Is anyone on this forum still interested in sales?

This is amazing, great timing I was going to make a post here reaching out to anyone here like yourself. I've done d2d in my summers between school selling home improvement products. Which was super fun, I loved it. I also used to ride my bike around with some screen repair tools and do screen replacements on the spot. That was a great cash job. In recent history I had a promo gig in which I had to sign people up for products/samples/events. Made pretty good coin since I was good at it but some of the stuff felt kinda sleazy, glad I didn't have to do it for long. And some retail if that counts. Nothing major but all fun stuff, definitely some strong parallels to gaming. 

Started a new job doing business development recently and will be kicking off the sales process in a couple weeks. Just going after some small businesses initially to get the ball rolling but after that sky is the limit! Am definitely going to hit you up with some questions and advice when the time comes! Thanks dude

What are you selling? Is it a piece of technology.. a service? 

Hey dude that's a fantastic area to go into. I sorta gave up on the whole "sales" thing to drill down so deep in this area but I was a phenomenal salesman back in the day. I still put some guys through a "sales training" portion of the program and some guys come to me for verbal drills training strictly for the business side of things. I'm curious how you moved up, from direct to consumer type sales to corporate or "enterprise" level like you're describing. Clearly you graduated to the big leagues lol. That's something I would value very highly for the education of the guys on here as well. 

The path is basically as follows, obviously with a lot of little things + hard work + politicking at different points involved 

--Started at a very small company to get a lot of "hustle hours" in and gain general business knowledge, with the understanding that a smaller organization probably wasn't going to give me as great training in the specific craft of salesmanship but would be great for learning how to interact in the business world 

--Did well at the small company and then moved to a much larger organization with a very experienced "world class" sales organization with well known thought leaders with the goal of taking a step back in terms of my "playing time" but with the understanding that this was a learning opportunity to really soak in how to run a proper, technical sales process, how to forecast accurately and how to do little things like "talk the talk" with larger, enterprise organizations. 

--Moved back to a different company that was again much smaller but now with a very impressive knowledge base that most sales reps at smaller orgs wouldn't have, so there's clear value in what I'm brining to the table. 

--At this point I was still working "smaller deals" ~1000 employees tops but performing well and getting results when no other rep at the company was. Then my counterpart (who is 46) started to have a nervous breakdown because he wasn't performing and the stress got to him and his wife called in one morning saying that he had checked into a rehab facility and would be on long-term medical leave for the foreseeable future. Given that I was the only rep performing, the result of this was that I got a call from our vp or sales at 8am that morning telling me that I would now be covering all of his old enterprise deals in addition to the deals I already had in motion.

Thee rest is kinda history as they say. I got my shot and made a conscious choice to understand the once in a lifetime opportunity I had landed myself in and went full-steam ahead with 15-20 hour days to capitalize. within a month I had moved previously stalled deals forward and put us in position to be competitive in deals that were so large that they would be life-changing for the company as a whole and at that point there was no way I would be going back to working smaller deals. I had translated my pretty unbelievably lucky set of circumstances into a newly cemented reality 

Just couldn't stand being away from New York, huh? 

Oh you know, I'm just such a cosmopolitan type that I'm   never in one place for toooo long ;)

I have a prospect in Norway that I'm going to be working closely with over the next 6 months so getting all-expense paid trips to go skiing with some stuffy executives in Europe isn't as bad as it sounds 

Outside of specifics skills and understanding, technically and logistically, what you need to lock up for a deal to actually happen, I think the biggest piece to sales is understanding what's going to allow you to survive.

Different reps handle it differently but one thing is for sure- sales is the single most stressful job you'll have at a company outside of CEO/Founder/Working for yourself

One of the biggest indicators of a true professional in sales is how little you see the stress they are going through. You gotta have a poker face even when it feels like your entire world is collapsing- and trust me as the quarter comes to an end it will absolutely start to feel like that at times. 

