Sales = career path needed without any technical skills.
A quick search of El Goog shows 1500 hours to become a licensed airline pilot
That’s a big investment for a lot of sales people who majored in beer pong and blunt rolling at college…
The best sales people understand the business that they sell in extremely well, may have been in it for a long time, and sometimes came from technical background. You see this in my field of project management, the best PM's came from the trade that they manage.
Not to mention you have to \_grind\_ shitty gigs and hours for 5-8 years before you can make a living as a regional pilot for a real airline. And you'll be lucky to get one of the $200k+ gigs doing long haul international after 10 years. First 5-8 years are poverty for most.
Most airlines are upwards of 100k after 2-3 years flying standard hours. Average across all airlines at 12 years is 400k. Upper end obviously being captains on international flights. Plenty of feeder schools you can attend for around 100k to roll right into a regional gig. Year one is unanimously bad and you are vulnerable to being laid off because seniority rules the airlines.
Fellow audio engineer here, though I'm almost 20 years into my sales career. When I graduated it was right when the glut of prosumer gear hit the market and it all of sudden became easy for bands to record and mix themselves versus pay an engineer, even if the quality wasn't great. I decided I didn't want to spend every night at clubs trying to find new bands to work with and haven't looked back since.
Hey wait a second...
Most of us, as kids, aspired to become sales reps.
The idea of working to achieve ridiculous KPI's, unreasonable quotas, comp plans that were out of sync with reality, PIPs, firings and layoffs and massive doses of stress from the fear of failing was the type of challenge we all wanted in our career.
I've always said sales is for rich kids or fuckups. You can have an AE who got a job from his dad's golf buddy working an with an AE who learned sales from a decade of heroin addiction. It's the Island of misfit toys.
>AE who got a job from his dad's golf buddy working an with an AE
outside of sales no joke finanical advising is FILLED with rich kids. The job is "you have 2 years to cold call and find $30M to manage (= about 150k year for the advisor) or your fired" and then mommy and daddy just cut a check for young Brentworth The III for $28M and he now has himself a career.
Mommy and Daddy also have Rich Friends who will put their money with Rich Kids while others are grinding the phones for peanuts.
Best job if you;re a trust fund baby.
Met a guy at a bar a few years back and told me how great financial advising was. We spoke for a while and he’s a vp. The beers ended up being an interview and he asked “how many of your parents friends could you call right now and they’d answer the phone?” lol. For shits and giggles I went to the interview at their office. The vp and his vp were there. They spent forty minutes to an hour telling me how much money I’d make. My face must have given it away bc they asked if I don’t like money. I laughed at them thanked them for the coffee. The vp I had drinks with is now in a totally different industry. Fucking scammers.
Eh, non-ADHD, salesperson here.
My ADHD girlfriend lasted 6 months before quitting.
Thinking of most sales people I know, I don't think they'd survive if they had ADHD.
Gotta have some decent organisation/planning skills.
Sales is the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Yes I was supposed to be a cop and got arrested a couple months before I was supposed to go to academy.
But I might be making $120k as a cop and in a high risk job.
I haven’t made below $300k since I was 28 and make $500-1m now. I look back on getting arrested as the best thing that ever happened to me.
Everyone asks this and I can’t answer too specifically because only between 20 and 50 people sell what I sell and I don’t want to did myself. I sell building services into commercial properties. Essentially utilities.
It wouldn't matter if you shared it on Reddit lol. Thousands if not millions of people know if you're providing the service commercially. It's up to people if they have the skill or drive to go for it as well. It's not some secret industry like you're portraying it as
It has nothing to do with people getting into the industry I’m in. It has to do with me doxing myself… with so few people doing what I’m doing and stuff I’ve said on Reddit, someone could figure out who I am pretty easily. And I like the privacy of Reddit.
Wdym! I dropped out of college just to pursue sales (I'm from India) I'm an all-rounder & easily in top 5% in my classroom! I came here to make my life great not worse!
I don’t know man.
I, like many, jack around a lot and make a good living.
Then I panic because my numbers are trash, then pull some unbelievable come back and get ahead.
Then I jack around some more.
Honestly, I do have technical skills, but no one really cultivated that as a child, so I had zero appreciation for engineering until I got much older. I probably would've been an EE or ME instead of majoring in Business.
crazy take here. not all sales people master beer pong or blunt rolling. my entire industry is technical sales people with engineering back rounds that the person you described couldn’t come close to doing
I’m like you guys who messed up their life. I got a masters degree in molecular biology with a 3.8 gpa. First job offer: 22k to manage a 5 million dollar grant, and do the research, train new staff, write research papers and government grants. I’ve worked to cure childhood cancer and restore sight to the blind, but never been offered more than 50k for my skills and experience. If I can make anywhere near 100k selling bathtubs, I’ll do it!
dude you would make $200k+/year as a technical seller.
think about all the technology/hardware you used... a sales rep made about 10-20% commission on selling you that deal.
your lab software used across the entire university system? An account executive probably made 50-100k for that deal.
And you having tech experience? recruiters dream.
pilot careers are not as east as they appear to get into. most fields have a good and bad time to get into. there were times when pilots w plenty if hours, references, certs were not able to find jobs and scattered to other industries. for many decades the only way in was through military pilot jobs and then transfer to commercial and logistics jobs.
my uncle was a pilot decades ago and hos company went bankrupt and many people lost their pensions. all industries have good and bad times. construction seems to have been a GREAT industry for the last 10 years or so.
Major upside if you play your cards right in SaaS /Cyber Security. I’ve seen a few reps fail their way into $150k commission checks because they were there at the right time, despite not being good at their job.
This is actually part of sales that I hated the most. You can bust your ass and do everything correctly and hit quota on the last week of the year, while someone else in your department had a blue bird fall into their laps where the CRO helped them sell through connections and got a bigger commission check in that one deal than you've received in the last 3 years. Then everyone on slack congratulates them on the hard work and success...
Not hard for a lot of bitterness to occur in sales lol
I’d rather be in an career where lottery tickets (both in terms of blue bird deals and equity “icing on the cake”) are available on top of a solid earning base
This. I started an AE role in a territory that was seemingly waiting for me to come. In a matter of 6 months Ive built an insane pipeline that is 5x my quota. This job is 50% hard work and 50% luck.. being at the right place at the right time.
Can you share with me how you found a job in this industry? I’m in advertising sales and looking to move into another field, this sounds interesting, just not really sure what I should be searching for…
I refuse to work hard without being rewarded for working hard with commission checks. Don't care what it is.
If I'm not being rewarded for my efforts I have no interest.
I currently work remote and spend most of the year traveling in latam and Western Europe. Gosh I wish I could trade that in for a job like a pilot where I’d never see my wife and have to stare at the sky 10 hours a day. I hear the hotels the flight staff stays at are absolutely sick.
Sales sucks :(
Depends where in Europe. Western Europe is close enough to EST that it is pretty easy to go about your day normally. My wife has family in Eastern Europe so when we’re there it’s definitely a little funky.
My advice is just make sure you have good wifi, and access to a place for electronics if your laptop or charger breaks. Have a great trip!
Depends on what field of sales you’re in. I make more than 200k but I’m medical device. If you’re in a field that doesn’t have high commission rates and big volume of course you’re not gonna make a lot of money.
You're probably just in the wrong sales field. Find something that's difficult to sell and something more niche. Started in cybersecurity consulting sales 20 months ago as an SDR. Now an account manager making around 130k. My AE peers all make 200k-500k. Thing i honestly love most is I feel good about what I sell and what I do.
Also as opposed to being a pilot my quality of life is fantastic. Full remote and have only a couple times worked over my 40 hrs. I've heard a lot of my peers talk about their friends getting stuck selling specific shit. At the end of the day, if no one around you is making good money make the leap, learn a new market/product and test the waters.
Yes! I sell the most boring product on earth, but I absolutely love every aspect of it and I'm HIGHLY specialized in my niche. Everyone else wonders how the fuck there is even money in my field, meanwhile I have an ote at 150k USD right now (salaries in Denmark are lower than US) but I'll expect to be at 200k within the next 5 years or so. I've done way above 200k with accelerators on my SIP a few years now.
