Marnel14 profile picture
Marnel14 profile picture

Marnel14

Sales Development Representative

Valued Contributor
Good Citizen
Fire Starter
+1

As an SDR or was one. What would be the next step in your career if you had a choice?

As an SDR or was one. What would be the next step in your career if you had a choice?

Attached poll
*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.
🚀 Career Goals
🤘 Personal Growth
👨‍🌾 SDR
12

11 comments

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CuriousFox
WR Officer
3
🦊
It's whatever you want to do. There are no right or wrong answers.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Context is important. You could go get a job as an electrician if that speaks to your soul.

I do want to note that team lead is usually a way of tossing extra responsibility at someone without coughing up an actual promotion or raise - a nice nod to your capabilities, but not an end goal in itself, IMO.
GingerBarbarian
Opinionated
2
Lead Sales
I want to say that I do not like the traditional career track for sales. SDR is a hunter role. They have to go out and make something from nothing.

AEs are more like fishermen. They get appointments from SDRs and have to reel them in.

Account directors are like farmers. It is about long term account growth.

CS is like a firefighter. They have to respond to problems quickly and in the safest way.

(Yes, this is overly simplified)

But when you look at this, you see we are promoting people into roles based on them being skilled at something totally un-related. SDRs tend to need more high-pressure sales techniques, AEs need to be able to teach, CS needs to be customer-service focused, and AMs need more relationship building strategies. They are all drastically different.

Don't move into AE if you feel best as a hunter. If you are a great SDR stay there and you'll make way more money!
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
1
Bravado's Resident Asshole
Is this a situation that you are facing? Give us some back story. What is it that would want?
Diablo
Politicker
1
Sr. AE
All depends what you to want to do :) For me it’s an AE but person to person it might vary
ZVRK
Politicker
1
Enterprise Account Executive
I haven't worked as a full-time SDR, but worked as a full-cycle sales rep and got promoted to a team lead of 5 full cycle sales reps.. Came with an insignificant base bump, and the same commission structure, so.. almost no monetary incentive. Sure, it comes with more responsibility and you can help others rise up, but if this is not backed monetary, you`ll start wondering in no time if it`s worth it.

So, if the AE post comes with better pay (and it usually does), I`m voting AE :)
Gyro25
Notorious Answer
1
Account Executive
I don't intend on staying in Sales forever. But while I am, I intend to maximize the amount of money I can make in the least amount of time if possible. AE is the next best step IMO, but since I'm already closing new business an AM, it's almost the same thing.
fuzzy
Notable Contributor
0
CMO (Chief Meme Officer)
After doing AE and SDR paths, I decided I was more comfortable doing Product Management, now I don't have to spend so much time talking to customers. In fact, customers want to talk to me to improve my product rather than having to chase them. It's not always about money. I still close deals once and a while but the flexibility to just be a glorified translator is nice.
ThatNewAE
Big Shot
0
Account Executive - Mid enterprise
Two paths - SDR Team Lead. Or AE.

Depends on what you like more - closing, or managing.
countingmyinterest
Politicker
0
Account Executive
Become an AE first, then do whatever you want pertaining to sales.
Maximas
Tycoon
0
Senior Sales Executive
Up to you, AE would be my choice though..

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