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I need you guys to give me some input here. I'm currently working a fairly "secure" job at a major company (think national champion). Whenever I tell anyone about my job title and the company I work for I get serious respect for it and most people assume I'm a baller who makes tons of money. The reality is my salary is sub par and I'm just barely making ends meet. Furthermore while my boss is extremely nice and will go up to bat for me if other departments antagonize me he also is holding me back. Our company is kinda cash strapped too and loaded up with mostly old men who are just waiting for their retirement severance package. Overall the environment is "safe" but it has no room for growth or ambition for a young person like me. So I started trying to figure out where I wanted to go and the idea of becoming a sales person dawned on me. Long story short I met a person while I was doing a sidejob to supplement my income. He immediately referred me to an inside sales role inside a very famous San Fransisco based software services company. It's loaded with young people, they get promoted fairly quickly (within a year) and it supposedly is an environment where I'll be given all the help and training I need to succeed. Needless to say right from the screening phonecall up to the scheduling of the interview I have felt like these people have been aggressively trying to "sell" ME on switching to this job rather than me trying to sell them to accept me for it. This made me feel very apprehensive. They're trying way too hard to tell me how awesome the job is, how I can make up to 15k + in commissions and how everyone around me is helpful. The recruiter who put me into the interview process even phoned me to tell me how the interview is gonna go down. Then the guy who referred me also called me to give me some pointers. I told him flat out that I'm taking a huge risk here. I'm giving up a stable job for a highly risky venture. I asked a lot of questions pointing out my skepticism about what really happens when I take this job. Needless to say he told me I'm extremely bright, that I clearly did my research and went above and beyond what a typical candidate would do before taking this job. He thinks that my inquisitive nature an eagerness to prove myself will ensure that not only will I nail the interview but also be a top performer with the company as well. I even mentioned how the recruiter used sales tactics like "this is a really competitive job, there are people with sales experience who are also being considered besides yourself." The moment I got my interview confirmation set I immediately knew he was full of poo poo. He only said that to make me feel like this job was in high demand. From my perspective he came across as desperate. Anyway I really want to try my hand at sales because I find I'm outgoing, hungry for money and because if I perform well my career opportunities are limitless especially at a company like this one where good performers receive fast promotions. I also think if you perform well the numbers don't lie and nobody can really use politics or bullshit to get you fired. That said I'm worried that how good of a sales person I am is entirely determined not by myself but the markets and the product I sell. I'm also worried that I, don't have what it takes since I've never done it before. I find it suspicious how hard they are trying to woo me to take this job. Based on what you guys know about sales, should I believe the promises they're making me? Would I totally hate my life if I gave up my cushy (but poorly paid) job for the potential of promotions and huge commission earnings?
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Jan 12, 2015 05:56
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Totally TWISTED posted:They may be trying to get more sales people because they are growing at a fast pace (this would describe my company) which could be why they seem to be pursuing you. 50k base salary + 16k in possible commissions. The base is already 5k more than what I make now. I don't sell so much as I "qualify" interested parties who have come to the company. My objective essentially is to pass on high quality leads to another representative who actually closes the deal. The theory and concept of it all gives me serious energy. I like this entire notion that every time I pick up that phone I am talking to a new opportunity. I like that I have the responsibility and authority that I can refer "hot" clients to the account exec and get serious recognition for it if he closes the deal. Everyone is young, aggressive and ambitious there. At my company it's just white picket fences and home improvement projects while the paycheque rolls in and I stare at a monitor and hear about another airline deal getting closed by OUR sales staff who I support. It sucks. I want to make a difference. I want to bring in revenue for a company. As long as I bring in business no one can touch me, I'll be invincible. I just need to know HOW and I need to have the confidence that I can do it or else I'll be on the street with car payments and rent to pay and no job to show for it. Kraftwerk fucked around with this message at 06:47 on Jan 12, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 06:36
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I definitely got the impression they are a frat culture. My referrer plays competitive sports with one of the managers. They all know each other. After hours they all party together and stuff. They've spoken about me privately before the interview even took place. I dislike how theyre sweet talking me and feeding my ego about this job. I find that really suspicious. This guy brings serious volume in terms of referrals and likely stands to make money off me. My family friends and trustworthy coworkers are all telling me not to take this job.