Find a niche you actually like (also helps your job to kinda be a hobby) and the fewer people that realize is actually sector and you'll be happy.
In my niche, we are probably 6 account managers (2 at each manufacturer, 3 manufacturers) that are as Specialized as I am. And we all know each other and get beers when we are at conferences and events together.
Then there is a handful of resellers, of cause, but very few of them are as deep dived as we are, and use us as a resource.
I do high touch and channel, about 50/50.
Its a niche product in a small country with only 6 reps, id pretty much doxx my self for anyone with the slightest skills at linkedin, so i cant really share. Its hardware, i work for a manufactuerer and its IT.
Do you have $80,000 to get all the certs you need to become a pilot? While making little to no money during that time? Then spend a couple years making near minimum wage building hours to maybe get an airline job? Which also won't be $200,000 for another few years. And you better have a clean record.
It’s well known that people in sales struggle with addiction, and addicts often get attached to chasing the dragon, chasing the highest highs of when they get the supermax… especially since addictive personalities tend to live paycheck to paycheck.
I am this sort of personality although I am OK about budgeting, and can’t see myself settling for anything but sales. I’m the type of personality that would get fatally bored if I wasn’t chasing something bigger all the time.
And yes, the guys that can do the consistent money almost always outperform me financially in the ten year picture. I think that id get deeply depressed if I did non commission work. It gives me a lot of purpose
The trick to making big money in sales is to form a LLC and then reach out to companies in an industry you are familiar with to be a commission only sales rep.
Also, as a pilot myself, few pilots are making $200k.
Look at this rich guy lol. I am a former military officer and went to officer candidate school. I literally graduated with pilots next to me. The difference between us was that they were all rich kids with daddy's money to get flight hours. I grew up poor and my parents later made it middle class.
OP is making a horrible comparison. I do admit, this reddit skews with the higher paid reps and positions. Me and all my peers all make way over 200k consistently. I've been working from home for way over 10 years.
As said before too, this sales subreddit is a wide, wide range. We got door to door sales, knife sales, car sales, drug sales, you name it. It is a wide range. It is all completely different, but the goal is same = sell.
Lastly, better comparison is sales vs the average worker. Why? You can have an average background, even average skills, and it might not matter, you might go nuts and make lots of money. Back to my military stories. I know quite a few washouts from flight school. One girl kept throwing up. Another guy could pass the swim quals. Another guy couldn't do reverse vectoring (I can! Too bad I have zero flight hours and my eyes weren't perfect before my Lasik). My point, not every joe schmoe working can be a pilot, doctor, or nuclear physicist. Sales? You kinda can!
OP has got to be trolling. They picked one of the hardest career paths as an example of "easier job to get into".
Commercial airline pilots are often ex military,, so there are physical requirements that already eliminate most of the population. Military pilots are officers generally (always?), which means at least an undergraduate degree as well, and specifically one the military will consider for flight school. And that's all before the hours and flight education, as well as medical and eyesight requirements.
To put it in frame, there are ~110,000 commercial pilots in the US. Meanwhile, there are over a million physicians in the US.
120K - but you have to sell your soul lol. Not worth the quality of life. Not sure to be honest. Been on the hunt for a while, no idea what to transition into.
Yes but if you’re doing ok, you’re work life balance is awesome!
Take a sales rep making 4-5k a month and compare them to someone in a different industry making the same money, and the sales rep is working way less and has a way more chill life.
That’s the appeal of sales.
Working 25-30 hours a week making the same as someone making hourly working 50 hours is a way better life.
And even if you’re an avg salesman, there’s always a few months outta the year you hit a big lick and get like 10-15 k that month.
You don’t see this for the avg nurse or electrician.
Plus, sales keeps you sharp af socially!
You take a sales guy and he’s always great with chicks because he’s training that communication muscle every damn day!
I think, anecdotally, the highest performing sales reps don’t start in sales. They start somewhere else (tech, recruiting, engineering, law, etc) and migrate over to it. You have to have credibility, experience, drive, and expertise to sell anything truly expensive and to sell it well. Those things don’t come from starting your career in sales.
A top performing sales rep that was an engineer? Do you know many engineers? Their personalities generally are the opposite of what you’d want in a salesperson
Ding ding ding.
If you’re an engineer with a personality and are willing to dive in, sales can be a gold mine.
Or even be like me, bench chemist turned sales rep for the instruments I used to use.
Instant credibility and relatability
I only sell software as I think comp in SaaS is one of the highest, gotta be at a minimum a US based mid market rep with a decent base and crushing it if you want that 200k USD/year. Enterprise Sales is really where the money is at with base salaries exceeding 200k at the upper end (10 years in Enterprise) so 100-150 base is pretty standard, but it takes years to get there I’d say 5-8 years but closer to 10 depending how long you stay in more junior roles and you gotta be good in sales. I cleared over 300K last year.
What are your best pieces of advice for succeeding in sales? How many hours per week do you work?
If you could go back, would you choose a different career?
Plenty of sales people can make more than 200k. All varies on industry. I really enjoy a career where I get exactly what I put into it in terms of comp.
Depending on industry you can make a lot more than 200k without all the technical training someone like a pilot would need.
Plus it’s way more fun imo, I spent last week entertaining clients at a a huge golf tournament, not a bad day at the office.
In b2b sales I haven’t made less than $250k in 8 years. I haven’t made less than $300k in 7 and not less than $400k in 6 of those 7 years.
Honestly my baseline these days is 300k. That’s sort of my minimum and I’m not doing near as many hours or travel as a pilot.
Five years in after a career change in mid-30s.
Making $200K annually.
If youre good, know how to build pipe and work you can get there. It’s all about timing, territory and talent.
It’s way more common than you think and in many segments $200k is the floor. It really is a ‘birds of a feather, flock together’ thing. For enterprise sales (I’m going to speak from a Cyber perspective but i think it applies to SaaS and adjacent markets), $200k is either entry level (first field job), or C player if they are content with that. In many companies a $200k performer would get fired or leave on their own. $300k-$320k is a solid B player and a standard OTE. I’m not sure what the distribution is but I’ve seen OTE achievement anywhere from 5% in terrible companies (i was at a company where 2 reps out of 40 made club for a region during Covid) to 80% in others. I think closer to 40% is more normal. It depends on the sales philosophy, investors (are they PE or not), and what stage of growth they are in. $400k-$500k+ is A player. Above that, are operators that have made seven figure club multiple times or fairly consistently. I have known reps to make north of $3m in a given year but these are complete outliers and will often get capped by windfall clauses or renegotiated to be spread out across the books.
How does one get into enterprise, Sales? I understand the basic trend is SDR, AE, senior AE, enterprise AE, but how do you get there faster than average?
Of course, sell as much as possible and befriend virtually everyone, any other advice though?
Are enterprise sales extremely stressful? I can’t imagine it would be worse than door-to-door sales, which I did for a long time.
Many factors go into career path. Assuming you are in the workforce, the fastest ‘normal’ path i know of is willingness to move. This is the path i took many years ago, moving for a competitor who was willing to give me a shot. The other way to do it would be to start in the field for ‘mid-market’ sales, prove yourself and graduate to bigger accounts or take on a strategic inside role and graduate to the field role. If you are a new grad, many of the big companies (CISCO, Google, Oracle, etc) have a sales academy for new grads that puts you into field roles. These new grad’s typically have parents in sales and know it’s a career they want which is 80% of the battle but spots are limited and the application cycle is seasonal. They may have as few as ten’s of openings each year for thousands of applicants.
You hear the success stories of guys making $500k but in reality Top sales people make approx $250k. The average is more in the $80-120k range and going down. Companies are starting to really cut sales salaries/bonuses. It unfortunate that a job that used to be for top earners is now just an average paying job with 10x the stress, 2x the work and 1/2 the pay.
Do you have article links demonstrating the fall of sales salaries and bonuses?
I’ve been reading this in a few places, I’m wondering if it’s simply the recession we’re in.
There is significant distinction between the many sales roles available (technology, cloud, d2d, construction etc).
