If you’re close to graduating in a tech-based subject, or you’re in another field entirely and you’re considering a new career path, you may be wondering whether or not a career in tech sales is right for you.
For the uninitiated, it’s often unclear how to feel about the idea of working in tech sales. From the all-too-common stories of long hours and burnout to mouth-watering commissions, a career in tech sales can sound like heaven or hell depending on who you ask.
In this post, we’ll try to clear up the confusion by listing 6 signs that tech sales is right for you.
1 - You Have Great Soft Skills
One of the great things about tech sales jobs is that it’s highly accessible compared to other career paths. Obviously, it will help if you can come to the job with some understanding of the software you’re going to be selling, but successful tech sales reps come from a huge variety of backgrounds, and business leaders in the technology sector are well aware of this.
Sales recruiters place a lot of stock in soft skills, such as a learning-oriented mindset, communication skills, and time management. If you feel like you don’t have a stand-out specialty in your personal skill set, but know you’re great with soft skills, then you might have exactly the kind of diverse background that’s seen throughout the world of tech sales.
2 - You Have A Lot of Ambition
Though it’s not placed in the spotlight nearly as much as other aspects, tech sales offers fantastic potential for advancement. In fact, some of the most successful entrepreneurs and investors in history have gotten their start in tech sales, such as Mark Cuban and Larry Ellison.
Most tech sales professionals start out as a business development rep, then progress to the position of account executive within a year or two. From there, the tech sales career path branches out in countless directions, each with its own nuances that can align with many different skills, talents, and personal interests. From team leading to simply moving onto bigger and more challenging accounts to going your own way as an independent consultant, the possibilities are practically endless!
3 - You Have a Thirst for Knowledge
While some sales professionals are tied to industries that remain fairly static over the years, tech sales is exceedingly dynamic, ensuring a more interesting, more fulfilling experience at work.
In our modern world, all facets of commerce and people’s private lives are influenced massively by technology, and as such the tech sector is fiercely competitive. With a career in tech sales, you’ll be in the thick of all these rapid changes in the world of tech, regularly solving interesting challenges, and meeting smart, interesting people in the process.
4 - You’re Able to Handle Rejection
Feelings of rejection are common among sales professionals. Lost prospects, rejected sales deck drafts, and similar occurrences, are all things you’ll have to deal with, no matter how good of a salesperson you are. One of the key things that separate the good sales professionals from the bad is an ability not to take these things personally, and to accept it for what it is.
If you’re able to roll with the punches, learn from your experiences, and come back to the task at hand with a positive attitude, then this will put you a cut above many other people who work in tech sales.
5 - You Relish Fast-Paced Working Environments
Tech sales environments, especially within large, big-name brands, tend to be fast-paced and high-pressure, characterized by constantly-changing priorities and challenging short-term goals. Even at the most junior levels, you’ll feel a huge degree of pressure to move prospects through your company’s sales pipeline as rapidly as possible in order to optimize the company’s revenue and retain more ongoing customers.
This kind of environment can mean nothing but stress and burnout for some people. However, if you thrive in an environment with high demands and a frantic pace, then you could be perfect for a career in tech sales.
6 - You Work Well as Part of a Team
Sales professionals, both within the tech sector and otherwise, need to have a good appetite for collaboration. This is especially true in the early phases of your career, where you’ll be one person in a large team of sales reps, supervisors, and more senior managers.
While it’s true that sales reps’ figures and quotas are monitored on an individual basis, all truly great salespeople share an ability to align their work with the goals of the wider team, understand the expectations and needs of their colleagues, and to share and receive constructive feedback on a peer-to-peer level. If you thrive in a closely-knit team, especially one made up of people from diverse professional backgrounds, then tech sales could be the right career path for you.
Wrapping Up…Is Tech Sales Right For Me?
If you’ve had trepidations about pursuing a career in tech sales, we hope the information in this post has helped you finalize your decision, and map out a clearer plan for your future career.
If you’d like to learn more about careers in tech sales, be sure to check out our other tips and guides, or browse our job board for your next sales opportunity.