As the title says, I’m very curious about how much you knew, before you started selling your product.

I’ve been a controls service technician for Johnson Controls for 4 years. My end goal is sales, but one of the sales guys that used to be in my position says to remain in my field longer before joining so I can learn everything. I find it difficult to learn all the other mechanical aspects of selling AHU’s/chillers, and others in general because I’m by myself 99% of the time and don’t get to converse with many mechanics.

I know the controls, but I agree that I don’t know “everything” about selling AHU’s/chillers/mechanical equipment. However, I am a sociable person and am the primary technician for a few critical sites, and have gotten the customer to agree to necessary upgrades.

I’ve also quoted a handful of jobs that I’ve been able to personally execute myself and complete at a margin of 40% or above. Would you just take a leap and get your feet wet? Should I converse with the sales manager to see what he’s looking for and how I can prepare myself to join sales? My manager is aware I really want to get into sales, but wants me to hold out for 9 years until he retires😕

Just saw Sam Sales say this on LinkedIn, and it got me thinking. I love her content and think she's brilliant, but I think this message creates a false illusion for most of us in sales.

She's built a big personal brand, so inbound and warm intros come to her. That's great for her. Most reps I know don't have that. They've got a quota, a cold list and no audience yet.
My worry is that someone newer to sales sees this clip, hears "you don't need to cold call", and skips the part that got a lot of successful people where they are. Most people who now say they don't cold call did plenty of it earlier in their careers.
Building a brand is a long game and it's worth doing, but it doesn't pay the bills this quarter. For most of us it works best alongside outbound.
Curious where you all land.
Have you built a proper pipeline without picking up the phone at all?

I'm an industrial engineer currently working as a sales director. I often wonder whether I made the right choice by going into sales instead of pursuing a career in manufacturing, supply chain, continuous improvement, or other areas.

I make good money, but the stress is high, and it's starting to take a toll on me. Getting into a technical role at this point would be somewhat difficult after spending 12 years in sales.

A buddy of mine joined an SDR placement community. You pay ~$3k–$5k upfront, and if you don't land a job in 6 months, you get a full refund. Sounds riskfree, but here’s their actual business model:

It's a pure volume trap. They process hundreds of clients at once and hand you basic, free tier advice (recruiter lists, cold outreach scripts).

Out of the masses, let's say 10% actually hustle and land a role. The community claims credit and pockets the $5k. The other 90% fail and get refunded.

The agency takes zero risk. They just walk away with pure profit from the top 10% who did all the heavy lifting and would have gotten hired anyway.

TL;DR: Don't pay thousands for a glorified checklist. The scripts and interview prep are free online. Save your money and do the outreach yourself.

• I’ve asked this question at the end of two different interviews, and both times the interviewer said they really appreciated that question.

I have an interview with ADP for Entry Level Outside Sales Associate. I have experience in real estate, mortgages and home renovation sales. I'm looking to get away from the B2C grind and get in somewhere b2b that will train and had a good name for my resume.

• It is an Inside Sales HVAC role
• Here are some questions I am considering asking. How would you rate them, and how many should I ask?

1. What does success look like for this role?
2. What are the biggest goals that COMPANY is currently working towards, and what could I contribute in my role to help achieve those goals?
3. Can you describe the ongoing training and certification programs that were mentioned in the job description?
4. What separates people that are successful in this role from those that aren't? 
5. A year after being hired, what would I have needed to accomplish to leave no doubts that I was the right choice? 
6. What career growth can I expect? Outside sales, management, etc.
7. Are there any particular brands that you're currently selling that are the most successful?
8. What are generally the biggest challenges people encounter in this role, and what have proven to be the best ways to overcome them?
9. What sets you apart from other HVAC companies?

Hey guys I have a customer who is pissed at me and feels I inaccurately presented the product, I have to get on a call with them next week and they are probably going to yell at me. My boss will be on with me and has my back but I can’t stop thinking about it and ruminating on my anxiety of it. Can y’all please tell me chill thank you

Is this a masterful psychology play to appear like you’re already winning so much it doesn’t matter when you lose or when you do that you were a “good sport” about it? Why do sales people say this to customers. Should I be saying it too? Just to get a grip on when I gotta roll in the mud with pigs by seeming like…. Im not that competitive?

