KB_FarmerType

Strategic Sales

Valued Contributor

Is Professional Services Sales even sales?

So.. a tricky situation I wish I never had to share. I moved from a solid B2B Account Mgmt role from a large company into a growth stage startup to take up Professional Services Sales role for the region after 3 months of due diligence. One month in, they announced lay-offs and I am part of it (yeah, the hiring manager and recruiters were clueless about what the board and mgmt was thinking). I have done professional services sales previously in a mixed/shared role responsibility and this was my first step in to go full-on in PS sales to build pipeline and farm a career path to sales management (proving my metal in growth stage company).

Problem:

I observed that in this company PS sales are second class citizens. Field sales people (license sales hunters) don't like PS sales to get infront of customers or come along early (may be incentive structure, or past experiences).

I am starting to question if PS Sales experience is going to negatively affect my future career plans? do people even take PS sales people seriously?

Company is B2B Saas, 40M Revenue range, license deal sizes 50k - 100k , PS runs in 500k+ (ofcourse PS sales quotas are ridiculously high too).

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Justatitle

Big Shot

3

Account Executive

So, I believe it will entirely depend on the product and level of professional services needed, for example SFDC has a huge after market component(if you will) that is entirely based upon the buildout of the software you just bought. So Professional services are a huge component, now lets take media agencies, Media agencies entirely rely upon production teams to make them money and charge it to clients utilizing the agency. if the software is pretty self explanatory and pro services only comes into play when its a larger client you'll probably get the feeling of second class citizen. TL;DR it entirely depends on the organization.

Avon

Politicker

3

Senior Account Executive

I sell PS after selling SaaS before. Its 100% sales and I find it much more difficult. Fortunately we only sell SaaS so I haven't experienced getting treated worse than others internally. I do find that interviewing a couple places, they tend to view my experience as not quite the same as "experience selling SaaS" which imo is bullshit

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

2

☕️

Some companies, like ServiceNow, build the bulk of their revenue on ProServ. It is entirely dependent on how the business views the software product they have built. Is it the vehicle for growth or the platform to build PS upon?

I know plenty of consultants and strategy reps that sell well into 7figs and make big bucks. They also are the most overworked folks at their companies because they pull in the most money. Hero work is tough.

pman45

Executive

2

Enterprise Account Executive

Hey proserv rep here! I went from a full license AE to actually working for an external system integrator in the Salesforce ecosystem. Although I work for a company external to SF, we both share many similarities in our role. I would start by speaking to the AEs in your role who are very successful and what they do to overcome those obstacles + bring value to the client and account team. I found that in roles like this information is your best currency. Anything you can do to help the AE sell more licenses or make something easier for them by leveraging your services will make them want to partner with you. Try to frame it from their perspective - they will want to see solid proof of when proserv has grown an account have a win story handy that’s relevant and refer to that. Also if you can - prospect and build your own relationships in your accounts and this will give you leverage over the license AEs. It will take time but if you can get your book to the point where you bring them leads + deals that will give you power. If an AE is hesitant to bring you in, ask why and then shift to being educational. Host training sessions on the impact of proserv and why it matters to them. Even happy hours or lunches can work - anything that makes you unique or different. I hope this helps!

pman45

Executive

1

Enterprise Account Executive

Also I think proserv is a nice add on into a career because you gain more consultative experience and you see things that license AEs don’t. I doubt it negatively affects your career. I see it as a positive for you.

Maximas

Tycoon

0

Senior Sales Executive

It would affect your future career plans, the only other way you could ever try this role again if you need to will be with a different company to be able to come to a final conclusion about the second citizenship problem for this role you faced to see if it's only happening with this company which would be a company problem in this case, or it's something general and in this case you probably need to get back to your B2B role in a larger company as you used to be till the PS sales position to be fixed one day!

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

0

Sales Rep

Lots of former co-workers of mine have moved to the ProServ side externally with partners but not internally.
I think the situation on the Licenses rep not including you early is more, they might not fully trust you, or more likely another Proserv rep so want to make sure the client is fully bought in first.

GingerBarbarian

Opinionated

0

Lead Sales

Tribalism within a sales team should at least be considered a yellow or orange flag. Segmentation when it comes to customer interactions make me nervous both as a salesperson and a customer. Makes me think there will be details thay can slip through the cracks and destroy customer trust.

TrevTech

Personal Narrative

0

Senior Account Executive

Uh. Yes.

FoodForSales

Politicker

0

AE

Yes, it is.

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