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To be more specific, a technology reseller that can sell just about anything tech related. I actually have a fairly strong tech background from college working in server network security for a server hosting company, but got out of it and have been doing marketing/sales the last decade. Still, a lot of it stayed with me. Guess what I am asking is if anyone has any experience with this specifically, or if it is any different from a normal B2B sales job where you have to build your territory from the ground up. I have heard that small businesses are easy to sell to, but it seems like a pain to cold call a large company and work your way to the CTO or CIO and start selling there.
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Jan 28, 2017 07:42
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 17:12 |
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You aren't going to be selling to the CTO or CIO. You're going to be selling to the IT Sourcing person. They'll gather requirements for their business partners, work out the budget with IT, bid for those products with the respective companies or resellers, and make their decisions internally. The best thing you can do is attempt to figure out who this person is in the companies you're targeting, introduce yourself, tell them what kind of technology solutions you can offer, and ask to be included on their next sourcing efforts.
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Jan 30, 2017 15:25
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You want to work at a shithole like Oracle, you will make tons of money there.
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Jan 30, 2017 15:27
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Pryor on Fire posted:You want to work at a shithole like Oracle, you will make tons of money there. Yeah 
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Jan 30, 2017 15:31
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I'm not sure if you're going into a specific niche within the VAR space, but if you are, I really hated working with Avaya and any Avaya Business Partners. I'm sure there're a few out there that are good employers, but the 2 that I've worked with were both greedy and rarely really cared about their clients. Cold calling also sucked big time. I imagine something like Sales Navigator from Linkedin may help out in that aspect nowadays but it was a bitch in the early 2000s to just pick up your leads book and call through every single potential client there.
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Jan 30, 2017 17:25
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Thanks for the advice everyone! It seems like it is going to be all about reaching out to the IT sourcing people, like No Butt Stuff said, with a tacit "go ahead" from the CTO's. The nice thing is I can sell to just about any industry, but man, building a pipeline is going to be an uphill battle. Lots of cold calling, knocking on doors, etc. And I'll look into Sales Navigator, that seems like it could really help.
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Jan 31, 2017 05:22
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Pryor on Fire posted:You want to work at a shithole like Oracle, you will make tons of money there. Really? Do they pay well? I have a friend who wants to get started in sales at a big tech company and I know one guy who works in tech with a development team and then another guy who used to work there, plus a few other really old acquaintances who work as software engineers there. Would it be helpful for my friend if I reached out to them? They were working as a seller for clothing brands to get their clothes into stores, so they've got sales experience but they've been unemployed (quit their job without another lined up because they wanted to visit their family overseas for a couple months) for six months, have no degree (part time, maybe one semester of credits so far in total) and no real tech background so I don't really know how to help them. :/
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Jan 31, 2017 05:32
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oliveoil posted:Really? Do they pay well? I have a friend who wants to get started in sales at a big tech company and I know one guy who works in tech with a development team and then another guy who used to work there, plus a few other really old acquaintances who work as software engineers there. Would it be helpful for my friend if I reached out to them? Your friend is totally unqualified for the job you're describing and needs to get their poo poo together.
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Jan 31, 2017 22:24
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Great! If they're unqualified then that seems to imply that there are qualifications. What should they do within the next 2-4 years to get qualified for a high-paying sales job? In the long term, they want to do sales and aim for sales jobs in the highest paying industries. I think tech sales seems to fit the bill but am not sure how to advise them.
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Feb 1, 2017 02:10
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oliveoil posted:Great! If they're unqualified then that seems to imply that there are qualifications. What should they do within the next 2-4 years to get qualified for a high-paying sales job? In the long term, they want to do sales and aim for sales jobs in the highest paying industries. I think tech sales seems to fit the bill but am not sure how to advise them. My friend had a bachelors from an Ivy League university in an unrelated field and several years of sales experience in consumer goods that he leveraged into such a position.
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Feb 1, 2017 15:59
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:My friend had a bachelors from an Ivy League university in an unrelated field and several years of sales experience in consumer goods that he leveraged into such a position. Yeah, you don't need that either. The route I've seen some people take rather successfully is bachelors, entry level sales job at giant automation company/software company, work for 2-4 years, get a better sales job. Do your friends have the aptitude to learn all about the products they'd be selling? Do they have any sort of charisma? Can they interface with engineering? Are they able to do customer service? Do they stick to deadlines? How are they with being in front of groups? Being grilled by some rear end who wants to make them look stupid? I'm not in sales, but I do not envy salesmen at all.
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Feb 1, 2017 16:01
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No Butt Stuff posted:Yeah, you don't need that either. Yeah, he loving HATED this job, despite making cartoon money, and left within 4 years after clearing well over 1M in his short tenure.
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Feb 1, 2017 16:05
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 17:12 |
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EAT FASTER!!!!!! posted:Yeah, he loving HATED this job, despite making cartoon money, and left within 4 years after clearing well over 1M in his short tenure. Which should be really all you need to know.
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Feb 1, 2017 16:14
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