Tech Sales Is Not A Stable Career

[Ejlwis]

sales is by definition unstable. the number one goal of any manager is to have reps being consistent. the number one goal of any rep is to be consistent; to repeat those big days

totally agree that if i’m going to put the same hours in i’d rather be in the role that pays the higher upside!

[waleomotayo]

Calling it unstable is a misnomer. ‘Unsustainable’ is what I would use.
I’m fortunate/unfortunate to have never missed quota since my first stint, but I tell you it always feels like luck, like how did it even get this far and close? And many, many deals that should’ve didn’t. You can tick all the boxes perfectly, strong rapport with POC, super engaged, and budget? check and you’d still get the “we’ve decided not to move forward…” So yea, unsustainable.

[dustinjmyers]

Imagine being so good at sales you can convince yourself that sales isn’t terrible

[Surfing]

Nothing in sales is secure because our income depends on others emotions

[vincent]

I’m an R&D engineer and went through multiple layoffs in 2 years. No career is “stable” at this point.

[expandifypro]

It's the same thing about all jobs where you have a lot of freedom and also risk & reward, like being attorney, for example, or being an entrepreneur. With a huge potential upside you have big downsides, which makes sense, and which I find fascinating because it often brings out the best in people and allows them to grow.

[JamesPhan]

I can hear the despair in your voice and I can tell you've been listening to a lot of sales material based on the way you speak. You say all the classic tropes sales managers say to motivate the SDRs. I've worked in tech sales and you're right about the burden of being the "performer". However, the worst part about sales is you get burned out very easily doing outbound meetings, but the problem is as soon as you get burned out your results drop and you start to feel the pressure even more because you know you're a day away from getting fired. They call it the Myth of Sisyphus. I walked away from sales a year ago after a 10 year career and I'm glad I did.

[dennydsu]

Hi Trent, I'm a long time subscriber, at least since I got into Tech sales 3 years ago.
What you've shared is real. And i felt empowered to face the 2025 as I've been given another challenge from SDR to Success Manager.
Wishing you the best.

[TheRacy]

nothing is stable right now and the election just confirmed Americans are struggling.

[resist]

TIMING, TERRORITY, TALENT.... you need at least 2 of the 3, as long as those 2 are Territory and Timing.

[Elgringo]

Sometimes it’s not even performance… just this week one of my AEs was let go. He wasn’t great but he wasn’t bad. He hit his quota last qt and was still let go.

[GraceNcube]

Mental health careers are stable BUT I’m trying to transition out of that! Just started a commission only job. Leveraging my digital marketing skills to help me with that. Behavioral health work is still a backup but the drain and low pay makes it complicated as someone living in LA. I think multiple income streams are the way to go.

[jhammons]

Non-revenue gen jobs are stable, until they aren’t. It’s a pro and a con. If you are a carnivore in sales you will be the most secure job in the organization; if you suck you get laid off. On the flip side, you can be the best product manager or hr person or whatever else and your department just gets cut from the company. No company is going to cut sales.

[nicklamela]

I have sort of realized sales may be more stable then Product design or product management. Sales value is straight forward. With product, people always question your value and you end up having to gain buy in and do sales without comisison.

[george_h]

Great video and appreciate the honesty of the role a side you don't often see!

I'm personally in advertising and in the future looking to make the switch to FinTech sales.

Which company did you work in within which vertical? Definitely agree with you perspective on higher workrate = higher payout + career trajectory.

[Cipofan]

Didn't you qualify the budget before you got that far? That shouldn't be an issue that late

[domyyo]

Great Job! with this video. felt you were honest.

[pappyprimetime]

Good thing you are not judged on your looks

[juggalocpirate]

When looking for a company to work for what should I be looking for? A lot of companies I’ve never heard of. I see large employee counts like 1k employees to small counts like 15 employees, and I think the larger ones would make it easier for me to not screw up if I’m just getting into the sdr role, but I also don’t know some of these companies. Even if I see they have large funding or good benefits, like even further training, it seems like working for unknown companies with weird names wouldn’t be too long term (unless I’m looking to just bounce from company to company proactively)

[ErolYNWA]

at my company, Customer success mgr also have quota on their head, to make them accountability... in summary AE is padi more than admin staff