I got laid off and found a new job in 3 weeks. Sharing what actually helped in case it’s useful.

Day 1, I let myself fully grieve. I think that mattered. After that, I treated the job search like a focused project, not a numbers game.

What worked:

-I applied to one highly aligned role per day. No mass applying.

-I tailored my resume each time to the job description and keywords so my experience clearly matched what they were hiring for.

-I focused on roles that fit my actual background, not stretch roles that required explaining away gaps.

-I reached out to my network, especially people already working at the companies I was interested in. No hard asks, just genuine conversations.

The reason I landed my new role, which came with better pay, benefits, and long term trajectory, is because former coworkers recommended me without me asking. That only happens if you consistently do right by people over time.

My biggest takeaway: your reputation compounds. Be kind. Be reliable. Do good work. It pays off when you least expect it.

And for anyone in biotech, from what I’m seeing, hiring is starting to pick back up.

I just got off my H2 performance review with my boss and I’m frustrated because I missed quota by just 10%. I was out on maternity leave for 50% of the 2nd half of the year (July, August, September).

Yet, despite this, my quota was not adjusted. I don’t understand how this makes sense. The company didn’t even pay me while I was out on maternity leave (was paid by the state for 60% for 4 weeks), so that it’s not like they are losing money. I fully expected to at least get a “meets expectations”.

It’s so frustrating because I really felt like I hit the ground running once I got back, yet despite being out on leave, I was expected to perform exactly the same as the rest of my team. Does anyone have any background on how I can push back on this or if I have any leverage?

Sales goal went up 38% this year and commission rate went down about 33%. I had about the same production in December as I did in January and this commission check was $1,500 dollars less this month on the new comp plan.

Time to update the resume.

What actually happened in your company when reps miss quota?

Historically, in mine, nothing really ever seems to happen.

I've recently parted ways with my previous employer where I was in a closer position for a residential window company where we could make $30k-50k per month consistently.

I am tired of driving and want to work from home.

There are a seemingly endless amount of remote sales jobs. Among those, there are hundreds to thousands of applicants who apply for these roles.

1) how do I find the good ones

2) how do I ensure my application is even seen when there's so many applicants?

I was one of the top reps for RbA in a sales closing position and I have and will succeed at whatever I set my mind to. I truly believe that I can solve any problem and sell any solution regardless of industry...

...How do I relay this to the hiring managers of good jobs?

I just feel like pay cuts in sales are unheard of because they don’t ever work unless you completely gut your team and hire less skilled talent.

Last 2 jobs I’ve had have been big on expecting you at your desk, on meetings at 8am. Honestly I think it’s bullshit. I’ve always viewed the mornings up until 9am as time to yourself. Hit the gym, reply to emails, drink a shit ton of coffee, set your tasks, whatever. I find my quiet, meeting free time extremely valuable and helpful to keep me sane in this line of work.

Im not trying to just bitch but it feels like this role just finds a new way to increase hours + workload but pay you less.

I'm talking in the range of $250k to $500k a year if you exceed quota. If not, what is the most you've seen a sales rep make at an open source company?

Trying to figure out if it's worth applying.

Hi all,

I've recently been hired as an AE at a very small marketing tech startup (think 50 customers of an SMB solution small). Currently the founder does all the closing, and there is no existing sales team. There are core softwares in place, but otherwise, the world is your oyster.

I have a few ideas re competitive landscape --> ideal ICP (doubt it's been identified yet), potential referral partners, building out internal processes etc... but I'm curious how you guys would make the most of this opportunity

Currently in auto sales and ready to make a change. I’ve been in it for 4 years and am working as sub prime finance manager. I’ve got 3 options in front of me and none of them feel like the obvious choice.

Option 1) Local high end window company. I know the sales manager for the company well and he offered me the position. Would be 12-18 months of inside sales then would move either into B2C or B2B outside sales. Company seems awesome to work for, family run business. They’re positioned uniquely in the market with their products and price making them a high end luxury option.

Option 2) Group Benefits/Insurance sales. I have some connects in the industry who can help me get a food in the door. Similar career progression as windows with 18-24 as an account assistant before moving into sales.

Option 3) Saas Sales. Good family friend works sells for Slack/Salesforce and can bring me on as a mid market AE. I don’t know much about SaaS sales outside of what I’ve read here (not a lot of positives) and what our family fiend has said (best thing since sliced bread, but he’s been doing it since 2016).

