rsuking

Account Executive

Valued Contributor

Looking for career advice. Moving from an AE role to BDR - am I crazy?

I'm curious to know if people on here have moved from an AE position to a BDR at another company.

In my current role as an AE (I'm in SaaS sales) our base salary is 65k and OTE is supposed to be 130k. However only about a third of AEs hit their quota to get to that 130k OTE. Previously to this role, I made about 85 or 90k as a BDR and life was good. I do live in a very HCOL area and barely scraped by with my base and the small commission checks. I've been in my current role for almost a year but I'm extremely burnt out due to lack of support and just toxic work culture.

I'm interviewing with this marketing tech company and their range is 75 - 80k for their base salary and OTE is 115 - 120k for a BDR position and a large majority of their BDRs hit their OTE.

I've had a couple of other interviews for SMB AE roles and the base was pretty high but it seems they don't have enough resources and newly building out a team. Also no BDRs to help in either of those positions.

I've been thinking a lot on how this would look on my resume going back to a BDR but at this point I'm very concerned about money.

I'm just curious about your thoughts and was wondering if anyone else has moved from an AE back to a BDR and how did that affect your career and resume outlook?

🎈 Mentorship

🎯 Career Development

26

23 comments

Sort by:

CoorsKing

WR Officer

13

Retired King of the Coors Knights

I only know one kid that’s ever done that, probably set his career back by 2 years. As soon as you ditch that BDR title your OTE starts to exponentially go up. If you are really concerned with money, I would focus on finding an AE role somewhere - going back as a BDR, especially when you were burnt out in your last role, seems like a recipe for disaster in my opinion.

braintank

Politicker

5

Enterprise Account Executive

Agree with this take.

Check out some other AE gigs to land a better home, but don't set yourself back on your career path. There's plenty of places hiring, so take some time and find a good spot.

CoorsKing

WR Officer

6

Retired King of the Coors Knights

Yeah, this is definitely a great market to be looking for a job. Almost every company I know is hiring like crazy and literally behind on their headcount goals. Don't sell yourself short @rsuking , hold out and get that AE role with a solid comp package

CuriousFox

WR Officer

5

🦊

Don't go backwards. Look for an AE role at another company.

Beans

Big Shot

4

Enterprise Account Executive

No - that is all.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

4

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

The majority consensus is for you to find an AE role elsewhere, and I agree. It’s never been easier to find positions, and you can definitely be selective. You’ll come out ahead.

payton_pritchard

Executive

2

RSM

The better move sounds like moving to an AE role at a different company, which I also expect would probably give you the best chance at increasing your pay

BmajoR

Arsonist

2

Account Executive

Forward ever, backwards never.

GlenRoss

Politicker

1

Account Executive

I would look at AE roles elsewhere. The market is crazy right now and I would think for SMB you could prob still get higher base right now

champchamp

Arsonist

1

Certified Savage

Wow. 75k-80k base and 115-120k OTE for a BDR is insane. Can you share the name of the company?

Isliceonpurpose

Valued Contributor

0

Senior Sales

Don’t do it. Build your book and succeed in the face of adversity.
This is a great career / personal development opportunity for you

godpull54

Praised Answer

0

PDR

I’m thinking of switching from a AE to a BDR solely because the new role is in a different industry. I’m going from event planning to tech industry. I figured it’d be in my best interest to start as a BDR. I haven’t received any negative feedback yet from prospective employees. In the future I’m sure that me explaining this reason would be looked upon in good light.

Jewcan_Sam81

Politicker

2

Account Executive

Honestly that doesn’t matter, use your sales tenure to leverage experience. You don’t need to start from the bottom, sell yourself as the product and close the deal, you got this.
Just don’t start over, you’d drive an axe into your career progression

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

0

Rolling 20's all day

It's something I considered for 1/5th of a second.

A company I interviewed with earlier this week for an AE role in their growing company said that I fit the role well, but because I don't have the immediate industry knowledge (as it's a new industry for me) that they can't consider me for AE, only as an SDR.

This is after nailing the interview and demonstrating my sales knowledge. They also know that I closed $1.5 Mil last year (which is 4 times their annual AE quota).

I'm still interviewing at other great companies, but it was disappointing to see this one be close-minded.

Don't give up! Go for an AE role somewhere new!

TheIncarceration

Politicker

0

SDR Manager

Why not look at other AE roles?

Maximas

Tycoon

0

Senior Sales Executive

That's what I'm saying too!

Diablo

Politicker

0

Sr. AE

I'd never step backwards. Would rather wait for sometime to see if i can nail an AE offer

countingmyinterest

Politicker

0

Account Executive

I went from 64k base, 90k OTE as a BDR to 55k/110k OTE as an SMB AE at my old company.

Got an offer as an MM AE for 90k/180k OTE 7 months later.

I'd never go back to BDR land.

God123

Good Citizen

0

Sales

Which companies 👀

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

0

Professional Day Ruiner

I recently transitioned from being an AE to being an SDR. The company I wanted work for only hires at the bdr/SDR level then you have to work your way up to an AE roll. The product/company is exactly what I was looking for though so, short term loss long term gain kinda situation the way I see it 🤷‍♂️

eljefe

Executive

0

Senior Account Executive

Please don't go back to BDR, you're crazy... joining a company as an AE where you do your own outreach is way better because you're continuing to gain selling experience which will get you paid $$$ in the future. Lots of companies don't have BDR's so don't rely on that to get your leads, even if they do the leads will probably be trash so take that into consideration.

shoesalesman

Opinionated

0

AE (Account Executive)

Was just getting ready to post something similar - seems like the room has spoken!

How did this ever turn out for you btw?

rsuking

Valued Contributor

0

Account Executive

I went to another AE/AM role instead and got laid off recently. So now I'm looking at SDR and AE roles just to get a job at this point. I'm thinking SDR management might be a good move to be honest and wouldn't mind being an SDR again since most of my deals were self-sourced anyway

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

© 2024 Bravado Inc. All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy Legal and Privacy Center Sales Jobs

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.