As an example, what works for me is to see everything as a learning opportunity and not as an opportunity for success or failure. Ihaving this mindset, for me, allows me to be open to getting feedback and making mistakes which ultimately allows for me to get better quicker but it also mitigates how I relate to the stress that comes with a sales job. 

So, if I could teach someone going into sales one thing it would be to start from the very beginning with a growth mindset and be less concerned about success or failure and more focused on learning the craft- this will then allow you to be extremely transparent and open to feedback.

Saas product. Like I said, SMB's at first which Im confident I'll be able to crush. But after that it may eventually move into enterprise / more corporate stuff which is a bit out of my conception, never mind experience. The company I'm working with has some great mentorship but lacks a rigid sales training process. Which is ok, just I'll be flying my the seat of my pants if it ever shifts into enterprise stuff. Thanks for laying down your roadmap though, its amazing to see that in such a short period of time

Lol rigid sales training is kinda overrated from what I've heard. The most important thing is to have mentorship from people who have/are closing large deals. 

Going in with the mindset that you are going to crush SMB sales is awesome but don't let that prevent you from being open with your mentor about where you need help or if your struggling.

SMB sales is not technically challenging, but it's a bitch man. What makes it so difficult is the volume. It requires day-to-day consistency and if you have an off-week that can easily snowball into more.

So, especially having been on this forum, I have no doubt you'll be able to crush SMB sales in terms of closing the deals you get but where I'd be mindful if I were you is around being constantly vigilant about where my pipeline is at and whether I realistically have the deals in my pipeline to hit my quarterly number. If you don't- bring that to the surface as quick as possible and figure out a way to grow your pipeline. 

Maybe structured training program is a better phrase for what the company is lacking, if they aren't the same thing and both overrated lol. Thats nice to hear - the mentorship is 100% there to help babystep things along the way for me. And Im not afraid to get help or ask dumb questions. With what you posted about earlier regarding the growth mindset/learning opportunities... This is a new career venture for me and big opportunity, without having much a background in it I don't have much of an ego surrounding the craft since Im starting from the ground up. Might sound weird aha but Im trying to view myself as a conduit between the product and market. I just want to develop myself enough to be able to maximize the potential my product has to take hold in this wide-open sector in the marketplace.

While SMB's are the immediate short term target, Im going to try to avoid the volume problem by visiting agencies already in the niche and who already have x-number of business they look after. One closed deal with an agency is a low hanging fruit and will mean 10x + the amount of accounts I can open per sales demo. I'm hoping this will get the ball rolling so I can then set up agencies or individuals as resellers to avoid having to deal with the volume of hitting up every single business and storefront.

I was supposed to hit the marketplace on the first but had a few set backs, so another week or two I'll be all good. Had to master the platform, set up the website and wait on the company to update some things -  now just setting up the social media, demo accounts, figure out sales presentation, print some business cards/get a haircut/wash my balls/etc and Im off to the races. Pipeline is good enough for now, but great advice I definitely need to stay mindful of where it is at constantly to avoid running out of steam down the line.

Icewahine you might want to hit me up for a sales training session. I'll help you flesh out your product and deliver it in a very powerful way. Slide into my dm's, boy

Yeah, I'd hook up with Manwhore. I think that's a piece that takes a very particular kind of person to help with.

Also- for SMB - crushing that initial pitch is literally 99% of success or failure. 

I thought you'd never ask MW :) Was planning on asking sometime soon, I'll hit you up

Nice to have mefist on reserves as well. I know there are a ton of guys in sales from here but not exactly sure many of them are active. I wrote that inital pitch point down btw - super key. 

Yeah but that's the thing is that it's so important but even experienced guys typically aren't that great at the actual vocal/verbals associated with it 

a quick sales-focused verbals training session with Da whore is a no brainer for sure lol 

Love sales and the idea of it. It's so much fun. I'm an audio engineer at the moment, but if I had to pick another path it would be sales for sure. 

"Sales is the highest paying hard work, or the lowest paying easy work"

i butchered the quote, but I love it

Yeah, it's a fun gig but it's a lot of hard work. Have to identify the specific things you've done to be successful and be really consistent in replicating those things. 

