Kelsey

SDR

Incredibly green and new to sales, but I love finding learning opportunities. Is it worth joining a sales association? 🤔

Good evening/morning to anyone reading this.

I'm really new to sales and business development after switching careers from clinical work. I've dabbled in B2B and B2C for < 2 years and there's still a wealth of information and skills I'd like to further develop as a professional.

I've tried finding network meetups in my region (Southern California) that is aimed at salespeople, but haven't come across any thus far.

I'm looking to grow my knowledge base and network, but not sure if joining a sales association is the best approach for green/new salespeople.

Given the diverse roles that are nestled under sales like SaaS, medical, industrial, home service sales, etc., I'm wondering if it's a good investment of my time and money to join sales associations.

Anyway, any stories or experiences of belonging to an association that you’re willing to share would be very appreciated.

Thank you

👑 Sales Strategy

🤝 Networking

🚀 Career Goals

8

16 comments

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oldcloser

Arsonist

8

💀

Can you give an example of a sales organization you would consider joining? I don’t know what that would even look like.

Read books. Ask questions in here. Have a look at the free resources inside Bravado. You can send me whatever tuition you were planning to spend. It’ll do you as much good as it would in an association.

Kelsey

Fire Starter

2

SDR

Thanks! I had heard that sales associations were great for networking but to be honest don't know much about them.
I'll do more research and I'll get back to you on the organizations, if you don't mind!

Revenue_Rambo

Politicker

5

Director, Revenue Enablement

This is probably the best sales organization you could have joined. Best of all it costs you nothing but time and willingness to ask question, get feedback (or a little criticism).

If you were to join a local org do a free one. Not worth paying for anything at this point.

oldcloser

Arsonist

5

💀

Take the @Revenue_Rambo advice here. And do you think you could find a way to be a little bit less formal? It frightens me.

Gasty

Notable Contributor

5

War Room Community Manager

Networking at events is one thing. From experience, those events are usually just people ranting their problems or help you in getting to know someone from an org that you might want to ask a referral for.
Read books, talk to experienced folks in 1:1's, write here and put up queries, contribute in the comments sections of any post. The insights these people have is GOLD.

RandyLahey

Politicker

5

Account Executive

This right here.

Save your money. You will get ripped off at those.

Find the most tenured reps and buy them a cup of coffee. In this game, it’s all about experience.

No books, podcasts, associations, etc. will help shorten that by much.

And come hang out here!

jefe

Arsonist

4

🍁

Unless it's free, which it won't be, don't even bother. You're in the right place.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

3

🦊

We like free

jefe

Arsonist

3

🍁

Everybody does. That's why the majority of my networking is done in the sample lines at Costco.

oldcloser

Arsonist

2

💀

Under rated comment. 😂

jefe

Arsonist

1

🍁

Hot prospects get treated to a sausage and pop.

HVACexpert

Politicker

3

sales engineer

You’re better off attending and being a part of industry organizations. I am sure there are organizations that relate to your vertices or solution your provide. I would try those first.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

3

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

This! This is how you learn about your marketplace and what matters to your buyers. This is where you will learn how to build trust and become a subject matter expert.
Sales advice you can get right here.
Welcome!

Justatitle

Big Shot

2

Account Executive

The problem with sales associations is that they are often cut and paste. What's cut and paste? Glad you asked. The people who started them had success in prior orgs and they think what worked for them will be able to be copy and pasted over from previous success, while there are certainly things that can be picked up this rarely works because there are nuances when selling different software/hardware to different personas/verticals/companies. to be honest, you are in the best one here already

FoodForSales

Politicker

0

AE

it can't hurt, but you won't see many sales people rushing to join unless they think it will make them $$$

Beans

Big Shot

0

Enterprise Account Executive

You're way better off building your network organically and proving you skillset.

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