How to Get a Job in Tech Sales

It's all about long-term relationship building, so you can match the right solutions to the right people and organizations.

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Tech is still a growing industry, always moving forward. Innovation drives business - just look at the huge changes brought by even the earliest days of generative AI. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, tech is predicted to be one of the fastest-growing industries in the next decade. As the tech market continues to expand, there's an ongoing demand for new salespeople. But there's also a ton of competition, which can make it hard to land a job.

Worried you don't have the experience to break into tech sales? Even if you don't have a sales background, you might have the right skills. Take it from me; I was a food server and bartender before I broke in and now I've risen to be a senior account manager helping with Salesforce solutions. And I can help you demonstrate your value and land a job in tech sales.

What you'll learn:

• What is tech sales?
• Jobs in tech sales: The fundamentals
• Tech sales roles and responsibilities
• Tech sales job description example
• Pros and cons of working in tech sales
• How to break into tech sales: Best practices and tips

What is tech sales?

Tech sales refers to selling technology as a product or service. These solutions take a few different forms:

• Software: Sometimes called software as a service, or SaaS, these are systems that increase the efficiency and scale of tasks. One example is customer relationship management (CRM) software, which is usually sold B2B and helps businesses keep customer contact details up to date, track every customer interaction, and manage customer accounts.
• Hardware: Items such as laptops, televisions, and gaming systems can be sold B2B and B2C to fulfill various needs. For example, a hotel chain might purchase a high volume of smart TVs for its rooms and common areas, while an individual might purchase a couple smart TVs for their home.
• Services: Cybersecurity, web hosting, data storage, consulting services and internet service can be sold B2B and B2C as well. For instance, a company or an individual might purchase web hosting services for business or personal needs, respectively.

Using myself as an example, one of the product areas which I sell consulting services for is Sales Cloud. This is a software product that helps sales teams collaborate, manage their sales pipelines, forecast their revenue, and manage their customers and their upcoming touchpoints. In a way, my job is like working in a mirror because it's the same tool I use while selling it.

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Jobs in tech sales: The fundamentals

So, what are jobs in tech sales like? At the end of the day, they're about long-term relationship building, so you can match the right solutions to the right people and organizations. But there are lots of pieces to that puzzle. Check out the tasks and skills expected of workers in tech sales to see whether this career might be right for you.

What does a tech salesperson do?

In tech sales, you will be expected to:

• Prospect for new customers: This means understanding the product or service you're selling, being familiar with common pain points, and identifying customers who could benefit from your solution - through referrals, networking, or marketing campaigns - selling them on its benefits, and turning those prospects into real customers.
• Give presentations and demos: This involves walking customers through the features of your product and how you use them. The goal should be to show them how your platform can solve their problems.
• Manage customer relationships: As a sales rep, you'll use different channels to connect with your customers, including email, phone, social media, and industry events. The key is meeting customers where they want to engage, and that may mean using multiple channels.
• Use sales data to stay on target: Sales pipeline updates, reports, and analytics help you understand revenue and customer performance. Data is a sales rep's best friend. By analyzing your company's processes, learning from your past performance, and understanding your current customers' behaviors and preferences, you'll get a clearer picture of what's working, what's not, and how to adjust your sales tactics for better results.

Essential skills for a successful tech sales career

When I moved from a 10-year career in food service to sales, I had little direct experience with putting together a deal or cold calling. After all, every "lead" who walks into a bar is a hungry or thirsty one. But I had a lot of transferable skills, such as perseverance, maintaining a cheerful attitude, and plenty of upselling and relationship building. You likely have complementary skills for the job, such as:

• Adaptability: This skill will help you when learning new technology, embracing new sales approaches, and entering tech sales from another industry. The tech industry moves quickly, so being adaptable is key.
• Empathy: People who care about others and want to do a good job are more inclined to listen to the needs of their customers, be team players, and do their best to help.
• Coachability: Sales is never easy. You must be able to receive and implement feedback from leaders so you can improve.
• Curiosity: Curious people ask questions because they want to learn. This goes hand in hand with coaching - it shows your willingness to grow as a tech sales professional.
• Dependability: This skill shows that you can be counted on, which matters to your team, company, and clients.
• Humility: Showing humility can go a long way in tech sales, demonstrating you're approachable and easy to work with. This goes double for team selling situations and collaboration.

