C
C

churrios

SDR

Good Citizen
Fire Starter
Contributor

How long were you an SDR/BDR before becoming an AE?

Not even sure if sales is for me, but I've been in the SDR role for about 1 1/2 years now. Did super well in the previous role, struggling in my current one. Curious what the timeline has been like for you all.
🧠 Advice
20

28 comments

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DungeonsNDemos
Big Shot
3
Rolling 20's all day
I was a BDR for 0 years 0 months and 0 days. I count myself fortunate.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
5
🦊
Samesies
Sunbunny31
Politicker
1
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Me three! Thank GOODNESS.
ThatNewAE
Big Shot
3
Account Executive - Mid enterprise
I was an SDR for over 2 years before I became an AE.
ScorpionZD
Executive
0
Enterprise SDR
Prospecting must be 2nd nature for you
oldcloser
Arsonist
-1
💀
2 years stealing calendar time? Brass ovary award winner right here!
oldcloser
Arsonist
2
💀
SDRs didn’t exist when I broke in. Neither did the internet.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
1
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Dialup, yes? And pine for email?
I fondly remember the Commodore 64 and the TRS 80.
oldcloser
Arsonist
1
💀
netscape rocks!
Sunbunny31
Politicker
1
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
I loved Netscape.
oldcloser
Arsonist
0
💀
AOL on a CD. Floppy disks. MS DOS 😂 We haz come far
BmajoR
Arsonist
1
Account Executive
6 months, but typically at my company it takes 12-18 months now.
Space_Ghost20
Valued Contributor
1
Account Executive
I was in banking and insurance sales for 6 years before switching to B2B software and becoming an SDR. From there I was an SDR for 10 months and got an offer from a different company to be an AE. Of course that was in 2021 when the market was much different.

I think in normal times, SDRs stay in position for 1-2 years before moving up.
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
1
Sales Rep
Luckily never was a BDR, started as a SMB AE
braintank
Politicker
1
Enterprise Account Executive
About 18 months
Diablo
Politicker
1
Sr. AE
6 months to get into software sales. Before that I was always into closing business.
HVACexpert
Politicker
1
sales engineer
Was inside sales for about a year and a half before moving to outside
GDO
Politicker
1
BDM
Never been SDR/BDR. sometimes I think it would have bene better
antiASKHOLE
Tycoon
1
Bravado's Resident Asshole
I was a BDR for 3.5 years. It was a personal reason that kept me in that position or else I could have made AE in less than 6 months.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
0
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Did inside sales for a couple of years in there while the kids were little, rather than field/outside sales. Totally get it.
Beans
Big Shot
1
Enterprise Account Executive
Started as a joint role, cold outreach and coached full cycle sales "Inside Sales Rep" was the title.
jefe
Arsonist
1
🍁
Wasn't really a thing back in my day. Straight to AE
DataCorrupter
Politicker
1
Account Executive
2 years then I got to become an AE. I had a very fortunate set of circumstances that allowed it happen though. I would think it's reasonable to be a BDR 2-4 years before making the jump to AE, anything longer looks like you're a career BDR.
Thisme
Valued Contributor
0
Account Executive
6 months
Tf1859
Good Citizen
0
Account Executive
9 months at one company. Jumped to a big tier 1 company and was another 15 months. Took a while but worth it
saaskicker
Celebrated Contributor
0
Enterprise AE
9 months
BTQ
Politicker
0
Account Manager
18 months and counting...
Selling.is.helping
Valued Contributor
0
Account Executive
7 months

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