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Jan 12, 2015 20:36
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My potential for advancement in my current role depends on two factors. 1) How well I network internally to get to higher better paid positions in other departments 2) Somehow navigating through the asinine performance review process to incremental salary increases where it takes me 15 years to hit maybe 70-80k. The aircraft program I'm on won't last that long so I'll either be laid off or transferred internally. As long as the program is selling and active I will be employed. I just won't advance very quickly or make much money. The sales position I'm being considered for will feature management as well as staff interviews. I have never worked a sales job in my life. It's all theory. I don't know if I'm suited for it which is why I consider it risky. I've studied the linked in profiles of my managers most of them did the job for a year and were rapidly promoted through the ranks. If I give up my job for a failed venture in sales I'll be busted down to 35k a year doing bitchwork for double the hours. Hours is another thing. I make a solid 45k per year low stress, zero politics environment. I go home every day at 4:30, I get three weeks vacation and a solid benefits and retirement package. I'm guaranteed to be working more at the new position. EDIT: I'm gonna be vague here but the company I'm talking to has a blue cloud on their logo and their initials are SF. Don't want this showing up in a google search as I've already given away enough that they could probably identify me. Kraftwerk fucked around with this message at 23:32 on Jan 12, 2015 |
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Jan 12, 2015 22:15
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So far you guys have told me how great it is, but you're all successful proven sales people. I have no sales experience. If I was unemployed and had nothing to lose this decision would be a no brainer. But taking this job, means losing my old one and putting myself in their hands. I find the risk extremely frightening.
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Jan 13, 2015 04:27
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I've had enough of sitting here in my hidey hole. If I get an offer I'm taking it. The consequences be damned. I have three years banked on my resume with this company. I think enough is enough. I'm sure I can get a new job if I lose this one. At least I'll know for sure if sales is for me. All I feel right now is adrenaline at the thought of closing deals. I got so pumped up I tried to convince my friend to get me access to his company's VP so I can convince them to upgrade their legacy CRM tool.
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Jan 13, 2015 19:41
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I live in Canada so I imagine the low pay has something to do with that.
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Jan 14, 2015 12:52
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Waroduce posted:Hows tobacco? I have no soul and would not mind selling or negotiating for big tobacco/oil/pharma If you can teach yourself some of the high level basics behind pharmaceuticals I highly recommend you become a pharm rep. The perks are ridiculous. Your main job is to go around meeting various family doctors (General Practitioners) and getting them to prescribe your drugs. Often your company gives you a blank cheque to wine and dine them and do whatever it takes to sign them on. Some doctors will gently caress with you and enjoy the perks without committing but many more will do it. There is so much money to be had.
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Mar 12, 2015 04:18
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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.
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May 5, 2015 23:17
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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.
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May 5, 2015 23:29
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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.
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May 5, 2015 23:43
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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.
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May 6, 2015 02:30
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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.
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May 6, 2015 23:31
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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.
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May 7, 2015 16:57
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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.
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May 13, 2015 00:20
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What's the best way to talk about possible weaknesses in a sales type interview? You obviously don't want to degrade yourself but you can't give a non-answer either...
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May 13, 2015 22:16
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My interview is today. Wish me luck, sales goons! The recruiter did a mock interview with me to test how I would respond to their questions and said she was extremely impressed with how I handled myself. Gave her some of the most amazing answers she's seen in her career. This is feedback I got from my former operating unit manager at my current position back when he hired me so I don't think she's lying to me.. She said I'm definitely cut out for the job and if they don't hire me she will personally make sure I find a position elsewhere.
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May 21, 2015 14:19
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I passed the interview. I'm invited for a second round. This time it seems I'll be required to meet with people from a similar role and the support roles that take over the work once the sale is done.
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May 22, 2015 22:41
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One of the most important bits of feedback I got from my interview was that I came across as somewhat formal almost tense and that they tried to lighten the atmosphere and help me relax a couple times to no avail. I told them that it happens when I'm in situations where I'm being evaluated or scrutinized (as a person rather than what I'm presenting). Happy with my honesty he asked if it was something I can overcome to which I honestly replied yes I can definitely beat it with experience. I understand why he would he concerned about that. If sales is about relationships it's hard for clients to trust me if I'm always wearing a mask and unable to make myself vulnerable around them. The reason I seem so rigid is because I'm concerned about making a faux pas and want to avoid accidently putting my foot in my mouth. Im trying to avoid any kind of gaffes or compromising statements that would lead to complaints. Does anyone have any advice for me in this regard? My next interview involves meeting the functional teams and other sales directors. It's "informal" so I can only assume they're going to assess my fit with the organization. If I come across as an inflexible hardass (and I really am not) it will cost me this job as they won't want to work with me.
