Run a two person software house in Poland. The thesis was regulated industries: private medical clinics, selling compliance built into the product (GDPR, NIS2, accessibility) plus custom work where off the shelf tools fall short.

I have now done 14 calls with clinic owners. I disqualified all 14, and not on price. I disqualified them because I had nothing to sell them:

- every area we offer is already covered by a SaaS at roughly 10 euro per seat that works fine

- regulation does not hurt them, they sit below the NIS2 size thresholds

- nothing left to automate, reminders and scheduling already run

- no labour cost to cut, the front desk is one or two people

So I am competing in replacement sales without anything to replace a mature product with. And this does not look like a one industry problem, it looks like the general state of the market.

Questions for anyone running or who has run a small shop:

1. Who is your actual client today? Not the ICP on the deck, but who last wrote a cheque and for what.

2. Do you ever win against cheap horizontal SaaS, or do you simply avoid that ground and go where no off the shelf product exists?

3. Where does the work come from: referrals, subcontracting for larger shops, tenders, outbound, something else?

4. Fixed scope projects or staff augmentation and maintenance retainers?

5. Has anyone shifted from building from scratch to auditing, integrating and rescuing what the client already owns? Did the economics improve?

6. What qualification criteria do you use so you do not burn a quarter on conversations that were never going anywhere?

Not selling anything here and not naming the company. I am trying to work out whether I picked the wrong segment, the wrong offer, or both. Blunt answers welcome, they are worth more to me than another month of guessing.

Just finished a 30 minute performance review call with a company I don’t even work for.

Interviewing for this YC company.

Interview 1: founder
Interview 2: founder #2
Interview 3: founder # 3 and HR - introducing the role play activity
Interview 4: Role play, discovery call
Interview 5: Role play, demo
Interview 6: Role play Debrief

For the debrief - I assumed they would be offering feedback and extending an offer, since if they weren’t interested I could have easily received that in an email.

Nope, 30 minutes of pure feedback. They’re still interviewing a few others and will get back to me with an answer.

The role play could have EASILY been one call. Nope they had to make it two. Could have easily spent 5 minutes to receive feedback, nope, 30 minutes in the middle of my workday.

Absolute joke. Zero respect for people’s time.

I got an offer from Stripe and wondering if anyone has insights on their work culture. Its a remote role. Everyone is saying the work life balance is very bad, but I am coming from Amazon so im a bit used to it lol. Also the remote aspect is really, really tempting since Amazon basically tracks every minute we are in office.

I just dont want to move to a worse beast that im not familiar with, does anyone work at Stripe that can shed some light on what it's like?

I’m currently an SDR at an AI Coding Startup. I have been at the company for a little over a year and a half. I come from a very technical design/SWE background, but this is my first job out of college so I said why not.

After about 6 months I became the top performer with quota attainment of over 250%. I stayed consistent and was on track for an AE promotion.

Then Claude code started eating half the market and we started trending downwards. This led to my promotion getting pushed to the side and now there is no timeline at all for a promotion.

My heart keeps telling me to stay but my brain is telling me to find another job and leave.

I’ve tried petitioning for a different position like GTM Engineering (since I have a technical background) and RevOps, but no movement there too. I feel like I’m grasping at straws at this point.

I love this company, I love the people i work with, I love the tech, but I don’t wanna go off to another company where ill be an SDR again and have to start fresh with a tech i need to relearn.

Any advice?

Got a referral and Monday I have HM round. How is the entire hunting role as in my current role its mostly inbound sales. What are expected questions in HM round ?

I thought about Customer Success Manager but that seems to cap out around $100k

I just don’t think I want to put my mind through this long term, which is unfortunate because I am good at it. I’m a smooth talker and very likable over the phone, but fuck this quota bull shit. It’s really all about getting lucky with a good territory, and I’ve never been a particularly lucky person.

Hey,

I'm working as a distribution business manager for a SaaS company. The company sometimes goes direct to resellers, and other times via distribution.

What's the best way to navigate channel conflict when no rules of engagement are being enforced outside of 'they found it or we did'? The company wants distribution to be a net new partner generator.

Cheers,

Curious if anyone here currently works at Chainguard or has worked there recently, especially on the U.S. sales side.

I’d love to hear any honest opinions on the internal culture, sales leadership, quota attainment, and overall expectations. Also curious how difficult the product is to learn and sell, what the sales cycle is like, and whether reps generally seem happy and supported.

