bobushka

SDR

Anybody else value time over money in sales?

As much as I respect people trying to get money and provide for themselves/their families, I can't stand the hustle & grind culture of sales. Anytime I hear someone say they're "crushing" their quota, I cringe.

Anytime I've hit my quarterly goal, I spent the rest of the quarter taking PTO and playing nintendo in my office's gameroom. Money is infinite but time is finite, it's much more valuable than money IMO. The beauty in sales isn't the earnings potential, it's the potential to have autonomy with your schedule and the ability to give yourself free time.

Am i alone here?

🙏 Mental Wellness

🚀 Career Goals

☕️ Workflow and Daily Habits

31 comment

Sort by:

Avon

Politicker

Senior Account Executive

My personal “why” is that I want to retire comfortably at 50 and travel with my Mrs before my body sucks. So I grind. But I also like your style

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

Im going to come across sounding like an asshole here but thats ok. We all have our own takes here.

BUT I would never want this mentality on my team. Not that you value time over money but that you just stop working when you hit some arbitrary goal. The beauty of sales is the earning potential because that allows the autonomy in your schedule. And hopefully long term freedom. At least where I live I need to make a pretty penny to support my lifestyle and that ain't coming from hitting our number and then just not working.

bobushka

Contributor

SDR

Not like an asshole at all! You're being honest and that's totally ok. But I do think in a world where less than half of sales reps are hitting quota, I think managers should not try to squeeze everything out of their reps like oranges, and be totally ok with however they spend their time as long as they're hitting goal.

Someone who hits goal and takes time off is probably happier, more relaxed, and arguably better for company culture than someone who's constantly busting their ass and stressed all the time.

Feds_Watchin

Politicker

No. The top dawg usually not good for company culture.

SlinginSoftware

Politicker

Account Executive

I couldn't agree more.

Once again, I don't intend for this to come off as being an asshole, but it is also a much different mindset being and SDR vs AE. The earning potential once I'm in accelerators as an AE can be massive. I've literally made more than my entire OTE in a single commission check... That is life changing money.

I'm at a point where I know I'm going to be more than comfortable in retirement... What I'm working towards now is retiring 10 or so years early.

bobushka

Contributor

SDR

I'm glad you're hitting them, but IMHO accelerators are almost like dangling a piece of meat in front of an animal to keep them running on the treadmill. My company has SDR's AE's and operates like a SAAS but we pay all our reps a flat pay structure. It's actually really nice not having half your income be variable, also eliminates things like territories which can make a sales culture toxic. Every company I've been at had success being territory dependent

Feds_Watchin

Politicker

Spot on.

ilovemondays

Executive

Senior Account Executive

It doesn't matter that accelerators are a dangling incentive - we're human, motivated by economic factors just like any other mammal.

If we influence our environment, we influence our outcomes, and sales is one of the few careers where you have a lot of liberty to do that.

I don't believe work should be viewed as something other than life, it does not have to be our main purpose but it certainly is a powerful conduit for realizing our potential.

Take @SlinginSoftware's scenario for instance, their grind is being properly rewarded - that is what is amazing about where they work. They are making a great investment of their time by working more.

goose

Politicker

Sales Executive

As with anything, balance is key. Some people enjoy working. Some people enjoy flexibility. Sales (fortunately) affords us both.

Personally, I prefer a slower, more methodical approach to sales. As a quarterback in high school I appreciated the deliberate, proactive pace of offense as opposed to the manic, reactive pace of defense.

There is a lot to do. Spend your time wisely and you'll be rewarded.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

This is why I also prefer the Enterprise AE role. Nice call Goose.

Ryscott0317

Politicker

Cloud Specialist

I absolutely agree. I respect people for grinding but time is the most precious commodity of all. And for me I don’t need a lot of money to be happy

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

Depends upon your priorities.. if you want more money, you got to slog more doesn't matter you achieved your target..

But I hope this doesn't become a long term habit (I hit target, I'm done).

bobushka

Contributor

SDR

Less than half of salespeople hit target, if someone hits target they're outperforming the norm and have achieved what they're paid to do for the next month/quarter/year - I feel like looking at it otherwise is greediness

FamilyTruckster

Politicker

Exec Director, Major Accounts

If that’s what you’re content with, thats your choice. Know that some bosses will get irritated with that behavior, and expect to not be promoted.