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May 26, 2015 17:53
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So my solutions selling job process is about to come to an end. I've had to do psychometric testing, and 3 rigorous rounds of interviews with almost every level of the company including Executive VPs and divisional presidents. I've somehow impressed all of them and will probably be given an offer soon. I only hope that whatever magic I pulled during these interviews will help me do my job when the time comes or this is gonna be a really short trip. EDIT: Offer signed and notice given. I got scared to take salesforce, now I'm going the full hardon. No going back now. Kraftwerk fucked around with this message at 02:52 on Jun 23, 2015 |
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Jun 16, 2015 23:14
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What's the best way to qualify leads? My company uses a solutions selling approach so our goal will not be to push product right away. We just need to see who's most likely to bite if we show up and spend resources to assess their needs. Instead I would need to find out: 1. Who the contact person for my product is. 2. Whether they have an operation in my sales territory that requires my product (as opposed to an office. 3. Mapping out their subsidiaries (if any) 4. (Bonus)Determine their spend on their current solution vs ours.
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Jul 24, 2015 18:04
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So is it normal for people to tell you to call them back only for you to get stonewalled after? I had a suspect tell me he'd be interested in discussing a project with me and that I should call back in a week to set up an appointment. So I did that. He said it's the company shutdown and to call back the week after. So I called today and he hung up on me the moment he realized who it was. Would a more skilled sales person have been able to somehow salvage this or are situations like this inevitable? I just wanna make sure I didn't screw up.
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Aug 11, 2015 20:27
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That makes me feel a lot better. My co-workers seem to be pretty supportive too. Is it just me or do other sales people seem to have some kind of weird industry camaraderie amongst themselves? When I'm out at events and meeting ppl the fellow sales people always wanna trade stories or help out the young ones.
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Aug 11, 2015 20:45
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lazercunt posted:Yes, because we all do the same thing. I sell B2B into c-suites, and if I can't prospect into the office I need to, I'll call into sales. More effective than it should be, really. I sell packaging but the challenge lies in convincing my territory that we aren't just a product oriented seller of wood based packaging. There's tons of tiny garages all over town that run small runs of corrugate or wood packaging based on the RFQs lazy buyers toss out on a daily basis. The challenge behind my job is getting them to think different and not go straight to RFQ. Shot for shot my company will always be more expensive if your purchasing decision is based on RFQs. I have to choose my customers so that they want my company to be a partner in their logistics operation. Basically project oriented custom packaging sales and stuff. So I'd walk into a company like Airbus and be all like "Well I see you ship aerostructures to your plant in China and 3 out of 5 seem to need touchups from transport damage before it goes into production costing you money and disrupting your delivery schedule". At which point if they don't outright hang up on me I'd be like "Lets schedule an appointment and I'll bring some of my packaging engineers in to have a look and take some measurements. We'll come back to you with a design that will mitigate that damage and provide you with a reusable solution so you're not losing money on your operation." So after that I basically run a year long project where the final goal is to sell them some custom fixture to move an unconventional product from Plant A to Plant B. The customers just don't loving get it. In some cases they even get us to basically design a fancy solution and then they take our engineering drawings, copy the design details and take out our copyrights and company labels and farm it out to someone else who will produce it according to the blueprint for cheaper. It's hosed. I think where I'm most frustrated is I am well aware of many situations (especially with my old employer) where my company will literally save them money if they go with us. But not one of my contacts is willing to engage me in a dialogue about it. Everyone just sends you to voicemail and ignores you e-mails. It's extremely frustrating especially since I am the ONLY sales guy for my area. It's my responsibility to get my company a brand new book of business from scratch. You KNOW you have what your prospects need, you KNOW the business case makes sense, but no matter what you say they just don't want to talk about it with you. I usually get a lot of fake appointments booked and they flake out on me when I follow up. Kraftwerk fucked around with this message at 22:03 on Aug 16, 2015 |
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Aug 16, 2015 21:58
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lazercunt posted:Have you thought about the way you frame those introductions? The way I'd sell the airbus call, if I was calling into my prospect, Don: Wow that's amazing! I could totally pull that off. And your move to personalize the solution according to their vision is really clever, I like that. Yeah normally I introduce myself from where I'm calling and who I am and I think it probably comes across too much as a telemarketing call. I haven't had much in the way of training for sales soft skills and I told them during the interviews that this is where I needed work. So they're currently hunting for a good training program in my area to pay for so I can get up to speed in that area. I used to work for an aerospace OEM and I've been stonewalled by literally everyone who can make a decision about my project ideas. I know how to navigate the inside of the company but I can't get to anyone who matters to even START a conversation about what I have in mind. Like one of my strategies was to try and find a champion for my idea. So I went after the director of unit cost reduction. Except every time I called this guy he'd tell me he's in a call and can't talk to me right now. I believed it the first time but the second time I realized he was just trying to get me off the phone.
