M
M

MiceTrap

Sales Development Representative

Opinionated
Good Citizen
Fire Starter
+1

How to prepare for Sales While In School

What should I do now while in school (for BS in marketing ) to make me a stronger candidate once I graduate ?


My Goal is to be a SDR or AE right after graduation at a big company like oracle or salesforce since recruiters love those big names on resume.


So far I know the most important is

  • Networking x10
  • Internships

For reference I have 7 years of hospitality industry experience (server & bartender)


Should I do like ?

  • D2D Solar Sales
  • Phone Sales

Any Advice will be greatly appreciated Thank you in advance for reading or replying !


PS: Yes from my previous post I decided to go to back to School & I'm very happy with my decision :)

🎈 Mentorship
🥎 Training
🤝 Networking
15

18 comments

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Pachacuti
Politicker
8
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
Honestly - just graduate. You have good experience coming out of school, showing you worked your way through. A good HM is going to see that you aren’t some frat boy who suddenly needs a job.
jefe
Arsonist
0
🍁
Exactly this
CuriousFox
WR Officer
6
🦊
You don't have to have a degree for a SDR role. Good for you for going back to school. 🐬
Sunbunny31
Politicker
4
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Don’t expect AE right out of college, particularly not at a large tech.

While you are in school, however, check out the programs and internships those companies offer to college students during their summer breaks, particularly the ones available between jr and sr year. Those can often lead to positions after graduation, if things went well during the program.
NotCreativeEnough
Big Shot
1
Professional Day Ruiner
its funny how normal its become for companies to not hire a new AE that doesn't have SDR experience. I remember when I first started in this industry how uncommon SDR roles really were. Now its basically a required stepping stone.
Fenderbaum
Politicker
3
Retired Choirboy🪕
If you have the means to finish college, do it. It's a heck of a lot easier to do it while you're young.
tightlines
Politicker
3
Account Executive
Find a part time BDR/SDR role!
MiceTrap
Opinionated
1
Sales Development Representative
I'm Highly interested in that actually. I've heard to look into Sellx or Bravado Flex, Any other recommendations for part time work?
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
3
Sales Rep
Work for the alumni network that cold calls, so you have that on the resume
Notmyrealname
Politicker
2
AE
You could try to find a bpo/call centre job that has big name clients. They tend to offer flexibility to students because having a few part-timers suits their business model. A lot easier than d2d as well.
Diablo
Politicker
2
Sr. AE
When ever you qualify to work with the names you mentioned, in the SDR role you will be expected to dial. To answer your question phone calls would make more sense according to me.
SoccerandSales
Big Shot
2
Account Executive
I think networking and an internship would do you wonders, but it looks like you are already eyeing those
SADNESSLieutenant
Politicker
2
Officer of ♥️
I did door to door political campaigning. I was the campaign manager and we knocked on 25000 doors and blew the incumbent out the water with a 62% vote. Talking about how Im used to getting the door slammed in my face was a huge selling point. I also referenced my construction and skateboarder background (professional) and talked about how I am used to deadlines in construction and hard work there. and in skating I am used to trying a trick 99 times just to land it once, and have the same dedication towards a job and cold calling people. I may call 99 people but still have faith one of them will go well.

Didnt even have to graduate and got a job before hand debt free.
SADNESSLieutenant
Politicker
1
Officer of ♥️
in translation. Try to get a door to door job if you can, and try to see how your previous experience alligns with what you are applying for.

You could also start a selling club or something in college. or like join one. Or even intern with a tech executive.
JDialz
Politicker
1
Chief Operating Officer
You were in politics too? Nice! I was a congressional campaign manager and official staffer. Won the last race I managed by 22pt
SADNESSLieutenant
Politicker
0
Officer of ♥️
Hell yeah! Let's gooo!
NotCreativeEnough
Big Shot
1
Professional Day Ruiner
I sold cars part time while I was in school. Being in a 1-call-close type of situation taught me a lot that I feel like has helped me a lot today.

Too many of my colleagues are just stuck on "setting next steps" which ends up lengthening their sales cycle. Personally I'm always pushing for the close because of where I learned to sell. I generally get the yes much sooner because of it. I don't accept the long cycles as "the norm" and just expect them to take forever like my counterparts who started in this industry.

I worked at carmax who also has an amazing training program for new sales people. They're flexible with college schedules for part timers, and they have a tuition assistance program as well which could help you bank roll your degree some.
Chonkonaut
Valued Contributor
0
CSAM of Luke Warm Chowder
Learn the popular tools, go to the trailhead, and learn about salesforce.

Learn how to research effectively, using lookup tools.

Look up copywriting, and learn how to build effective emails.

Or

Try to build a product and sell it as a hobby.

The best I could advise is, learn general purpose programming; build a cattify image creator app using Javascript. Add your image, and the program scans it and suggests what you would be. Put it on the play store, add a premium option known as "Kitty Litter" for adding more outputs.

Keep the free account to only 3 images per week. The user's have to purchase Kitty Litter to unlock perks.

Start sharing it in Reddit forums, and get feedback. You will get your first users like that. Out of those users, you will get people to pay Kitty Litter.

Analyse the results, put them into a case study, and add it as a portfolio for when you apply to companies.

I'm sure plenty of people are going to be like WTF!

Have your WTFs... in the bag.

Sometimes the best way you can sell is to build something you like.

P.S there's so many things you can show to a startup, that shows you can build a pipeline of users/customers/people together on one platform.

Show don't tell!

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