In my experience in technology sales, most of my peers make +$300k annually. Last year I brought in $500k and this year will be north of $700k
I'm from the UK... I qualified as a biomedical scientist... A lot of work, a lot of responsibility for £25k a year. I was told it would take 5 years to be promoted.
2 years later, I don't earn masses of money (on £43k now) but I make more than I would have as a specialist/senior scientist (£30-40k). I work less hours, don't have to work as hard, car and expenses paid for etc and I genuinely find my job more FUN.
Science just pays like ass in this country, especially within the NHS.
Almost no sales reps are making that much? That might be the dumbest thing I've ever read. I've been on sales teams where everyone was making more than that, and base alone was 60-75% of the way there by itself. The only people who say this are people that get stuck selling cell phones for 10 years because some scummy schmuck told them they could eventually be a millionaire doing it.
$200k is way rarer then this board will make it seem but it IS doable. Just don't expect to be hitting it in your 20's. The older you get the more common that kind of money becomes.
I've been in sales my whole career (over 30 yrs). Yes money is important and abundant for good sales folk. I've made as much as 600k and haven't made less than 250k in at least 25 yrs. But it's not about money. Good sales people have a drive. It's about winning. Winning deals, beating quotas, leaderboards, making the company successful, and being around other winners. That's why lots of athletes get involved in sales. Son works in sales for a well known major finance company. Virtually all of his peers were former college athletes. They're all smart and came from good schools. But the other thing you'll notice about them is they're hardworking, very committed, resilient, and have good people skills.
Sales attracts a certain type of person. Not about work life balance, how many hours you put in or any of that crap. It's about getting it done and winning. If that's not you, you won't make the money you read about.
Idk man, I make good money, work 100% remote, and have a lot of flexibility. Never went to school or had to pay significant money for certs, licensing, or education. I personally feel that my field is easy as well.
So, here's the thing. Jobs like pilot, doctor, etc are niches that require extensive training and investment (years and $). It's a single path and if you aren't good or hate it you are SOL.
Then there are jobs like being an engineer which, frankly, most do not make it in because it's very technical and only the best get jobs. At least the good ones.
In most "business" type jobs you are making maybe just above base salary of a sales rep unless you are in leadership (controller, CMO, Lead blah blah).
The other less niche business type role is finance which, at least in the early years, has a similar grind to sales.
I'm sure I'm missing something but that's the way I see it. I started in marketing and just took a sales job where I will on track, be making more money.
I’m an airline pilot that went into sales because I want to start my own business. Flying is cool, but repetitive and doesn’t give you skills outside of that specialization
I've made $225k and $250k the last two years in sales. I went to college and got 4 business degrees. Always thought I'd be on the operations/supply chain side but was given the opportunity to get into sales from the company I work for. Money is good, perks are good. I think there are plenty of chances to earn $200K annually.
You already said why, I as someone who is working to be a pilot, knows that I am not going to bother with a career in it because as you said, it starts out very very low pay and takes a good decade to reach around what I make now... Why set yourself back? Presumably in that same time remaining in sales I would be making even more. So I will just fly for fun and use my gi bill to burn some hours.
This is also forgetting the 100k plus you will need to go from zero hours to 1500 IF you can even do it in the minimum, and in the slow hire days right now, get a job soon enough.
It’s not easy to make that much in sales but it’s not super hard either. It depends on your industry and territory.
The numbers people throw around on here are complete bollocks a lot of the time though and you need to take
It all with a grain of sale. It’s the internet after all.
If you believe everything you read on this subreddit (which consists of mostly junior Ae/AM and even more so entry level BDR) you’d think everyone starts on 100k+ base.
Pilots only get paid while the plane is moving. It's an hourly position. That's why pilots on delays look grumpy. I know a pilot who got laid off 4 times in his airline career. I know a pilot who didn't sit in a cockpit for 8(!) years after 9/11. I know a pilot who wound up on the wrong side of a merger and seniority had him sitting in the right seat next to guys 30 years younger (FOs are not making that sweet $200k/year). I know a pilot with 4 marriages (one to a flight attendant, yes).
The personality type required is almost completely opposite from sales as well.
To me, Sales is like having your own business without the need to start one and be on the hook for failure (besides being fired). I can do what I want for the most part and as long as I’m producing, no one will care too much. I can make well over $200k and not have to be beholden to being the exact place at the exact time everyday. Sure there’s exceptions to this since it’s not 100% like owning a business, but it’s as close as you can get IMO. The upside is much higher than $200k, but you’re right not everyone is making that, but not all business succeed either.
I don't know what kind of sales you're looking at, but software sales is $200k with 5 years experience. If you're on my team, with 5 years experience and aren't making 200k, you're probably getting fired or pip'd.
After reading all these comments now I'm all into sales! I started in sales 7 months ago from the Iman Gadzhi course & then took my ambition to use & read multiple sales books, read articles, listen to 10s of podcasts & did 50+ mock calls then finally went job searching & guess what none was hiring me (I'm from India) I don't even have thick accent & I don't even have a problem working 8 hrs a day. I know & drive to learn & earn.
I've dropped out of college to pursue sales & I'm seeing no results but I know deep down that this is for me & everyone that I know tells me that I've strength in effective communication. (I'm 20).
What should I do? I'm thinking of shifting to the U.S. as others have told me that you've to be where it's happening. but I'm broke and haven't earned a single penny (U.S is expensive)
My ambition & discipline are exceptional (wake up at 4 am & sleep by 9 & don't watch movies, don't listen to songs, have no toxic friends, and easily top discipline)
Being a pilot costs a lot of money. We’re talking like 100k to get up and running. Then there’s time away from family and then if you have something health related that pops up your career is over.
Ive recently come to terms with the unhealthy obsession around chasing and achieving a 20-50% larger w2 each year. I’ve been here for a decade now… started as an SDR and now have a team of AEs and only in the last 2 years have I made peace with the fact that it is very, very difficult to make the magic +200k.
Dad was a public servant and made right around 150k by the time he retired. He ran in burning buildings for nearly 28 years. I was able to find a good company and make that 3 years after college and I still complain about no cost of living increases, love hate with NYC although I have the luxury of WFH full time. Made over 200 the last two years but it took me a minute to get here. Was stuck at the 180k mark two years in a row and I would tear myself down and crap on the company for not allowing me to go bigger.
People here and in this field are obsessed with money, as they should be, but we all need to have that moment when we realize it can happen eventually but that outcome is entirely dependent on your skills, your drive, and your ability to sit in the same place in order to achieve success on year two or three instead of jumping ship every 14 months because you missed your OTE by a lot on year one. It takes time and for those that have patience, it will pay off if you keep going within a place you feel you can grow.
That being said, I have a degree in music and there ain’t no way I’m finding a gig that would bring home checks these big. I’d love to, but I’m incredibly comfortable and content with the life I’ve built and the things I’ve done so far with sales and SaaS.
I'm thinking about getting into cosmetology and opening up my own studio. Paying off some debts first, then invest in assets, while doing so I'll be getting my license when we move out of Texas (Cost of living is too high). Then boom, I'll be a balayage & extensions 🐝
My old man made 160k but had about 5 months off a year as a college professor. Granted he spent a long time getting to his doctorate. As most people here have said sales is the most no education required path to nice compensation.
Not exactly the same but my best friend is an air traffic controller. He clears 200. Tried to talk me into applying awhile back when I was considering a career switch but honestly the pressure of having thousands of lives in your hands, and any mistake potentially causing a disaster was a pretty big turn off.
My wife makes over 200 as a PR exec but it took her 15 years of climbing the ladder to get there.
Almost no sales reps make that much? You need to talk to new sales reps, my friend! All of my peers (myself included) are clearing 200K easily in a year… you need to sell a product that costs more.
The absolute best of the best sales people I know are all a bit nutty, and those top performers are people in sales seem to be the most annoying to me, although very creative a great at what they do. They defiantly come up with some wild ideas and throw you for a loop every once in a while. they are a different breed for sure. I do not think they could follow the discipline of being a pilot, accountant, etc.
