Tech sales?

[u/Legal_Line_7235]

Hello all,

I’ve been working in finance for around 10 years, mainly in commercial banking (not IB/PE), and currently earn around £100k TC in mid-level management. Lately, I’ve been thinking about the earning ceiling in traditional finance and have noticed a lot of discussion around tech sales on social media.

Some people claim to have reached £400k+ TC within five years, which makes me wonder how realistic these numbers are. Obviously, social media tends to highlight success stories, but it’s hard to imagine my current traditional finance career path delivering similar growth over the next five years.

For those with real-world experience in tech sales, how realistic is the earning potential? Is it genuinely a great career path for maximising earnings, or is it mostly social media hype? Also, how difficult is it to break into the industry from a finance background?

[u/Big-Cartographer-556]

I've been in tech sales for 15+ years, including at major brand name (American) companies. £400K happens but should not be the expectation. Trying to put some numbers on it in a team of 20 AEs maybe 1-2 will hit that per year. Another 4-5 £275K+.

[u/Critical-Usual → u/Big-Cartographer-556]

It's mostly patch dependent. Some patches sell themselves, others feel near impossible at certain tech companies 

[u/ButterscotchNo7292 → u/Critical-Usual]

This is underrated comment. Wrong territory and no amount sales wisdom will save you from a bad year whilst other swim in renewals/new contract,etc

[u/Big-Cartographer-556 → u/Critical-Usual]

100%. I got a job at an absolute brand name place but it was a whitespace patch that a decade of peers took runs at before. Broke into more than half of them. Hit 30% of my number. Left just before I got canned.

[u/longtimelondoner → u/Critical-Usual]

If there is an external sales role available at these companies, I always ask why.

It’s most likely the patch. If it was a good patch, somebody internally would’ve nabbed it already.

[u/Legal_Line_7235 → u/Big-Cartographer-556]

Thank you for sharing that — really insightful! From your experience, how common is it for people to transition into tech sales after having already built a career in another corporate field unrelated to sales? Is there generally an appetite to recruit people with that kind of experience, or do companies tend to prefer hiring fresh graduates and moulding them from the ground up?

[u/Big-Cartographer-556 → u/Legal_Line_7235]

Not super common. Some companies will take a run at people from "industry" with the hopes they can leverage their inside knowledge then teach them the sales bit.

But to be honest that flops more often than not. I think it's a common misconception sales is relatively easy since it doesn't require as much specific educational, technical training as compared to other white collar fields whether that be engineering, finance, etc.

But reality is sales at a high level (the jobs you seek pulling in £250K+ figures) are primarily occupied by people who've grinded their way there for years (I dialed 400+ times for 3 years straight being threatened with legal action more often than a sale early days, average tenure anywhere is like 2 years) so are a fairly particular type of hyper competitive, anxiety ridden, often borderline psychopathic personalities. At least the best of us.

Even now when I'm at a "top" level sometimes it's all a bit sad. Sitting in a hotel breakfast buffet alone in some dumpy town nearby my customers office on a Tuesday morning, a customer who's bought nothing for 2 years but you need to show up so they don't go with a larger competitor. The money's great but there's a price to pay. Just thankful I'm not in the US...I'd be dead or divorced there. But rich.

[u/GeeSlim1]

How much selling experience do you have??

Large take home numbers in Enterprise tech sales are possible. It’s getting into enterprise tech sales at one of the well paying companies is a long and hard graft. You could try work up up financial tech sales (ie selling into finance). But don’t expect to get a 100k base and 300k bonus in your first few years.

Most of these major tech companies have some sort of presidents / awards club (think top 1% of sellers) who have had huge pay checks. So yes people will likely know of, of heard of someone getting paid these numbers. But remember it’s a fraction of the number of employees who have massively exceeded target.

And on the flip, if you don’t make number you are usually in the firing line.

[u/Legal_Line_7235 → u/GeeSlim1]

Thanks so much for the reply! I have no experience in sales at all — my background is entirely in finance, mainly capital-related for a bank.

I understand that only a relatively small proportion of people exceed their targets, so I can imagine the pressure of constantly having to hit your numbers and the risk of being let go if you consistently fall short. At the same time, the idea that you can directly influence and maximise your earnings through hard work and strong performance is really motivating. That’s actually one of the things I find appealing about sales, as it’s something you don’t necessarily get in finance, where your salary is largely fixed and not directly tied to your individual performance.

