How did you get into sales?

Question

I had a friend who was getting his PhD in Chinese. He was going to take a break and get a job working for a large mobile phone co. I told him that was a dumb idea and he should live the PhD life.

He did not listen to me and started making insane commission checks.

A few months later I sent him my resume so I could live the mad commission check life with him.

That was 17 year ago.

BAM

Accepted Answer

studied marketing in school thought I wanted to work at an agency, interned for one, and was beyond bored plus pay sucked and I saw a high turnover across the industry. COVID hit right when I graduated and through a friend's brother got an interview at a medium-sized SaaS company to be an SDR and now here I am. 7 months in have learned a ton (mainly that marketing is to blame for almost everything)

Answer

I was a bartender in Washington DC and decided I wanted to get out from behind the bar and into an office. 7 years later bars are all shut down and I’m still employed so it seems to have been a good decision

Answer

I was in engineering and support at Apple after a brief stint in their stores. Fell into the role after I decided I wanted to learn the other side of the business and joined a sales consultancy. I guess my customer service paid off because I crushed quota from day 1. Now I get to help people be better sales people across the board (and cadenceS)

Answer

I fell into it, seriously. I took a fundraising job and realized I had a knack for getting people to give me money, then moved into banking which only solidified it more. Eventually I went into product sales and kept telling myself I would leave sales...... never happened.

Answer

I started working in retail sales selling shoes at 17 years old. I was making $18-22/hour at 17. First off, wish I had invested any of that money in Amazon or something... Secondly, it taught me that I loved making money. I loved being the person who could just throw down cash whenever I needed to.

Answer

Fist internship in college was in sales then I never looked back.

Answer

I was 16 and selling caramel apples at a grocery store. I was doing well and my shift supervisor said consider sales in the future. That led me to work a retail sales job, then a sales internship, then started as an SDR in SaaS.

Answer

By accident.

Answer

I was studying music tech with the aim of becoming a rockstar (obvs). Then over summer break, I applied to a mysterious ad that said "sales and marketing" with very little info. I got called into the office and quickly realised I'd signed up to a 70 hours a week, D2D pyramid scheme selling telecoms here in the UK.....Horrendous job, but I leant a lot, drunk a lot, cried a lot, and somehow managed to stick it out for 3 years. Any sales job since then has been pretty enjoyable in comparison 😂

Answer

Convinced a company to hire me as an SDR, then made my way up through the ranks.

Answer

I found a random job on Kijiji

Answer

Was bartending after Uni and at that time the job market in Canada was non-existent no matter what you did, thought Sales was BS but applied and got offered a shot - 6 years later it's the best decision I've ever made

Answer

My first job was with Price Waterhouse. I had a knack for selling big projects - too naive to realize it was sales. I was just good at find costly problems and devising ways to solve them that made clients $$.  Then I got ahead of myself and thought I 'can sell anything' and went to sell ERP software for SAP. Holy moly, THAT was a learning experience. My 'boss' was a sink or swim kinda guy.

Answer

When I moved to Israel I knew working in high tech would be the only way for me to make decent money and live comfortably in an extremely expensive country. Being a native English speaker with a college degree (a degree in anything will do; mine is in jazz dance) really gives you a leg up in SaaS sales here in Israel.

Answer

Like many here I fell into sales. What I hadn't realized at the time was that I was already "selling" in terms of what I did in my rap career.

Answer

My last class in university was a B2B sales class & the term project was a Xerox sales cycle simulation. When I pitched, the Xerox recruiter came to see me after and offered me a job. Never looked back since.

Answer

I was working a marking job (shame) and watched sales reps rake in commission - I quit on my 3 month probation day and got into sales, never looked back. Went from a $22,000 salary to making $115,000. No regets.

Answer

I didn't have any technical skills and wanted to make money for a few years while kicking around the idea of going to law school.  Got a job in sales ended up loving it, money was too good and never went to law school.

Answer

I met a man in a sauna... now i’m a salesman

Answer

Someone in a blank white van offered me commission and candy... the rest is anxiety..... I mean history

Answer

I was working at non profit and doing side gigs in everything for everyone. My executive director's brother in law was presenting at Baxter's national sales conference, and asked if I could help him shoot / edit a video. I doctored it up (a ton) and sent it over. The next year, they flew me out to make another movie with them. They kept telling me "you should be in sales, you'd make a killing." Five years later, I'm working three jobs and still can't pay my bills, so I bit. Now I work one and go on ski trips every weekend. #worthit

Answer

I originally planned on going to medical school but then Organic Chem made me cry every day. Realized I only wanted to become a doctor to make a lot of money....then learned about where the real money sits

Answer

I worked 10 years in Accounting. I was tired of the predictable days, little interaction with people, and inability to increase my paycheck no matter how much harder I worked than my peers. Just hit my 1 year anniversary of the transition and in the same month I was awarded BDR of the year at my company and will be interviewing for an AE role in weeks. I think I made the right choice. Sometimes you have to make a little less temporarily to get to where you want to go.

Answer

I didn’t want to be a server in college anymore, so I got into retail sales where you could earn commission. Just continued down the road until I moved into my current role!

Answer

I decided I want to make more money than the average person, or from the roles I was "qualified" for so decided to take a leap of faith. I started out in a recruiting role, which was half sales and half recruiting. It was a small operation not run very well. When I got laid off due to covid, I decided to take the next step into a fully sales role. Started off as a BDR, am now a full inside sales rep and am SUPER happy about my decision. The lay off was a blessing in disguise.

bam

How did you get into sales?

41 comment

bam

How did you get into sales?

41 comment

Related posts

How do you get out of a sales slump?!

How do you get pumped before sales?

How to get over a sales slump?