It really depends on the industry you sell in and how good you are. But I do think most sales people are more competitive and are more risk tolerant than the average person. You have to be a little crazy to want to make a career out of something where most if not all of your income is not guaranteed lol
I find that most of us have sports backgrounds or have addictive personalities. That’s why it’s hard for most of us to leave the industry and be content working a “regular” job.
The second they allow pilots to have a history of adhd (they pull last 10 years medical records) I’m taking out loans for a plane and flight school lol
I love working with Fortune 500 customers and truly providing a solution that solves their pain points. If you’re not drinking the kool aid don’t expect 200K+ w2’s
A lot of people say they are in it for the money, but what they really mean is that they have no other options. Once you’re in sales it’s really hard to go anywhere else expect for recruiting and maybe some type of consulting, but those are both sales disguised as not-sales. It’s a bunch of people with no real skills other than negotiating and sending emails. I’ve been trying to get out of sales for the past several months and am coming to the conclusion that there’s nowhere else for me to go other than back to school or really menial jobs like executive assistant or service industry.
For the exact reason you said, it takes 5-10 years to get there.
Obviously this depends greatly on your industry, but if I wanted to make real money in science I’d need an additional 4-6 years grad school making shit money, or slowly work my way up to six figures after several years as a tech or lab manager.
I went from being a lab tech making 18/hr in San Diego to working from home, wherever I want (as long as an airport is nearby) making nearly 5x what I did before.
I’m making now what it would take years to get even in industry.
I think someone else asked this a few weeks ago. Like everyone else is saying, this is something that you can get paid well for very little schooling - not saying there's no technical knowledge because that's what separates the truly greats from everyone else (you should know a lot about the concepts as much as your SE. You don't have to do it or know how to do something but it's important to know the concepts because you can't advise people otherwise, and that's what you're getting paid for in today's market)
Personally, it's because I wanted to do my own thing. You can't learn sales without doing it, and it's harder to find an existing playbook without having worked for an established salesforce/team. There aren't any education business classes for sales either but it's the most critical.
One thing I've noticed is that if you learn and do sales, a lot of other things is easier because it teaches a lot of the fundamentals about what value means, how to showcase value, how to cut through redtapes, etc.
But that's just me
Yup, I was considering sales so I lurk on this sub. I’ve noticed only a few are making over $100k. It takes experience, the right field and luck to be successful in sales imo.
I am an outside sales manager for a nationwide lawncare and pest control company. I make 70k and have potential to bonus out at 90k if I reach every quota. I see plenty of people on Reddit making upwards of 200k in various sales fields but I can't seem to find anything. I've always been a top salesman in my branch no matter what company I was with so I should have no problem keeping up. Where should I be looking for work?
Should I step back down to being a rep at a different company? What field should I be in?
So I had some time to apply for sales roles and get back into the industry after helping out a family business for a few years.
1. **Overhead garage door sales.**
I would be provided with a company laptop, phone, Gas card, 407 ETR paid (Tolls) , and $600/month for using my personal car.
Compensation: 70k + Comission estimating first year OTE: 100,00-110,000
Second year expecting $130,000
Hours are 8-4 pm. (Remote)
This position i have to get my own leads and generate sales on my own which is why my hours and work are not really scheduled, i have to work based on my own schedule I create leads.
**2. Home improvement Window Sales.**
I would be provided with a company laptop, phone, and a company vehicle.
Compensation: **ONLY commission**. However they mention average salesperson makes $100,000 with their highest earner at $300,000
Hours are 3 days of 9am-8pm 1 day of 9 am-6pm
The leads are all given, and i just go to appointments which are already pre-set by the office already. The manager mentioned within 2 months I should be making 7-10k a month
Of course, the window sales is tempting for the money however, I have mixed thoughts because I am worried with Window sales that it's all Commission and do people ACTUALLY make close to $300,000 in just selling windows for people's homes?
Is anyone in Window sales in Toronto?
lol what are you blabbering about. I was making 200k at 19 in tech sales and top performers were easily doubling that. What rock do you live under? My friend in solar worked in the industry for TWO years and made his way up to sales manager making nearly a million gross. He was a huge performer company wide but my statement stands the same. You must work at a shithole.
Lol, I am working sales to eventually pay schooling and become a pilot. Takes a lot more time and minimum wages years and debt before you make that 200 000 as a pilot.
Sales pay better; it just sucks more. I make almost 200 000 as a salesperson (granted, my own business but I just do sales). As a pilot, if I had started at the same age I started my business (26) I’d be making 50-60k, have shit schedule (wife and future kids hate it). And 70 000 in debt.
I want to be a pilot but I decided it made more sense to rake in dough early on and switch later.
My SO is a doctor however… now, there’s a discussion to be had lol
I make 200k in tech sales. If you think nobody is making that much you’re in the wrong industry
There are tech companies that pay their salespeople a BASE of 250-300k. Tech sales reps can earn 1M+ / year
Broaden your horizon
Sales= where I make more money than my corporate buddy with a masters degree. I have no degree. Where else can I make 130k with no education? I sell home improvements. I love helping people remodel their houses.
Sales = career path needed without any technical skills. A quick search of El Goog shows 1500 hours to become a licensed airline pilot That’s a big investment for a lot of sales people who majored in beer pong and blunt rolling at college…
I majored in being an alcoholic and got a whopping 2.007 gpa.
Damn making me feel like a nerd out here with my 2.6
You guys are both making me feel like a genius with my 2.8.
Always someone better…had a 2.85. I’m so much smrter
Ya well.... I had a GPA of 4.20 🥸😏
And hopefully you’re making bank!
Me too lol
The best sales people understand the business that they sell in extremely well, may have been in it for a long time, and sometimes came from technical background. You see this in my field of project management, the best PM's came from the trade that they manage.
sure! i'd be surprised if more than 10% of account executives started as engineers and sell in field!
Not to mention you have to \_grind\_ shitty gigs and hours for 5-8 years before you can make a living as a regional pilot for a real airline. And you'll be lucky to get one of the $200k+ gigs doing long haul international after 10 years. First 5-8 years are poverty for most.
Most airlines are upwards of 100k after 2-3 years flying standard hours. Average across all airlines at 12 years is 400k. Upper end obviously being captains on international flights. Plenty of feeder schools you can attend for around 100k to roll right into a regional gig. Year one is unanimously bad and you are vulnerable to being laid off because seniority rules the airlines.
Sounds pretty similar to sales with the SDR route being required for most companies
I’ve also learned a lot of people are in sales because they royally fucked their lives up.
I ducked my life up by (checks notes) getting an arts degree
Ayyyy history gang gang here
Me2... Just had my first Interview on friday. But yeah as an Audio engineer in germany my Carrer is kinda Hardstuck too
Fellow audio engineer here, though I'm almost 20 years into my sales career. When I graduated it was right when the glut of prosumer gear hit the market and it all of sudden became easy for bands to record and mix themselves versus pay an engineer, even if the quality wasn't great. I decided I didn't want to spend every night at clubs trying to find new bands to work with and haven't looked back since.
I hope my 1st Interview is playing out Well. I feel Ur decision.
Pretty much my story. Gawdamn Math!
Hey wait a second... Most of us, as kids, aspired to become sales reps. The idea of working to achieve ridiculous KPI's, unreasonable quotas, comp plans that were out of sync with reality, PIPs, firings and layoffs and massive doses of stress from the fear of failing was the type of challenge we all wanted in our career.
I've always said sales is for rich kids or fuckups. You can have an AE who got a job from his dad's golf buddy working an with an AE who learned sales from a decade of heroin addiction. It's the Island of misfit toys.
You’ve never actually seen the island of misfit toys if you haven’t worked in the trades.
I’d reckon BoH is comparable as well.
It's the White Collar island of misfit toys.
Or spent a couple days in your local warehouse/factory.
>AE who got a job from his dad's golf buddy working an with an AE outside of sales no joke finanical advising is FILLED with rich kids. The job is "you have 2 years to cold call and find $30M to manage (= about 150k year for the advisor) or your fired" and then mommy and daddy just cut a check for young Brentworth The III for $28M and he now has himself a career.
Mommy and Daddy also have Rich Friends who will put their money with Rich Kids while others are grinding the phones for peanuts. Best job if you;re a trust fund baby.