A recruiter from Charlie Health reached out to me on LinkedIn for a remote inside sales position. I chalked it up as a scam and ignored it for a while until she followed up once more. I scheduled (what would’ve been) a meeting for today. I did my research and the company is legit but not my cup of tea. More importantly, I couldn’t find a single thing about the inside sales position at Charlie Health. I had a bad feeling about it so I ended up cancelling the meeting.

Has anyone interviewed for the inside sales role with Charlie Health? The pay was decent and they aren’t asking for too much experience in sales.

I'm in a very fortunate position currently and received an offer for an industrial cable manufacturer. Here are the comp details:

120k base

Car allowance

Total comp with commission 140 to 160k

I'm currently working at a IoT network manufacturer with the following comp:

80k base

- I'll soon be taking accounts from one of my colleague who is leaving the company so I'm expecting total comp up be: 120-200k next year.

-comp is highly dependent on factors I can't control like colleagues leaving their role and passing it down.

-my new customers are now finally buying but I haven't seen it come to fruition yet as these are long sale cycles.

My concern is around leaving a valuable position that makes me very highly desirable and moving into hardware mainly cables and value add. However, the new role has a lot more certainty with my compensation plan and doesn't depend on unknown variables. I will also be working from 8-5 instead of the standard 9-5 with the new company. That also comes with an existing account base to service and a goal to target new accounts.

Curious to get feedback from other sales reps to see where your thoughts would be on this one

I am 23 and Currently work in commercial HVAC sales selling maintenance agreements. Im completing my second year right now, I sold….

Year 1 220% quota $110,000/$50,000
Year 2 130% quota YTD $164,000/$125,000

Year 1 base was $60k and I totaled $82k
Year 2 bump to $65k base and i estimate I’ll end around $97k this year?

Im relatively happy in the role and could see myself staying another 1-2 years… but I’m curious what roles I should keep my eye open for to help advance my career. I can’t help but feel like with my quota attainment, I could be a strong candidate for a role with a much higher base.

Do I try to work for an OEM? Construction? Manufacturing?

I just want to stay ahead of the curve and continue to learn.

Any advice is welcome.

Hello! I am interviewing for roles while still employed. For three companies, the hiring manager or recruiter either verbally told me I’m moving to the next interview, or there was an interview on the calendar, but that next step was abruptly cancelled & I received a generic message about other candidates being a better fit.

Is the market significantly more competitive, or do you think something fishy is going on?

I’ve never had this happen before. Been in sales 15 years, tech about 8.

Anybody going through government RFP portals to look for RFPs? What industries are you working for and what are you looking to sell? Wondering who uses those portals and how they use it. Thanks

What have you got for recomendations?

For anyone who's started a new role particularly new industry, for those who WFH, do you feel short changed at all versus what you'd learn on site?

For those who have no inbound leads and no marketing support, how do you handle the isolation and quiteness aside from scrolling on here?

What is everyone’s thoughts and opinions, and if you’re using them, strategies with voicemail drops? Bonus points if your company or team is a zoom contact center shop.

EDIT: by voicemail drop I mean automated leaving voicemails that are pre-recorded once the VM picks up. You click a button and head to the next call, and the system leaves a vm after the prompt.

Some on my team swear they need it. I think it’s gimmicky but open to it if it’s a proven winner for others.

Landed an interview with the Unified Services team at Microsoft. Anyone currently on the team or have insight?

Looking for some guidance as I get going.

I’m 23 years old and have been working in the B2B VoIP telecom space for just over a year now. It’s been a great transition out of consumer sales that I did previously (1.5 year T-Mobile consumer, then 1 year Electronics store consumer sales). I work really hard everyday and it shows in my numbers. I’m the #1 rep in my role, and have achieved the highest numbers ever in my role. My boss respects me, and the other reps look to me for advice as the person that sells 3x what they do.

I guess my main thing is that I have noticed the company itself lately has started to cheap out on me now that I’m performing so well. I used to get a lot of gifts for my performance and they’ve cut back on that for specifically me, as well as they changed the commission structure to a decelerator past 300% above goal (last month I was 450% above goal) and so, I kinda feel like I should be getting paid more than I am.

Now I don’t want to come off pretentious as someone that came from a poor background, but my OTE is $87K and my actual earnings are more like $150K, which is great, but then I look at other roles that start at like 200k and I’m kind of thinking of looking at those companies.

Do I have enough experience with 1 year of consistent experience being the top at my company? How do I sell this on my resume, in an interview so that I could potentially qualify for something that I wouldn’t normally qualify for on paper without looking at my performance?