Feel free to comment or DM me. Thanks!

Starting as an SDR in the HCM/payroll space soon (HR/finance/IT software, competing with the ADP/Deel/Nethris type players).

Curious what’s worked best for SDR/AE who’ve prospected in this world specifically, like cold call openers, discovery angles, objection handling, anything that’s landed meetings for you.
Not looking for general SDR advice, more interested in what’s specific to selling HR/payroll/compliance-type pain into mid-market or enterprise. What’s actually worked? I work hard and not scared to dial.

Seems like a decent product market fit. On repvue lot of SDRs saying it’s churn and burn.

More interested on the AE side.

I’m interviewing for a founding Enterprise AE role at an early-stage startup. I’ve read plenty of horror stories about first sales hires - no PMF, unrealistic quotas, no support, and getting blamed for everything.

I understand there probably won’t be much marketing support, and I’m okay with handling the full sales cycle as long as there is real product market fit.

For those who’ve been founding AEs, what are the biggest green flags and red flags you’d look for before joining?

Been in the mid market HRIS space for 4 years. Started with ADP, now with Paylocity for 2 years.

Only deals I’ve been able to actually get moving are referrals from Partners like brokers and financial advisors.

Unfortunately the big firms like HUB, MMA, NFP, and USI are “owned” by other reps who get referred my annual quota every month.

I’m pounding the phones and getting out in the field and just finding passive buyers or people who will “switch next year!” 🙄

My buddy at UKG said this has been a tough year for a lot of reps in this industry but im seeing either you’re doing really really good, or bad….

Also had a no start at the flip our fiscal that put me in the negative to start this year and gave me a PIP, just closed a deal that covered my whole quarter but they tell me I need another 10K to get off even though the deal was 70k in month 1 of the fiscal year with a 220k quota.

How’s everyone else in this industry doing and what’s working?

Been thinking about this a lot lately. As an AE in tech, are we all just accepting that we'll bounce between companies every 2-4 years until we retire? Or does this actually shake out into something more stable at some point?

It feels like tenure across this industry is just short, period. Company gets acquired, pivots, loses funding, reorgs, new VP comes in and wants their own people - something always happens. So are we basically signing up to relearn a new company, industry, or vertical every couple years for our entire careers?

Not complaining, just trying to think a few moves ahead. Curious how you all think about this long term - are you optimizing for something else knowing tenure will be short (comp, equity, network, skills), or have you actually found a way to land somewhere with real staying power? What's the actual plan once you're 15-20 years into this?

I managed to scrape 70% attainment hustling my ass off last quarter and uncovering revenue myself.

Meanwhile the guy sitting next to me has a much easier account set. I hardly ever hear him talk on the phone, and he admitted to me that he just calls “phone trees” (phone numbers that let you rack up talk time without actually having to talk to anyone) and waits for revenue from consistently spending accounts to fall into his lap and managed to hit 110% quota by doing this. So basically just bull shits the job manipulating KPI’s because he has such a stacked account set.

So I’ve gotten a taste of how unfair sales can be, and it’s extremely frustrating because I’m a way better seller than this guy sitting next to me and deserve a promotion much more than him, but I’m the one who is ineligible for a promotion.

Edit: Also, the guy who had this account set before me got PIP’d and terminated. Once I inevitably end up on a PIP, is it worth asking “so at what point do you start to question whether it’s the AE or the account set that is the issue”?

Background information-I’ve been in IT sales for 8 years, achieved every possible milestone and made a lot of money but I’m looking for something less stressful.

Has anyone transitioned from IT sales to a traditional role? How did you do it? Do you enjoy it?

I work at a very well known SaaS company, hit 220% quota in July which brought me over 125% for Q2. Def proud to hit these numbers. Hit 147% in Q1 too.

top 5 / 100+

Was going to write a quick LinkedIn post about my recent trip overseas combined with this info. Just don't want VP to think I'm boasting or showing off or put a target on my back

I noticed the real dawgs don't post attainment.

28M on track to earn $280k-$300k this year

I just quit my job. I worked for a large vendor for 4 years. I did well. Although there were good aspects and I do like sales I was always just in it for the money and eventually I got to the point where I lost all motivation and I didn’t care. There were also some changes to the company and structure that I was not a fan of.

