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Student

Valued Contributor
Praised Answer
Good Citizen
+2

SDR to AE fake promise

it seems like a common trend for SDRs to be told they can make it to AE after a year of success. However, I continually hear SDRs still not being promoted to AE even when they hit quota and are successful in their organization. I know this is a huge over generalization but I'm curious if this is a common trend in the industry or I'm just hearing a one sided story.

SDR โžก๏ธ AE in under 1 year

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๐ŸŽฏ Career Development
17

25 comments

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braintank
Politicker
7
Enterprise Account Executive
We call that "happy" ears in the sales world
Fenderbaum
Politicker
7
Retired Choirboy๐Ÿช•
Promises, promises... they'll tell you what you want to hear.
oldcloser
Arsonist
6
๐Ÿ’€
Get a definition of success in writing. Management agnostic promotions are rare.
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
5
Sales Rep
Its important to know, what ever you are told as far as expectations in a role. Usually those are best case scenario and will be true for a very small %
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
4
โ˜•๏ธ
Slow your post rate and increase your participation in existing threads on the topics you are interested in. Please, please, please do that now before you end up doing this on Slack at your new company--you'll stand out negatively then.
Nairobi
Politicker
5
AE
I legit did this exact same post a couple weeks agoโ€ฆ I used the search bar before though so would suggest to do the same
Sunbunny31
Politicker
4
Sr Sales Executive ๐Ÿฐ
^^^Very wise in the ways of the community.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
3
๐ŸฆŠ
I was never a SDR/BDR but anything is possible ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™€๏ธ
SaaSguy
Tycoon
3
Account Executive
Its unlikely, but situational. I got promoted in 9 months because I was the top SDR and we needed to backfill an AE immediately.
Maximas
Tycoon
2
Senior Sales Executive
It's not how good you're hitting your quota,it's whether you're a good fit for the new role or not.
CPTAmerica
Opinionated
2
President/CRO
Haha you only gave us negative options in the poll. Itโ€™s 100% real but not at every company. And of course itโ€™s not a guarantee that every SDR hired gets to be an AE.
new
Valued Contributor
1
Student
Solid point hahah my bad
quotascammedeverytime
Opinionated
2
account executive
I did it but I worked 70 hour weeks and did a bunch of extra strategy and ops work
Gasty
Notable Contributor
2
War Room Community Manager
and how did it work out?
quotascammedeverytime
Opinionated
2
account executive
Consistently #1 for 10 months but still made about half of what they promised. Managed to get promoted to AE and then scammed on quota again and when I brought it up got managed out ๐Ÿ˜‚
0
BDR
thats the way
Pachacuti
Politicker
1
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
Itโ€™s a sign of a healthy organization when they consistently promote the SDRs to AE.
RandyLahey
Politicker
1
Account Executive
Yeah...I jumped on a full-cycle 'AE' role, and it was just an SDR role masquerading as an AE role. Full burnout ensued...
punishedlad
Tycoon
1
Business Development Team Lead
I've actually been in a couple of full-cycle roles, and you're right. It's mostly outbounding and setting meetings, but at least being a part of the sales cycle all the way until close.
RandyLahey
Politicker
2
Account Executive
So often itโ€™s just gabagool, empty promises. I was literally a full-cycle โ€œAEโ€ that would hand off deals to our โ€œkey accountsโ€ team. Bullshit.
iamtheone
Executive
1
Enterprise SDR
I was told if I hit 150% quota two quarters in a row, Iโ€™d get senior SDR then AE after each one. I havenโ€™t even got senior SDR after hitting 158% and 163%. On top of that my quota went up by 60% with no comp increase. They are all liars.
new
Valued Contributor
0
Student
Thatโ€™s frustrating
js2458
Politicker
0
Enterprise SDR
My company promotes SDRs within 4 months to acc execs. I've seen it happen before with the previous SDRs, but it takes them months to set up deals. Also, my company tends to hire those with a lot of sales experience so most are pretty well prepared by the time they get promoted.
0
Global Operations Director
I have seen it done but it is just not efficient for companies to train and ramp their SDRs only to promote them out of that team immediately. Most have more sustainable promotion methods/criteria but it is important you ask about them before accepting a role!
goose
Politicker
0
Sales Executive
The SDR to AE myth is the biggest lie told in sales.

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