iamtheone

Enterprise SDR

Valued Contributor

SDR to AE jump (external)

anyone have any good resources making a jump as a top SDR to a new company as an AE?

mass spamming applications clearly isn't working for people even WITH full cycle experience.

I managed to get a quick chat with a sales manager at gong today, he was brutally honest which I appreciated that it would be tough.

he even mentioned that it I crushed the mock demo/created a territory plan/etc that I simply couldn't compete with full cycle experienced reps

I'm still determined to make this happen, so anyone know of companies that take people on in my position or had success doing this?

for context, I'm an award winning SDR at both of the companies I've been at, been a team lead, enterprise SDR, and have never missed a quota under 150%. brought in logos like LinkedIn, PayPal, Paychex, RingCentral, and have discovery call and MEDICC experience.

any tips would be helpful, and would love to collaborate or chat with anyone in my position

🗣 Interviewing

8

8 comments

Sort by:

CPTAmerica

Opinionated

3

President/CRO

The Gong’s of the world aren’t going to take a chance on someone without experience. Start looking at smaller companies, probably something with <$10M ARR. Reach out to the CRO, CEO, Founders directly. Let them know you’re eager to make in impact for them. Use your current SDR skills to personalize and get their attention.

SoccerandSales

Big Shot

2

Account Executive

This. It is extremely competitive for "top level" sales companies with existing successful AE's, you likely will want to speak with Series A/B/C type companies where it will be easier to speak with the main hiring managers

Maximas

Tycoon

1

Senior Sales Executive

Simple, here are the AE tasks, as long as you think you can do em,then just go for it.
And here's a fine list from Gasty hopefully you'll find a match there. https://bravado.co/war-room/posts/who-s-hiring-aes-05-17-23

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

0

Sales Rep

Love it

Maximas

Tycoon

0

Senior Sales Executive

🙏

pirate

Big Shot

0

🦜☠️ Account Executive

Don't feel too bad. You did the best you could. In general now the hiring managers are scared and want to play it safe. And playing safe... well they miss out on talent.

Someone once believed in me and hired me for AE from being a BDR. And I was lost and did not know much about anything. But they had faith in me. I grew and I smashed it.

Perhaps try calling him back, thanking him for the feedback and that perhaps you would accept a bit lower salary what he is hiring AEs for and that you have a lot of passion to learn and you really love this new company

In the future I would focus on:
- You have closing experience, you close meetings
- Your collaboration with your AE and what you do to make the deals successful
- How you got past objections at the logos you brought in
- Your fantastic quota achievement
- Your ability and passion to learn new skills (example from either work life... you have been promoted in X time or you learned doing this in x time or something from your personal life that shows you can pick up on new skills very fast and love to learn)

You will get there. Hope that helps and best of luck

Space_Ghost20

Valued Contributor

0

Account Executive

I'm sure you've heard this before, but this is one of the worst times to be trying to make this kind of jump. Not saying you shouldn't try, or you should settle for where you are right now, just that you shouldn't get too discouraged or too inside your head as to what you could be "doing wrong" in your job search or interviews.

I made this move. Top SDR at a company to AE at another company. What helped me was a) the market in 2021 was much different than the market now b) I had lots of sales experience before becoming an SDR so none of this was my first rodeo, I just had to prove it to tech companies c) the offer I got was from a startup, which are often more flexible in the experience they look for in a candidate and d) the company I was an SDR for was let's say a "work in progress", I was not only doing all the prospecting, but demos, discovery calls and even closing deals the AE deemed "too small" for him to bother with. All of those factors helped me in my transition to AE. Of course, I ended up getting laid off a year later, but that's another discussion for another day.

I think it's good that you're reaching out to hiring managers and getting input from them, and it will also be good to keep in touch with them as even if they're not able/willing to hire you now, once you do get more relevant experience, you might be able to leverage those relationships to get fast tracked into interviews. In the meantime, I think you should probably look for smaller, less established companies who probably will appreciate your prospecting skills because their marketing and/or SDR motions are not as well built out as the more established firms.

Good luck, happy to discuss with you. Unfortunately I don't have an Apple device so I can't receive messages. But happy to reply here if you have further questions.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

0

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

It was kind of him to give you some insight. Crushing a demo isn't the same thing as managing a sales process to close. It's a whole other motion to stay with the customer through things like infosec, compliance, tech and functional requirements and questions, procurement, vendor onboarding, negotiation, contracting. There's a lot, and things can go sideways at any point. Figuring out how to accurately forecast is an art as well.

That said, many successful AEs started out as BDR/SDR.

I am curious as to why you're not looking to be promoted where you are, and suspect there's a reason you haven't yet shared. That is often the best path, as honestly, you'll have at least some foundational product knowledge and should be in a position to shadow some reps where you are to get a head start. What's happening at your current company?

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

© 2024 Bravado Inc. All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy Legal and Privacy Center Sales Jobs

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.