I think what really separates the reps who make it in the long-run vs. the reps who don't is a matter of who can stand up to being in the middle of all of the pressure and spotlight. 

When you're running point on large, company-changing deals... and even really just when you start to consistently work deals that are averaging 6-figures, the hardest change to adjust to for a lot of reps is constantly being under the spotlight and the pressure that comes with working fewer deals that are worth more. It's high stakes. 

You can't melt under the spotlight. You have to see success and want to GRAB it, GOBBLE it up, as opposed to running from it. This sounds like a no-brainer but I've seen reps whose lives are destroyed from the stress.... I mean one of our reps just went to rehab... 

It's really easy to think about failure and go, "I don't want to fail, failing sucks-if I fail then I don't get what I want" etc. etc. but flip it around and instead ask yourself.... "What does that fucked up part of me GAIN from failing... what are the benefits of failling?"

Thinking about that question may throw you through a bit of a loop and uncover some blindspots but if you want to be a successful rep who can run big deals then you have to be the kind of person who truly wants to grab a fist-full of success and eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. You can't afford to have any piece of you secretly wantintg to fail or secretly afraid to grab the horns and ride the bull until the end...

These are the fucking moments I live for. What I dreamed of when I thought of what sales would be like. 

It's 2:45am and I'm alone in my room with 270k deal on the line. I've racked up over 400 dollars in international calling fees this month. Our CEO officially turned off his cell phone and just said that when he wakes up he wants to see an order form with signatures. 

Everything is lined up. I've got my champion, their CEO, two of their lawyers and their CFO all knowing exactly what they need to do in order to get this thing done-the troops have their marching orders. This has been months in the making.  There were 4 distinct moments in this deal when I was 100% certain it was going to fall through.

As of 7 hours ago, we did not have a deal. I'd given a final altamatum, telling them this is the last thing I got in the tank and if we can't agree here, I've ben given clear direction that I have to walk away.... now the fun starts. The problem? This isn't a bluff. My hands are tied - I literally have been told I have to walk away after this. No more negotiations. No more late-night discussions. But can't help but know, in the back of my mind, that this deal isn't getting away. Zero chance - there's always a way

Yesterday morning their CFO wanted to completely change the pricing structure. Can't have this - but this is why you develop a champion. Time to call in the favors. All the late night hours of free consulting I provided, all the negotiations I led on their behalf, all the little ways day in and day out I had made this woman look like a god in front of her boss - all the interest I'd shown in the pictures of her kids... Time to call in the favors. 

This is a critical phone call. I don't hold back. I lay it on so thick I could literally feel her guilt seeping through the phone.... "Beth, with all of that said... I need your help right now. I need you to pull through... I have no more rope, nothing left to give...I need you to help me push this through on your end" I've never been more serious - it's the truth. It's time for me to cash in on my investment and ride her hard for the last mile. 

Without a champion who wants this even more than you, deals like these are dead in the water. "Mefist, even if I have to walk over to our CFO's house and shove the contract under his nose, I will do it to get this done"

This is pickup except the value you're leveraging are the hours of blood, sweat and tears you pour into the deal. Not sending a single email that isn't carefully sculpted and analysed with a fine tooth comb. Instead of AMOGS you have professionals at every turn whose livelihood is predicated on you losing and them winning. It's war and I fucking love it. The more intense it gets, the more I feel energized to push through. I'm pushing literally until the bitter end. There is no stopping or quitting. It's 2:45am on the last day of the quarter and I'm up, just waiting... just waiting on each response - 10 minutes here, 10 minutes there but we're slowly getting there.

For the first time since I picked up the phone and had my initial call with them, I know for a fact that it's going to happen. I'll bet my career on it... and in a lot of ways I have. 

Exactly..

Finally was able to get more than two hours of sleep. Deal came in last night - looks like I still have a job lol

Did they opt for the little little cardboard boxes with smiley faces? Or just plain peas.

Yeah, basically. They wanted the one with the pricess toy inside