MoonDog349

Sales Manager

Valued Contributor

AE to Director of Business Development

Hey all,

I'm looking for feedback on a potential opportunity in front of me.

Context: I'm a mid market AE at a decent sized software company. I've been here for three years, moved my way up through SDR land, then SMB sales, now mid-market with overall success. My goal professionally is to move into sales management and continue to climb the ladder. The leader of our SDR/BDR org is leaving and leadership has reached out to me to apply. The role manages four SDR managers and their respective teams (roughly 40 headcount total).

My questions/concerns:

1. Is moving away from the sales team to run a lead gen org a risky long term move when my ultimate goal is to manage a sales team?

2. How often have you seen people move from biz dev mgmt to sales mgmt, or reversed?

3. Overall thoughts and advice on managing SDR managers? Have you done this? What's OTE look like where you have seen it?

I know this is a lot but I also know there is a ton of experience and brain power in this community. Any thoughts on my questions or things I'm not considering would be immensely helpful. Thank you.

🏋️‍♀️ Leadership

👨‍🌾 SDR

☁️ Software Tech

4

5 comments

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poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

5

☕️

1. Is moving away from the sales team to run a lead gen org a risky long-term move when my ultimate goal is to manage a sales team?
It can be, unless you start to build out a structure that demonstrates your ability to develop S/BDRs into AEs through training, coaching, enablement, etc. Essentially, you need to show that you can manage full-size reps as opposed to just entry-level folks.

2. How often have you seen people move from biz dev mgmt to sales mgmt, or reversed?
Not often, as most leaders I have seen go either way start to build a reputation and skill set that helps them thrive here. There are some Biz Dev leaders that manage orgs that have 100s of reps globally. They get paid well and are vital parts of the success of a business.

3. Overall thoughts and advice on managing SDR managers? Have you done this? What's OTE look like where you have seen it?
Are you going to be a first-time manager? If so, managing managers is often more difficult than managing reps. You are a layer removed from their reports, turning you into a guiding light that communicates goals, eliminates challenges, etc, but you are doing it all indirectly. You may or may not set yourself up for failure if you don't have a strong management acumen yourself.

braintank

Politicker

2

Enterprise Account Executive

Don't do it unless you want to do it for the rest of your life. SDR managers don't get promoted to sales management.

MoonDog349

Valued Contributor

1

Sales Manager

I assumed this to be true but the more research I’m doing the more I find it’s not the case.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

1

🦊

What do you want to do?

MoonDog349

Valued Contributor

-1

Sales Manager

Not business development! Pivoted off of this offer.

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