avlisc

Mortgage Loan Officer

No luck trying to break into tech sales

I know there have been a ton of layoffs in the tech space, but I am still determined to continue to pursue a job in tech sales.

I started applying and DMing recruiters for about 2-3 months but haven't received an interview yet, let alone an offer.

My background: I'm a USAF veteran and I have been in sales for nearly 8 years. Currently, I'm a mortgage loan officer at a Top 10 Lender in the country.

I spent the first month of applying seeking an AE role. it's the lowest ranking position that has OTE comparable to my current income.

I have years of experience in prospecting, cold calling and closing my own deals.

Should I continue seeking an AE Role? or take a 20-35% pay cut and pursue an SDR/BDR Role to have a better shot at getting an offer?

any advice is appreciated 🫡

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23 comments

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starson

Good Citizen

Senior Sales Manager

So right now it is a risk averse market.
There is enough people with AE SaaS experience on the market. These people right now are the safe bet.
That is what recruiters do.

Maybe try a different approach. Find out who is hiring and apply directly.

detectivegibbles

Politicker

Sales Director

https://stillhiring.today/ - this is Corp's direct landing page of curated companies that were hiring a few weeks back.

Zero idea if it's still accurate today but it has a ton of companies.

The issue you're going to run into is not knowing the product and wanting to be an AE right out of the gate coupled with a ton of qualified AE's in the market due to layoffs.

Maybe there's some RE tech companies that are a good fit that you can leverage your LO experience.

Go on LinkedIn and set a filter to get notified about jobs in specific markets you're interested in working in (i.e - healthcare, real estate, etc).

I'd start there. Keep posting and engaging here if we can help.

BTQ

Politicker

Account Manager

It’s tough out here ser! Keep trying to break in.

My family is in mortgage biz and I know it’s slow. My advice is to prospect into companies you want on LI.

Connection requests to VPs/AEs at companies you wanna land at! Try and figure out if they like it and if they’ll be open to be a referral.

Seems like most hiring managers love vets, keep pushin!

coletrain

Politicker

Account Executive

I hear you. It sounds like you've done a lot. What metrics do you have to show that you are successful?

Also of note, tech is crashing right now. It'll absolutely be back but banks specifically focusing on tech just went belly up after bank runs for the 2nd and 3rd largest US bank failures.

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

I’m looking for a new gig right now and Im over 10 years in sales, 5+ years in tech and it’s really difficult for me.

I encourage you to prove me wrong but you’re really not making it easy on yourself looking to break into tech right now.

If I were you, I’d stay in your current lane but upskill with certs like Google Sales Cloud for example, until tech makes a comeback. That way, you’re not just sitting on your hands, waiting to pick your moment…

If you manage to find something, it’ll likely be at a shitty startup that is selling a product that should really only be a feature and it’s going to be brutal.

With my resume, I’ve normally never had much difficulty securing a 1st interview but right now, I’m receiving an overwhelming amount of rejections.

Why are you looking to break out of your current role at this specific moment? If you can tough it out for another year, I would because taking an SDR role may actually hurt you right now instead of accelerating your progress to AE.

Why are you so compelled to make a move into tech at one of the worst possible times?

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I'm going to guess it's a bit rough in RE right now with mortgage rates as high as they are.

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

Jumping from the frying pan to the fire.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Yeah, I wouldn't be leaving tech for RE right now either.

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

The move doesn’t make much sense going one way or the other right now.

Space_Ghost20

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

It's a risk averse market right now. You have to be able to walk through the door day 1 with not only the right skills, but also a digital rolodex of relationships you can leverage to start working deals right away.

Even before the economy went sideways, tech/software was already kind of insular and hesitant to hire outsiders (except for SDR/BDR jobs, for which they usually hired recent grads). I encountered this in 2020/2021 when I was making the transition from branch banking.

If you don't want to go the SDR route (which may be difficult to get into anyway) your other option is to reach out to hiring managers or keep applying.

