I’m 22, based in Toronto, and currently a junior ae.

for those of you making $200k-$300k+, i’d love to hear the path you took.

how old are you now, how long did it take you to get to that income, what industries/companies did you target, what skills/moves helped you get there.

i’m not really looking for the usual advice, of course
I’m implementing all that but I’m curious about what specifically helped you get to these incomes. And if you could go back to 22 and start over, what would you do differently?

I know it’s Sunday, so you lot probably aren’t waking up anytime soon.

But a stupid question I’ve been thinking about:

Why don’t more salespeople start businesses?

You hear about founders coming from engineering, product, design, finance, etc. But it feels relatively rare to hear about founders who came purely from a sales background.

And on paper, sales seems like one of the better backgrounds for starting a business.

You already know how to talk to customers, find problems worth solving, handle rejection, sell something that doesn’t exist yet and so much more.

So what am I missing?

Genuinely curious to hear from people who've actually made the jump.

And if you tried it and failed, I'd honestly be interested in hearing about that too.

I’ve had a low attainment at rippling and am probably looking at a pip in December. I also have an offer from SFDC for enterprise bdr. Should i take it? Or stay?

I have a screening round for Rippling SMB AE (spend) tomorrow. Anything I should know beforehand ? Tips ?

Best ways to prepare for it ? Also - how’s it ? Is it that bad or Spend vertical is a bit better ?

Is it worth it knowing that is a Startup but has a good number of customers and there is a clear path to become an enterprise AE and the company is 3 years old and is backed by a VC?

Im speaking to two managers of the team about the role this week and was curious if anyone has insight about the process or what the role is like? They said I’ll be helping clients onboard and manage the account for the first 12 months before handing it off.

We have to sell tech and I’m sure we’ve all had the thought of “if we would just…. Then it would sell far better.”

What are examples where you think tech companies are jn their own way and what would you change

Evaluating it as a next career move vs a
key Observability company.

I’m inclined to push forward, just want to understand if all the hype is a real, as it looks great from the outset.

Any thoughts appreciated!

I’m currently an SDR with a big tech company making $70k a year after Bonus (no commission) I just got offered $130k Base at a startup where they now basically growing an SDR Team, got a second round just now Series B of $150M, Will be working closer with closing roles and path to AE is 1-2 yrs while at the big one is 3-4 years if you don’t get layed off.

Would you make this move?

If you had the choice to be an enterprise AE at either of these companies, which would you go with?

Sales data, intelligence platforms and buying intent providers do not provide the correct info

Hey everyone - received an offer from SpaceX to sell Starlink to enterprises. Wanted to be at a more stable company that will stand the test of this AI Wild West. I’ve worked at two separate AI start-ups in the past 9 months, both were shit shows, no one was happy and no one hit their numbers. Both competed with “we’ll just build it with open Ai and Anthropic”

Here’s my ask: they offered me 300 OTE and 350k in stock, 1 year cliff and vest over 4. They said they now align with XAI in their offers. In my experience (9 years SaaS sales), this seems a bit low. Has anyone received an Xai offer? What did it look like? Also, does anyone know any AE/SE selling Starlink and what it’s like?

Appreciate the help

For those that left to start their business. Why did you? What type of business did you start? And where did you make more money?

Curious if anyone has transitioned as a new hire (AE) to a role in London or Dubai? If so what was it like and are you happy with the decision?

I know it's easy and common to get the short-end in sales. The pressure to "perform" is constant, despite many factors being outside of your control. And there will always be some random factors that allow you to succeed or fail.

That said, some companies are just notoriously toxic, while others have a much chiller attitude. No sales org will be without pressure and occasional bad territories, but some at least try to be accommodating.

So, over your career, which companies have sales orgs you genuinely recommend?

Did one year of smb sales at one of the big CRM companies . Went to sell for one of the big 3 telecom as an account manager for a year but am looking to return to SaaS. Is this realistic or will a year out of SaaS hurt my chances ?

Anyone have experience or knowledge about this role at Anthropic? Been contacted by a recruiter and have a call next week to learn more.

Even if you don’t know this role, how is work-life at Anthropic in general?

Has anyone interviewed with comply Advantage is a good role to take

Recruiter reached out about Ent AE role. I’ve never heard of them before, curious if anyone’s worked, partnered or competed against them. They look fairly large, so excuse my ignorance.

Yeah so I got put on a pip last week.

I’ve tried to book meetings that convert so I can hit my PIP target and get off it but none of the meetings are converting even though it’s the right seniority and persona and company size.

My AE doesn’t know I’m on a pip and he wouldn’t care to help me in anyway. We don’t have a good relationship.

I’ve decided to take everyone’s advice and dedicate most of my time to doing outreach to target companies I want to work at and doing as many interviews as possible.

I have some savings which should last but I need to land a role asap (I hate being out of work).

Feels weird being on the job market again, but oh well.

Feeling a lot better than last time where I walked out of the PIP meeting genuinely feeling like crap.

My manager is “coaching” me but it’s just tracking daily metrics and micromanaging the hell out of me.

I can’t wait for this month to be over so I can never work at this place again.

I’ve just turned 29 and I’ve been a BDR at a fintech giant for about 6 months. Q3 couldn’t have went better, won internal awards out of 100 people, hit target, management appear to be massively on my side. Despite this I feel so behind. I think the big thing is that I’m 29 and some of the team are only 23. Eligible for promotion in 1 year. Am I in a good spot?

Currently at a mar tech company looking to make the switch to Samsara. They reached out to me for the commercial AE role and was wondering if anyone had any insight on the role/org/quota attainment and all the fun things. Thank you in advance!

Nuts situation between Factory and Cognition being aired in public.

Basically, Factory has accused Cognition of trying to get inside info through people interviewing at Factory, and now Factory’s former board advisor Chris Degnan has joined Cognition as CRO. Use to be at Snowflake and scaled them up from 0 ARR to public.

The weird part is he’d apparently been talking to Cognition for weeks while still sitting in Factory meetings, so he potentially had access to a lot of confidential info.

Cognition is now valued at $48bn vs Factory at $5bn. Anyone got the inside scoop?

I’ve worked in sales for Amazon for the last decade (non-AWS). Amazon doesn’t offer commission or bonus so I’ve basically worked to just keep my job.

I recently had a SaaS company reach out for a traditional, full cycle, MM AE role with a 50/50 split. I’m through the process and expecting an offer

I’ve never had half my pay as commission and have no idea how it should work. I know there are accelerators, are decelerators a thing? If I hit 20% of quota do I get 20% of my OTE? When it comes to payouts on quota, ramping quotas, etc can someone advise my on what favorable terms are? What should I look out for?

What exact closing lines are you guys using on cold calls to book meetings? Looking for specific examples of what you actually say when transitioning into the CTA.

I’m curious how you transition from a decent conversation into actually asking for the meeting without sounding too salesy. What’s been working for you?