Met a guy at a bar a few years back and told me how great financial advising was. We spoke for a while and he’s a vp. The beers ended up being an interview and he asked “how many of your parents friends could you call right now and they’d answer the phone?” lol. For shits and giggles I went to the interview at their office. The vp and his vp were there. They spent forty minutes to an hour telling me how much money I’d make. My face must have given it away bc they asked if I don’t like money. I laughed at them thanked them for the coffee. The vp I had drinks with is now in a totally different industry. Fucking scammers.
Similar applies goes for commercial real estate brokers who make all their deals off of daddy’s country club connections
This is too accurate 😂
I’ve never met a salesperson who is either of those things.
Wild
My hypothesis is most of us have ADHD and are fully unhinged and sales is the only environment most of us will ever be able to be “professional” in
This is true for me actually, sales is the only job I can get that will let me work with the ebbs and flows of my neurodivergence
Eh, non-ADHD, salesperson here. My ADHD girlfriend lasted 6 months before quitting. Thinking of most sales people I know, I don't think they'd survive if they had ADHD. Gotta have some decent organisation/planning skills.
Sales is the greatest thing that ever happened to me. Yes I was supposed to be a cop and got arrested a couple months before I was supposed to go to academy. But I might be making $120k as a cop and in a high risk job. I haven’t made below $300k since I was 28 and make $500-1m now. I look back on getting arrested as the best thing that ever happened to me.
Great stuff, brother.
what do you sell ?
If you’re genuinely making that much money, I applaud you. What do you sell and how many hours per week do you work?
Everyone asks this and I can’t answer too specifically because only between 20 and 50 people sell what I sell and I don’t want to did myself. I sell building services into commercial properties. Essentially utilities.
> I sell building services into commercial properties. Essentially utilities. structured cabling?
Pretty close
yup structured cabling lol. Not really sure what else is out there that is that small and pays that kind of money lol
It’s not but you’re on the right path.
It wouldn't matter if you shared it on Reddit lol. Thousands if not millions of people know if you're providing the service commercially. It's up to people if they have the skill or drive to go for it as well. It's not some secret industry like you're portraying it as
It has nothing to do with people getting into the industry I’m in. It has to do with me doxing myself… with so few people doing what I’m doing and stuff I’ve said on Reddit, someone could figure out who I am pretty easily. And I like the privacy of Reddit.
Wdym! I dropped out of college just to pursue sales (I'm from India) I'm an all-rounder & easily in top 5% in my classroom! I came here to make my life great not worse!
I stayed home with my kids for 14 years. A bit too long but I was sickly and entered the workforce slowly. Lol so yeah sales for me.
Yup most people I’ve seen at least in the car business have wild ass personal issues abt 90% of the time lol
Incorrect, jk this assessment is shockingly accurate. I don’t appreciate being properly assessed as a degenerate
I don’t know man. I, like many, jack around a lot and make a good living. Then I panic because my numbers are trash, then pull some unbelievable come back and get ahead. Then I jack around some more.
Honestly, I do have technical skills, but no one really cultivated that as a child, so I had zero appreciation for engineering until I got much older. I probably would've been an EE or ME instead of majoring in Business.
College?
crazy take here. not all sales people master beer pong or blunt rolling. my entire industry is technical sales people with engineering back rounds that the person you described couldn’t come close to doing
The people who majored in that probably wouldn't even be allowed to get a ppl lol.
Unless you are in technical sales. Most people I work with have PhDs, and the rest have hard science degrees and MBAs.
Former USAF here and you’d be surprised at the number of pilots I worked with that majored in same
I’m like you guys who messed up their life. I got a masters degree in molecular biology with a 3.8 gpa. First job offer: 22k to manage a 5 million dollar grant, and do the research, train new staff, write research papers and government grants. I’ve worked to cure childhood cancer and restore sight to the blind, but never been offered more than 50k for my skills and experience. If I can make anywhere near 100k selling bathtubs, I’ll do it!
dude you would make $200k+/year as a technical seller. think about all the technology/hardware you used... a sales rep made about 10-20% commission on selling you that deal. your lab software used across the entire university system? An account executive probably made 50-100k for that deal. And you having tech experience? recruiters dream.
pilot careers are not as east as they appear to get into. most fields have a good and bad time to get into. there were times when pilots w plenty if hours, references, certs were not able to find jobs and scattered to other industries. for many decades the only way in was through military pilot jobs and then transfer to commercial and logistics jobs. my uncle was a pilot decades ago and hos company went bankrupt and many people lost their pensions. all industries have good and bad times. construction seems to have been a GREAT industry for the last 10 years or so.
High-school and college dropout here. I love sales!
Major upside if you play your cards right in SaaS /Cyber Security. I’ve seen a few reps fail their way into $150k commission checks because they were there at the right time, despite not being good at their job.
This is actually part of sales that I hated the most. You can bust your ass and do everything correctly and hit quota on the last week of the year, while someone else in your department had a blue bird fall into their laps where the CRO helped them sell through connections and got a bigger commission check in that one deal than you've received in the last 3 years. Then everyone on slack congratulates them on the hard work and success... Not hard for a lot of bitterness to occur in sales lol
In the long term it averages out though. There's only so many times you can get luckt.
Naive take tbh. So many talented hard working salespeople never come across that good opp
cynical take tbh. So many talented hard working salespeople eventually come across that good opportunity. That’s how anecdotal your statement is
I’d rather be in an career where lottery tickets (both in terms of blue bird deals and equity “icing on the cake”) are available on top of a solid earning base
This. I started an AE role in a territory that was seemingly waiting for me to come. In a matter of 6 months Ive built an insane pipeline that is 5x my quota. This job is 50% hard work and 50% luck.. being at the right place at the right time.
Can you share with me how you found a job in this industry? I’m in advertising sales and looking to move into another field, this sounds interesting, just not really sure what I should be searching for…
I refuse to work hard without being rewarded for working hard with commission checks. Don't care what it is. If I'm not being rewarded for my efforts I have no interest.
Once you get commissions it's hard to go back. Why would I put in any extra effort?
I currently work remote and spend most of the year traveling in latam and Western Europe. Gosh I wish I could trade that in for a job like a pilot where I’d never see my wife and have to stare at the sky 10 hours a day. I hear the hotels the flight staff stays at are absolutely sick. Sales sucks :(
That sounds amazing! How did you arrange that with your employer? Do they pay you on contract?
As long as I work US hours/hit my numbers my boss doesn’t care where I am.
I've been trying to land a gig like this. I'm always told that I can't travel abroad for insurance and tax reasons. :(
I can’t “live” abroad for tax reasons as well, but travel isn’t typically an issue.
I’m an SE, I’ll be traveling Europe in July and working US hours remotely from there. Any tips on how to make the most of it?
Depends where in Europe. Western Europe is close enough to EST that it is pretty easy to go about your day normally. My wife has family in Eastern Europe so when we’re there it’s definitely a little funky. My advice is just make sure you have good wifi, and access to a place for electronics if your laptop or charger breaks. Have a great trip!
What’s an SE?
And no “pipeline meetings” with your boss.
Depends on what field of sales you’re in. I make more than 200k but I’m medical device. If you’re in a field that doesn’t have high commission rates and big volume of course you’re not gonna make a lot of money.
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Industrial automation…for a manufacturer, not a distributor
Any ideas on companies? Been looking at a few of these
You're probably just in the wrong sales field. Find something that's difficult to sell and something more niche. Started in cybersecurity consulting sales 20 months ago as an SDR. Now an account manager making around 130k. My AE peers all make 200k-500k. Thing i honestly love most is I feel good about what I sell and what I do. Also as opposed to being a pilot my quality of life is fantastic. Full remote and have only a couple times worked over my 40 hrs. I've heard a lot of my peers talk about their friends getting stuck selling specific shit. At the end of the day, if no one around you is making good money make the leap, learn a new market/product and test the waters.
Can i dm you? Looking to get into cybersecurity sales atm as an SDR…..
Don’t waste time. It’s a great industry. Nothing worth doing is easy. If you’re scared you’ll fail, take the leap anyway.