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Tech sales roles and responsibilities

Tech sales roles are as varied as the technologies they sell. Each requires some amount of people skills, salesmanship, and passion for technology. However, depending on your past experience and interests, you can choose a path that truly suits you. The types include:

• Sales development rep and business development rep (SDR/BDR): An entry-level position, an SDR or BDR serves on the front lines of sales. Their goal is to generate qualified leads through outbound prospecting or by following up with inbound leads. SDRs and BDRs also book meetings and product demos. It's a challenging role and a bit of a trial by fire, but it gets you ready for being an account executive (AE).
• Account executive: An AE's job is to close new business by turning prospects into customers. They're hunters. They do deep discovery to uncover the problems a potential customer wants to solve. AEs also give demos of what the tech solution they're selling can offer relevant to prospect pain points. Then they negotiate to reach an agreement and close the deal. Of course, these negotiations won't always result in a won deal quickly, so they have to spend time nurturing accounts in the hopes that deals will close down the line.
• Account manager (AM):Account managers are usually the primary point of contact between an existing client and the company. They're responsible for overseeing the relationship after the sale has been made and delivering long-term value. AMs handle things such as renewals, cross-sells, and upsells. Recurring revenue and growing accounts are much more easily achieved than winning net new business.
• Sales engineer: This is a technical role in tech sales. Sales engineers work on presales and join non-technical reps during calls to help get into the details of technology products and services that laypeople might not understand. This is important for high-level calls with decision-makers such as chief technology officers (CTOs) who will ask in-depth questions that only an engineer could answer. They communicate how a solution works, and they often try to understand the root of a customer's problem to address it.
• Sales operations (Ops):Sales ops teams work internally to configure sales tools, define processes, and ensure sales teams can reach their targets. They might do planning work such as figuring out how many sales reps to hire, what sales territories to place them in, and how to provide the right incentives.
• Sales enablement specialist: Training on the company's products and services as well as internal processes and techniques is job one for sales enablement teams, who help BDRs, AEs, and AMs learn to be better tech salespeople.
• Sales leader: These are managers, directors, and chief revenue officers (CROs) who form the top of the tech sales hierarchy. Skilled sales reps with strong reputations, leadership potential, and people management skills may well work their way up to guiding tech sales teams.
• Customer success manager (CSM): In the post-sales process, CSMs help customers determine the best use of the product, identifying use cases or answering questions to ensure satisfaction. Customer success managers are key to customer retention and are excellent problem solvers. They work with customers to make sure they have the tools and training they need to achieve goals.

Many entry-level salespeople start out as BDRs, which can mean a lot of grinding, especially at first. But it's more than worth it for those who stick it out as they pick up skills and learn to hustle, make deals, and start working through complex-solution selling. A common path is to begin by selling to small- to medium-sized businesses, then mid-market, then enterprise - each tier having fewer deals with much higher value.

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Tech sales job description example

To give you an idea of what daily life in a tech sales job is like, I've adapted a real job posting similar to those used for entry-level positions for people.

Business development representative - Central region

Job description

You'll be selling our customer relationship management and sales automation platform to many verticals, including financial services, health care, consumer goods, and automotive. Our sales organization is dedicated to providing lasting value to all our customers, and our business development representative team is a core part of that. Your focus will be generating new business through outbound prospecting. It's a fast-paced team that provides plenty of personalized training and career growth opportunities for well-organized self-starters.

Day-to-day duties

• Test and understand the features of the sales software you'll be selling.
• Generate new business pipelines by prospecting outbound leads.
• Manage inbound leads created through outbound efforts.
• Nurture early-stage opportunities before sending to account executives.
• Gain interest through cold calling within the assigned territory.
• Partner with AEs to identify and source net new pipeline and research new lines of business.
• Identify key decision-makers within new accounts.

Preferred qualifications:

• Two years' experience in business development or related field.
• Ability to work and thrive in a fast-paced environment.
• Experience researching, prospecting, and cold-calling a large account list.
• Proven history of reaching sales goals consistently with a quota.

Pros and cons of working in tech sales

As with any job, there are positives and negatives to tech sales you'll want to consider before diving in. Let's look at some of the pros and cons.

Pros of a career in tech sales

• Dynamic working environment: Tech sales is a fast-paced, ever-changing space with tons of earning potential. If you're a curious learner and don't want to get bored, choose a job in tech sales.
• Build a network of valuable relationships: You'll interact with a lot of people, from colleagues to customers, and these relationships can help advance your career.
• Achieve an entrepreneurial mindset: It's one of the few careers where you think like an entrepreneur by taking control, setting your vision, and finding solutions. If you're a self-starter who loves a challenge, this is a good place to start.
• Growth opportunities and high earnings potential: It's a known fact that most SDRs will want to become AEs, and SMB AEs want to move up to Enterprise. This is generally expected and encouraged. With competitive commissions and bonuses, tech sales professionals can create substantial earning potential, especially when they exceed quota.

