Tech Sales

“Build it and they will come”.

If only life was so easy!

While some consumer products are lucky enough to be able to grow through virility and word of mouth, most tech companies will need the help of talented tech sales teams if they are going to hit their lofty revenue targets.

Tech sales is primarily responsible for bringing the company revenue by connecting customers with technology products that can help solve their problems.

The process often involves generating “leads” (lists of people who could potentially benefit from the product), “prospecting” (making initial contact with the leads), “qualifying” those leads (trying to find out whether a lead has the qualities needed to become a customer – do they have the budget, is the product needed or just “nice to have” etc – if not then you don’t want to waste time trying to sell to them), all the way through to closing the sale.

The process is often visualized as a “sales pipeline” that starts with a large number of initial leads and gradually decreases through to closed sales.

Popular Tech Sales Roles

Some popular tech sales roles include:

Sales Development Representatives (SDR)

These roles are often focused on the Leads, Prospecting and Qualifying stages of the sales pipeline.

Account Executive (AE)

After the SDR has qualified a lead, it’s time for the Account Executive to take over. They’ll usually arrange with the potential customer to have discovery and product demo calls, and then (hopefully) work through to closing the sale. Account Executives may also work with existing customers if they are looking to upgrade or purchase new products from the company.

Sell me this pen

The sales industry doesn’t always have the best reputation, with pushy insurance sales people and Jordan “The Wolf of Wall Street / sell me this pen” Belfort springing to mind.

Thankfully, the relationships in tech sales tend to be more positive, as sales people are able to genuinely help their customers solve problems with the tech products they are selling.

Is tech sales right for you?

Sales roles can be a great entry into tech as they can be quite forgiving when it comes to formal education requirements or experience. The most important things are that you work hard and bring in revenue – so your first job is going to be selling the hiring manager the idea that you are capable of doing this.

Salespeople need to be optimistic with a strong “can do” attitude. The role inherently involves rejection – no matter how great your product or app is, the majority of people aren’t going to be interested in it – so to be effective in sales you can’t let this get to you.

A salesperson needs to have excellent communication skills as they will be spending their days on the front line dealing with customers. It also helps to have strong problem solving skills, as this helps you find creative solutions to customer problems using your company’s products, leading to more sales.

Tech Sales salaries

Sales roles tend to be paid as a mix of base pay and commission, with the base pay often set lower than other roles within the company as the salesperson is expected to make up the difference (and more) in the commission.

The “eat what you kill” nature means the “average” salary for salespeople can be quite misleading as it is so dependent on the skill of the salesperson, the product they are selling, and the market.

Top salespeople at fast-growing tech companies can reach incomes that are among the highest in the company (including the executives) and it’s not unheard of for people in technical sales roles at leading enterprise SaaS companies to make many hundreds of thousands of dollars per year.