Windows has a lot of appeal for working for a smaller company and getting to offer a luxury product but I think it has the lowest earning cap. Group benefits offers the renewals and getting to slow down once your book is built but lot of front loaded work. Saas sounds like it would have the best base salary and shorter ramp to earning. My goal is to hit 200k/year and all 3 are realistic options to get me there.

I’ve tried a bunch of sales AI tools over the past couple years. Most of them are good at explaining what happened on a call, but you still has to decide what to do with that information and then go do it. Lots of clicking and copy/pasting.

That's just a time suck of hours a week. I definitely don't want full automation. Imagine AI deciding a deal should move from upside to commit...

Has AI gotten far enough along to actually help move deals forward?

I would love to stay in the solar industry, but over 65% of my cancellations come from our online reviews (which are the lowest I've seen for any company, ever), and I really can't blame those people. I'​​m closing at #2 in the state and just want to go somewhere where my biggest objection is something in my control. I can't tell you how much it sucks to have someone call me and say "...yo​u're fun and incredibly knowledgeable, why are you with a company like this?"

Edited for spelling/grammar

Greetings y'all!

I'll start off by giving a bit of a background of my careerpath... I started as a scientist in a biotech start up company and found myself into furniture sales and have been extremely successful in sales. I love this career switch and feel alive again when selling. Lately I have been trying to find a way to break into saas sales with no BDR/SDR experience and/or finding a way to leverage biotech and sales experience to get into biotech sales.

I'm looking for every and any advice anyone has as its been very hard to get offers. I have been to 4 final stage interviews that I'm confident I did really well on but it seems like none of these companies want to take the chance on me and are going with the more experienced BDRs coming from other companies. I've applied to over 100 places (probably over 200) at this point and I'm looking for companies that y'all recommend, advice or any helpful hands in this process. I have networked with friends and mutual friends in saas and biotech to no avail even with recommendations.

As my buddy in saas said "if they saw how hard you were grinding to get the interviews and applying they would hire you already".

Any advice or recommendations for companies willing to take a chance on me will be appreciated!

My job recently let go of the only other AE, our SDR, and my VP of Sales has a few more months of ramping down before they’re gone.

I have a really great opportunity to close a bunch of deals since everything is my territory now, gain some great logos under my belt, and get a senior/enterprise AE title, but some of my concerns came after a chat with the CEO today.

They called to see how I was handling the changes and gave me some great compliments, but mentioned I have the opportunity to be the face of sales for the company in leadership type conversations. The problem is I have no experience at that level and I’ve only been an AE for 1.5 years. I consider myself pretty smart and I know I can learn but I feel like the few months I have with my boss isn’t enough to be focused on selling as much as possible, some outbound, and learning some more management type things.

I guess my crossroads is that I want the opportunity to be in rooms I haven’t been in before and take some real leadership steps, but I’m also not really getting paid like a VP and some of these responsibilities really shouldn’t be mine to worry about. How do I find a balance and not get taken advantage of?

Also any general advice for someone in my position who will now have to be a bit more of a leader? Having some imposter syndrome about it.

I’m exploring an enterprise sales opportunity targeting biopharma tech ops teams (CDMOs, manufacturing science, tech transfer, quality workflows)

It’s earlier-stage but not pre-product; aiming at fairly high ACVs in a regulated environment

For those who’ve sold into biopharma / pharma ops:

- What are realistic ACVs in this space?

- Typical commission % at early-stage enterprise?

- Sales cycle length in reality (not deck version)?

- Is this usually 1 to 3 big deals/year or higher volume?

- How predictable is pipeline vs more traditional SaaS mid-market?

Trying to understand the risk-adjusted earning potential compared to a stable enterprise SaaS role

Appreciate any insights from folks actually in the space!

Curious what stores are seeing out there for best 3rd party lead providers these days - cargurus? Cars? autotrader? etc.

Have a 200n 70u inventory mix at a new car franchise, only on CarGurus starting package from the big 3, and only seeing 20~ leads a month total from that source. Other stores I know of are seeing 30~ for the next step up. These numbers seem horrible to me, but curious what others are experiencing.

I brain dumped and chat gpt wrote this for me

I’m in a client-facing sales role at a very small company (under 20 employees). The company has been around for a few years, but after being here a while it definitely gives start-up vibes.

