MattClark

Senior CyberSecurity Consultant

Personal Narrative

Role shift, methodology shift, or attitude change?

Alright, this is tough to admit as a 20 year veteran, but I’m terrible at…top of funnel. Put me in a room to assess need, ask me to design a strategy, ask me to save a deal or negotiate closing terms, ask me to mentor a new seller? I’m a pro. But... I can’t seem to prospect to save my life the last 4-5 years. Yes, the market has shifted in that regard, and buyers are a bit more challenging to find, but I am starting to think it's just not my strong suit, and I'm cool with that.

I was a rock star. Its been a tough few years. I know...attitude determines your altitude!

Contemplating a significant role shift. I love channel and alliances...LOVE IT, but my experience with it has always been blended into my sales roles.

I'm not in a good place, gang, and I know we all get there in this biz, so I need some help.

1. Given the skill sets above, what kinds of roles are out there that you could see someone like me transitioning into?

2. Is anyone out there super solid with re-messaging resumes to align with the desired career shift or can anyone recommend a skills assessment that would help me craft this?

🚀 Career Goals

🎈 Mentorship

🔎 Prospecting

5

11 comments

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poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

9

☕️

Stay your ass where you are because this market is red hot garbage, even for successful reps.

Want to become better at your craft and maximize your potential in your current role? It’s pretty simple and right in front of your face: force yourself to prospect.

Set aside 2 hours each day to try out different messaging and venues for prospecting. Calls, emails, social, etc. If you don’t practice, you’ll never be good at it.

oldcloser

Arsonist

3

💀

Agreed. If you can do the rest of it, you can do the grunt part. It’s the crabgrass of the business…all crabby. But once you get “in it” you’ll find it. Lock yourself in an take the pain. There is absolutely no glory without it. Nobody is going to call you.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

2

☕️

Just had PTSD from youth landscaping days and getting yelled at about crabgrass.

oldcloser

Arsonist

0

💀

It’s a bitch in any context. 🚱🔫 messenger.
Shit

CPTAmerica

Opinionated

4

President/CRO

With your experience and past success I find it hard to believe you could be "bad" at prospecting.

I would guess it's more of a motivation issue. This is very normal. The later in our career we get we start to see prospecting as "beneath us" and to be fair it can be. There will always be some prospecting but if you're 20 years into the game and still expected to be hunting 75%+ of the time that can take a toll.

A swap to channel might be worth pursuing. You can alway go back to a hunter role if it doesn't work out. You may also start looking into more sales leadership roles where you're leading a small sales team.

4

Head of Growth

What about an Account Manager role working with larger, current clients? Less prospecting, more relationship building. Channel/Alliance roles + most AE roles are going to require some level of prospecting to meet & exceed targets. Even companies with strong BD programs are now struggling to bring in the amount top of funnel leads needed to hit plan - because the market has shifted, conversion rates are down, and people are focusing on need to have solutions, the nice to have ones have no chance in this climate.

MattClark

Executive

0

Senior CyberSecurity Consultant

Totally. Those roles are definitely interesting to me. Prospecting in channel/alliance roles or upselling/uncovering new opportunity with existing business isn't an issue for me. That, I'm good at.

Absolutely seeing the market shifting where BD/Outbound for leads is increasingly harder...maybe I'm just used to the old days of people at least answering and hanging up on you ;).

Maximas

Tycoon

1

Senior Sales Executive

Thank you for your service at first!
I would say that SDR/BDR role would be considered as an excellent option in your case!
For the resume part, just feel free to share it anonymously to get a good feedback on it by savages here!

MattClark

Executive

2

Senior CyberSecurity Consultant

So, since I haven't been a very good prospector, and don't like it, you're suggesting I go back ten years to being an SDR? Maybe I'm misunderstanding your suggestion...totally possible.

Maximas

Tycoon

1

Senior Sales Executive

So my current role is same as suggested, I do not prospect right here, being an SDR(At an Inbound Queue) rep with a little customer service role, all what I'm doing is receiving calls from prospects who are already aware of our product that might need a little to no explanation further on it, and just signing em up for it!
So, if you could locate a similar one to mine, it's gonna be cool!

Diablo

Politicker

1

Sr. AE

Wow 20 years is great! Just curious if you were always in the inbound or channel environment?

If you think you are good at expansion, nurturing existing account to drive business, I would consider an Account Management role but I am sure you will have quota there so some level of prospecting would be required (not as hard as cold ones). You can still be a rockstar 🤘

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