Ask/Tell us about being in Sales! (We're a notch below "Child Molester")

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Business, Finance, and Careers > Ask/Tell us about being in Sales! (We're a notch below "Child Molester")

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

I just closed my first major software deal, an upgrade for an existing customer but still pretty cool.

# ¿ May 13, 2014 23:20

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 01:04

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

Those of you doing B2B sales, what does your normal day look like? Is your role purely new business or do you also manage your existing accounts? If you're managing your existing accounts how often are you in touch with them?

I'm relatively new to enterprise B2B sales and trying to get my routines established so was just looking for some anecdotal stories.

# ¿ May 21, 2014 04:47

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

Shooting Blanks posted:

Oh hey, a sales thread. I've been selling IT services for the past 6 years, though I'm about to be looking for a new role. Specifically, what I sell revolves around data management - sometimes straight DBA work, but more frequently it will be data warehousing or ETL stuff.

It's a job like any other, just requires a certain type of personality to be successful. As for methods, check out Neil Rackham's SPIN selling. When you start talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars, or millions, it helps to have a more structured approach.

Thanks for the recommendation of SPIN selling, this book has been pretty much been exactly what I was looking for. While some of the situations/interviews seem a bit contrived I think the overall message is spot on and I plan on trying to internalize this process.

# ¿ Sep 14, 2014 19:08

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

Waroduce posted:

I was hired out of college into a sales position by a company that does enterprise software and Managed print services. I started selling copiers up and down the street as well as acting as account manager/exec. I was ok at it, but I moved into doing bids/rfps for local, state and federal entities as well as large corporations. I personally have one of the largest school districts in the nation, some colleges and we've been very successful in the education vertical market.

I hated the phones, preferred to cold call, but still didnt like trying to sell people a single copier. Now I sit at a desk and read/fill itbs and rfps all day. Im responsible for project management and implementation when we win, but work closely with our it dudes when it involves software.

Its p nice

Man I wish my company had someone in this type of position. RFPs are the devil... especially government ones. Literally hundreds of questions and then they want the 7 copies of the RFP printed and bound, six in some archaic electronic format, and two chickens slaughtered at the crest of the full moon.

# ¿ Nov 13, 2014 18:29

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

Kraftwerk posted:

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.

It sounds like your typical cold calling entry level sales gig which is how I got started in sales (and I'm sure many others). Basically expect to be on the phone every single day and to be making about 100-200 calls (depending on your company/boss/types of leads/etc). Your job is to schedule appointments for the actual inside and/or outside sales representatives who will then continue the sales process. I worked a gig like this for 1.5 years (although the last half year was as a team leader so my responsibilities changed a bit) before I found a sales job where I actually got to work the leads and close deals myself. The job is a great stepping stone into a sales career but be aware that that this type of work can become very draining and all that enthusiasm they're showing now can become toxic/poisonous. Google the lawsuits that are currently being filed against Zillow by some of their former inside sales staff for an idea of what a toxic environment can look like (sexism, ageism, etc). That being said I really enjoyed the job while I was there, it provided me the ability to progress my career, and I made a lot of life long friends.

As for day to to day expectations... we were expected to make 150-200 calls a day and set a minimum of two appointments per day (averaging 10/week). We were provided with leads but you very quickly learned to be in the top of the group you had to dig up your own leads on LinkedIn or sites like Jigsaw (Data.com now I think). We were paid $32,000 (lower CoL than the bay area by a wide margin so probably about the same after adjusting) and made $30/appointment with a manager or below, $40/appointment with a director, and $50/appointment with a VP or C level executive. We also got paid a % of any deal that closed based on an appointments that we set. There was a board that showed everyone's current number of appointments set that week, appointments set for the month, year, and each person's completion % (number of appointments kept divided by number of appointments set) so it can be pretty competitive within the group.

I did pretty well and probably averaged around $800/mo in commission and it is definitely a skill that you will need for any future sales job. It really depends on your personality and whether or not the constant rejection will bother you. I say go for it.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2015 19:36

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

sbaldrick posted:

This might be a weird question but how hard is it is cold-call a buyer like me (or just show up at my office door like most do?).

How would your bonus work on a level where a director/VP/C level has no buying authority like in mine? Would you get the 50 dollars for meeting with me?

Also how much would any of you kill to get a sweet government contract?

Cold calling is easy, honestly just getting started is the hardest part. Once you've made one phone call and get into a groove it isn't a big deal. As to how hard it is to convince someone to take a meeting well that totally depends on the person, the day, what you're trying to sell, etc. Leads who have visited your website or your booth at a trade show and expressed interest are the easiest and completely unannounced calls are the hardest. At the end of the day the biggest thing is finding the right person to talk to. You won't take a meeting about laptop/mobile device security if you're the network engineer working in the NOC. Hopefully though that guy refers me to the right guy along with some other relevant information from the conversation and now that next conversation is with the right guy and with some info so I sound legit.

