-30 framework, I estimated they'd shortchange me on pay because I'm making 45k now and their first question will be how much I'm currently making.

Not a Children
Oct 9, 2012

Don't need a holster if you never stop shooting.

Hint: Do not tell them what you're currently making. Take a gander at the How to Negotiate Offers thread for tips on that whole thing.

Their travel compensation is crap, by the way. The US government compensates nearly three times as much per mile.

Snatch Duster
Feb 20, 2007

by FactsAreUseless

Kraftwerk posted:

Normally it's a 70-30 framework, I estimated they'd shortchange me on pay because I'm making 45k now and their first question will be how much I'm currently making.

That doesn't matter for the most part in sales. If the company is really interested in how much you made instead of how great you would be at selling their product, they would ask for a pay stub or your W2. This way they could prove how much you are worth as a salesman, and pay you accordingly. You probably wouldn't want to work for a company that did this, unless you are a great white shark that could kill it in commissions.

Kraftwerk
Aug 13, 2011
i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

I see what you're saying. Yeah the travel comp is bullshit and I think that's how they can afford to pay me more than 50k. I live in Toronto, Canada and salaries here are notoriously low. Keep in mind I have minimal sales experience. I currently work a technical role that supports the sales process and this is what drew them to me in the first place. They want someone who can talk technical with customers and manage their projects for them. In other words its more project management oriented, sales is just a small part of it and the percentage dedicated to commissions reflects that.

My concern is that I'm getting a raw deal or that the travel pay isn't sufficient to cover the cost of driving all over the Greater Toronto Area. I've never worked from home before and I worry that makes me oncall 24/7 and that I'll never be able to have the freedom for a social life. Being young, unmarried and without kids I figure this could be a great gig to build experience for a while though.

Lyon
Apr 17, 2003

Kraftwerk posted:

Normally it's a 70-30 framework, I estimated they'd shortchange me on pay because I'm making 45k now and their first question will be how much I'm currently making.

That job sounds pretty typical for 'entry level' outside/enterprise sales. If you start selling and are successful you should be looking to get your base salary somewhere in the 80-90k range though. There are two senior guys on my team who cleared well over 200k in commission this year.

My current job is almost exactly that job posting except I travel more (I do sales and technical training so get double travel/work for no extra pay sadly) and receive no training or support. I would kill to have more chances to learn from the senior account managers. If you want to get into sales and think you can land that gig I say go for it.

The only issue may be the travel and honestly it doesn't even sound like that much. Some people don't like the travel and others do. I personally enjoy it even when I don't get to go out and see the sights. Have you ever seen the movie Up In The Air? Or go check out the Ask/Tell thread about frequent/business travel to see what I'm talking about.

Edit: they should be paying about $.55 a mile and tolls, so whatever that translates to in Canadian dollars and kilometers.

Also I just saw the part about project management and that would be a major turn off to me. You should sell the deal and then transition the customer to your project team otherwise you'll constantly be getting stuck in project quagmires and have no time to sell new business.

Lyon fucked around with this message at 23:53 on May 5, 2015

Jordan7hm
Feb 17, 2011




Lipstick Apathy
You have a job that pays you 45 and have a chance to take a job that pays you double that.

If they're on the up and up, take it. Unless your car is a lambo the salary difference alone makes up for it.

(Except the mileage indicates they aren't on the up and up. I made .35$ per km like 10 years ago from a notoriously cheap company.)

lazercunt
Oct 26, 2007

It was a narcotics raid, not a Fritos raid.

Current IRS rate on mileage is like 56 cents a mile. You'd want to know what kind of mileage you are going to be expensing in your personal vehicle, in terms of not-gas expenses, like your depreciation and regular maintenance.

I love the PM work with clients, seeing something all the way to the moment it ships in a box is really cool. But some people prefer churn-and-burn sales and thats fine too. To each his own.

But international travel is cool in its own right and also means miles when you take your vacation. 90k is a lot of money compared to 45, and so is 60k salary.

Money-chat, I was very anti-giving-salary to my new job (start next month!) but then again, I'm switching from all-salary to 70/30 salary-commission split, so I eventually caved. I'm still getting 8k more at quota, and the benefits are equal. And I won't have state or city income taxes.

yospos cru: Wit_sponge, relative_q, roguestar, Model M, Sir_Donkeypunch, tom collins, three, rufo, camh, homeless snail, sex offendin link, pik_d, graph, scaevolus, schultzi, mrbucket, the evan
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Kraftwerk
Aug 13, 2011
i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

Honestly I'm really excited about this position and I feel like it will be better than Salesforce since I prefer to be on the road (and in the air) talking to people directly rather than being on the phone all the time. I'll double check on the mileage. Mostly I'm just really hoping to make at least 60k so I can properly afford life in my city. The Project Management aspect of the job makes a nice transition. They say they're mostly salary focused because they want to emphasize customer needs and satisfaction over churn and burn. If that's the case I'll be better suited to meet their demands from the background of my current job while testing my ability to generate leads and new business for the company. I think it's the ideal environment to see if sales is a good fit for me. Mostly I just want to feel the rush of building and closing a deal. My current job goes too far into nitty gritty and it's pigeonholing me as a subject matter expert. I don't want to go there.