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Aug 17, 2015 00:02
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I work for a multinational that sells customized and standard industrial packaging. What I didn't take into account was how expensive we were compared to the tiny outfits springing up everywhere. Pretty much all my leads care about is price. Hard to get them to see value in our product.
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Aug 28, 2015 13:36
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Right but your product is actually something that serves a more lasting purpose. Packaging is something necessary but always a thing you can cut corners on. You use it and throw it out so unless your poo poo is super sensitive to transportd damage, no one invests in it. To give you an example a client bought pallets from a competitor and was willing to accept deviations in its length despite their warehouse rules saying the pallet can't be shorter than the box on top of it. I tried to upsell them on our own which I know are built superior but they wouldn't have it. "Too expensive" and it was end of discussion after that. I get RFQs for cool projects on a daily basis and I always lose the business because Joe Blow's garage discount crates n skids undercuts our manufacturing cost let alone any margins we might get...
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Aug 28, 2015 15:27
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Is it possible to migrate into a tech sales job if you sold something unrelated before? Like my industry requires me to be really familiar with all kinds of manufactured equipment including things like solar panel inverters so I can best match the right kind of solution for the product. I figured that means having a mind that can learn quick and catch onto technical concepts and understand them well. If I can do that in my current job I'm sure tech sales wouldn't be too hard to get into.
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Sep 27, 2015 17:10
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Lyon posted:Software sales is pretty easy to move into which is what I assume he is talking about based on being located in San Francisco. Particularly if you start in an entry level position setting up appointments/qualifying leads. I almost took a job at Salesforce doing just that. But I didn't wanna deal with all the initial pressure and turnover. Selling packaging to manufacturing companies with this firm has given me a ton of wiggle room and I get treated really well. Plus I got paid way more than salesforce would have in the entry level and they pay for my car with at least 100 bucks in profit on top of that allowance after car expenses. But I am doing a whole lot more work. I'm cold calling, qualifying and grabbing all the leads myself. We don't have an inside sales team. Mostly from here I just wanna become successful and get good sales experience before I jump to greener pastures.
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Sep 28, 2015 01:19
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lazercunt posted:I'm east coast, but I work in the IT industry and can say that one of my coworkers used to manage a hood-rear end MattressFirm in Atlanta and he kills it here. Can you clarify this? I am essentially stuck selling a more expensive commodity than like 90% of my competition. My potential customers only care about price. No amount of sweet talking lets me evade RFQs and that is where I lose because the buyers will typically RFQ 3 other people who offer similar products and then I've wasted my company's resources. The absolute worst thing that happens to me though is when customers feign interest, setup an appointment and then I get stonewalled at reception. The only time we are successful is if a salesperson leverages his existing relationships via past business connections. As a young newcomer to this industry I don't have golf buddy CEOs in my Rolodex. I'm convinced if I was selling something unique like SAP, consulting services or products that have sufficient value and demand I'd win way more interest than I am now. Not to mention my mandate is to try and sell products we act as a middle man for so as soon as our margin gets put in we automatically lose because buyers aren't stupid and know they can get corrugated packaging for our cost price.
