Since 2017, Tech Sales has been consistently one of the most promising jobs according to this annual research conducted by LinkedIn. This evaluation includes factors such as high salaries, high demand for talent, and the likelihood of a promotion. In the midst of the global pandemic, Account Executives and Sales Development Representatives still made it to the last month’s top list of the most in-demand remote jobs (August, 2020).

Yet, despite the high demand and ample opportunities for growth, it’s relatively rare for people to actively consider sales as a career – especially compared to other functions like engineering or product.

So why is sales a less desirable job type and what drives people to start their tech sales career?

As a talent matching platform that’s helped some of the world’s fastest-growing tech firms like Airwallex, Zego and Decoded grow their commercial teams, we interact regularly with tech sales teams and professionals as well as new graduates who are looking to break into this field. One thing we’ve been fascinated by is the broad range of backgrounds and reasons that drove people into starting a career in tech sales. 

This year, we asked 9 leaders and future leaders of some of the fastest-growing SaaS businesses in the world about what drove them to start a career in Tech Sales.

And here were their responses:

What drove you to start a career in Tech Sales?

Nicole Brooky, Head of Global Sales at SwipedOn

SwipedOn is a developer of visitor management applications offered to customers across the globe on a monthly subscription basis. 

“Like most, I fell into sales; I had a varied background in hospitality, customer service, marketing and events. Once I started working in a full time sales role, I realised it was everything I had loved about my previous jobs rolled into one. Tech has always been an interest of mine, especially with the rise of innovative fast-growing SaaS companies that were emerging as I started my career. It seemed like a natural fit at the time, and I haven’t looked back since.”

Ollie Sharpe, VP of Revenue EMEA at SalesLoft

SalesLoft is the #1 sales engagement platform, helping sales organizations deliver a better sales experience for their customers. 

“I fell into sales after doing a degree in graphic design and business studies – I loved drawing but by the time I graduated I needed to be able to design on a computer and I couldn’t. I went for an interview in marketing that turned out to be door to door sales – and that was my entrance into sales! I then went into recruitment, recruiting tech sales professionals and it was then I realised that I wanted to get into tech sales. I realised it had a good future, you could earn well and the business applications seemed like something I could be passionate about.”

Ben Kiziltug, International Lead and UK Country Manager

Personio is delivering a modern HR management and recruiting solution for small and medium-sized businesses.

“I wanted to make an impact at a company. Being one of the early members of the sales team for a tech startup made me feel a huge part of their success and helped to allow the company to achieve the growth that it went on to achieve.”

Danny Leonard, Principal at Keep Scaling

Keep Scaling builds predictable sales organizations for high-growth companies.

“I wish I had some profound vision instructing me to jump into tech sales, but my journey was a bit more serendipitous than that. After graduating in 2009 from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan with a Finance degree, I received a call from a friend who worked at this small startup (at the time) called Groupon. He was raving about how fun it was to work at a startup and how you did not need to wear a suit to work. I checked out the website and fell in love with the idea and culture.

Naturally, I applied to every single job on their job board, and naturally, the recruiter called me to say I could not do that and the only position available was an unpaid sales internship. I jumped at the opportunity, starting smiling and dialing, and ended up becoming one of the top performers at the company. And yes, they gave me a full-time offer.”

Richard Smith, Head of Sales at Refract

Refract empowers Sales Management to identify and immediately improve, costly mistakes, errors and missed opportunities their sales teams make every day.

“Honestly, like many – I fell into it. I was looking for a career in sales, and at the time I was just looking for a job! It just so happened that my first gig was with a SaaS company. What I’ve came to learn though, is that a career in tech sales is massively exciting and full of opportunities. It’s also where there is the most innovation taking place in relation to sales best practices, techniques, and tools. With the changes in the World this year due to the pandemic, the importance and reliance on technology is only getting stronger and so there’s never been a better time to make a start.”

Angie Vaux, Founder & CEO at Women in Tech forum

Women in Tech forum is an exclusive community of women who are looking to accelerate and grow their career in technology.