RedLightning

Politicker

Mid-Market AE

There's a book called "the two hour job search" that may help you.

Recruiters and sales managers have different goals in the hiring process. In this market, there are a ton of applications so they are in heavy DQ mode and are extremely risk averse.

A sales manager wants someone who will ramp quickly and do well long term.

You need to sell the correct vision to the correct persona with the overall goal of getting some kind of internal referral to make the application portal irrelevant.

So, the question you need to ask yourself is "how I can present myself as a safe bet?" or "how can I demonstrate that I will ramp quickly"

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

A lot of Fortune 500 companies have ESGs for veterans, usually they will put if they are apart of it. I would try to message them if they can help with an intro to a recruiter

CadenceCombat

Tycoon

Account Executive

Good point

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

Hear you man and I am sure something will hit up soon. It I were you, I would try to focus on start ups and would reach out to hiring managers as they are quite active on Linkedin. Now sure what type of companies are you applying to now.

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

It's great that you are messaging people on Linkedin however, recruiters are likely the wrong audience. Your only chance is likely to target directors of sales or VPs in the organization with your outreach to catch their attention and take the chance on you.

Maximas

Tycoon

Senior Sales Executive

Depends on how long you could wait further to get the AE role!

If you really need it just give it an extra couple of months more searching for relevant jobs (recommend you LI in this case).

If not, try the SDR/BDR role for a while to see how things go first then you could either get promoted internally to the AE role, or even get that call you you've been waiting for and start the AE role at a different company!

Thank you for your service.

ventox35

Politicker

Sales Leader

FEELING this. If only it was understood by recruiters/hiring managers how complex my service is, and the uphill battle i've had to climb. i really wonder how good i actually am at sales after what i've had to learn the hard way.

i've had SOME luck with reaching out to hiring managers directly. I've got a nice template i use that gets results.

first paragraph: something interesting about them
2nd paragraph: you're probably wondering who i am, here's why i'm reaching out and why i'd be a good fit.
1.
2.
3.

3 bullet points about your accomplishments.

Open to giving me a look?

PandaBar

Politicker

SDR

You're going to have an extremely difficult time if you're strictly shooting for AE in this market, given how you have no prior SaaS experience. You're competing with laid-off AEs WITH SaaS experience and the sentiment from recruiters is generally any other sales experience doesn't really matter.

Take a paycut, do BDR, preferably at a larger organization like AWS/Salesforce so your paycut isn't too heavy. I'm guessing you're doing something like 100-120k currently - dropping down to the 80, 90k that salesforce will offer you for a year isn't going to kill you.

To take control of outcomes, also start digging around on LinkedIn for industry leaders and learn to cold email hiring managers and recruiters. If they're not responding to your emails, you could likely do a better job of formatting and brevity - this can also be learned through best practices from LinkedInfluencers (*gag* but it does work)

UncleHoho

Good Citizen

Account Executive

IMO: Tech is not all the hype. There are a lot of sales roles with similar/ish style work that make the same or more money and don't have the hiring struggles that tech does right now. Perhaps look at something thats a step closer to tech sales but not quite? Then pivot when the market corrects

BizarroSales

Personal Narrative

Sales Manager

This is really interesting considering what is happening with tech right now - any details on what these industries are?

UncleHoho

Good Citizen

Account Executive

There's a million different industries where sales guys are making bank. Packaging, HVAC, legal services, securities, heck even solar, just look around on some reddit sales threads. Plenty of area where you can cut your teeth, make solid 6 figs, and hone your sales skills

BizarroSales

Personal Narrative

Sales Manager

For what it's worth - I'm right there with you....strong sales experience (7 years) and a record of success at my current company, but finding it hard to break into tech sales from the media space.

Stay positive and keep at it.

cw95

Politicker

Sales Development Lead

100% and never think you can't.

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avlisc

No luck trying to break into tech sales

23 comments

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