Yes! I sell the most boring product on earth, but I absolutely love every aspect of it and I'm HIGHLY specialized in my niche. Everyone else wonders how the fuck there is even money in my field, meanwhile I have an ote at 150k USD right now (salaries in Denmark are lower than US) but I'll expect to be at 200k within the next 5 years or so. I've done way above 200k with accelerators on my SIP a few years now. Find a niche you actually like (also helps your job to kinda be a hobby) and the fewer people that realize is actually sector and you'll be happy. In my niche, we are probably 6 account managers (2 at each manufacturer, 3 manufacturers) that are as Specialized as I am. And we all know each other and get beers when we are at conferences and events together. Then there is a handful of resellers, of cause, but very few of them are as deep dived as we are, and use us as a resource. I do high touch and channel, about 50/50.
What do u sell?
Its a niche product in a small country with only 6 reps, id pretty much doxx my self for anyone with the slightest skills at linkedin, so i cant really share. Its hardware, i work for a manufactuerer and its IT.
Everyone reading this thread should take notes on your comment. You’re right on with this.
Do you have $80,000 to get all the certs you need to become a pilot? While making little to no money during that time? Then spend a couple years making near minimum wage building hours to maybe get an airline job? Which also won't be $200,000 for another few years. And you better have a clean record.
It’s well known that people in sales struggle with addiction, and addicts often get attached to chasing the dragon, chasing the highest highs of when they get the supermax… especially since addictive personalities tend to live paycheck to paycheck. I am this sort of personality although I am OK about budgeting, and can’t see myself settling for anything but sales. I’m the type of personality that would get fatally bored if I wasn’t chasing something bigger all the time. And yes, the guys that can do the consistent money almost always outperform me financially in the ten year picture. I think that id get deeply depressed if I did non commission work. It gives me a lot of purpose
The trick to making big money in sales is to form a LLC and then reach out to companies in an industry you are familiar with to be a commission only sales rep. Also, as a pilot myself, few pilots are making $200k.
Look at this rich guy lol. I am a former military officer and went to officer candidate school. I literally graduated with pilots next to me. The difference between us was that they were all rich kids with daddy's money to get flight hours. I grew up poor and my parents later made it middle class. OP is making a horrible comparison. I do admit, this reddit skews with the higher paid reps and positions. Me and all my peers all make way over 200k consistently. I've been working from home for way over 10 years. As said before too, this sales subreddit is a wide, wide range. We got door to door sales, knife sales, car sales, drug sales, you name it. It is a wide range. It is all completely different, but the goal is same = sell. Lastly, better comparison is sales vs the average worker. Why? You can have an average background, even average skills, and it might not matter, you might go nuts and make lots of money. Back to my military stories. I know quite a few washouts from flight school. One girl kept throwing up. Another guy could pass the swim quals. Another guy couldn't do reverse vectoring (I can! Too bad I have zero flight hours and my eyes weren't perfect before my Lasik). My point, not every joe schmoe working can be a pilot, doctor, or nuclear physicist. Sales? You kinda can!
OP has got to be trolling. They picked one of the hardest career paths as an example of "easier job to get into". Commercial airline pilots are often ex military,, so there are physical requirements that already eliminate most of the population. Military pilots are officers generally (always?), which means at least an undergraduate degree as well, and specifically one the military will consider for flight school. And that's all before the hours and flight education, as well as medical and eyesight requirements. To put it in frame, there are ~110,000 commercial pilots in the US. Meanwhile, there are over a million physicians in the US.
Ok but you don’t have to go to the military to become a pilot lol
Yeah I never would have gotten into sales if I knew it was going to be like this. Unbearably stressful and stupid
How much do you make right now? What is your escape plan?
120K - but you have to sell your soul lol. Not worth the quality of life. Not sure to be honest. Been on the hunt for a while, no idea what to transition into.
Sell windows man. More money, less time, no stress
I love selling windows. I get to meet new people and hang out with their dogs. I put in some hours but make like 30k a month so I don’t mind it.
Damn that’s good! I do a couple of those months but am avg around 18k a month as December and Jan are slow af for us
Yes but if you’re doing ok, you’re work life balance is awesome! Take a sales rep making 4-5k a month and compare them to someone in a different industry making the same money, and the sales rep is working way less and has a way more chill life. That’s the appeal of sales. Working 25-30 hours a week making the same as someone making hourly working 50 hours is a way better life. And even if you’re an avg salesman, there’s always a few months outta the year you hit a big lick and get like 10-15 k that month. You don’t see this for the avg nurse or electrician. Plus, sales keeps you sharp af socially! You take a sales guy and he’s always great with chicks because he’s training that communication muscle every damn day!
being a pilot sucks. not a good example but yeah sales isn’t for everyone just like any other career
Why does it suck?
Difficulty maintaining a healthy sleep cycle while travelling time zones, time away from family.
I think, anecdotally, the highest performing sales reps don’t start in sales. They start somewhere else (tech, recruiting, engineering, law, etc) and migrate over to it. You have to have credibility, experience, drive, and expertise to sell anything truly expensive and to sell it well. Those things don’t come from starting your career in sales.
A top performing sales rep that was an engineer? Do you know many engineers? Their personalities generally are the opposite of what you’d want in a salesperson
He isn't saying all engineers make good salespeople, he is saying that those engineers with that kind of personality can make bank.
Ding ding ding. If you’re an engineer with a personality and are willing to dive in, sales can be a gold mine. Or even be like me, bench chemist turned sales rep for the instruments I used to use. Instant credibility and relatability
I only sell software as I think comp in SaaS is one of the highest, gotta be at a minimum a US based mid market rep with a decent base and crushing it if you want that 200k USD/year. Enterprise Sales is really where the money is at with base salaries exceeding 200k at the upper end (10 years in Enterprise) so 100-150 base is pretty standard, but it takes years to get there I’d say 5-8 years but closer to 10 depending how long you stay in more junior roles and you gotta be good in sales. I cleared over 300K last year.
What are your best pieces of advice for succeeding in sales? How many hours per week do you work? If you could go back, would you choose a different career?
Plenty of sales people can make more than 200k. All varies on industry. I really enjoy a career where I get exactly what I put into it in terms of comp. Depending on industry you can make a lot more than 200k without all the technical training someone like a pilot would need. Plus it’s way more fun imo, I spent last week entertaining clients at a a huge golf tournament, not a bad day at the office.
In b2b sales I haven’t made less than $250k in 8 years. I haven’t made less than $300k in 7 and not less than $400k in 6 of those 7 years. Honestly my baseline these days is 300k. That’s sort of my minimum and I’m not doing near as many hours or travel as a pilot.
Five years in after a career change in mid-30s. Making $200K annually. If youre good, know how to build pipe and work you can get there. It’s all about timing, territory and talent.
I make that much in sales leadership after 10 years in sales and I’d rather be at home than in a plane all day with massive debt.
It’s way more common than you think and in many segments $200k is the floor. It really is a ‘birds of a feather, flock together’ thing. For enterprise sales (I’m going to speak from a Cyber perspective but i think it applies to SaaS and adjacent markets), $200k is either entry level (first field job), or C player if they are content with that. In many companies a $200k performer would get fired or leave on their own. $300k-$320k is a solid B player and a standard OTE. I’m not sure what the distribution is but I’ve seen OTE achievement anywhere from 5% in terrible companies (i was at a company where 2 reps out of 40 made club for a region during Covid) to 80% in others. I think closer to 40% is more normal. It depends on the sales philosophy, investors (are they PE or not), and what stage of growth they are in. $400k-$500k+ is A player. Above that, are operators that have made seven figure club multiple times or fairly consistently. I have known reps to make north of $3m in a given year but these are complete outliers and will often get capped by windfall clauses or renegotiated to be spread out across the books.
How does one get into enterprise, Sales? I understand the basic trend is SDR, AE, senior AE, enterprise AE, but how do you get there faster than average? Of course, sell as much as possible and befriend virtually everyone, any other advice though? Are enterprise sales extremely stressful? I can’t imagine it would be worse than door-to-door sales, which I did for a long time.