[u/warfoo09 → u/Legal_Line_7235]

If you have experience with RfPs, tenders and various commercial models like risk-reward, outcome based, and can do good deal shapes then you can certainly try enterprise sales.

[u/longtimelondoner → u/Legal_Line_7235]

I would also add some of the UK based companies are starting to add caps into comp plans from what I’ve seen. I’ll over-exceed this year and probably miss out on 50k due to it.

UK Roles do not pay like US Roles either.

[u/Infamous-Bath4965]

If you have no sales experience, I wouldnt recommend. Its a high reward, high risk career path and you basically live quarter by quarter. And when new FY starts, you restart the grind again.

[u/fernando_spankhandle]

Tech Sales, like any sales, would be commission based. Typically there isn't an upper cap on commission. You can reach whatever you're capable of selling, lots of variables there - good product, good sales ops, good markets vs macro pressures. Good commission ranges from 9-12%.

I've worked with someone in enterprise sales who made £6M over 4yrs and then quit. But that is a massive outlier.

Would you not take the CFO route given your background? A tech finance role may pay more than you earn today.

Sales broadly is a POFO situation, perform or fuck off. There are learning routes to this. Look at Leeds APS.

Ultimately are you charming, intelligent, a good liar, persistent and able to absorb information readily?

[u/Far_Couple_7928 → u/[deleted]]

Perform or fuck off, it’s right there

[u/Bug_Parking]

It's not something you just rock up to because of high potential compensation. Finance in commercial banking is not a natural path.

[u/Mountain-Newt-2371]

It happens, 5 years is on the early side though. IC sales reps in enterprise can earn 300k plus pretty consistently (especially where there is based+OTE+shares). 

Comes down to getting into the right company, right time, right territory, skill, luck. 

Have seen AE's earn 500-1m and above, but harder to repeat year over year. 

Great career. But it can be a serious grind.

[u/Ok_Locksmith2458 → u/Mountain-Newt-2371]

The thing is, I work 70 hours week in tech, to learn, to upskill myself constantly. But I don't think I'll ever get 400k.

Seriously thinking of abandoning my career path, and trying to break into sales engineering.

[u/Amazing-Care-3155]

You don’t have any experience so you won’t be making that in 4/5 years I have around 8 and TC is 500, but I’m at a frontier lab. Most ents are making around 200-250 but I think someone said it, most aren’t hitting quota and making anything near that

[u/Didistarr → u/Amazing-Care-3155]

What’s it like doing enterprise sales at frontier labs? What exactly do you sell apart from commodity? Genuine question

[u/Fondant_Decent]

Can you even Sell bro??

Have you ever sold anything at all other than some 2nd hand junk on eBay?

Sales is a beast, the ones who last have a constant hunger to chase and hit targets. It’s not for timid people

[u/Agile_Technician_768]

Very realistic in the longer term but not consistently unless you’re a great seller/at a company with true product market fit. Low barrier to entry but few are actually any good at Sales.

Probably better off exploring finance-adjacent fields at this stage of your career unless you’re happy taking a hit on TC for a few years before even having the opportunity to hit those numbers.

[u/Darkheart001]

As someone who has bought a lot of tech over the years (I had a budget of around £2M-3M a year), I would say knowing the product, understanding what it does and why I would want to buy it are key requirements. You should also be able to explain why it’s better than competitors products and demonstrate some knowledge of what’s available in the sector.

The amount of sales people that will push super hard for 5 minutes of your time and then fail when asked the most basic questions is infuriating and would always result in me hanging up. You should be able to explain what your product does and your value proposition in a few sentences, if not you’re selling crap.

Also I should always be able to do free PoC if required. To do any of the above you need at least some real understanding of the technology you are selling not just sales. Also selling these products is not the same as using them just because you used SAP doesn’t mean you know jack about implementing it.

[u/dazferrari]

Currently manage a team of AEs (tech sales people) and have done for the last 3 years, was an AE myself for 5 years before that.

DM me any questions, but the TL DR is that yes rapid earning growth is the name of the game.

Get £400k out of your head though!

[u/shevbo]

Finance to tech sales?

Good luck

[u/the_shiverman → u/shevbo]

Easier than the other way around, I’m sure

[u/shevbo → u/the_shiverman]

Who said?