You know what REALLY grinds my gears? The SaaS Sales Industrial Complex I was recently let go after leading and building a sales organization and more than doubling company revenue, and there I was, onward into the not-so-fun journey of applying and interviewing. I’ve spent the past 5 years selling and consulting for VARs in IT infrastructure. I’ve sold hardware, software, managed services, and professional services. I’ve sold security, next generation data centers using software defined networking, micro segmentation, national SD-WAN deployments, large-seat UC projects, etc. Most of my experience has been focused on enterprise and mid market clients (2,000 - 20,000 employees) — this is all to say, I’m not a genius, but I’ve been around the block. After lobbing applications out and reaching out to my network, I had interviews stacked up for a week or two. I interview well — you learn how to handle yourself when you’ve spent your career in sales. I may not get every job offer, but it’s RARE that I don’t get to the last round of interviews. So I go about each interview, making progress to the next stage on every phone screen... except for the SaaS companies I applied for. I didn’t make it past a single phone screen for the SaaS companies I applied to. NOT ONE. And the reason why? “We’re really looking for someone with exclusive SaaS experience.” Time and time again, I heard this. So I’ve sold software (tons of it), but because I haven’t sold just software, I’m DQed? Years ago when I was on the job hunt, I ran into the same issue. My friends who staff for sales positions all say the same thing... What gives? Listen, SaaS recruiters, I’M SORRY. My bloodline isn’t pure, I wish it was. I’m sorry my experience has been tainted by the Bloodmuggles of traditional IT infrastructure (of which you and every other SaaS product requires to run). I’m sorry that I can’t just do a POC, pressure for a PO, and then leave the client hanging to run to another POC somewhere else. I’m sorry I don’t know how to sell just ONE thing. I hate that I can navigate complex sales cycles, consult on highly integrated multi-cloud architecture, and figure out how to ensure every application and piece of software, in the cloud, in a colo, or on prem (or all the above) is working. All I am left with is that I’m a mere peasant amongst SaaS Gods. I get it. But could someone, ANYONE, please....PLEASE tell me the secret of SaaS sales? What skill set is it that make you so special? I envy you and your mythical unobtainable skill set. *end rant* Anyone in sales come across this? #saassucks #sales #ae
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This kind of shit happens in tech too and it always seems like it's the no-names that do it. Like you can be a dev with 20 years of experience but not have a lot of experience in this weeks' hot javascript framework and they will reject you. Big corps seemed to understand that if you know the concepts they can be applied to other domains.
I know Amazon isn’t perfect — but I actually really appreciated their interview process. It was focused not on what you’ve done, but more how you go about things, presenting a clear methodology and ability to execute regardless of the situation. That is far more practical to vet out in an interview than “did you do exactly one thing for at least 5 years.” And I’m sure this can happen on the dev side too. My whole thing... hire natural curious and smart people. The rest more or less falls into place.
True. The worst and hardest interviews I’ve had were at companies that were small and crappy. I’ve worked at some bigger name companies and progressed really well through their interview process. The difference, I noticed, was the smaller no-name companies zeroed in on details that didn’t matter that maybe made me look bad. A 3 month gap in my resume. While the better companies didn’t even ask and solely stuck to assessing my skills and competence for the role I was applying for.
Congrats on your offer! Kudos to you for maintaining your sense of humor through the B.S. you've had to deal with I couldn't help but think though, you seem extremely savvy as far as the interview process goes, could you not revise your resume to highlight the SaaS Sales stuff and downplay the non-SaaS for these companies
I absolutely curbed my resume to be SaaS centric — in fact my primary manufacture partnership was with Cisco. While still a hardware company, they have grown their software portfolio substantially, so I played into that. But they want “SaaS Only” — somehow anytime I tried to show a diversified sense of my accomplishments, I turned off the recruiters and didn’t make it to the next round. And thanks for the congrats! Glad to see kindness still exists on Blind.
haha I would love to have a drink with you op. Software SaaS companies are not created equal, so don't take it too personal. Lots of immature pixie ferry dust cargo cult bullshit run by first time founders types with no experience in building a sales org.
Haha, glad my sarcasm resonates. You description of these companies is spot on.
Would not take it personally tons of companies are idiotic and can’t think critically. It’s really not that big of a difference between what you do vs SAAS. Why do you want to get into the space?
I was entertaining all job options — I didn’t want to be picky during a pandemic. Lots of job opening, but tons of completion. SaaS is in my wheel house, so I applied to multiple SaaS companies in my area. And thanks, haha I didn’t take anything personally... it was a two way street. I may have not gotten to the next round, but I also have ZERO interest in working for a company that allows that myopic of an attitude when hiring talent. That just means you have a bunch of single-threaded one trick ponies throughout the whole company... no thanks.
Congrats on your AWS offer, what makes you eager for a SaaS role over cloud?
Hello again hOpo34! I wasn’t more eager one way or another — I was just opening every door I could. Weird time losing a job, weird market, pandemic makes guarantees a thing of the past. So I cast a larger net than usual, SaaS, MSPs, Vendors, VARs, manufactures, and cloud.
Yeah. All the time. It's always the small companies who want something incredibly stupid. Looking for a new job ATM. Pretty good at getting to 2nd/3rd rounds. But seems like there is a lot of competition. To be fair i'm not the best interviewer so I have been working on that, but in good economies I can usually get something good within 6-8 weeks. I had a perfect job I didn't get past the phone screen for...the recruiter told me she did 30 initial phone screens. It's SaaS sales we're not fucking interviewing for quant jobs at RenTech. Fucking christ.
A word of advice I gave my buddy who was laid off due to COVID: There are tons of job openings, but there are a ton of talented people hunting for jobs. Prepare, prepare, prepare. Don’t take any phone screen for granted. Rehearse your answers and talking points. Think about how you would prepare for a client presentation for a huge opportunity that would pay out $30,000 in commissions, and then realize you’re interview presentation is for a seat at the table of a six-figure salary and stable income. Take it seriously. Don’t underestimate the prep. I dedicated 30 hours + to my AWS interview.
I left saas, glad to be gone
It is a big fat circle jerk among SaaS salespeople- incredibly incestuous- don't feel bad- most are from same frat houses and treat workplaces like frats- once they work together at one company, they follow each other around in the same groups like remora.
Haha, there is such truth to this
By the way, I got backdoor’ed by an AppD rep on a deal I seeded and ran the POC on, 6mo later AppD took it to another partner, $750K deal gone. Left a bad taste in my mouth, never did business with them again.
I'm totally with you on that. I've also interviewed for SaaS and there just seems to be this "you won't know how to do this job if you never worked for a SaaS company before" mentality. Well, it's their loss anyway for not being able to see past their narrow scope of candidates
So you’re in sales but you can’t even sell a recruiter into passing you onto the next round?
Oh look everyone, another miserable tech employee who covers up their unhappiness with sarcasm and being a dick to others on Blind because they hate themselves. I'm SHOCKED. Shocked I tell you. Also, you're reading comprehension skills are lacking — made it through plenty of next rounds. I was arbitrarily not passed on for SaaS roles only because "I haven't sold exclusively SaaS." This happened 4 times. How is it I get up-leveled after an Amazon loop but can't make it through a SaaS phone screen for a company that probably won't exist in 5 years? Accepted offer from AWS TC $350-400K.
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