For many people, the word “sales” conjures up an image of used cars and aggressive tactics. Well, you can rest assured that those are two things you definitely won’t find in the Satellite Sales Career Accelerator curriculum. In fact, the word “sales” is just about the only commonality between traditional sales jobs and the challenging, but rewarding field of tech sales.
Today’s sales professionals could just as accurately be called consultants or problem solvers. As a sales development rep or business development rep — the entry-level sales roles our bootcamp prepares you for — you’re not convincing people to buy things they don’t need. You’re building relationships and offering solutions.
So if you’re ready to make a career change but not quite sure where to go next, tech sales is a wonderful path to transition to, with a low barrier to entry, good compensation, and plenty of opportunities for growth. And in case you’re not quite sold (pun intended) on the idea just yet, we’ve compiled a list of five reasons to pursue a tech sales career. But first, let’s take a deeper dive into the nuts and bolts of tech sales.
As you can probably tell from the name, tech sales is all about selling technology. That includes hardware like laptops and mobile devices, software like Slack and other apps, and services. Often, when people say tech sales, they mean business to business software-as-a-service sales, frequently shortened to B2B SaaS sales. (You’ll get used to all the acronyms if you aren’t already.)
A B2B company — including many of the awesome tech companies in Satellite’s hiring network, like Firstbase and Agora — sells products to other companies rather than directly to consumers. A typical B2B SaaS company offers subscription-based software for a monthly fee. Shopify and Saleseforce are two examples.
B2B SaaS sales is a high-growth area within the broader tech field, and these companies offer a lot of value to their end users. Without SaaS solutions, companies would have to invest a lot of time and money to develop their own software tools.
Now that you have a better sense of what you’d be selling as an SDR or BDR, let’s talk about the why. Here are our top five reasons to pursue a career in tech sales.
Like we said before, tech sales isn’t about pushing a product that no one really needs. And knowing that you’re offering your customers real value is one reason our graduates find the work so fulfilling.
While there are many different tech companies with products to sell, all tech sales jobs involve identifying an audience who can benefit from your specific solution and demonstrating how that solution can help them better achieve their business goals.
There will likely always be a need for sales jobs: all companies have something to sell, and the process of selling by way of cultivating relationships and building trust cannot be automated. Perhaps that explains why there have been more than 700,000 open sales positions advertised on the online job platform ZipRecruiter in this year alone.
Another plug for SaaS sales jobs in particular: Forbes reported in 2019 that “the average company pays 20 times more for SaaS subscriptions today than five years ago and uses 30-plus free SaaS products,” a trend that’s unlikely to change any time soon as app use increases across all departments.
A paycheck may not be everything — and a sales job delivers plenty of fulfillment beyond the paycheck — but salary is an important factor to consider when picking a path. Not only are sales-related roles some of the best-paying non-tech jobs in the field, there’s opportunity for commission, so your salary isn’t a ceiling. (The average annual starting salary for Satellite graduates is $64,400, and that’s only the beginning.)
Of course, this financial stability is matched by a level of flexibility you don’t always find in other paths. Tech sales jobs can be performed from pretty much anywhere, and many of the companies in our hiring network are remote-only.
Nobody wants to hit a wall in their career. In fact, that’s why many of our students apply for Bootcamp to begin with: their previous fields offered limited options for growth.
Sales is almost the exact opposite — it opens many doors, and there are practically limitless opportunities for growth since core sales skills like listening, problem-solving, and relationship-building are so valuable.
Some people begin their sales careers with an undergraduate degree in marketing or business, but there are just as many sales professionals who launched their career at training programs like Satellite. Our students have diverse backgrounds and professional experiences, and sales is in many ways a perfect field to transition into. Success in tech sales requires drive and curiosity, and your overall mindset matters as much, if not more, than your mastery of any single skill.
Join a community of people who are jumping into new opportunities in tech sales. Apply to Bootcamp today.