So long as the person's title checked out you would get paid $50 for a VP/C level even if they had no authority or interest to purchase. They can't penalize you for that, we have like 30 seconds on the phone to convince these people to take a meeting so you got paid as long as the title checked out.

Government contracts are highly sought after. I sell laboratory software now and it is drat hard to win those deals (the RFPs alone are asinine let alone all the presentations and other red tape you have to get through) but once you're in you can build a whole business on government contracts.

Kraftwerk posted:

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.

My first sales job had a frat culture and it had its good points and bad points, more positive than negative though. Inside sales (and sales in general) always has some degree of churn and burn as part of the job. Some people don't like sales or they can't hack it so people are frequently moving in and out (often times people use it as an doorway into a different job within the company too if they don't enjoy sales but are otherwise a good employee). People tend to look down on sales because it has a bad reputation (car salesmen, door to door, telemarketers) but without sales a business can't survive, someone has to be selling the product to generate revenue. B2B sales can be highly lucrative and rewarding.

Go interview, talk to the people you'll be working with, and ideally they'll let you sit with someone actually working so you can see what they day-to-day is like.

# ¿ Jan 12, 2015 21:14

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

Kraftwerk posted:

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.

SF definitely seems like a great company to start at. They have great brand recognition, pretty much every sales team that uses a CRM uses SF at this point. When you call up sales managers/directors/vps they will most likely take your call or at least listen to you when you get them on the line. Working for SF has got to be almost like having a all 'warm' leads (or at least lukewarm leads) which would be a very nice change of pace compared to several of the gigs I've worked. I imagine working at SF would let you ease into a sales career pretty well. Not to say that it will be easy by any means but you could work for far far worse companies.

# ¿ Jan 13, 2015 13:53

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

SPIN is really good but I need to formalize it more like the book(s) suggest and write down some common questions for each stage for my industry. I've worked to internalize it a bit but find I don't use SPIN as much as I should. I think the methodology would work exceptionally well if I used it more (and more effectively).

That said we have a very consultative sales approach at my company that seems to work well. I sell software and deals in our industry take 3-18 months with probably an average of 9-12 so it helps if the customer trusts you.

Our process is something like:

Assessment - determine if we want to pursue the opportunity via intro call. This is based on fit and budget typically.
Process Audit - typically an on-site visit where we step through the prospect's workflows, understand their requirements, and gather concrete data (existing forms, equipment lists, etc)
Validation - we then write a statement of work which is a semiformal document we use to codify all the information from the process audit. Once the first draft is written we share it with the customer to make sure we aren't missing or misunderstanding anything. The SOW also allows us to get an estimate from our services team on what the cost/length of the implementation will be.
Configured Demonstration - we build a prototype of their system and demonstrate it to whatever audience our contact/champion believes is necessary. Sometimes we skip this step as we typically demo a bit during the process audit based on the information we gather on the assessment and refine at the process audit.
Proposal - at this point we have the SOW and feedback from the configured demonstration so now we put together a pricing proposal based on their requirements and budget. This may involve reducing the scope/size of the project to fit within their budget or getting creative with the payment terms.
Close - we schedule a meeting to review our proposal with the prospect and go in depth over the software, implementation (we update the SOW to show exactly what cost for each piece of the implementation), and support costs. Hopefully at this point they understand our value but we are also always ready to provide additional demonstrations/information. Often from here my work really just becomes staying in close contact with the prospect and answering any questions. If they verbally select you it becomes all about getting the legal contracts signed which can be excruciating. If they are still up in the air as to what vendor to select this can end up being trickier and can come to outselling the competition by being more trusted (due to the above process), additional discounting, legal guarantees, etc.

This is my first enterprise gig so I'm not sure how common this exact model is, I know consultative selling gets bandied about a lot. This method has never really let me down with customers who we have gotten beyond the assessment step with. Not that I close every deal (or even a lot) but it has kept the customer engaged and they typically are very willing to share information with you which I have found to be crucial to my success.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2015 07:33

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.

# ¿ Apr 17, 2015 15:55

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.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2015 23:03

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.

# ¿ Apr 26, 2015 00:01

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

# ¿ May 5, 2015 23:48

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

Kraftwerk posted:

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.

That's all pretty standard. Call him back in a week anyway. Not much you can do if you never even got to perform an assessment/intro call with them. Also I laughed out loud at calling them a suspect, not in a mean way at you, just a funny turn of phrase.

