Nairobi

AE

Valued Contributor

Myth or Reality: BDR promotion to AE within 12 months

Based on my experience in the startup world, I will say this is a myth.

I've recently got promoted to an AE, but this is after two years of being a BDR. I've been at four startups where I've always been promised to be promoted in a year. The first two were toxic, so I left after a couple of months, but the BDRs that stayed did wait a year to get promoted and never did. At my last company, I stayed one year and exceeded quota every month but never got that promotion, so I left. My colleagues stayed longer and were laid off at their 1.5 year mark with no promotion in sight. Finally, I joined this new startup and made a deal before joining that after a specific goal, I would get promoted, and luckily for me, it happened.

I know that a lot of BDRs get defeated when they've been in seat for 12+ months with no AE promotion in sight. Don't give up yet, it might take up to 2 years or more, but my advice is to move around and get paid fairly for your experience. My last BDR job, I was getting paid 75k base, 100k OTE, and the previous one was 60k, 100k OTE. Every time, I negotiated more based on my experience, and since I was getting paid well, it made the wait to be an AE more bearable.

What has been your experience? Have you seen more BDRs stay in seats longer than 12 months or get promoted within 12 months? How is it at bigger companies?

BDR promotion to AE within 12 months

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25 comments

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Space_Ghost20

Valued Contributor

5

Account Executive

It depends on the company and sometimes your own background. A 23 year old BDR fresh out of college is in a much different spot than a 32 year old BDR who worked in financial services or logistics sales for a few years before jumping into software sales.

Cafe.con.Leche

Executive

2

SDR

Great point. Not all 12 month periods are equal

BTQ

Politicker

4

Account Manager

It depends right? If you’re crushing quota every Q after you ramp then yeah I’d think you’d get promoted.

If you’re inconsistent on hitting quota it’s going to depend how likeable you are/your reputation (just my opinion could be totally wrong) then it’s possible but not surprising to get promoted.

If you’re not hitting quota at all, then it’s tough to get promoted right.

Case by case

Nairobi

Politicker

3

AE

Totally agree that's how it should be. But I've seen and experienced firsthand that crushing quota every Q still won't get you promoted at a lot of places.

BTQ

Politicker

1

Account Manager

Yeah that's super frustrating especially with how the promotion is framed when you first arrive.

Nairobi

Politicker

2

AE

Exactly, hiring managers just love to say, "Hit quota, and in a year max, you'll be an AE." When there are clearly other variables that go into play for a BDR promotion.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

3

🦊

❤

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

4

Sales Rep

I think really depends on the growth of the company or the turnover of AEs. I would say longer right now since less openings because people are staying in their roles longer and less growth

Nairobi

Politicker

1

AE

Totally agree. There are other variables that go into play for promotion, and managers should be transparent about it instead of just saying it's only about performance.

Mothy

Politicker

4

Account Executive

Companies are doing a disservice to both themselves, and their high performing xDR's by not promoting them in 12-18 months. If an xDR is performing at a high level, and there is no path to promotion in sight, companies can expect their performance to start dropping off.

We recently rolled out an actual system/path to promotion for SDRs who want to become AEs. There are a number of pre-qualifications (hitting quota, maintaining activity and performance levels, etc.) along with a list of milestones that not only tests the rep to see if they are ready for the next step, but also trains them in the basics of their new role, before they are carrying a quota. As long as they meet all of the milestones, pass the knowledge checks, and continue to perform well as an SDR, they are promoted at a specified date.

If you are an xDR who is performing satisfactorily, and your manager is not working with you to get to the next level (whatever that may be), they are not doing their job. Too many xDR managers are worried about losing their top performing rep to a promotion, and they end up losing that rep to another offer.

All that said, part of the onus is on the rep to express interest in moving their career forward. Also keep in mind that if there is no headcount available, it makes promotions significantly more challenging from a budget perspective, but if your team is hiring AEs from outside while there are qualified xDR's who want to be promoted, it isn't a good sign.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

4

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

This is very accurate and extremely well stated. A BDR needs to have some ownership of the process. The challenge is that so many are in their first job, so companies can take advantage of that, and/or the BDR is just too new to understand they have to manage their own career path.

