I've been selling for 5 years both were inside sales AE roles. I'm looking to make a jump to a field AE role. Are most of the SAAS IT Sales roles inside sales?
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Are most SAAS AE positions inside sales role?
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I’m enterprise SaaS, and haven’t traveled for work in over a year. Normally, I would be doing quite a bit of my meetings in person, but obvs that’s a challenge right now. I did some travel at mid market as well, depended on the deal size and the customer.
What's your definition of inside sales? The definition seems to vary across companies.
Mainly speaking to customers via zoom. Nothing in person.
Gotcha. I'd say the majority of SMB/MM AEs working for national or international are doing most business through the phone/Zoom, especially right now. Enterprise reps seem to do more business travel and in person meetings.
I think it's more the size of the deal than it is SaaS itself. If the average deal size is relatively small, then travel doesn't make sense, and working deals remotely is how it's going to be. Bigger, more strategic deals are worth the investment of time and money to travel.
Basically, I can get more volume done on the phone/zoom, because I can hop from meeting to meeting, so it's ideal for MM/SMB.
I will say that I have closed a number of six-figure enterprise deals remotely as well, particularly for customers with a global presence, where many of their own team members aren't on premise either.
Basically, I can get more volume done on the phone/zoom, because I can hop from meeting to meeting, so it's ideal for MM/SMB.
I will say that I have closed a number of six-figure enterprise deals remotely as well, particularly for customers with a global presence, where many of their own team members aren't on premise either.
There's plenty of field SaaS people, myself included.
Are you enterprise?
I am. But did mid market from the field too becuase I'm a snowflake ;)
I haven't done field Sales in Software but have some friends working with food tech companies where they meet their prospects frequently
Inside sales to me is a BDR/SDR taking inbound leads. I'm an field AE who has conducted business via Teams over the last 18 months. The way we work has changed. I think for the better.
Most are, from what I've seen. Definitely can depend on the actual market though.
We were maybe 70/30 in-house vs on-site visits and pitches.
COVID obviously skewed that now, but we're starting to travel again.
COVID obviously skewed that now, but we're starting to travel again.
It seems like things a trending more and more towards inside, especially since teams are more remote and you often can't meet with a whole team at once in person, although especially for enterprise roles outside/in-person still seems relatively common.
My personal experience is that customers are mostly comfortable purchasing through an inside motion but especially for later stage deals and high value deals getting in front of them in-person, possibly with a couple key execs, is a great way to finish things up.
My personal experience is that customers are mostly comfortable purchasing through an inside motion but especially for later stage deals and high value deals getting in front of them in-person, possibly with a couple key execs, is a great way to finish things up.
I've only heard of people traveling to close deals, not on a meeting-to- meeting basis.
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