framedsales

Account Executive

Advice? Transition from Entertainment/Media to SaaS Sales

War Room,

I'm looking to transition out of the entertainment/media industry into SaaS sales.

My Career Path (oldest to newest)

Stanford University graduate
Creative Artists Agency - executive assistant (1st point of contact for artists & their teams)
Artist Management team for one of the most well known celebs in the world
Wore many hats in a venture-backed digital video startup founded by another iconic music business figure.
[Got burned out spinning my wheels in this industry]
Threw parties/events for a boutique Film/TV production company

I've always been salary based. Never had a quota.

In the venture-backed media company, I personally pitched and closed over $1.5M of business in digital marketing campaigns to companies like T-Mobile, Spotify, and Tinder. Was a naïve team player in all these entertainment roles and never compensated properly.

When I look back, I loved the chase and thrill of bringing money in. Seems like SaaS is the way to earn more & learn better systems and repeatable processes to master sales.

Any advice on handling the Quota/OTE question? - entertainment co's didn't track or impose these metrics (insane, i know).

Any advice on what roles to target - SDR / BDR / or AE?

Any advice on what size companies to target - Startups, Growth Stage, Enterprise?

🎈 Mentorship

🎯 Career Development

9

17 comments

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CuriousFox

WR Officer

4

🦊

Have you filled out a profile on the jobs tab?

framedsales

Fire Starter

0

Account Executive

Day 1 here in the War Room.

I just completed a profile on the jobs board.

TennisandSales

Politicker

3

Head Of Sales

if you didnt have a quota, i would make one up.
I would make the venture backed media company you main experience.
If you were bringing in money for the company I would call your self an AE or sales executive.

Look at how many deals you brought in vs how much total revenue you influenced, and make that your Average Deal Size.
Look to see how long each deal took
Understand WHO you were talking to (what was their role, Director, manager, C level)

recruiters are going to want to know all of this, and the better answers you have the more likely you are to get moved to the next round.

Depending on the average deal size and average sales cycle length, will dictate what type of company/role you should look for.

framedsales

Fire Starter

1

Account Executive

good advice. i will do this.
appreciate you taking the time to write this up.

"never let the truth get in the way of a good story." - Mark Twain

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

2

Sales Rep

Check out the acadmey, good article about breaking into tech there

framedsales

Fire Starter

1

Account Executive

Yes, there is great concise and clear info there.

Bookmarked it.

Gasty

Notable Contributor

2

War Room Community Manager

@framedsales: glad to have you here, savage! Enroll yourself in Tech Sales U - we've created this course, especially for folks like you -

https://bravado.co/war-room/posts/introducing-techsalesu

ps: A ittle surprised how people are missing the pinned Tech Sales University thread. Am I missing something here? @TennisandSales, @Kosta_Konfucius, @CuriousFox

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

0

Sales Rep

@GastyDon't worry I have told people to look at Tech Sales U in real life!

salesking

Politicker

1

Manager of Business Development

confidence is key

framedsales

Fire Starter

0

Account Executive

agree 100%.

Diablo

Politicker

1

Sr. AE

Saas is very broad. You will have to do a research. SDR/BDR is the starting point followed by AE (closing role).

Sunbunny31

Politicker

1

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Yes, it will be like starting a new career, so most likely starting as BDR/SDR will be the path.

framedsales

Fire Starter

1

Account Executive

this seems to be the standard case.

for anyone reading this that somehow skipped SDR/BDR (it happens) and went straight to AE, please share your experience.

positives? negatives?

framedsales

Fire Starter

2

Account Executive

Just found this megathread from War Room member @gasty on this topic of the SDR --> AE challenges/growth.

Sharing below for anyone that's interested.

https://bravado.co/war-room/posts/megathread-transition-from-sdr-to-ae

Sunbunny31

Politicker

1

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I was never a BDR/SDR, but I also started in sales a very long time ago, and those roles really didn't exist the way they do today. I don't regret not being one, but I think it's an almost unavoidable step these days. Definitely gives people a chance to toughen their skin, get very good at communicating and building pipeline while learning the industry.

Tightquotacrush

Executive

1

Manager

I feel like the world is really your oyster. What I'd figure out A)What field you want to be selling in? Cyber, martech, fintech, etc. B) Reach out to recruiting agencies like Betts recruiting and ask for roles in those space C) 100% agree with @TennisandSales, you've sold already, taking an SDR role would be too junior for you. just tell that story to hiring managers

jefe

Arsonist

1

🍁

Just wanted to say you've got quite a background. I'm sure that you'll be able to leverage that despite never carrying a quota.

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