How do I go from engineering to sales?
I’m an engineer but I’d like to transition to sales. Please answer whichever of the following questions that you’re able to: 1. If you’ve made this transition, how did you do it? 2. As a salesman in tech, do you wear suits and keep yourself in top shape to look sharp? 3. How often do you need to travel? 4. What’s your average TC? 5. What’s your base salary? How does additional compensation work? 6. How is tech sales different from traditional sales? 7. Would you recommend someone moving to tech sales today? Thank you for your help in advance. Just answer the questions you feel like answering or otherwise apply to you. TC: $260k
Sales suck SMD
Can you tell me more?
No point in going to sales if u r not excellent in butterring
I’m definitely a likable person and I suspect that my ability to butter plays a small part in why people like me so much. ✅
Leetcode
I was hardware engineer and somehow drifted into sales. I joined a small startup and did everything including sales. Then I used sales job title to get next sales role. I’ll say that sales has less TC than what you’re making now but with more pressure cause you can see directly your score card. But it is more fun cause I get to go to all the parties and conferences. But again, tech sales is mostly men so you end up partying with a bunch of other men
Hm, my primary motivation would’ve been the money so this is making me reconsider.
1. N/A 2. Lol, HELL no. Jeans 99% of the time. I’ve worn a suit 1 time while “at” Microsoft - at my final round interview. Also, there are lots of saleswomen too, it’s not 1950; please reframe going forward. 3. Totally role dependent. Have had jobs with travel 6x/year, have had jobs with travel every week. Also it’s not stable like a consultant role, you’ll go where deals require you to go in cyclical patterns. 5. Varies widely YoY. Last year $450K. Expect about the same this year. After that will probably go below $300K next year, but who the hell knows. 6. $145K. Target cash bonus is ~70% (stock is additional). Comp hugely dependent on revenue targets/big deals. Way more cash than stock. 7. Yes, it’s a gold rush right now if you’re selling cloud at MSFT, AWS, Salesforce, or Google. I’m sure there are many other smaller players but their growth will be less certain.
Thanks for your detailed answer! I’m in my mid 20s and have a younger looking face but a firm and lower voice. Do you think my looks may disadvantage me? Finally, how is sales for Microsoft different from other tech companies you’ve worked at?
Have only worked in tech sales at MSFT, so can only speculate about others (people on average tend to stay at MSFT is sales for a long tenure, if they can hack it). What makes MSFT different from any other tech sales role is the broad portfolio (traditional on-prem software and servers, SaaS, IaaS, PaaS, database, productivity, security, identity, ERP, CRM, AI, surface, etc.........). This means selling at MSFT is incredibly complex. Customers complain constantly about our complexity but there’s really no way to simplify it when you sell so many different products that meet so many different needs for customers in totally different stages (old school manufacturing using Windows 7 with no cloud strategy and tons of manual laborers to born in the cloud and mostly digital work with many fewer employees and everything in between), especially when most enterprise customers wish to buy on a single contract. Most of our competitors have a drastically narrower scope. Re. your physicality, you’re a man so that’s an advantage in terms of credibility with customers right off the bat (see: your initial comment about “salesMAN” instead of “salesPERSON”). And no I’m not just generalizing - I actually had a customer a few years ago who did not want me to be at their offices because they are uncomfortable working with women. Definitely an outlier in terms of what customer they are, but it was 2015, which is kind of nuts. Most of the enterprise salesforce at MSFT is middle aged men (which, in large part is due to tenure), but there is a lot more diversity in the lower and younger ranks. I suspect the inside sales or small/midsize salesforce is a little younger and more diverse than enterprise as well. I am a petite woman who started at MSFT in enterprise sales in my mid 20s and generally have not felt my stature/age was a disadvantage because of how I show up. Internal and external customers know I am knowledgeable and accountable and my work speaks for itself. It doesn’t matter what you look like if you bring value to the table (if you DON’T bring value to the table, well, being a white man helps because credibility is assumed). The gender issue has been more of a challenge to navigate, but overall, it’s a pretty good situation for a person in my shoes.
Just out of curiosity, are there many Asian males in tech sales?
At MSFT, lots of Indian men. Not many other Asian men from other countries that I’ve worked with who are based in the US. Obviously tons of Asian men in tech sales in Asia 😊.
1. I went from HW engineer to SW engineer supporting partner/customers... this provided me with insight into working with customers without giving up my Engineering role/grade level... 2. Mostly jeans and a collared shirt... well groomed and smell fresh (don’t smell like cologne, body odor, and heavy spices) 3. Only do regional ... rarely have to fly 4. Average TC (base + commission + RSU + bonus) = 210k ... potential to do $350k at my grade level... some of my co workers make 300k on average 5. pay structure is different at every company....I hear SW cloud sales is a cash cow... depending on the customers and pay structure, you can make upwards of $1million 6. Varies at every company... depends on the relationship with the customers 7. Depends, not everyone is cut out for sales... I personally love it.... visibility, pay,... it really allows you an opportunity to understand how your company generates revenue.... the best sales guys are engineers who are articulate, self aware, good listeners, and have business acumen
This^ great read
Curious where you got the 1M cut for the top earners. Does that seem a little high? I assume enterprise sales. But still
A good transition from an Engineer into Sales would be to go for a Sales Engineer or Solutions Consultant (there are a few more titles to look for but this is the pre-sales technical person). This would be a good transition because you have the technical knowledge and you can learn the sales muscle with less pressure on quotas and commission — typically a larger base pay but less upside.
Apply the tech to a sales role would be a Sales Engineer, Systems Engineer, Solution Architect, PreSales Consultant, Technical Account Manager, and many other titles. Great como ($200K+) without the neck on the line if sales don’t happen for a specific sales rep. Usually driven by a team quota, and the core focus is “remove any technical objections from a customer moving forward”... whatever it takes to make sales successful, all the excitement (ups/downs) of sales, without the sales rep risk, and without giving up all the skills you truly have. The best SEs could be reps... just don’t want to be one.
This guy is right.
I hope I am ;) been doing SE work for 13 years now. Different companies. Different technologies, but doing the same job - solving customer problems, getting them convinced and excited, and then the sales rep can do their job and take their money :) Now - there’s a million parts to this very undefined job... Master Technical Sales has been the book that helped me get started.
Let me know how it goes for you
Not sure if sarcasm but I’ll actually DM you if I really try for it. I’m just exploring the idea for now.
Not sarcasm, actually serious