TennisandSales

Head Of Sales

Acclaimed Answer

The SDR trap is ruining sales

Unless you want to be a career SDR, the most important thing you can do in your career is get OUT of the SDR role as fast as possible.

the easiest way into the tech/saas space is for sure to be an SDR first, but man you can get stuck there for waaaaaaay to long.

ive hear so many stories about ppl who think sales isnt for them because of the SDR experience they had at one company.

Ill never fault someone for taking more money to provide for them self, but if you get a chance to be an AE and need to take a pay cut, I would really suggest you do it (of course there are circumstances that make this a bad idea.)

What is the biggest lie you were told as an SDR

Attached poll

"you will be an AE in 12 months" "we always hire our SDRs to be AEs" "we have great training here " add yours in the comments

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

✌️ Growing Pains

👨‍🌾 SDR

25

35 comments

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Nairobi

Politicker

11

AE

Alright, let me do the honor:
"If you crush quota, you will be an AE in 6-8 months"
"We only promote from within"
"You need to be great at cold calling so that you can kill it as an AE"
"There are/will be plenty of openings for our BDRs to be AEs"
"You are so close to being an AE, keep going! Show me that you really want it."
“I know we told you you would be an AE by now but we couldn’t predict that there would no openings right now"

TennisandSales

Politicker

4

Head Of Sales

omg SOOOOO good! ill add another one i forgot about, when asked how they know if there will be AE roles available:

"we have a master spreadsheet tracking everyones progress so we know when to start getting another AE role opened."
this was of course not true.
there was a spreadsheet.....but it was mainly used on who to put on a PIP next.

Nairobi

Politicker

4

AE

Omg you had that spreadsheet too! I was shown that spreadsheet at least once every quarter lol

CuriousFox

WR Officer

4

🦊

Damn. You've been through it.

Nairobi

Politicker

4

AE

Indeed, unfortunately. Worst part is that's not even half of the bs my previous manager told me...

Maximas

Tycoon

1

Senior Sales Executive

V.Good points!!

SaaSguy

Tycoon

7

Account Executive

I think being promised a promotion in 12 months is dog shit. At the end of the day companies need to be more transparent that moving up depends on factors besides tenure (having an open spot, performance, etc).
However, at a couple organization I've had multiple SDR's who loaf it for 12 months and then think they deserve a promotion. A lot of entitlement, frankly.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

3

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

They got used to moving up a grade in school with minimum effort, I expect.

antiASKHOLE

Tycoon

5

Bravado's Resident Asshole

"If you keep this up, you'll be an AE in no time!"

TennisandSales

Politicker

1

Head Of Sales

🤮

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

5

Sales Rep

"we have great training"
** Gives one single LMS on how to use the phone that is it**

alonzoharris

Politicker

4

Partner Manager

Not becoming an AE in 12 months really broke my heart lol

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Were you promised it when you joined?

alonzoharris

Politicker

2

Partner Manager

Promised, and delivered or exceeded quotes for every month. Part of the reason most of my career has been AM/channel sales - didn’t get AE so I made the best of it

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Ouch. Good for you for adapting, but that is painful.

TennisandSales

Politicker

2

Head Of Sales

you and MANY MANY others. 💔

HappyGilmore

Politicker

4

Account Executive

"we have a great promotion path to becoming an AE"
only to find out the promotion path wasn't really a path but just something leadership tossed out there every 6 months

braintank

Politicker

3

Enterprise Account Executive

All of the above!

RandyLahey

Politicker

3

Account Executive

I had this as an SDR at this dogshit Biotech software company. "We like to promote within 12 months, sometimes earlier if you crush it". Fast forward to 8 months, I had crushed every monthly target, 2 AEs had left and I asked the manager about a promotion who responded with "You're not ready for AE.". Then, they hired from outside.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

2

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I come from the days before BDRs were a thing. Most of us were full cycle reps starting out.

TennisandSales

Politicker

1

Head Of Sales

yep thats how i started too since i started my career out side of software.

BTQ

Politicker

2

Account Manager

goddamn yall are scaring me!
My director has been true to his word so far though. Never made a promise when though which is encouraging.

Justatitle

Big Shot

2

Account Executive

"We like to promote from within"

Pachacuti

Politicker

2

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Yah, I can see that as a multi-year trap.

Space_Ghost20

Valued Contributor

2

Account Executive

I was an SDR at a startup. European company that was trying to break into the US market. They hired one AE, and three SDRs. 3 months in I was the only SDR left (one got fired, and another no showed for 3 weeks then resigned).
I had been in sales for a few years already so while I was new to SaaS, I wasn't exactly a rookie either. And I think they leaned on that too much. The AE claimed he wasn't "very technical" and thus had me do all the demos and discos, preferring to show up when the prospect was ready to sign a deal.
What tripped me up was the office politics. The existing Sr. AE wanted all my opps to go to him, while my manager was instructing me to send all the opps to the AE he hired. Apparently this caused friction between the CEO and my manager, and after he (my manager) was fired I found an AE job externally and bounced.
I don't think I was lied to or anything. They gave me a chance to get into SaaS when no one else was willing to. I knew going in that their long term goal was acquisition, and that I'd probably be an SDR until that happened, or I left. For what it's worth almost 3 years later they've still not been acquired.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

2

Rolling 20's all day

Tooo many SDRs/BDRs/XDRs who get trapped for years just bouncing from company to company with now movement up.
The most common reason I've seen is they don't make a plan, and they don't focus on metrics.

SiliconBBQ

Politicker

1

The Metal Rooster

"We're growing so fast we can't handle all the leads and need to hire more people to help grow the company..."
yea they over-hired and continued to for several years. and the leads dried up.

jellyrolls16

Contributor

1

Senior Consultant

How else do you get into an AE role though if you don’t grind bdr/sdr first?

TennisandSales

Politicker

0

Head Of Sales

Right now, there isn’t a really solid way. I wish that Saas companies were more accepting of closing experience outside of Saas. That would have helped me and many others avoid the SDR world

champchamp

Arsonist

1

Certified Savage

All of them.

WholesomeGuy95

Good Citizen

1

Area Sales Manager

The most frustrating thing that I encountered was being measured against other SDRs who sold into entirely different verticals.
Having said that, I went from SDR to AE in 11 months, though by the time I made it I was the only member of my 12 person hiring class still at the company. Complete meat grinder. Don't think I would have made it without a healthy dose of luck tbh.
I'm curious what people think about starting in different segments...my suspicion has always been that getting out of the SDR trap in SMB was easier than doing it in MM or Ent, though the former might mean that you're pegged to be an SMB AE for a while.

TennisandSales

Politicker

0

Head Of Sales

Wow! well good for you for actually getting through the SDR grind in under 12 months! and yeah I would agree its easier to get out when your in the SMB space because its more transactional, you have more at bats, and there is less risk for when you are an AE.

goose

Politicker

0

Sales Executive

SDR is sales. That's just not true. SDR is marketing. Both are responsible for sales qualified leads. Period. End of story.

TennisandSales

Politicker

0

Head Of Sales

I wouldn’t disagree with you.

hola

Valued Contributor

0

sales consultant

I was promised all these things and they were ALL bullshit and my career def took a hit for it. It took me 5 years to become an AE.
I tried to jump around a bit and then finesse my way into AE role and was harder than I expected. Unfortunately the places I joined as SDR had no plans of promotions they waited for u to eventually leave

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