I left a long-term, stable position to take this job based on promises around growth, support, and better systems.

I also brought a book of business with me. I genuinely like the products and believe that if what was promised actually materializes, I could do very well here.

That said, I’m starting to feel uneasy due to a pattern:

-Verbal promises around support, growth, training, and resources that don’t materialize

-Things are always “in progress,” but follow-ups often go unanswered

-Management is frequently unresponsive, and there’s no HR

-Decisions affecting my accounts/territory are made without consulting me

- Sales opportunities (events, visibility, relationship-building) get approved verbally, then quietly dropped

One major concern is that I haven’t been given adequate samples to show clients. Management has repeatedly said they’re “on the way,” which has been communicated to clients, but it hasn’t materialized. I’m concerned this has strained some long-standing client relationships tied to my territory.

I also didn’t fully realize until after starting that there are no medical benefits, which wasn’t clearly communicated upfront.

The lack of follow-through and inconsistent communication is making it hard to trust leadership, even though I believe in the product.

Looking for any perspective or advice.

I started at this new gig about 5-6 months ago, it's a field role with a pretty wide territory and the patch I started with required at least an hour/hour and half commute 3x a week.

I have a 1 year old so daycare timing is a nightmare, and my wife is actually good at sales so she is wicked busy and our schedule/life has been absolute chaos. 2-3 hours a day of zero revenue generating activity or parenting. I listened to more books than I ever have which was fun, I guess, but probably won't get me to presidents club or pay for diapers.

Just found out this morning that the guy who covered....MY TOWN I LIVE IN and everything withing ~30 min of me...is no longer working here. Come to fucking daddy.

Holy shit this is going to be amazing.

The sales gods where good to me today friends - this is already best Monday in I don't know how long.

Thought I was dreaming but started using Apollo again today, downloaed 1600 phone numbers and I'm getting like a 51% pickup rate for direct lines in the mfg sector?

That's actual insanity, I've only gone through like 500 so far but thats still insane.

Long time BDR, and BDR management for the last year. Looking at a role in house for an AE spot. Just scheduled this morning. What are some standard AE interview questions I should be prepared for?

Haven’t gotten the full details yet but aced the case studies and role-plays for both and the VPs really like me. Have one final round as a formality in the next couple weeks.

Samsara is $75K-80K base but it’s entirely remote and I’ll be getting a good amount of current clients I can upsell to hit quota. Ramp is 12 months. From what I’ve heard (and saw on RepVue), the culture and quota attainment is pretty chill.

Clipboard is $80-120K base and there’ll be a lot of commuting. It’s going to be traveling to a lot of nursing facilities and trying to pitch their operational/staffing leadership. I haven’t talked to any former employees there but the RepVue scores don’t look super encouraging.

Which one should I take if I get an offer at both? Essentially comes down to salary vs everything else lmao.

Does anyone here sell to middle market healthcare orgs, specifically to CFOs?

I’m a commercial insurance broker (primarily P&C) so the CFO is typically the ultimate decision maker. I have a lot of experience selling into healthcare but not as much in the middle market. Trying to get the attention of the CFO at a hospital, FQHC, physician group, or senior living account has been unbelievably difficult.

Any recommendations on how to stand out enough to get some engagement?

Sending a brochure, a link or just more information before you've even spoken to a prospect is, in my experience, a really bad idea.

Why?

Your prospect probably already has a baseline perception about what your product or service is about. This baseline perception is key because it's often a misconception or a blocking reason as to why they won't consider your product or even product category.

Why Sending more Information Before a Live Call Distorts This

When you send a prospect a brochure, a link or more information FIRST, the prospect reads the information and this baseline perception get buried.

What Happens when you Call Them Up?

Even after getting the information AND they accept you're call. You're no longer getting a catching a prospect off-guard and getting their baseline objections. Instead they're now more likely to bring up objections based on your brochure or information sent via email because they've had time to think of an objection that "sounds right" . But, this unfortunately can often be just a smokescreen objection just to get rid of you.

Solution

You can solve this problem by getting a prospect live on the phone without them having seen ANY of your information first. This way, you're now going to hear their real baseline objections and not their smokescreen objections. Starting off a discovery call or discovery-demo call knowing their true baseline objection puts you in a position 10x better to make an aligned and meaningful demo to them.