On a typical day, Edward Menendez leads a sales team at Zenefits to drive the company revenue. No one would have guessed that only two years ago, he was working at a dead-end job as a call center agent. There, he went with the flow, stuck at a job that didn\u2019t give him room for movement. \u201cIt was so bad that it got to the point where my manager was telling me to log my bathroom time. I had no more time off and no more sick time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tired of being in a stagnant job, Edward was determined to upgrade to a career with a future. He found this in the tech industry in software sales. \u201cI found the industry interesting, but I didn\u2019t know how to get into it,\u201d he said. Edward had no college degree. And he had neither the time nor the luxury to go back to school to spend years reskilling for a new career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSomewhere in my search for a possible option, Prehired<\/a> popped up,\u201d he recounted. Prehired is a lifetime membership community that helps people break into software sales in weeks. \u201cOne of the points it highlighted was how applicants don’t need to have a college degree. That kept my interest because it was one of the things holding me back,\u201d said Edward. \u201cI thought I needed to go the traditional college route to start a new career. Turns out I didn\u2019t need to.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Prehired also has a job guarantee<\/a>. Through an Income Share Agreement loan, members only start paying after securing a job and collecting a couple of paychecks. The guarantee: if they don’t land a job within the career search process, the hours of training and mentorship they got is free. The job search window is open for 12 months after finishing their coursework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Prehired gave Edward the skills and tools he needed to accomplish his goals. There, he did three months of rigorous training in software sales. The result? His training allowed him to advance his career faster than the five years he spent at a dead-end job. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And he\u2019s not alone. With the economy in flux, switching to a more promising career is more pressing than ever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Countries worldwide face twin threats. First, there\u2019s the health crisis from the pandemic. And then there\u2019s the job crisis from so many industries and companies shutting down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you clicked on the headline, chances are you\u2019re in the same boat as so many others hurting. Yet these crises also create new opportunities for you to redefine your career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is especially true in the software industry because the pandemic boosted companies\u2019 tech needs. Leading the pack is Zoom<\/a>. In May, the video conferencing company made headlines when its market value blew up to $50 billion. That has since more than doubled<\/a> to $129 billion, flying past the world\u2019s top airlines combined. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The boom in software companies is also trickling down to the workforce. It\u2019s why software jobs filled a majority of LinkedIn’s report on this year\u2019s emerging jobs<\/a>. Another one<\/a> revealed workforce confidence is strongest in \u201cintensely digital fields.\u201d The outlook hinges on the industry\u2019s proven resilience no matter the crisis. With that in mind, people mostly think of developer roles first. Yet software sales<\/a> is also mushrooming because companies need people selling what the coders create, and they can get paid even better than the developers. For example, Business Insider reports<\/a> that top-performing sales professionals earn up to $400,000 a year. This is well beyond the average income across all occupations in the US which stands at $53,490<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As pointed out by entrepreneur Ryan Holmes<\/a>: \u201c… [T]he reality is that it\u2019s impossible to scale and sustain most software platforms today without a highly capable, highly trained sales team… It\u2019s the sales team that helps to keep the lights on at any company.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n With the size of the software sales sector, jobs in the field vary. Let\u2019s explore the possible career tracks<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Median pay: <\/strong>$61,805<\/a> A Sales Development Representative is a sales team\u2019s \u201ctip of the spear,\u201d on a mission to find and qualify new prospects who may need the software his\/her company sells. Anyone new to sales will most likely work as an SDR first before advancing to other roles. A typical day as an SDR involves looking for, identifying, and qualifying potential leads. This means talking to and assessing a lead\u2019s specific needs and interests with a finer lens. That helps Account Executives invest their time with prospects most likely to buy. That\u2019s why an SDR\u2019s performance is measured by how many qualified leads they produce. The lead-to-sale conversion rate is another important metric. How many of the leads engaged and vetted as potential customers actually converted into paying ones? Sales analyst firm TOPO reported that good SDRs increased the closing rate<\/a> of deals by 22 percent. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Median pay: <\/strong>$83,687<\/a> SDRs advance to this role after 12 to 18 months. Account executives touch base with prospective clients, run product demos, negotiate the terms with the client, and close deals. They also keep the interest of existing clients and renegotiate deals. A lion\u2019s share of their day thus consists of talking to clients, building rapport, and maintaining relations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Median pay: <\/strong>$102,240<\/a> A team lead works with AEs and SDRs to hit lead generation and growth targets. Per the role, s\/he keeps a close watch on the qualitative and quantitative achievements of the sales team. For instance, a team lead tracks how many calls a sales rep has made to potential customers. How many of these were answered? How long were the calls and what was the level of interest exhibited? How many deals were closed and how long did each transaction take? For AEs, the focus is on the win rates. The team lead then uses this data to further train his\/her members to increase to hit goals. S\/he focuses on driving team performance and making sure the team\u2019s lead-to-sale conversion rate keeps rising. The team progress is then relayed to the sales manager. