LocoSales

Jr. Sales Manager

AE vs SDR ?

Hey guys, I need your career advice regarding a tough career decision.

After working as an SDR during my studies, I finally graduated a couple of months ago and joined a relatively big company in the finance space. The pay is excellent as they offered me a 100k base salary and another 100k as a commission due to my experience of having worked as an SDR part-time while still exceeding my targets.

The problem is the following: The new company has been recently sold by the founder and is now in the hands of a new investor, but we still have a lot of people who are not suited for the new environment. I say this because they have never had to aggressively compete in the market and get leads by themselves. With the economy and market situation changing, AEs are completely lost and try to generate leads with shitty spammy emails etc. I tried to implement many new approaches, but as you know, it takes time to implement them and get approval from above.

In the meantime, I got an offer from a smaller startup with a 10$ million dollar funding for an AE position with a base salary of 70k and a commission of 40k. Now I am asking myself whether I should leave the company and take the offer or stay put.

What would you recommend?

My pro and cons:

Big company:

+ Salary

+ Career path => hiring like crazy, and AE get 200 - 500k here

+ Safe job

- Rigid structure

- The lead situation is awful

- Need to wait a long time for a change (maybe a year or longer)

Startup:

+ AE title and responsibilities

+ Completely remote or hybrid

+ Growing market and great lead situation

- Salary drastically lower

- Track record is limited (have been around 2 years)

- Experience wise, also rather young "inexperienced" crowd

🎯 Career Development

15

23 comments

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braintank

Politicker

5

Enterprise Account Executive

Stay where you are. Don't take a pay cut to go to an unproven startup. $10M is a few months of runway.

LocoSales

Politicker

1

Jr. Sales Manager

Thank you for your answer! I am afraid that if I underperform here, it will hinder me from getting into an AE position anytime soon.

braintank

Politicker

2

Enterprise Account Executive

At least you know what you’re dealing with there.

Every startup says they’re drowning in leads before you start. Then you show up and the story is different. Avoid series As. See my post history.

TennisandSales

Politicker

1

Head Of Sales

I would not worry about that. I have seen some TERRIBLE sdr's get AE roles haha

And im sure you are not as bad as those ppl.

FoodForSales

Politicker

3

AE

Stay.

TennisandSales

Politicker

3

Head Of Sales

wow this is actually a harder choice than I thought when i saw the title of this post haha.

My first thought is always get the AE title........

But

a $100K base and $200K OTE for an SDR? damn.

I think you stick it out as an SDR!!

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Yeah, my first reaction is "why is this even a question?"

Then

Oh.

LocoSales

Politicker

0

Jr. Sales Manager

Thanks appreciate the answer! I will stay :)

tazman2

Opinionated

0

Investment Sales Associate

You guys hiring?

LocoSales

Politicker

0

Jr. Sales Manager

We are looking for a sales manager in Europe

Sunbunny31

Politicker

3

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Don't take the paycut. First time I've ever told anybody to stay SDR for now, but you're in a good place comparatively, IMO.

LocoSales

Politicker

0

Jr. Sales Manager

Thank you, I will stay and try my best 👌

LordOfWar

Tycoon

2

Blow it up

Tbh sounds like a no brainer for me. Stay and make $200k or leave and maybe make $100k?

Stay.

LocoSales

Politicker

0

Jr. Sales Manager

Well 100k base and the other 100k are commission based could be anything from 10k - 100k depending on the year. However, you are right financially speaking the move makes no sense :)

Pachacuti

Politicker

2

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

I get wanting to make it big with a start up - very alluring.

Having done that a couple times, I would recommend staying with the big company and making the money now - go for the high risk/reward later.

LocoSales

Politicker

2

Jr. Sales Manager

Thank you for your comment, I will follow your advice and save the money in the meanwhile to embark on riskier journeys down the line ;)

jefe

Arsonist

2

🍁

Don't have anything unique to add here, echoing everyone else's thoughts.

AE is a shiny exciting title, but that SDR opp is too good to give up, especially for something so unproven.

LocoSales

Politicker

0

Jr. Sales Manager

Thank you much appreciated :)

champchamp

Arsonist

1

Certified Savage

Wow, this is insane, congrats man! 100k base + 100K commission is totally unheard of as SDR.

I also vote that you stay, hustle your ass and get to AE there. If the base for SDR is 100k, what's the base for AEs?

And what segment do y'all focus on?

LocoSales

Politicker

1

Jr. Sales Manager

Base salary for AE is around 150-200k from what I have heard. We work in the corporate planning space with an average deal size of around 500k - 1 million. Thank you for your comment!

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

1

Professional Day Ruiner

don't jump to a startup right now. This isn't the economy to move to a company that cares about $10m in funding. That's a company that could very easily be out of business by the end of the year.

It's also a pay cut from your current role. You have a great opportunity where you're at. Do everything in your power to crush it there.

Gasty

Notable Contributor

0

War Room Community Manager

HODL

DrChaos

Good Citizen

0

Outbound AE

Broski, stay put :) selling a new SaaS can be pretty traumatic experience if you don't have at least some real stake inside. 10 mil in funding is like 12-18 months runway tops.

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