Thebaldingeagle

Senior BDR

SDR Advice: Options other than moving to AE?

Hey Sales peeps,

Been in an SDR role now for almost a year and starting to have career progression discussions. The obvious next step for me was always AE however now I'm starting to think that I should consider other options.

Interested to know if anyone moved from BDR/SDR to another role that wasn't AE e.g. Sales Engineer, SDR Manager, etc. and if they would recommend giving them a further look?

Disclaimer: Company I work for is Saas-based and has about 300 employees so plenty of options available.

Thanks as always.

Next role after SDR?

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Who are you kidding, it has to be AE Maybe give something else a try

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

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13 comments

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SADNES5

Politicker

down voters are marketing spies

Go with your gut,

AE isn't for everyone. Neither is a Sales Enginerd etc.

I like to think in 3 year chunks, what is the next 1095 day goal? Where will I be, what steps do I need to take in order to get there. When are those ballpark trigger dates.

If you're already asking the question, you should understand the answer better than anyone.

Best of luck amigo.

Rallier

Politicker

SDR Manager and Consultant

Long term your career path will be limited if you don't have any closing experience. I became an SDR Manager and regretted it. There aren't a ton of options after SDR Manager if you don't have that closing experience

braintank

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

What are your interests?

Thebaldingeagle

Contributor

Senior BDR

Short term goal is to rise the ranks as quick as possible and make good money in the meantime!

Long term goal is to run my own company so I guess getting as much experience across the org would be beneficial

JuicyKlay

Celebrated Contributor

Ever though about the opposite end of the spectrum and going the CSM route? Not necessarily the most logical next step but totally doable if you’re great with clients and upswell.

Thebaldingeagle

Contributor

Senior BDR

I haven't so far no. I guess my only negative thought would be that CSM would probably be lower paid or am I wrong there?

But yeah I would say being great with clients and building rapport is a strong suit of mine so definitely something I'll consider more

JuicyKlay

Celebrated Contributor

I know CSM’s who make six figures and have it way easier than most BDR’s

Money

Executive

Head of Sales

Based on your comments so far, sounds like you're pretty money motivated. Any non-quota carrying role is going to have a lower cap in annual earnings.

If $ and advancement are your two guiding points and you enjoy sales conversations and aren't shy to ask people for money, then a sales role may fit for you.

If you feel like prospecting customers is uncomfortable, but you like where you're working, rev ops, sales engineering, CSM could be a route. It's probably going to take many years to reach a 6-figure income threshold, however.

stanrym

Valued Contributor

CEO

I'd just explore other options.

Smithy

Politicker

Director of Sales

Think about what you want long term, have a chat with your manager and ask where they see your strengths etc and make a plan with them around any skills you need to enhance etc.

SDR manager is the most required job in SaaS atm and good SDR managers are hard to come by IMO.

I am not overly familiar with the Sales Engineer side of things, so can't speak to that.

AE is the normal go to from SDR but it doesn't have to be and it can be a HUGE jump, so make sure you're ready

CaneWolf

Politicker

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

Customer Success/Account Management/etc. A lot of people who were BDRs with me went this route and have done very well for themselves.

Coffeesforclosers

Notable Contributor

Director Sales and Market Development

Big enough firm you can go ops, training, strategy, gtm, etc

sellingsellssold

Politicker

SDR

It depends on what you like doing, if you love sales and you want to continue on the sales path the next step would be to become an AE. This is how you move up in sales but if you want to try something else now is the time because you can always go back to sales!

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Thebaldingeagle

SDR Advice: Options other than moving to AE?

Next role after SDR?

13 comments

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