Jenna Janssen

Sales Consultant at Freelance

Why do SaaS sales companies feel you cannot be an AE without SaaS specific experience?

I feel every SaaS company thinks that selling for them is some complicated issue.

It's honestly almost pretentious.

To me, if I love and believe in a service or product--I'm going to sell the shit out of it.

Thoughts?

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oldcloser

Arsonist

💀

It’s an employer’s market. They’re looking for prior experience and relationships in the niche to minimize ramp time and expense. I’d do the same if I were on that side. It’s your job to convince them that you can eliminate the risk. Go sell the shit out of yourself. You’ll land.

rharris415

Contributor

Founder

No, it's never an employer's market. We are all free agents, it might a bit harder to get a job; however, if we are good and know how to interview, then we crush the competition.

Calling it an "employer's market" is simply a defeatist mindset that is over-used because nobody says it differently.

You are interviewing them more than they are interviewing you.

In a tough market, if you are doing the exact same thing you do in an up-market, then it's you that's the problem, not the market.

It's funny; sellers are all about selling change to their buyers, except we never want to change ourselves.

Here's how I suggest it in an interview, bring it up ASAP.

So I know you kind of have the pick of the litter when it comes hiring folks these days. I am curious, what parts of my resume made you want to talk to me?

What gaps do you currently perceive we should discuss?

Who in the hiring group is typically the most skeptical when it comes to hiring someone? What are they generally most skeptical about?

Remember, you are interviewing them more than they are interviewing you.

After they answer these questions you can then say, "so of all the things you look for in a sales rep, where does "handling objections, pre-handling objections, and proving value stand?"

Then wait for the job offer or prepare a middle-finger salute.

Sales Consultant

Not saying I haven’t had offers, or interviews. Just in general—it seems like this overall mindset, even prior to it being an employer’s market. Wanted to dig deeper into what it really is…

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I believe you’ll find the same at other companies. They’ll look for pharma experience if that’s what they make, for example. It’s a buyer’s market.

And SaaS is software sales, in a subscription model. Having any kind of technical sales experience plus being able to understand the difference between OpEx and CapEx is going to be helpful to any rep trying to break in. It’s lucrative, it was talked up for years as a way to make good money, and they have a glut of experienced reps looking for roles due to all the layoffs. They can be very very picky right now.

HVACexpert

Politicker

sales engineer

Industry even. I get plenty of recruiters reaching out about in industry jobs. But I’ve tried to get stuff out of industry, with good credentials, and radio silence.

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

Their VCs are telling them who to hire based on an archetype that is a decade old. One of the best reps I ever hired was a concert violinist and needed a stable and more lucrative career. He crushed for a couple of years and even decided he had a nice nest egg to fall on and went back to the orchestra he came from.

UncleHoho

Good Citizen

Account Executive

Agreed with other commenters: this is the same in most markets. On-ramp times, relationships with customers, lingo etc - save employers a lot of time. In another life I was a med device rep, if you had experience, you would get job offers all the time simply because it’s so expensive/hard to train and onboard new people from scratch even if they can sell.

Space_Ghost20

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

I think what's worse is that they often don't want to hire them as SDRs either. It's like a catch-22: you're too experienced for them to consider you for an entry level role, but not experienced enough to be an AE either. That was my biggest hurdle when I was making the switch from banking.

SaaSsy

Politicker

I think it depends on where you’re coming from - honestly I wouldn’t hire a lot of talented sales people I know well that have a very transactional background bc skills don’t always translate. Being a field rep, pharma, selling insurance - I don’t see many folks who can succeed there being able to sell a complex software solution.

ZVRK

Politicker

Enterprise Account Executive

I don`t think it`s ALL of them. I joined a SaaS company three years ago with zero SaaS sales experience. I`m sure it helped that this is an HR TEch SaaS and I worked in the HR/Learning and Development space for 7 years before.

loomingquota

Mid Market AE

Just wait till you have SaaS experience but just not the right SaaS

BitcoinAddict

Opinionated

People see the big flashy paychecks and the good work-life balance and now everyone wants to flood into SaaS sales. Then, you have idiotic influencers on LinkedIn claiming that SaaS companies are the devil for requiring SaaS experience.

Well, it's because it is not like selling flyers or transactional crap in most cases. If you try to talk to a technical person and are just pitching or coming off as the stereotypical sleazeball car salesman, you will lose clients and cost the company business.