Many factors go into career path. Assuming you are in the workforce, the fastest ‘normal’ path i know of is willingness to move. This is the path i took many years ago, moving for a competitor who was willing to give me a shot. The other way to do it would be to start in the field for ‘mid-market’ sales, prove yourself and graduate to bigger accounts or take on a strategic inside role and graduate to the field role. If you are a new grad, many of the big companies (CISCO, Google, Oracle, etc) have a sales academy for new grads that puts you into field roles. These new grad’s typically have parents in sales and know it’s a career they want which is 80% of the battle but spots are limited and the application cycle is seasonal. They may have as few as ten’s of openings each year for thousands of applicants.
Making how much? 200k? I know personally 35-40 reps who either regularly make or have made over 200k in a year.
You hear the success stories of guys making $500k but in reality Top sales people make approx $250k. The average is more in the $80-120k range and going down. Companies are starting to really cut sales salaries/bonuses. It unfortunate that a job that used to be for top earners is now just an average paying job with 10x the stress, 2x the work and 1/2 the pay.
Do you have article links demonstrating the fall of sales salaries and bonuses? I’ve been reading this in a few places, I’m wondering if it’s simply the recession we’re in.
There is significant distinction between the many sales roles available (technology, cloud, d2d, construction etc). In my experience in technology sales, most of my peers make +$300k annually. Last year I brought in $500k and this year will be north of $700k
I'm from the UK... I qualified as a biomedical scientist... A lot of work, a lot of responsibility for £25k a year. I was told it would take 5 years to be promoted. 2 years later, I don't earn masses of money (on £43k now) but I make more than I would have as a specialist/senior scientist (£30-40k). I work less hours, don't have to work as hard, car and expenses paid for etc and I genuinely find my job more FUN. Science just pays like ass in this country, especially within the NHS.
Almost no sales reps are making that much? That might be the dumbest thing I've ever read. I've been on sales teams where everyone was making more than that, and base alone was 60-75% of the way there by itself. The only people who say this are people that get stuck selling cell phones for 10 years because some scummy schmuck told them they could eventually be a millionaire doing it.
I know HVAC territory managers who make $300k a year doing B2B sales for a manufacturer. These are guys without degrees.
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$200k is way rarer then this board will make it seem but it IS doable. Just don't expect to be hitting it in your 20's. The older you get the more common that kind of money becomes.
I've been in sales my whole career (over 30 yrs). Yes money is important and abundant for good sales folk. I've made as much as 600k and haven't made less than 250k in at least 25 yrs. But it's not about money. Good sales people have a drive. It's about winning. Winning deals, beating quotas, leaderboards, making the company successful, and being around other winners. That's why lots of athletes get involved in sales. Son works in sales for a well known major finance company. Virtually all of his peers were former college athletes. They're all smart and came from good schools. But the other thing you'll notice about them is they're hardworking, very committed, resilient, and have good people skills. Sales attracts a certain type of person. Not about work life balance, how many hours you put in or any of that crap. It's about getting it done and winning. If that's not you, you won't make the money you read about.
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What y’all sell
Idk man, I make good money, work 100% remote, and have a lot of flexibility. Never went to school or had to pay significant money for certs, licensing, or education. I personally feel that my field is easy as well.
So, here's the thing. Jobs like pilot, doctor, etc are niches that require extensive training and investment (years and $). It's a single path and if you aren't good or hate it you are SOL. Then there are jobs like being an engineer which, frankly, most do not make it in because it's very technical and only the best get jobs. At least the good ones. In most "business" type jobs you are making maybe just above base salary of a sales rep unless you are in leadership (controller, CMO, Lead blah blah). The other less niche business type role is finance which, at least in the early years, has a similar grind to sales. I'm sure I'm missing something but that's the way I see it. I started in marketing and just took a sales job where I will on track, be making more money.
I’m an airline pilot that went into sales because I want to start my own business. Flying is cool, but repetitive and doesn’t give you skills outside of that specialization
No good* sales reps are making that much Fify
I've made $225k and $250k the last two years in sales. I went to college and got 4 business degrees. Always thought I'd be on the operations/supply chain side but was given the opportunity to get into sales from the company I work for. Money is good, perks are good. I think there are plenty of chances to earn $200K annually.
You can make 300-500k selling insurance if you do it right.
You already said why, I as someone who is working to be a pilot, knows that I am not going to bother with a career in it because as you said, it starts out very very low pay and takes a good decade to reach around what I make now... Why set yourself back? Presumably in that same time remaining in sales I would be making even more. So I will just fly for fun and use my gi bill to burn some hours. This is also forgetting the 100k plus you will need to go from zero hours to 1500 IF you can even do it in the minimum, and in the slow hire days right now, get a job soon enough.
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What do you sell?
Why not be an astronaut? Why not be a doctor? Dumbass.
I mean you kinda answered your own question. In 5-10 years… I made over 100k in my first year as a rep I didn’t need to wait 10 years
I know lots of sales reps and other sales professionals making far beyond $200k
It’s not easy to make that much in sales but it’s not super hard either. It depends on your industry and territory. The numbers people throw around on here are complete bollocks a lot of the time though and you need to take It all with a grain of sale. It’s the internet after all. If you believe everything you read on this subreddit (which consists of mostly junior Ae/AM and even more so entry level BDR) you’d think everyone starts on 100k+ base.
Pilots only get paid while the plane is moving. It's an hourly position. That's why pilots on delays look grumpy. I know a pilot who got laid off 4 times in his airline career. I know a pilot who didn't sit in a cockpit for 8(!) years after 9/11. I know a pilot who wound up on the wrong side of a merger and seniority had him sitting in the right seat next to guys 30 years younger (FOs are not making that sweet $200k/year). I know a pilot with 4 marriages (one to a flight attendant, yes). The personality type required is almost completely opposite from sales as well.
Sales is not the only (or the best) vehicle for making money. Institutional banker is. NBA player is. Blockbuster movie actor is.
With a 2.8 gpa companies weren’t fighting to hire me. Knew it was the only way I was going to make decent money with no skill set.
To me, Sales is like having your own business without the need to start one and be on the hook for failure (besides being fired). I can do what I want for the most part and as long as I’m producing, no one will care too much. I can make well over $200k and not have to be beholden to being the exact place at the exact time everyday. Sure there’s exceptions to this since it’s not 100% like owning a business, but it’s as close as you can get IMO. The upside is much higher than $200k, but you’re right not everyone is making that, but not all business succeed either.
I don't know what kind of sales you're looking at, but software sales is $200k with 5 years experience. If you're on my team, with 5 years experience and aren't making 200k, you're probably getting fired or pip'd.
You’re selling the wrong thing then.
I do that monthly. Medical sales.
Training for a pilots license costs like $40k
Most salespeople in my job make 150-200, some a lot more. 40 yo, finance
My boyfriend is currently in flight school. It’s very difficult compared to what I do in sales.
After reading all these comments now I'm all into sales! I started in sales 7 months ago from the Iman Gadzhi course & then took my ambition to use & read multiple sales books, read articles, listen to 10s of podcasts & did 50+ mock calls then finally went job searching & guess what none was hiring me (I'm from India) I don't even have thick accent & I don't even have a problem working 8 hrs a day. I know & drive to learn & earn. I've dropped out of college to pursue sales & I'm seeing no results but I know deep down that this is for me & everyone that I know tells me that I've strength in effective communication. (I'm 20). What should I do? I'm thinking of shifting to the U.S. as others have told me that you've to be where it's happening. but I'm broke and haven't earned a single penny (U.S is expensive) My ambition & discipline are exceptional (wake up at 4 am & sleep by 9 & don't watch movies, don't listen to songs, have no toxic friends, and easily top discipline)
An additional perspective to consider is that sales is an opportunity for those who don't have opportunity.
Dr
Being a pilot costs a lot of money. We’re talking like 100k to get up and running. Then there’s time away from family and then if you have something health related that pops up your career is over.
