solutions

Solutions Consultant

Pre-sales to Sales in SaaS?

Has anyone here made the jump from pre-sales (SC/SE) to sales (AE) in SaaS? If not, has anyone ever heard of or seen an SC/SE make the jump to sales?

I would love to hear your thoughts, since I am currently considering the move and trying to gather information and consider the pros/cons. I think I'm a great SC, but most people I speak to (friends/coworkers) think I would crush it as an AE too. Uncapped commission structure is very tempting!

Would anyone even be interested in hiring an AE with SC experience? Or would the transition better be made at my current company?

I'm also wondering if there's a good way for me to get a taste of it through side hustles? Anyone know any SaaS sales side hustles I can take a look at?

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17 comments

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boredAnti

Tycoon

That One Guy

I think it's totally possible.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

What exactly do you do?

solutions

Fire Starter

Solutions Consultant

@CuriousFoxAs an SC, during the sales process we lead the discovery process, demo, provide trial support, respond to RFPs, and help with plan/pricing discussions. We provide product/technical expertise, as well as prove out real business value. Sometimes we even help qualify leads. Apart from that we also stay on top of and enable sales people on industry trends and product updates. Why?

TheQueenofDiamonds

Big Shot

Account Executive

Sounds like you are already an AE but maybe not defined as one 🤔

SalesArmyKnife

Good Citizen

Sales Manager

In tech sales (selling to IT) I see the top performers all being tech saavy / product experts and I’ve seen many being former presales.

So you can definitely be a successful AE, then as many commented it’s a very different world so it’s about will you enjoy it or not. Many shared with me that their vision of the AE role was that they only needed to close the deals after the SC had done all the work, that vision changed very quickly when they switched roles.

So if you have that appetite and opportunity to experiment at your company go for it and if things don’t work out you might still be able to go back to your current role.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

ERP Sales

I know people who went from AE to SE unfortunately not the SE to AE.

I would assume it would be easiest to make that transition at your current company if you make it clear to your leadership. Especially with the sales teams you support

solutions

Fire Starter

Solutions Consultant

Yeah that makes sense - although I do have recruiters on LinkedIn reaching out to me about AE roles. I wonder if it's because some of these types of SCs do exist or the recruiters are just doing a spray and pray outreach :shrug:

SoccerandSales

Big Shot

Account Executive

We have had it happen in our company. Not an easy transition to learn how to close but having immense product knowledge always helps with follow up conversations

solutions

Fire Starter

Solutions Consultant

That's interesting to hear! Did they ever share anything about their experience? How it went for them?

SoccerandSales

Big Shot

Account Executive

Wasn’t super close with some, but their ability to speak to the product without needing additional help became invaluable in their conversations with prospects. Some succeeded some didn’t, but those that dove in headfirst to try and understand the mentality of closing have done a great job.

ThatNewAE

Big Shot

Account Executive - Mid enterprise

I have known quite a lot of people making the move from Sales to Pre-sales. There's just one person who made the move from Pre-sales to Sales. I can say he didn't enjoy the transition and went on to experiment with Marketing eventually. So, I have a really small sample set for this discussion. :D

It's not a smooth transition, so you can brace yourself for impact. That being said, it shouldn't be impossible. Good luck !

butwhy

Politicker

Solutions Engineer

I have known a dozen or so SCs that did the transition - half loved it, half hated it. Like others mentioned, it's easiest at your current company, but there are also now hybrid roles popping up at big tech called Sales Specialist. We were just talking about it in the PreSales Collective Slack actually.

solutions

Fire Starter

Solutions Consultant

Oh I'll have to check that out. Thanks for letting me know. I love the Presales Collective

Sunbunny31

Arsonist

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Interesting. My SE/SCs all prefer not to deal with the business side of things - they prefer doing the demos and learning about the customer and getting to have all the conversations about the goals without the messy paperwork. I don't see why you shouldn't be able to move into AE if you really want to. You're already doing the discovery and understanding the customer; now you just need to tie monetary value to the same things you've been building and showcasing all along.

TheQueenofDiamonds

Big Shot

Account Executive

SE with sales acumen is like a unicorn.
You are already in kind of a sales role, just without the headache of closing .
What is missing for you?

solutions

Fire Starter

Solutions Consultant

It's two things: 1 - More control/ownership over each deal and 2 - uncapped commission structure. At my company - SEs get a higher salary with 80/20 commission split, but our commission is tied to the overall territory we support - as opposed to the deals we work on, so we hardly ever reach accelerators, since the entire territory has to be over quota.

valeriy

Member

Imho Pre-Sales and Sales Engineering is far of a better position where you are not always under selling pressure and can preveil just with technical expert knowledge.

Why should one want to switch???

If you are a good Saas Sales Engineer you better just write your own application and just try to distribute it?

Much better "Side Hustle"