the_sonk_master

Account Manager

Valued Contributor

Sales Managers: would you go for this?

here's the situation y'all

at my company, we let an AE go last week who was under performing, good guy but just wasn't getting the job done

I'm currently an SDR, only been with the company for a short time (4 months but been SDRing for a year) but have been the top performing SDR based on ops created in my time here (for context, the last 2 months Ive created more than half of our ops on a 4 person SDR team). I do have aspirations of joining the AE team but have been told I need to continue to perform to get my opportunity.

here's where the question comes in for my Sales Managers: should I ask my work for a shot to jump into some closing opportunities for lower level ops, then if I do well then continue to make a full transition into AE? trying to propose that I'll keep my base pay the same but get commish on deals I close before eventually transitioning into full time AE role

Does this sound like a good proposition to my work, has anyone done something like this in the past?

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softwarebro

Politicker

8

Sales Director

Tell your management team that you would like to be considered for the open AE role. If they say no, ask them for a game plan to get you to AE. Personally, I think offering to close low-level deals isn't going to prove anything.. low-hanging fruit can be grabbed by anyone. Go own it - good luck.

jefe

Arsonist

0

🍁

Best approach IMO.

MLD

Good Citizen

0

SVP

Like this comment the best as well. Shows initiative—something I would always reward if a member of my team did. Also important not to have an ego if told “no” and to ask for the game plan to get there.

CaneWolf

Politicker

0

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

Yes- don't ever negotiate against yourself. You gain nothing from offering an alternative immediately. @softwarebro nailed this.

hh456

Celebrated Contributor

0

sales

Probably tell you to pick one or the other.

1nbatopshotfan

Politicker

0

Sales

Don’t propose to shortchange yourself on salary. Tell them you’re interested and want to start with smaller stuff.

MontyMoose

Good Citizen

0

Chief Commercial Officer

The gateway to eligibility is likely your manager: if they don’t say you are ready, you won’t get interviewed. If you are performing well, go to your manager and tell them you want to apply and ask will they support you? If yes, apply. If no, ask for clear feedback on why. Tenure as a metric is pretty much bullshit.

beerisforclosers

Politicker

0

Account Manager

Definitely tell them you're interested. If they aren't willing to give you a shot, push. Ask for a detailed plan of what they're looking for then ask to at least interview and prepare yourself to demonstrate you have what they're looking for!

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

0

☕️

I would not go for that because it will cost me more time than anything to get you prepared to close business...and you still won't be ready to be an AE.

Ask them what you need to do to become an AE, and get it written out. Do you need to shadow calls? Participate in training? Run mock demos with your manager/AEs?

Whatever it is, they should tell you and you should execute on it.

okaysalesman

Praised Answer

0

Account Executive

Shoot your shot. Worse comes to worse the management will recognize how much you want to be an AE and will keep you top of mind

LordBusiness

Politicker

0

Chief Revenue Officer

I love how some companies protect the AE role like it’s the holy grail and shit. I would most certainly given your performance ask for consideration for the AE role. Advice above is solid about “asking for a clear path to it” if they decline. What your proposing is a lose lose, I need to 1) track some off the “standard” compensation, which is annoying and takes time 2) you devalue the work you are doing.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

0

🦊

Go to your manager and tell them you want the AE role and ask what steps you need to take in order to make it happen.

salesguy123

Personal Narrative

0

RVP Sales

Yes we have done exactly this with SDRs in the past. If you have a goal to get to AE, you and your manager should be talking about how to put together a plan to help you achieve this goal, and that should be socialize to the skip level. I had a team of SDRs run by a sales director and we built a plan like this for our top SDR and I hosted a 1:1 with the SDR, my director (SDR manager), my boss (SVP Sales NA) and me to review and discuss the plan. That way when the opportunity arose everyone was aligned and we could pull the trigger quickly.

Cyberjarre

Politicker

0

BDR

This is all possible, but even easier with technology. What tech do you have available?

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