Cons of a career in tech sales

• Fierce competition: Tech sales can be lucrative, but you will have to beat competitors battling for the same business. It's also competitive internally, with AEs frequently competing against each other to hit quota faster.
• Learning curve: You need to know about your product and industry, trends, and much more to sell knowledgeably. This will take time and research - and it requires ongoing commitment because technology changes frequently.
• The hustle is real: Sometimes you'll feel like you have no days off, since you're often on commission and need to bring your A-game every day. You may find yourself worrying about leads on the weekend or taking a call in the evenings.
• High expectations and pressure: Tech sales often come with ambitious targets and quotas, which can create a high-pressure environment. While this can be motivating for some sellers, it may also lead to struggles with managing stress over time.

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How to break into tech sales: best practices and tips

The quotas and technical understanding might seem like big barriers, but there are tried-and-true steps you can take to land a tech sales job without years of experience. Try the following.

1. Build your network

There's a popular saying in sales that your network is your net worth. Colleagues help you when you're down, mentors teach you what you don't know that you don't know, and every random connection could help you open a door to a new role or decision-maker. Here are a few ways to start building your network:

• Set up coffee chats with sellers in tech: It's a lot more appealing to a connection if you ask for a 10-minute virtual coffee chat rather than an hour-long meeting. End every meeting by asking your connection whom they recommend you speak with and offer an introduction to someone in your network to give them value in return.
• Join tech-based Slack groups: Many networking organizations have a Slack group where members can ask questions or seek advice. Additionally, groups are usually segmented into searchable channels such as "Introductions" or "Job leads," so you can find exactly what you need.
• Be active on tech-focused social media accounts: LinkedIn is the most helpful for networking in this space because it's designed for professionals, but Instagram, X, and others can be useful, too. Target sellers, thought leaders, and business leaders in tech, and send thoughtful connection requests with information about how you know the person or about their business.
• Learn from salespeople already in the game in specific discussion boards and sites: One of my personal favorite places to network is the Salesblazer Community, where salespeople connect and learn together.

2. Earn certifications

Certifications signal your commitment to leveling up your skill set and a willingness to dedicate time, money, and effort to educate yourself. Try these types:

• Online certifications in Scrum: Becoming a Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) and Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) can help you understand the fundamentals of how software and development work, which is core to talking to technical buyers without being an actual developer yourself.
• Trailhead by Salesforce: This is a great online training and credentialing platform that, yes, teaches you about popular Salesforce platforms. But more importantly, you'll learn about sales and marketing in general. It makes learning fun with a gamified structure where you'll earn points and badges as you learn about everything from AI to sales operations. Go for the Salesforce Associate and Sales Professional credentials. Then make sure to put these on your resume and on LinkedIn.

3. Highlight sales experience on your resume

Your skills and experience matter to a potential employer because they need evidence that you can do the job and be part of the team that helps grow their company. Highlighting the transferable skills we talked about earlier is a great way to showcase what you can bring to the table, even if you're coming from another industry. How are the skills and experience listed on your resume related to the job you're applying for? Be prepared to talk about that in an interview with relevant examples that relate to sales.

Let's say one of your skills is being a team player, and you're coming from a job as a restaurant server. On your resume, mention that you worked with a team of servers to improve the restaurant's ordering system. In the interview, share a story about your experience collaborating with the team to install the system and the personal on-the-floor perspective you contributed.

4. Show clear alignment with company values

One approach to telling your story is to align it with the hiring company's core values. Most companies will showcase their values in the "About" section on their website. Choose a value that connects with your skills and practice talking about how you exemplify it. Some common company values include things such as diversity, trust, accountability, and sustainability.

For example, when I transitioned from serving to sales, I applied to a company with a "customer-centric" value, which I linked to my drive never to leave anyone waiting, even on a crowded night.

5. Know the industry inside and out

Do your homework and research your target company. Showcase your knowledge in your application, correspondence, and interview. One area to zero in on is the company's competitors and how it is unique in the market.

Here are some good resources to help with your research:

• LinkedIn: Search your target company and see what they're posting about, including awards, press mentions, or employee news. These can become talking points in an interview.
• Follow the leaders: If you're looking to break into an organization, start at the top. Follow the CEO or anyone on the leadership team on social media or forums to learn more about what they value.
• Tech conferences and events: Even if you can't attend these, look at the event sites to find out about the speakers, company sponsors, and topics. Use this information to conduct your own research and learn more about the latest in tech.

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There's a tech sales job waiting for you

Whether you want to transition into tech sales from another industry or are just starting your sales career, you need to emphasize the skills hiring managers are looking for. Do your research, and come prepared to interviews to talk about why you want to be in tech sales. If you do your homework, hiring managers will notice an eager candidate, ready for success.

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Kristen Handler is a Senior Account Manager at Red Argyle, a team of curious people building intentional Salesforce solutions for some of the biggest brands in the world. She fell in love with Salesforce during her time as a Sales Operations Analyst, and is now joyful to be working with customers... Read More directly in an account management role. She is 3x Salesforce Certified, a Trailhead Ranger, CSPO certified, and an active member of the Salesblazer Community.