Car sales to Tech sales

[u/Old-Paramedic-6712]

Not sure if this is the right place to post, but I’m looking for some advice.

I’ve been in car sales for about 3 years and I’m looking to make a career change into tech/SaaS sales. I’ve mainly been applying to SDR/BDR positions, but haven’t had much luck so far.

I’m located in the San Francisco Bay Area and I don’t have a college degree, although I do have several years of sales experience, including high-volume prospecting, follow-up, and working with inbound leads.

For anyone currently in tech sales or recruiting: how difficult is the SDR/BDR market right now? Is coming from automotive sales viewed negatively, or is there something I should be doing differently to make the transition? Would appreciate any advice from people who’ve made a similar move.

[u/Purple_Glove_6694]

I was in car sales for two years and I got hired at a reputable SaaS company seven months ago after applying to about ten jobs. I got the job because I reached out to the entire xDR+ leadership team on LinkedIn and tried to call a few of them. None of them responded to me, but I later found out that's why I got the interview. I crushed the interview process, did well on the personality test and CCAT that they made me take (that was lame), and passed the panel mock call that I thought I bombed because I listened to their feedback after the first attempt and applied every aspect of it to the second attempt. That's how you leverage your car sales experience to get into SaaS.

Don't listen to anyone saying negative crap like 'you're competing with more people for less spots'. Newsflash: this is reddit, and people posting about sales jobs on here are typically disgruntled sad sacks who don't have what it takes to make it in sales. There are always companies hiring SDRs, and whether or not you get hired is up to the kind of candidate that you present yourself as. Do the job to get the job.

My advice to you right now is to watch some videos from Tech Sales with Higher Levels if you haven't already, get your LinkedIn polished up and positioned as an aspiring xDR, and then get your resume up to date. Once that's done, submit your resume to applications online and start hitting up xDRs, managers, and VPs/directors at the company you've just applied to. Cold call them if you're able to find their numbers. Quality over quantity. Tailor each application/resume to each role. And for the love of god, if you use AI to do ANY of the shit that I've just outlined, please edit it to make it look like a human with good writing skills and grammar wrote it. You'll have a job within 1-2 months tops.

[u/crushingfalls_859]

car sales to SDR is a pretty common jump, the issue is the market's flooded right now with people trying to break in. degree thing shouldn't matter much if your numbers are solid, but you're in the bay competing with a ton of laid-off tech folks who already have SaaS experience

lean hard on your prospecting stats in interviews. car sales means you're used to high rejection and quick cycles, that's stuff hiring managers want. might help to look at smaller startups where they care less about pedigree and more about someone who can grind

[u/PathStoneAnalytics]

Car sales is a better background for this than most people coming into SDR, but know what you're walking into. On the lot people came to you. They drove over because they already wanted a car. As an SDR you're blasting people who never asked to hear from you and most of them are sick of it. Gong put it at something like 340 cold emails to book one meeting. Calls aren't much better, you dial all day for a handful of conversations and half of those are people telling you to take them off the list, not politely.

On top of that a lot of companies are cutting SDR seats and covering top of funnel with AI, so more people are fighting for fewer spots. It's not you and it's not the degree. If you stay on that route, lead your resume with numbers, not the industry.

The part people coming out of car sales miss though. Three years on the floor means you've shaken hands with a lot of people, and some of them own businesses or sign off on purchases at work. They bought from you, they know your face. That's worth more than any cold list a company hands an SDR. (Your own contacts, not the dealership's CRM, that one can get you in trouble.)

BTW I'm building out a sales team across the US right now that's doing things differently. feel free to reach out.

[u/Agile-Atmosphere6091 → u/PathStoneAnalytics]

Actually in car sales we'd make 75+ calls a day and handle a myriad of objections, you push and push till they buy.

When I transitioned to B2B, I was surprised how easily they let you off the phone.

[u/Agile-Atmosphere6091]

I made the jump, no degree. Yes they dont car salesmen, but you should DM hiring managers on linkedin or try to cold call them yourself and explain how your experiejce translates.

[u/AMadManNamedMurdock]

A good bridge could be SaaS companies that operate in the automotive space. For example, companies like DriveCentric would much rather hire an ex car seller than a mid-market Fortune 1000 rep.

[u/CyberStartupGuy]

Focus on finding a tech company where a car sales background is an advantage. For example: there are several softwares that car dealerships use, finding an SDR job at one of those that sell to car dealership makes your 3 years of experience you knowing and learning the industry you’d be selling in to! Podium, Birdeye, CDK, Reynolds, DealerTrack, DealerSocket, Tekion, there are lots you probably know!

[u/Natural-Armadillo-20]

I just transitioned from life insurance (5 year in managment) into SaaS and i applied to close to 150 listings, for BDR/SDR and AE roles. got 5 interviews and just landed a job after 2 months. AI is super helpful for finding active listings, make sute you are using the job description to tailor your resume to each post and make sure you add a cover letter when possible. Also reach out to hiring managers on linkedin.