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Oct 5, 2015 16:43
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Jordan7hm posted:If you think you can only sell products that sell themselves, you may want to reexamine the career you are choosing for yourself. If my product sells itself, then why would I get paid to sell it? Where is my value add? Yeah I agree. I'm gonna try and keep up a positive attitude. I was training myself a little more on spin selling and came to realize I wasn't doing enough to get my customers to talk about their issues and minimize their objections. Also choosing the right customer is important too. There's a lot of low volume targets that probably have a spend that isn't worth the effort and resources of selling to them in the first place. I find in some cases a customer comes to me asking for a solution and I haven't asked enough questions as to why they want it, what their problems are and how my product benefits them. Instead we go straight to drawing up a quote and of course a vague requirement for change versus a high cost doesn't get you anywhere. We actually had a big meeting today to refine our strategy and I think it's gonna get a bit better now.
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Oct 7, 2015 22:20
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I'm finding it's much more effective to try and get a meeting with the client and talk face to face rather than attempting to get everything done on the phone. Maybe a quick convo on the phone, identify a few needs, expand a little on them. Show them at least one benefit and then ask for a meeting to drive it home. Is it a good idea to sometimes walk into a company without any prior appointments and attempting to talk to staff or get info on them? My boss sometimes tells me to walk into the back of a loading bay and just chat up workers to get a feel for whats going on in the company so when I make a serious approach I'll have intel on their issues.
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Oct 8, 2015 03:11
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Just landed my first purchase order in my entire sales career! Suddenly it feels like it was all worth it.
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Oct 15, 2015 17:04
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Isnt a PO what a company gives you to confirm the deal? Why wouldn't you use it? Im still new in sales so I don't know what else there is.
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Nov 6, 2015 14:42
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What about pre-empting objections with SPIN selling?
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Nov 16, 2015 00:10
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Is it possible to transition from one industry to another as a sales person? A lot of people at my work tell me that packaging is a black hole that sucks you in and you're stuck there. I'm not really looking at dedicating my life to the packaging industry. I was thinking I'd eventually move to Pharmaceuticals, software or some other product that isn't quite so niche. The maximum I could ever make per year is about 100k where I am now.
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Nov 30, 2015 23:50
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Yeah every job I've had since I got out of school wasn't in my "field". Prior to working here I was doing sales support for commercial aircraft and talking about them as if I was the expert. Now I'm slowly becoming the expert in packaging. If I had the opportunity I'd probably be able to do it with SaaS too.
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Dec 1, 2015 14:29
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Alright I've confirmed that I'm being set up to fail in this market. I'm getting no support or training and my location is severely short staffed so any orders I close are not being processed in time and I'm losin my accounts. I'm gonna divert my cold calls to sales directors for major companies in the area and see if I can get a new job. The product is now me.
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Dec 11, 2015 16:33
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Any tips on how to market myself better for a new outside sales position? My company has basically thrown me to the wolves and my sales director still hasn't given me any training programs. I'm brand new to the sales world and I thought I'd get some proper sales training. That was not the case. I'm probably secure for the rest of the year after they firm up what kind of numbers I'll need to meet. But I've been fruitlessly getting the door slammed in my face over and over and the only business I am even coming CLOSE to securing is a 200 grand deal to our competitor who is reselling our product with his own margin added in. There's already been talk way up high in my organization about why we aren't "Going out and getting" the apparently vast opportunities the Canadian manufacturing sector has. (There really aren't any). I am still better positioned compared to my old job but I'll be honest this company is a gong show. The sooner I get into SaaS or some other kind of business and get subjected to a proper training program the better I can develop my sales career. As it stands I'm spinning my wheels. I lost 3 deals due to the price of our product in spite of initial customer excitement. One company was pumped to get our product until the purchasing manager vetoed the decision and bought cheaper crates from our competitor. So how do I get a new job when I can't even post numbers to prove I'm a good catch? Will I need to take a pay cut and slave away in inside sales for a bit before I can get back to a nicer job?
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Jan 19, 2016 15:36
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 22:21 |
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Agreed. The worst thing that happened to me was finding out shortly after I was hired that I wouldn't be allowed to sell into the United States. You can't sell precision engineered industrial packaging in huge volumes if you don't have any high volume factories to sell to in the first place. I'm gonna try and see if there's any startups or new entrants hiring and try to get in that way. I have over 4-5 years of big corporation experience so that may be very helpful even if my actual sales experience isn't that great right now. All I want to do is learn to be a better salesman and have more opportunities to practice it. Feels like I'm getting nowhere cold calling randoms and expecting them to give up their existing supplier relationships for a product that can't even add that much value right now. Packaging is such a bullshit industry.
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Jan 19, 2016 16:52
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