SpaceCowboy

Territory Manager

What is more important - sales track record vs industry experience?

Situation: You are changing industries with no industry experience - you have the the option to work as a SDR or in Customer Success - a sales role is the goal down the road with different DREAM company - what is more important to to a sales recruiter/company, track record of sales success or industry experience as a customer success rep?

The catch is that both jobs are in SaaS but different industries. Eventually see myself in a yet another industry in SaaS but that option is not on the table at the moment and need to get started somewhere.

Ideal Experience

Attached poll

SDR/Sales Experience Customer Success Industry Experience

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

🎈 Mentorship

👥 Hiring

12 comments

Sort by:

CoorsKing

WR Officer

Retired King of the Coors Knights

Personally I’m always going to vote for sales experience. Unless the CSM role here involves upselling, I’m picking the SDR option

funcoupons

WR Officer

👑

If you want to be in sales, you need to be in the sales career track which begins with SDR. You'll gain industry knowledge in that role, don't worry.

Jewcan_Sam81

Politicker

Account Executive

Look, everyone is going to say "you need X amount of experience in this industry or you obviously can't work here." The reality is that anyone can learn about an industry, a product, a process. We live in a time where information is literally everywhere, and you can find it on demand.

Sales experience, prospecting experience, sales cycle management, etc., that's something that takes time on the job to develop. Kind of instinct blended with psychology of another person in a tense situation with the cherry on top of confidence in your product (whether real or fake). That's stuff you can read about but it takes time to learn.

So sales experience can be adapted to basically anything, so much more adaptable than industry experience. A prostate nurse can talk about the HMS they're using on a granular level. Can she make you interested in buying it though?

SpaceCowboy

Personal Narrative

Territory Manager

That is a great take on this situation thank you

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Sales experience. You can know a lot about a topic and still not be good with people.

Mobi85

Politicker

Regional Sales Manager

Sales experience, need to show you can take something from nothing and make it into something.

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

CSM experience is typically upselling current clients and putting out fires. Thus the relationship already exists. SDR/AE experience is creating that relationship and finding out why someone would buy from you.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Clicked the wrong answer. Sales experience all day. You can learn the industry.

SpaceCowboy

Personal Narrative

Territory Manager

Thanks for the input, I already have 7 years of sales experience doing the full sales cycle both inside and outside. But boosting the track record to a new industry isnt a bad move

Beans

Big Shot

Enterprise Account Executive

Baseline sales is always key - prospecting, value props, BANTT / SPIN (other quick methodologies and qualification tools).

justatopproducer

Politicker

VP OF SALES -US

SDR, try and get better everyday, be nice to everyone and be a sponge. You’ll do great

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

Press Careers

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.