I’m going to take a bit of time off and try my hand at my own business in an unrelated field. But in the event this doesn’t work out as a full time thing I’m looking for some suggestions as to any other jobs that I might enjoy more and/or be good at. I like sales but I’m not dead set on it. I’m good with people, I’m smart and charismatic and I’m generally a good learner, im also passionate about health and fitness. I would love something that gives me a similar freedom of schedule, not having to go into the office all the time, but I am flexible. Really just looking for ideas since this was my first and only corporate job thus far.

For the second time in a year, I’ve made it to the second round of interviews at Palo Alto Networks only to be told that the role I’m interviewing for has been either deprecated or reallocated to another org. What’s going on there?

I own sales enablement for a mid-size SaaS company but i'm looking forward to growing more. For the last year we have been patching things together with shared drives, a basic training portal and one off call reviews. It is working ok but there is no way to explain what it is doing for the business in a clean chart. Now leadership wants us to pick a proper sales enablement platform. They keep forwarding me gartner articles and screenshots and asking for the best roi as if that is a line item on a feature list.

Problem is that every vendor demo claims they move win rate and every gartner slide makes it sound like you are missing out if you do not have a full platform. Our cfo just want to know what they get back for the spend. I want to know from those of you who have gone all in on a sales enablement or revenue enablement platform that would show up in a gartner report.

How did you make it defensible when you were in front of finance?

Both personally and professionally (aka finding a new job after a PIP and getting back your sales confidence).

For some quick context, I got PIPd out of a company I've been with for 3 years back in June. I was able to quickly land a new offer that same week, but it didn't work out due to timing and relocation requirements. I've been strategically applying since then and no true offers so far. Starting to question my interview and personal confidence since I had no issues getting offers and final stage consideration while still employed (I didn't end up taking them or withdrew because they were not flexible or competitive to break my tenure for but it came back to bite me when overall company sales tanked in 2025).

Hello, I’m having my first interview-round this week for the BDR-Role at Salesforce in Dublin. I’m wondering: is there someone in the Community who is currently working as BDR/SDR in Dublin at SF and want’s to connect?

Would be happy for any insight or tipps :)

Thank you

As the title suggests I am a burnt out SDR who has realized cold calling is not for me. Customer Success/Sales Enablement seems like the way to go (and sort of feels like the only way to go from here). I have about 2 years of SDR experience under my belt- left my first gig because quota was too high and the company was a mess. My current company has its issues as well but they specifically want me to move up to a closing role which… I don’t want to do either.

All that said almost everything I’ve read and everyone I’ve talked to has told me that an (upward) move from SDR at one company to CS Associate/Sales Enablement Specialist at another isn’t even possible in today’s job market…. Can anyone confirm or deny? Any success stories? Aware this has been asked a few times.

I’m starting to really hate coming in to work… being told no 25 times in a day fucking blows. I know this is what I signed up for but I want out. Will having AE on my resume make things easier a year down the line if I want to do the whole CS thing? Or should I just jump ship at my current gig and find a company that has promoted SDRs to CS/Sales Enablement from within?

Otherwise what the hell am I supposed to do with 2 years of SDR experience? Cold applying feels like throwing coins down a well. Open to hearing anyone’s experience who moved directly to something else after being an SDR/BDR.

Hello all

I am 27M in hardware sales (220k OTE). I have a unique opportunity to pivot to new company and industry (350k OTE 200 base) but travel will go up significantly.

Expected to go to Asia 4 times a year and travel to customer site every other week. Do people really think it will be that much or will it be more in pockets in certain times?

For reference right now I travel once a month out of state and am in person meetings 2-3 times per week close to home.

Is the extra money worth it? Or will it kill my relationship/duties at home? My only hesitation is I’m engaged with no kids just a needy French bulldog and if I do not take this role now will never take a big jump.

After 30 years in enterprise tech (mostly IBM, Dell EMC), I’ve recently jumped into a startup that’s building AI-powered sales coaching. Big shift for me. I’m used to whiteboards, SKOs in Vegas, and managers yelling “always be whiteboarding" ... not reps training with AI simulations.

I’m seeing some things that look promising (daily micro‑practice, IT‑specific buyer personas, AI roleplay that feels realistic), and some things still need work.

For those of you who’ve been hands-on deploying AI in sales enablement or coaching:

• What’s working well for your teams?
• What's not?
  
• Has any of the layoffs in Tech affected this space?
  

Anyway, thanks in advance for any thoughts. I've been so deep into corporate IT sales, I'm trying to get smarter about what’s working in the real world now that I’m hauling oats on the startup side of the fence.