# ¿ Aug 11, 2015 20:34

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

Alfalfa posted:

Some great sales tips and recommendations, especially in the last few posts.

Does anyone have any good book recommendations regarding more the networking side of sales and business (for example Never Eat Alone)?

Looking to really improve and grow my network since I'm going to be switching careers/fields and was looking for some advice and tips.

I'm interested in this as well but I'm not super sure how useful it will end up being for me because we don't have territories. It is hard to network when you're all over the place and you can't attend local industry events.

# ¿ Aug 26, 2015 15:09

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

Propane and propane accessories.

I actually sell Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS), basically a very specialized ERP for laboratories to manage their samples/test results and other related laboratory data.

We sell to any industry so long as they have an analytical laboratory but the big money is typically with pharma.

# ¿ Aug 29, 2015 22:42

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

Kraftwerk posted:

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.

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.

# ¿ Sep 27, 2015 23:20

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

KittenofDoom posted:

An entry level position is what I'm having trouble finding

Are you looking mostly at startup companies or established companies in the SF area? If I were you I would focus on established midsize companies who sell boring but necessary products. Sales titles can be tricky so you'll need to read the job posting carefully. You can also search for entry level business development positions.

If you want to post your resume I'm sure some of us will take a look and review. Are you writing a cover letter when you apply to postings?

# ¿ Sep 28, 2015 04:57

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

Sure, or you can just upload it to something like Dropbox. I'm probably one of the least experienced people in this thread so you may want to get opinions from multiple people.

# ¿ Sep 28, 2015 08:16

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

Finally starting to build a bit of pipeline and get some deals rolling in, closed two deals this week. I will need a couple of big ones to land to hit my quota this year though.

When you guys book a new customer how much paper work do you need to have signed and returned by the customer? We have...

Schedule A (the actual quote for the software, services, and support)
Statement of Work (details the services to be delivered)
Master Software and Services Agreement
Mutual Non Disclosure Agreement
Purchase Order

Each one of these documents typically requires legal review from our customers' side and then their finance team needs to generate a PO which means they need our W-9 and all the contracts signed and returned. This process is brutal but I imagine it is pretty similar for the rest of you depending on what you sell. For existing customers we need the Schedule A/quote, if there are services the Statement of Work, and the PO#.

The Statement of Work is its own hell because we need our services team to generate the level of effort and approve the SOW before we can send it to a customer which can take weeks.

# ¿ Nov 5, 2015 22:27

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

Kraftwerk posted:

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.

POs are pretty common, basically just gives your finance department the correct information to bill the customer. My issue is our quote is a legally binding document so why do we need the official PO after the quote is signed and returned, figure that poo poo out after.

To me it is one or the other up front not both and it causes me no end of headaches. We can't process an order with just the signed legal quote or with just the PO and it is super annoying.

Got another very small order in today for two more licenses from an existing customer, I may actually hit quota this year which would be cool.

# ¿ Nov 7, 2015 05:48

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

Our fiscal year doesn't end until March 31st but one of my bigger deals that was hanging out there assumed we were calendar year and asked for some discounts to get the deal inked before 12/31. My manager was more than happy to oblige to get it locked in and it is still quarter end so I'm sure this helped him too. Going to be a nice to pay off all my Christmas spending easily this year since I should see the commission in January now.

# ¿ Dec 23, 2015 21:55

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

Do you have experience running the full sales cycle for a product? You obviously had to do this at your gym but I mean specifically previous corporate experience at another company where you ran the full sales cycle for a product/service? If not then this is probably a good stepping stone. My first sales job was doing appointment setting then I used that to transition to true inside sales at another company (running full sales cycle for smaller products and existing customers) and then finally I transitioned from inside sales to outside sales at that company. Appointment setting/NBD is fairly traditional way to start a sales career.

If you already have a large amount of sales experience then doing pure appointment setting/NBD sounds like something you aren't super interested in so you might want to start looking for a different position.

Edit: Also I used to love reading your posts in W&W... should probably make my way back there since non stop travel for the last 4 years has not done well for my physical fitness.

# ¿ Feb 3, 2016 02:29

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

My new sales skill I'm working on is saying no. I try to be very accommodating and I really don't mind providing discounting and working to get the lowest reasonable price for the customer but sometimes I think just saying no is the right solution.

I've been working with a prospect for a while and they announce that they have selected us and there was much rejoicing. I finalize their quote for a new system at 190k (which is what I had told them and already with significant discounting because they are a small organization). They come back and say they only have 145k. I tell them 145k is impossible without de-scoping the project which they refuse to do. I get additional discounting (and cut some training) to get the quote to ~170k and let them know this is the best my manager and I can do. The customer says they went back to management and they can do 160k. I cry/drink heavily then sell my soul to the VP of our services team to get them to cut some days off the project and we get the quote to 160k. I send them the quote for 160k and then they send me an email saying, "actually we only have 155k" at which point I almost just replied with "gently caress you." I said this is the absolute final quote and they ended up purchasing at 160k but the whole thing has left a bad taste in my mouth.