An observation: there seem to be two basic character types, and there doesn't seem to be much middle ground. I'll explain (and this is my opinion only) just on these forums, I've seen complete novices who simply don't know they have to manage their own career path and need some help finding direction, to the complete opposite: BDRs or recent grads who think they can command enterprise roles out of the gate and with nominal experience, and have a profound misunderstanding of the amount of work they'll need to put in to accomplish any of those goals. That balance between the two types and the growth the individual needs to take in order to be an attractive candidate for promotion is that sweet spot right in the middle. Your post is a good map to accomplish the goal to reach IC.

HVACexpert

Politicker

3

sales engineer

Being promoted after only a year in ANY role is hard, not just BDR.

Nairobi

Politicker

1

AE

That's true. The problem is that most BDR managers keep saying that promise to BDRs when the chances of that happening are low, especially at a startup.

HVACexpert

Politicker

1

sales engineer

I agree, they shouldn’t be selling that to you.

Next time you hear it, ask them to put it in writing, then you’ll find out where they truly stand.

Nairobi

Politicker

1

AE

Yep, that’s exactly what I did for my last startup. I should have done that at my previous startup but I didn’t know better

SoccerandSales

Big Shot

3

Account Executive

I think it depends what type of company you are with as well. With an established, larger company that is telling you that is expectation? Much more likely than startup or early stage org.

In my experience, I went from SDR to AE in a year, but that was with consistent quota overperformance and being involved with multiple side projects

Pachacuti

Politicker

2

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

It really depends on how they see you.

Do they see you as a great door opener and will have you stick around as a SDR as long as they think they can?

Or do they see you as a potential closer and will move you up after you have a learned a thing or two about the company/solution/etc. And they think they can trust you.

I have been passed up for promotions because I can get a meeting with just about anyone. I'm VERY good at opening doors. I can also move deals along and close them. But if the company NEEDS door openers, and you're good at it - you may be seen as an SDR by them long past when you see yourself in that role.

TennisandSales

Politicker

2

Head Of Sales

so it CAN happen but most companies tell you will be promoted in 12 months like its some sort of FACT. and in my experience, if it happens its an exception, not the norm.

Nairobi

Politicker

2

AE

Exactly, it's an exception. But somehow that timeline is the norm in the BDR world. And so BDRs start doubting their abilities and if sales is for them when that 12-14 months timeline passes.

jefe

Arsonist

2

🍁

It's an easy carrot to dangle.

But I'm sure it happens.

Maximas

Tycoon

1

Senior Sales Executive

Reality.
To me It's not how good what you're doing at your current role that will get you promoted ,it's to have what it takes for the new role no matter the time you stayed.

Justatitle

Big Shot

1

Account Executive

Rarely does it happen within 12 months. Typically I see 18 months as the shortest time frame.

SaaSyBee

Politicker

1

Founder

If you're good at something, it's easy to get roped into continuing to do that thing...

Cafe.con.Leche

Executive

1

SDR

Again depends on the company. I’ve done commission only AE hybrid where I self sourced all outbound and cold deals for a couple of years. IT WAS BRUTAL.

Finally decided to move to a SAAS startup as an SDR where they heavily emphasize the potential of promoting quickly based on high performance. Now of course this high performance metric is a high bar and many don’t reach it.

I’ve been fortunate enough to promote to SR SDR within 4 months and now 3 months in that position I’m interviewing for AE in the company.

So again, I believe that in my case it was a combination of the right company with the right product with the right team at the right time along with being able to apply all I have learned from my previous experience.

The opportunities are out there! Kind of lol

js2458

Politicker

1

Enterprise SDR

My company promotes SDRs to AEs within 3-4 months. I have seen it happen with my own eyes…they make u hit a call quota within 2 weeks and most are able to hit the quota. I assume that most of the AEs don’t make much sales on the first few months but the promotion is legit

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