I'm told I will even have support staff that provide leads for me in addition to whatever work I do on my own. Once again I already have ideas about potential clients I could reach out to on behalf of this company if I get hired. I'm already building a spreadsheet of potential calls I could be making if I get hired.

lazercunt
Oct 26, 2007

It was a narcotics raid, not a Fritos raid.

Just found out that I'll be working two weeks less than I thought at my current position! I'm leaving the 21nd rather than June 4th like originally planned, so I have time to sit on my rear end for a few weeks before I move to Florida.

Switching industries, and from field sales to inside sales, and essentially everything else. Can't wait not to sell cigarettes at gas stations in the hood.

yospos cru: Wit_sponge, relative_q, roguestar, Model M, Sir_Donkeypunch, tom collins, three, rufo, camh, homeless snail, sex offendin link, pik_d, graph, scaevolus, schultzi, mrbucket, the evan
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Kraftwerk
Aug 13, 2011
i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

The HR lady from the company called and said my resume matches exactly what they want in a candidate point for point. She said the President of their Global Sales and Marketing division will be flying in from Sweden and will be interviewing me personally. She talked about how they are very big on hiring and promoting young people as well as training them from the ground up. Their workforce is retiring and replacement is really important to them as well. She also said the president will like me because he's an engineer and he doesn't like chatty sales types who talk themselves into a circle. It's gonna be a long two weeks... She also said if things go well I'll have an opportunity to move to Europe if I want and work from there. My language skill is considered a plus.

tangy yet delightful
Sep 13, 2005



Tell me more about sales jobs where you work from home mostly and which companies/fields are good and which ones are scams.

Shbobdb
Dec 16, 2010

by Reene

asio posted:

Know any killers you can spend a day with? I've just finally managed to beef up a slow month and it's going to finish strongly, but I spent a day in the last week with this guy who's just the terminator. Acted like a hard reset on my brain and the high is going to kick off next month really well.

Thanks! I work in the field so bad stretches can get isolating as fuuuuuck. I should have reached out to some of my people earlier. That really helped me get out of my funk and back to basics. I've still got a long way to go but now it feels more like I'm climbing the foothills in front of a mountain instead of stuck on the plain. Or something like that. If my numbers are around where the perpetual President's Club winner's are then at least I don't feel so bad.

That said, I'm still new to the long-cycle high dollar sales world. If anyone has any advice I'll take that shot in the arm. I feel like I'm good at finding and initiating new leads and I'm confident in my closing skills. But I feel like in a long sales cycle there is a stretch in the middle where I could use some development.

Any tips on the wining and dining phase? They are already interesting, they've spent a few grand and then it is sort of "where do we go now?" That may be my problem right now, I'm using a short sales cycle to validate them for a longer sales cycle? If I had to pinpoint a phase, that is where I am finding it fizzle. When there is a clear and obvious need it is pretty organic but unfortunately that market segment is pretty saturated right now. It's convincing new markets that there is that need for capital equipment.

Kraftwerk
Aug 13, 2011
i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

Totally TWISTED posted:

Tell me more about sales jobs where you work from home mostly and which companies/fields are good and which ones are scams.

The scams are typically the ones where they expect you to put down your own money and run your operation like a business.

Any "independent network" type sales job is an example of this. They give you a brand, a portfolio of mutual funds and insurance policies and you earn 100% commissions. No benefits, no salary. Any promotional materials etc are your financial responsibility. Basically stay away from MLMs (Primerica) and stuff like Investors Group.

Kraftwerk
Aug 13, 2011
i do not have 10,000 bircoins, please stop asking

So anybody got an interview tips? I will be interviewed by the Executive VP for a particular industry segment this company caters to, the regional general manager (This man will be my boss) and the HR lady.

The latter 2 have a bit of a small town mindset so they're more down to Earth, direct and approachable. The VP answers directly to the president of the company and is very particular about who he wants. He will be flying in from the European HQ. He gets the final say on the candidate and nobody really knows what he's looking for. In essence for me to get this job he has to like me. A lot of people came and went before me. All I know is they don't like the typical slimy sales dude who talks too much and they want someone a bit more methodical and technical in how they handle things.