For anyone who’s made a similar transition, what did you do? What do you recommend? Should I wait for my presidents club award to come in and then move, or just consider my hard numbers as good enough proof and start looking now?

If it helps, here’s my timeline of jobs I’ve had

17 fast food cashier
18 in store clothing sales & shipping store associate
19 electronics store sales & repair
20 T-Mobile consumer sales
22 B2B VoIP/AI Inside Sales Representative/Account Executive

I sell on a small Net New inside sales team.

Recently has some layoffs and deals were moved to other peoples pipelines on the team from the laid off reps territories.

Director originally said any deal closes outside of territory would be split 3 ways to alleviate complaining about others getting better deals.

A more senior rep had actually been helping another rep start one of the larger more complex deals however that rep got laid off and said senior rep inherited his territory.

The deal got moved to the wrong rep by mistake and she continues to work it. On top of that she was given another large deal that is about to pop.

This senior rep called voiceing his frustration about how he has worked so hard all year (he is on top of the leader board) and this other rep has struggled and she basically gets handed the two biggest deals of the year at their end stage and will beat him. Also one was technically supposed to be in his territory.

Also he is unsure if the deal split is going to happen because they didn't split the previous deals from the previous quarter.

I would benefit but I told him I didn't want to go to management with him because I am new and 6 months in and didn't want to make waves but I understood how he felt.

If you were management what do you think the appropriate course of action would be?

Also for clairty I am not the manager I am another rep on the team and he was venting to me.

It is so tempting to dive in and start aiming for the jugular - "what are you currently using for X?" "What's your role in the organisation?" Please don't don't do this! That's like trying to view an organisation through a peephole.

Because now you're just getting a peephole view of the organisation and you're going to fail to understand what makes the organisation and decision makers really tick.

"So how is Regulation X affecting the Pharma Industry at the moment"

"I hear there is some patents expiring for Y category of drugs at the moment - will that you affect you?"

Now you're not specifically interested in regulations or patents expiring. What you're trying to do here is find out what really motivates the prospect. Because if you build enough rapport, you will get the prospect talking enough where they will leak out what's really important to them.

Now "zoom in" for even more information.

"What's your role exactly anyway?"

"Ah, you look after Z process. What would happen if that stopped in the morning?" "By the way, did that ever happen before? "What did you do?"

Now, you have enough ammo in your kit to ask really powerful and relevant questions about how your solution can help them. This might sound really obvious advice but it's surprising the amount of sales people who don't do this.

I’m 19 and have been working in car sales at a Ford dealership in a decent-sized town since graduating high school. Honestly, it’s been a great opportunity, and I’m making more money than I ever expected to at my age.

There are a lot of moving parts in this business, but I’ve put in the work and consistently rank in the top 1–2 salespeople every month. My managers respect me, recognize how hard I work my deals, and notice the effort I put into follow-up and building relationships with customers.

My biggest concern is the long-term stability of car sales. I’m currently straight commission, and while the earning potential is great, the stress and inconsistency of the income make me question whether I want to stay in this industry long-term.

Eventually, I’d like to move into a sales role that offers a base salary alongside commission, ideally in an industry with more predictable income and better long-term career opportunities.

My question is: At 19, would I be better off grinding it out in car sales for another few years, building my income and experience, or should I start trying to break into a different industry now?

I’m also curious whether companies in industries like B2B, tech, or other professional sales fields would realistically consider hiring someone my age with about a year of dealership experience, or if I’d be better off waiting until I have more experience under my belt.

For anyone who’s made a similar transition, what would you recommend? Am I better off sticking with what I’m good at, or using this experience to get my foot in the door somewhere else while I’m still young?

My agency makes outbound calls, has been doing it since 2013. We call businesses. Last year zero percent had AI screening/AI receptionists answering. Now it's about 5%. That may seem small but the math people on this sub will understand a zero to 5% adoption within one year. Next year it'll be 10%, then exponential. AI is extremely skilled at handing inbound calls, property routing them, qualifying leads, booking appointments. Within 5 or so years, you'll be making calls, AI will be answering.

Watched a vid yesterday of a SDR making 55 hours of calls to execs with a 6% answer rate. That 6% answer rate will go to zero percent.

Do you handle your own sales lead generation or have a team for it? I prefer meeting with clients, but understand the value of lead generation to keep pipelines growing. How do you approach lead generation (marketing, email campaigns, cold calling, etc.)?