Is it possible to transition from Recruiting to Sales?

I have roughly 4 years of recruiting experience. I studied Hospitality in college and graduated in 2016. I currently work for a major recruiting agency in the bay area and have been specializing in placing candidates in full-time accounting and finance roles. In the beginning of my career, I was learning a lot; however, over the years, I feel like there’s no career growth within my company. I spoke to a few of my close friends who are currently working is B2B sales and I realized that a lot of what I am doing as a recruiter is very similar to sales.


I want to make that transition but I don’t know how or where to even start. Switching to an entirely different career also means that I will have to start all over again. So...I am curious to know how much of my recruiting skills are transferable to a full-time sales role (specifically in SaaS sales). I want the flexibility to work beyond the typical 9-5 office hours… and sales seems to provide that level of autonomy. What do I need to do in order to get my foot in the door? Is sales a stable career field? 

🎈 Mentorship
9
salesnerd
WR Officer
1
Head of Growth
Absolutely! Recruiting is sales and I've always thought of it as such. 

If you want to break into the SaaS sales world, you have a couple of different avenues. The easiest entry point would be as an SDR. However, this would mean a step back in pay and responsibility. The advantage being that you could probably get a gig as an SDR almost immediately. The alternative is to apply for an AE role somewhere. If you have the right hiring team, they'll think of recruiting as sales and treat you like you have 4 years of sales experience. But it comes down to how recruiting is perceived by the hiring team. 

I'd say you could sharpen up your resume to position your recruiting experience as sales and toss it out to a few AE and SDR roles and take it from there.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
0
🦊
Isn't recruiting a form of sales?
pirate
Big Shot
0
🦜☠️ Account Executive
Always. I studied hospitality too. Doing well as AE now. The only person who limits your dreams is you.

Based on your other posts and title, I think you succeeded. Well done 🎉
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