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Median pay: <\/strong>$114,374<\/a> Sales managers lead their sales team, so they usually have a couple years of experience. To do so, they must consistently monitor their team members\u2019 production towards reaching the company\u2019s revenue goals. Who\u2019s hitting their quota? How is their performance different from the others? Does the quota need adjusting? How are key metrics like sales closing rates and sales volume by region trending? Median pay: <\/strong>$147,354<\/a> A Sales VP\u2019s primary role is setting the vision and goals for the sales department. This entails developing strategies and plans to drive not just revenue but also business growth. These strategies include sales enablement and market penetration, which are then implemented by the sales personnel down the line. As such, Sales VPs wear different hats on any given day. They oversee sales activities and development at scale. For example, what percentage of the sales department hit their quota? The Sales VP must evaluate and manage these aspects to ensure that the sales department\u2019s performance is on track with the company\u2019s goals. Doing so also ensures that the sales department is always ahead of the curve and outperforming others in the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While career prospects in tech sales are promising, its turnover rate is not. Statistics<\/a> show a 34 percent turnover rate with a 1.5-year median tenure. Meanwhile, the average ramp time<\/a> for new SDRs to get to full production is 3.2 months. Prehired addresses these problems with a career launch program, coupled with a lifetime learning model. How does this work exactly? Well, there are three stages to the Prehired membership. The first one covers Science-Based Sales\u00ae foundations. Here, members learn the tools and skills to become top-performing SDRs. This stage leads to members landing jobs and getting certified in Science-Based Sales\u00ae (by design, since Prehired is certifying you were able to use your sales skills in the real world). After gaining some real-life work experience, members advance to the Science-Based Sales\u00ae Promoted program to prepare for a higher position. In this leg, Prehired mentors help people get promoted to senior SDR or AE roles. The third stage is Science-Based Sales\u00ae Manager, where members learn how to lead and manage sales teams. Prehired\u2019s many lifetime membership benefits<\/a> help members maximize their potential. Throughout their careers, they receive updates about the current market and guidance from their mentors. They also always have access to other members, partner companies, and industry insiders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After his training, Edward got a 60 percent response rate<\/a> from hiring managers, with many interviewing him after seeing his drive paired with Prehired\u2019s training. Compare that with the typical job search process. All the interest allowed Edward to focus his job search. \u201cThe fast pace of the process surprised me. I got to pick the top two companies that I wanted to get serious with and ended up going to one,\u201d shared Edward. Edward debuted as a Sales Development Representative at Hivewyre, a digital advertising tech company. Immediately after getting hired, he hit the ground running. \u201cAll the SDRs I got hired with were fresh graduates and didn\u2019t have much experience. They [the managers] started telling us how to talk to people on the phone or how to run a meeting,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I already learned those from Prehired. So, I started going hard at it and booking deals on my first day.\u201d Edward\u2019s performance didn\u2019t go unnoticed. After three months, he rose to Account Executive. It was an achievement that usually takes 12 to 18 months to reach. Now, Edward works at SaaS company Zenefits. A step higher from his previous position, he\u2019s now a Sales Development Team Lead. Another Prehired member, Neftali Palma, had a tricky start in the tech workforce. Whereas applicants usually worry about not getting any offers, Neftali received eight. \u201cIt felt great to have options but [it was] also challenging,\u201d he said. Neftali was so overwhelmed he had to reach out to Prehired to know how to decline job offers. He eventually accepted a job as an Account Executive at Zoom. Giving a glimpse of his typical day at work, Neftali said: \u201cWe use a lot of different tools to help deal with our clients. There\u2019s the Google Suite, Salesforce, and Outreach\u2014tools that we covered in Prehired.\u201d After months of working at Zoom, he became the Team Lead. And despite the down economy, he continues to rise to the top. Last August, Netfali\u2019s title bumped up to Sales Manager. He now leads a team of Account Executives for the larger Latin American market.How a Virus Re-Coded the Economy<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\nA Beginner’s Guide to a Tech Sales Career <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Sales Development Representative (SDR)<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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While a team lead is more concerned with the team\u2019s daily actions, a sales manager is more focused on hitting the targets. So, the two work closely to figure out the best sales strategy and to empower team members to produce the most sales. <\/p>\n\n\n\nVice President of Sales<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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As for business growth, Sales VPs are concerned with customer expansion. How many new customers were acquired? How does the sales department\u2019s conversion rate compare with the industry average?
<\/p>\n\n\n\nHow Prehired Fixes Tech Companies\u2019 Pipeline Problem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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<\/p>\n\n\n\nMoving Up the SaaS Ladder<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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