I mean good for them they got 30k knocked off but I felt like there was some "bad faith" negotiation going on there at the end. Anyway the moral of my story is learning to say no, I probably shouldn't have budged at 170k but who knows.

# ¿ Sep 3, 2016 15:53

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

Jordan7hm posted:

You probably shouldn't have budged at 190, for two reasons: it shows the client that you don't think your product is really worth what you're charging (maybe it isn't, but you don't generally want to tell the client that), and it shows you haven't reached your lowest price. Once you move off of 190, they have no incentive to stop pushing on price on this deal or any future deals. You can move down on a scope change, but straight discounting never works in the long run. Live and learn.

In software I feel like discounts are expected on most orders although usually it is a nominal, "we want your business and our competitors probably did this too" discount (at least at my last two companies). I really don't mind it when the customer is a tiny little research institute like this one who honestly did have budget constraints. If everyone is honest I really don't mind working with a customer to get to where we need to be but when they said 160 and then said oh actually the number is 155 I was pretty pissed.

The problem is for this order the services were in the realm of 4x the software (which isn't totally uncommon but that's a large burden for a tiny company). I didn't discount the software because I don't believe in the product but rather because we truly were probably too high for their budget.

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.

I'll write that up more succinctly at some point but the main point is I don't discount the software for fun especially because the commission on software is way better than on services (understandably).

# ¿ Sep 4, 2016 02:32

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

Hambilderberglar posted:

Thanks! I was beginning to think I killed this thread. I am working under the assumption training will cover the nitty gritty of the product. And I am actually an excellent listener, so I'm not foreseeing problems there. I'll make a point to note the questions and get the answers for them.

My suggestions (from a sales rep/account manager) for future sales engineers are:

Know your audience. When you're presenting to the business folks don't get too caught up in your company's technology, most of the people won't really care, focus the majority of your energy on how you're solving whatever their problem is. If your technology is truly superior to your competitors it can be worth quickly highlighting and explaining a bit so they can see not only do you solve the business need but you do it in a better more flexible/extendable way but keep it relatively short. My company sells software and sometimes our tech sales team goes way overboard on the technology with the business. Of course the inverse can apply when you're meeting with their technical folks and discussing the technology will probably be more critical than the business case.
Stick to the script (until the customer deviates). When performing a scripted demonstration be very thorough and make sure you step through their script as closely as possible or at least explain very clearly where you deviate. One of our tech sales reps tends to give very general demonstrations even when we have a script (this is being worked on) which is frustrating because typically the customer has the script in front of them and rating how we meet each requirement. You don't want to be jumping all over / making the customer have to guess what page of their script we're currently answering questions for. When a customer asks a question obviously it is fine to answer that question but then return back to the script and say something like, "we just completed item 4 on page 6 and will be continuing from..."
Be open to feedback from your sales rep during the presentation. I try not to interrupt very often once the technical presentation has begun as I don't think it looks professional but sometimes if the tech sales rep is going off the rails I'll ask for clarification from the customer to make sure we are actually addressing the issue. One of our tech sales reps gets very annoyed if you do this which I get and I try not to do but at the end of the day it is my neck.

Those are a few of the things I've seen that have led to presentations going from good to only okay. Other people may feel differently or disagree but those are some of my thoughts, obviously take them with a grain of salt.

Lyon fucked around with this message at 18:02 on Sep 7, 2016

# ¿ Sep 7, 2016 17:57

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

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

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

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

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

Beefeater1980 posted:

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?

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

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# ¿ Apr 28, 2024 01:04

Lyon: Apr 17, 2003

JackDarko posted:

I have an interview with a SAAS company in Santa Monica for an SDR role. For the interview I need to prepare a slide with two customers I would prospect if working for them, and who I would contact at that those companies. Is this a legit interview? It seems they may be attempting to get some free consultation work. I obtained this interview through a SAAS Sales Recruiter I connected with on Linkedin.

It seems like a variation of a case study style interview. Hopefully they know their target audience (if they don't, run) and they are testing you to see if you can identify the right types of companies and the right types of contacts at those companies. At my company it would be pretty simple, we sell laboratory software so if I had been asked that I would be say something like, "I would target X, Y, and Z pharmaceutical companies and I would be looking to engage with their laboratory manager(s) and director(s)/VP(s) of quality."

# ¿ Aug 12, 2017 18:38

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