If you’re hitting your financial, personal, and company required goals then so be it.

I have a feeling most in here will disagree. I go until my face falls off BUT I take time when needed. I don’t mail it in when I hit threshold.

Feds_Watchin

Politicker

People without uncapped commissions will disagree with you.

Feds_Watchin

Politicker

Unless you are BDR sand bagging meetings strategically, which I DO NOT support (snickers)

Feds_Watchin

Politicker

I say it all the time. But time is more enjoyable with money. Double edged sword. If you have accelerators I don’t take the foot off the gas to play Nintendo.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I work for accelerators to earn better PTO in addition to my savings, investments, etc. So I work my rear off to get there.

I also think I have a pretty good work/life balance. I'm working when the rest of my family is working or at school; I'm spending evenings taxiing to practices or just watching a Giants game - but if there's a big preso coming, or a key contract in play, those things do take a back seat for a moment.

bobushka

Contributor

SDR

What do you define as work life balance? I feel like in sales anything less than 60 hours is considered good work life balance and that's heartbreaking we as a society think its ok to work that much

UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

SaaS Eater

60 hours?? I work maybe 35-40 a week, my teams hits targets and people are pretty happy. My fiancé is the same. You don’t need to hammer 60 hour weeks if you are smart with your time and understand how to sell.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I have some weeks that are simply nuts and I can't seem to not be working on something. Then I have down weeks that are much quieter and I have comparatively little to do.

But - I take time to be with my family. I drive my son to practice, go to his games, make sure he can get to events he wants to go to, spend weekend tournament time with him. I did the same when my daughter was younger, too. Those times go by fast, and if you're working through the shows, practices, competitions, hanging out watching a silly movie...you've missed out totally. So I love the flexibility of the AE job where I can balance just how much I need to work in order to make it all work. As a competitive individual, I'm not satisfied with "just" making the number, but I'm also not going to sweat not being #1 on the team when there are young, unmarried people with more time to give to their career and blowing out their number totally.

In general, I probably work 35-50 hours a week, depending on the week.

bobushka

Contributor

SDR

I totally agree, sounds like we all work at good companies. Lots of sales orgs out there require 60 hour work weeks to hit goal and its a shame people think that's tolerable. I feel like work life balance is anything less than 40 a week

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I like the fact that I'm in a position where I can make this decision. That's one huge reason I'm glad I'm an AE.

Feds_Watchin

Politicker

Preach

cw95

Politicker

Sales Development Lead

Forget that, what do you play on Nintendo? Just learned how to master fishing on Animal crossing. Cool, ay.

bobushka

Contributor

SDR

counting down the moments til october 5th where I can play metroid! But for now it's been super smash and fire emblem

Swand

Politicker

BDR

Claro que se valora más, y cuando a sido con esfuerzo

InfiniteGranite

Executive

Senior Enterprise AE

I think each to their own and hard to disagree with what you're saying if that works for you. Everyone will have their own view based on their personal/family goals and also what the company is offering them to 'go that extra mile'.

For me, I just try to be smart about it - if I'm not gonna hit quota this quarter, I'm not killing myself and sacrificing time away from family to put in extra hours that aren't gonna make a lick of difference to this Q. Our sales cycle is min 5 months so I have pretty good visibility (opps. don't just fall into the pipeline that you can close in a matter of weeks). The flipside is that if I'm close to an accelerator kicking in, you better believe I'm putting in a couple of extra hours each day to make it happen. The potential difference in my paycheck is substantial enough for me to carve out some time from other places.

ilovemondays

Executive

Senior Account Executive

Time is infinitely more valuable, the more I make the more it costs to make me work an additional hour
https://medium.com/@kentbeck_7670/extreme-time-value-of-money-late-stage-career-planning-7f3b82214cf5?source=search_post---------0

thegrinch

Politicker

SDR

I completely agree with you. Time is everything and money is not. I think most people are a product of American capitalism - nothing is enough, more, my health can wait, etc. I think in the future we will see more mandatory time off and shorter work weeks.

WomenWantMeFishFearMe

Politicker

-1

lolno

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

Press Careers

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.

bobushka

Anybody else value time over money in sales?

31 comment

Related posts

What do you sell and do you think it’s harder to sell than anything else?

Anyone else in outside/field sales struggle finding time to take a shit between appointments?

Anybody else make sales memes to cope?