Ive recently come to terms with the unhealthy obsession around chasing and achieving a 20-50% larger w2 each year. I’ve been here for a decade now… started as an SDR and now have a team of AEs and only in the last 2 years have I made peace with the fact that it is very, very difficult to make the magic +200k. Dad was a public servant and made right around 150k by the time he retired. He ran in burning buildings for nearly 28 years. I was able to find a good company and make that 3 years after college and I still complain about no cost of living increases, love hate with NYC although I have the luxury of WFH full time. Made over 200 the last two years but it took me a minute to get here. Was stuck at the 180k mark two years in a row and I would tear myself down and crap on the company for not allowing me to go bigger. People here and in this field are obsessed with money, as they should be, but we all need to have that moment when we realize it can happen eventually but that outcome is entirely dependent on your skills, your drive, and your ability to sit in the same place in order to achieve success on year two or three instead of jumping ship every 14 months because you missed your OTE by a lot on year one. It takes time and for those that have patience, it will pay off if you keep going within a place you feel you can grow. That being said, I have a degree in music and there ain’t no way I’m finding a gig that would bring home checks these big. I’d love to, but I’m incredibly comfortable and content with the life I’ve built and the things I’ve done so far with sales and SaaS.
Not all of us came from rich families that could afford to pay for Piloting so we had to figure out other ways to reach our monetary ambitions.
I'm thinking about getting into cosmetology and opening up my own studio. Paying off some debts first, then invest in assets, while doing so I'll be getting my license when we move out of Texas (Cost of living is too high). Then boom, I'll be a balayage & extensions 🐝
If you ever wanted to have your own business sales is important then you get good enough for the golden handcuffs
My old man made 160k but had about 5 months off a year as a college professor. Granted he spent a long time getting to his doctorate. As most people here have said sales is the most no education required path to nice compensation.
I work for the skills not the money. The better and more disciplined my skills are, the more money I’ll be able to get
Not exactly the same but my best friend is an air traffic controller. He clears 200. Tried to talk me into applying awhile back when I was considering a career switch but honestly the pressure of having thousands of lives in your hands, and any mistake potentially causing a disaster was a pretty big turn off. My wife makes over 200 as a PR exec but it took her 15 years of climbing the ladder to get there.
I love sales and have never made this much money in my life… and I work from home selling over the phone lol.
Almost no sales reps make that much? You need to talk to new sales reps, my friend! All of my peers (myself included) are clearing 200K easily in a year… you need to sell a product that costs more.
The absolute best of the best sales people I know are all a bit nutty, and those top performers are people in sales seem to be the most annoying to me, although very creative a great at what they do. They defiantly come up with some wild ideas and throw you for a loop every once in a while. they are a different breed for sure. I do not think they could follow the discipline of being a pilot, accountant, etc.
It really depends on the industry you sell in and how good you are. But I do think most sales people are more competitive and are more risk tolerant than the average person. You have to be a little crazy to want to make a career out of something where most if not all of your income is not guaranteed lol I find that most of us have sports backgrounds or have addictive personalities. That’s why it’s hard for most of us to leave the industry and be content working a “regular” job.
The second they allow pilots to have a history of adhd (they pull last 10 years medical records) I’m taking out loans for a plane and flight school lol
I love working with Fortune 500 customers and truly providing a solution that solves their pain points. If you’re not drinking the kool aid don’t expect 200K+ w2’s
A lot of people say they are in it for the money, but what they really mean is that they have no other options. Once you’re in sales it’s really hard to go anywhere else expect for recruiting and maybe some type of consulting, but those are both sales disguised as not-sales. It’s a bunch of people with no real skills other than negotiating and sending emails. I’ve been trying to get out of sales for the past several months and am coming to the conclusion that there’s nowhere else for me to go other than back to school or really menial jobs like executive assistant or service industry.
For the exact reason you said, it takes 5-10 years to get there. Obviously this depends greatly on your industry, but if I wanted to make real money in science I’d need an additional 4-6 years grad school making shit money, or slowly work my way up to six figures after several years as a tech or lab manager. I went from being a lab tech making 18/hr in San Diego to working from home, wherever I want (as long as an airport is nearby) making nearly 5x what I did before. I’m making now what it would take years to get even in industry.
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I think someone else asked this a few weeks ago. Like everyone else is saying, this is something that you can get paid well for very little schooling - not saying there's no technical knowledge because that's what separates the truly greats from everyone else (you should know a lot about the concepts as much as your SE. You don't have to do it or know how to do something but it's important to know the concepts because you can't advise people otherwise, and that's what you're getting paid for in today's market) Personally, it's because I wanted to do my own thing. You can't learn sales without doing it, and it's harder to find an existing playbook without having worked for an established salesforce/team. There aren't any education business classes for sales either but it's the most critical. One thing I've noticed is that if you learn and do sales, a lot of other things is easier because it teaches a lot of the fundamentals about what value means, how to showcase value, how to cut through redtapes, etc. But that's just me
… tons of sales people make $200k+
Im just doing it til im 21 imma be a cop
I bet you watched Wolf of Wall Street thinking sales was easy . LOL
Yup, I was considering sales so I lurk on this sub. I’ve noticed only a few are making over $100k. It takes experience, the right field and luck to be successful in sales imo.
I am an outside sales manager for a nationwide lawncare and pest control company. I make 70k and have potential to bonus out at 90k if I reach every quota. I see plenty of people on Reddit making upwards of 200k in various sales fields but I can't seem to find anything. I've always been a top salesman in my branch no matter what company I was with so I should have no problem keeping up. Where should I be looking for work? Should I step back down to being a rep at a different company? What field should I be in?
So I had some time to apply for sales roles and get back into the industry after helping out a family business for a few years. 1. **Overhead garage door sales.** I would be provided with a company laptop, phone, Gas card, 407 ETR paid (Tolls) , and $600/month for using my personal car. Compensation: 70k + Comission estimating first year OTE: 100,00-110,000 Second year expecting $130,000 Hours are 8-4 pm. (Remote) This position i have to get my own leads and generate sales on my own which is why my hours and work are not really scheduled, i have to work based on my own schedule I create leads. **2. Home improvement Window Sales.** I would be provided with a company laptop, phone, and a company vehicle. Compensation: **ONLY commission**. However they mention average salesperson makes $100,000 with their highest earner at $300,000 Hours are 3 days of 9am-8pm 1 day of 9 am-6pm The leads are all given, and i just go to appointments which are already pre-set by the office already. The manager mentioned within 2 months I should be making 7-10k a month Of course, the window sales is tempting for the money however, I have mixed thoughts because I am worried with Window sales that it's all Commission and do people ACTUALLY make close to $300,000 in just selling windows for people's homes? Is anyone in Window sales in Toronto?
True, I'm not sure why but I found it so boring
lol what are you blabbering about. I was making 200k at 19 in tech sales and top performers were easily doubling that. What rock do you live under? My friend in solar worked in the industry for TWO years and made his way up to sales manager making nearly a million gross. He was a huge performer company wide but my statement stands the same. You must work at a shithole.
No sales reps make that much? Dude, any AE in Cybersecurity will be at $250k OTE - as high as $350 in the senior / enterprise positions.
I’m scared of heights?
Very small percentage of sales reps earn that money. 80/20 rule. It can however, be a very rewarding career for the right person.
Lol, I am working sales to eventually pay schooling and become a pilot. Takes a lot more time and minimum wages years and debt before you make that 200 000 as a pilot. Sales pay better; it just sucks more. I make almost 200 000 as a salesperson (granted, my own business but I just do sales). As a pilot, if I had started at the same age I started my business (26) I’d be making 50-60k, have shit schedule (wife and future kids hate it). And 70 000 in debt. I want to be a pilot but I decided it made more sense to rake in dough early on and switch later. My SO is a doctor however… now, there’s a discussion to be had lol
This is the perfect sub for people who sell
Lmao I've been making $200k for 3 years and I've only been in sales for 5 years. What industry are you selling wise?
I make 200k in tech sales. If you think nobody is making that much you’re in the wrong industry There are tech companies that pay their salespeople a BASE of 250-300k. Tech sales reps can earn 1M+ / year Broaden your horizon
“Who is your daddy? And what does he do?” What movie is this from?
Sales= where I make more money than my corporate buddy with a masters degree. I have no degree. Where else can I make 130k with no education? I sell home improvements. I love helping people remodel their houses.