Anyone here successfully transition out of sales? If so, how did you do it, and what do you do now?
Sincerely,
Don't feel like selling my soul any longer
8 replies (most recent on top)
Yeah, I admit that I was being dramatic.
I hear you. Good suggestions all the way around. Appreciate it. Thanks for the sm--k in the face, I needed that.
C'mon - No one sells their soul to be in Sales at VMware. You may not like the role, or not be a good fit but "sell my soul" is a bit dramatic - I get that Sales can be that way but it's just not that way here. Just admit it's not a fit and move on to something else rather than act like you're just too honest, or good, or whatever your implying, to be in Sales. It's a stressful and miserable job if you're not cut out for it and a fantastic one if you are.
Good advice by others in this thread - look at Sales Ops, transitioning into Product, or maybe even enablement. If you have a technical aptitude or skill set, could go the Solution Engineering route but that's still in Sales.
With what's happening now with this acquisition, you have a perfect justification to recruiters and employers as to why you want to so something outside of Sales while still being able to use your experience, skills and familiarity with it - just blame Broadcom.
Some people aren't solely money motivated nor do they care about dining out at top restaurants with big wig clients...
Life is more than schmoozing people and collecting high paychecks. That's shallow.
In Europe I have the feeling that fields are paid more. Usually a senior solution engineer (P4) has the same or better base salary as a SMTS (P4) and on top of that the car allowance and higher variable compensation.
Depends how technical you are? I moved from Sales into engineering, now going back working with sales and engineering teams, I did however come from quite a technical background.
Not sure why you see it as selling your soul, I mean the engineers and people who build this stuff, build it for it to be sold... If you really feel like doing things outside of enterprise sales then just work on some open source projects.
In any case you are selling to enterprise and people who 'should' know what they are buying into, many customers make purchasing decisions based on a heap of reasons, not always best product, cost or fit... Keep that in mind.
Money can be the same in engineering vs sales, VMware field grades are lower than engineering grades. P6 in the field == P5 engineering, principle in engineering is 1-2 grades higher than field (I know two principals who moved from the field to eng)
Anyway making the move isn't that hard either look to do a take 2/3, or have a conversation with a manager in a engineering team you think would be a good fit or where you can add value.
One thing about sales in VMware is we had it real good, I mean really good being paid on things which you might have never had a hand in directly selling just because it's in your patch/product/BU etc... unheard of at many other places, in-particular hitting 150%+ of target, those golden years are definitely over
I’m transitioning into sales after presales and product management, nothing wrong with making a really good living
How are you selling your soul?
I’m making 350k working 20 hours, providing for my family both by being there for them physically and monetarily, as well as dining out at top restaurants with customers.
Yeah get out fast…
First sales ops , then product mgr, then MBA and program management.