Selling at a good SaaS company worth being at involves knowing a complicated product well enough, building internal relationships with other departments when it comes to selling a bigger deal, having a deep-dive discovery that actually understands the needs of the buyer, being able to ask the right questions on the demo, being able to negotiate pricing in a professional way that shows value (ROIs, COIs, etc.) rather than pushing people to sign, and a host of other things.

If you have an issue with it, tough luck. No one goes at Med Device or other industries for wanting industry experience.

Also calling companies "pretentious" for being picky? Not a good look.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

Because they can. Industry and product can always be taught/learned. If they pass on you now as a seasoned AE is general that's on them.

President/CRO

It’s the safe bet “nobody gets fired buying IBM” logic. If the rep fails the hiring manager can say “but they looked so good on paper.” There are always exceptions but it’s typically a sign of an organization that hasn’t developed a real hiring playbook or they get so many applications they don’t care.

ASalesCoach

National Director of Sales

part of the mindset is that different sales models require different approaches. as an example, there are many sellers that are great at selling products and others that are great at selling services. yet as a hiring manager, I often find that it is difficult to get a product seller to adapt to the services mindset. they are very different (outside hard work, etc.).
selling SaaS not only applies to the above, but you than have the mindset that SaaS is somehow a more complex and intricate sales model. To be more successful in the interview process, think about what the SaaS model sells, and answer all questions in that model. Knowing what you are selling, how you are selling, and why you win are the keys to tweaking that message to look and feel more like a SaaS seller.

Panda4489

Politicker

Head of Some Shit

This has always been the dumbest thing I've seen in SaaS job requirements. Been that way we long as I can remember

rharris415

Contributor

Founder

Suggesting someone needs saas experience is like asking someone to "sell me this pen"

This happens because...

1. Because they are stupid
2. Because they don't know how to interview
3. Because they don't understand the fundamentals of finding talent.
---- Example, lets say the want you to tests your skills on MS Word, they would ask you to show them how to copy and past something. When in reality all they need to do ask have you show them you know how to paste.

4. Because they don't know how to answer the question themselves.
If you make it into the interviews I suggest bring this up immediately.

"Hey ____, one of the things someone is probably going to ask as you review candidates, will be, 'Um, this person seems good but they don't have Saas experience'"

So I would like to address that now.

1. Is this a concern for anyone in the organization and if so, who?
2. If this is a concern, what about my resume even wants you to speak with me?
3. Thank you can you provide a very specific sales conversation as a role play right now that you think would mean I cannot sell saas?

---- They will come up with a role play and test your knowledge of their product/ service, their ICP, and/or the industry. When they do, you simply say,

"I am confused, what you just set up is about your product, your ICP and industry, correct?"

They will say yes.

You say, "Ok, but that's nothing to do with software as a service. So let me ask you this, I have a definition of saas and selling saas written down right here, (have it already). How about we play a game, because sales is always about the top of the leader board, right? What's your definition of selling saas and then we can compare them and see who wins. In fact, here's a $1 bill, because it's sales, and we fight for every dollar."

Their definition will suck.

Then before you give them yours, you simply state the following:

One last question for you, How many sales people in your career had saas experience but sucked at asking tough questions, handling objections, and then reframing to win the conversation? Because that is what's happening to you right now.

So if you want someone with saas over someone who is so unafraid during their interview to pre-set and pre-handle an objection then go ahead. If you want a closer, stop interviewing everyone else and hire me."

Here's my definition, now give me my fucking $1.

Better yet, keep your dollar and sell me this pen, because if you can't sell me a pen why would I want to work for someone like that?

I coach people to this all the time. Now if you are not getting the interview in the first place not much you can do.

Now if you make it into the interview round.

If you are getting the interview I would encourage this to be one of the first questions you ask.

CRAG112

Valued Contributor

Account Executive

Because they don’t know how to sell.

SaaS means nothing. It’s your ability to connect and work a sales process that’s applicable to the personas who buy from you. And then take that and apply it your specific vertical, be it SMB mid market l, commercial, Enterprise, partnerships, or something else.

Managing Director

I think an individual's psychometric factors go a long way in predetermining how well a sales person would perform on the job, rather than just the previous sales experience in Saas.

Maximas

Tycoon

-1

Senior Sales Executive

I personally believe that SaaS has been one of the most decent payout sectors all over the other sales fields, and selling a software not a physical product should require at least the minimum knowledge and technical background for that product you need to sell that's why they push for experience I suppose.

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Jenna Janssen

Why do SaaS sales companies feel you cannot be an AE without SaaS specific experience?

20 comments

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