My first instinct is that they want a listener. Which makes sense. A lot of big companies build their business on being good listeners who are attentive to customer needs. For me the biggest challenge is taking my sales support and account management experience and talking it up to prove to them I can bring in the revenue. I'll need to show them how I can be of service to them, how I can help them. What I want is secondary to that.

Supposedly the interview questions will be quite difficult for the career level this job is sitting at. They are looking for someone they can groom and promote from within. They want an ambitious go getter and they want someone who excels rather than coasts in the same position for years on end. They'll be asking me some difficult questions about what I think leadership is, what passion is etc. In addition I will be asked about situations where I used my skills to save a deal from going belly up etc.

Any advice would be appreciated, I have never interviewed anyone on the executive level before. Almost every interview I've ever had was with middle management types and they're super easy to deal with. VPs and directors are unexplored territory for me.

Snatch Duster
Feb 20, 2007

by FactsAreUseless

Kraftwerk posted:

So anybody got an interview tips? I will be interviewed by the Executive VP for a particular industry segment this company caters to, the regional general manager (This man will be my boss) and the HR lady.

The latter 2 have a bit of a small town mindset so they're more down to Earth, direct and approachable. The VP answers directly to the president of the company and is very particular about who he wants. He will be flying in from the European HQ. He gets the final say on the candidate and nobody really knows what he's looking for. In essence for me to get this job he has to like me. A lot of people came and went before me. All I know is they don't like the typical slimy sales dude who talks too much and they want someone a bit more methodical and technical in how they handle things.

My first instinct is that they want a listener. Which makes sense. A lot of big companies build their business on being good listeners who are attentive to customer needs. For me the biggest challenge is taking my sales support and account management experience and talking it up to prove to them I can bring in the revenue. I'll need to show them how I can be of service to them, how I can help them. What I want is secondary to that.

Supposedly the interview questions will be quite difficult for the career level this job is sitting at. They are looking for someone they can groom and promote from within. They want an ambitious go getter and they want someone who excels rather than coasts in the same position for years on end. They'll be asking me some difficult questions about what I think leadership is, what passion is etc. In addition I will be asked about situations where I used my skills to save a deal from going belly up etc.

Any advice would be appreciated, I have never interviewed anyone on the executive level before. Almost every interview I've ever had was with middle management types and they're super easy to deal with. VPs and directors are unexplored territory for me.

Be passionate about your sales process and how you will apply it to their product/service. Basically show them how hungry you are.

tangy yet delightful
Sep 13, 2005



Kraftwerk posted:

So anybody got an interview tips? I will be interviewed by the Executive VP for a particular industry segment this company caters to, the regional general manager (This man will be my boss) and the HR lady.

The latter 2 have a bit of a small town mindset so they're more down to Earth, direct and approachable. The VP answers directly to the president of the company and is very particular about who he wants. He will be flying in from the European HQ. He gets the final say on the candidate and nobody really knows what he's looking for. In essence for me to get this job he has to like me. A lot of people came and went before me. All I know is they don't like the typical slimy sales dude who talks too much and they want someone a bit more methodical and technical in how they handle things.

My first instinct is that they want a listener. Which makes sense. A lot of big companies build their business on being good listeners who are attentive to customer needs. For me the biggest challenge is taking my sales support and account management experience and talking it up to prove to them I can bring in the revenue. I'll need to show them how I can be of service to them, how I can help them. What I want is secondary to that.

Supposedly the interview questions will be quite difficult for the career level this job is sitting at. They are looking for someone they can groom and promote from within. They want an ambitious go getter and they want someone who excels rather than coasts in the same position for years on end. They'll be asking me some difficult questions about what I think leadership is, what passion is etc. In addition I will be asked about situations where I used my skills to save a deal from going belly up etc.

Any advice would be appreciated, I have never interviewed anyone on the executive level before. Almost every interview I've ever had was with middle management types and they're super easy to deal with. VPs and directors are unexplored territory for me.

Your first step is to come up with your answers to all the questions you know they are going to ask (as stated in your post) and then practice them in front of a mirror, in front of your spouse, family, friend. Do mock interviews and get those questions down.

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Duckman2008
Jan 6, 2010

TFW you see Flyers goaltending.
Grimey Drawer
So I currently have a full time sales job, just curious if I am missing anything better:

I've worked in wireless 6 years now. I like it, I'm good at it, awesome. Currently at one of the large ones as a manager, outside of retail management past sales experience is in mostly retail sale (top 20 out of 1,000 people) and some experience on outside sales and Cold calling. I currently make about $70K.

Is there anything better out there for my skill set?

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