“My passion for tech began at an early age – I got my first computer (an Atari 800 XL) when I was around 8-years old and used to spend my free time writing code. I’ve always had a curiosity for tech and how companies can use it to drive innovation and transformation. As a people person, moving into sales and focusing on customer success was a natural part of my career progression and I haven’t look back since. Whatever you’re role is in an organisation, we are all in sales or in support of sales.”

Iain Swanston, B2B Sales Speaker and Sales Trainer at Klozers

Klozers works with ambitious Chief Execs of Mid Market organisations to implement a proven end to end Sales Enablement solution in 90 days.

“My background in sales was originally selling capital equipment in the construction industry, which is a long way from Tech and SaaS sales. Not long after I had started my own Sales Training & Coaching business we pitched for a contract to create and run a Sales Academy for Microsoft to help move the MS Partner channel away from on premise small business server to a new thing called Office 365.

Despite our complete lack of Tech knowledge, we managed to convince them on the basis that instead of selling “bits and bytes” they should be selling “business solutions that solve business problems”. This negated our perceived disadvantage in comparison to more experienced and established tech sales trainers and we were lucky enough to win the contract. Ironically after winning the contract we were then perceived as tech sales trainers and we still pick up business from this 8 years later.”

Sally Keane, Head of UK Marketing Solutions of Linkedin

LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network that has more than 675+ million members worldwide, including executives from every Fortune 500 company.

“I started my career in Outdoor advertising and Tech & internet advertising had just started to take off, my peers who had started to move into this space told me it was fast-paced, exciting & the future – it was an easy decision.”

John Lake, Chief Commercial Officer of Seedrs

Seedrs is the world’s leading equity crowdfunding platform.

“I fell into tech sales and most people I know did. It frustrates me how sales or specifically tech sales is not offered as a career option at school level. It can be as complex, consultative, client-facing and financially rewarding as any role in law, banking or consulting but the education system does not seem to understand or value this as a career option.”

Myth Busting: What are the most common misconceptions about a career in Sales?

Of all the jobs out there, there seem to be more misconceptions about working in sales than any other career. If you’re considering this path, it’s important to make your decision based on facts, not myths. We’ve asked our panel of experts to share some the most popular misconceptions about salespeople :

“Haha! Lots!! That you have to be aggressive, that it needs to be stressful, sales people are dodgy, that its a man’s job – none of these are true at all!”

Ollie Sharpe, VP of Revenue EMEA at SalesLoft

“The idea that sales people are all money-driven and don’t share information to help each other. The best sales people I’ve ever worked with love to share and help each other out! They create an environment of continuously improving and making sure the collective are always learning and trying new things.”

“People buy from people they like’. It’s a phrase which has been peddled for years and it just isn’t true. In fact, getting too friendly with your prospects can actually be a bad thing. People ultimately buy from people they trust, and it’s your job as a sales person to build trust through credibility, asking great questions, and even being tough on your prospects (for example telling them why they aren’t a good fit for your product/service). Don’t get mixed up between being ‘liked’ and being ‘trusted’.”

“That it is easy and a fall back for anyone who does not make it in other roles. It’s not. Its hard craft, requires intelligence, care, and training. Very few become great.”

John Lake, Chief Commercial Officer of Seedrs

“One word – stereotypes! Sales is often described as ‘sharky’ and ‘schmoozy’ which couldn’t be further than the truth. A sales culture executed well is transparent, ambitious, energising and development driven. Where working with a diverse and motivated team allows you to constantly push boundaries and try new things. You don’t have to fit into the old stereotype to be good at sales – in fact, far from it. Some of the best sales professionals I know are introverted by nature. At the end of the day, it’s about finding a genuine passion in helping people and businesses solve problems and achieve their goals. It’s incredibly rewarding, and keeps everyday interesting!”

Nicole Brooky, Head of Global Sales at SwipedOn

“That all salespeople are extreme extroverts. I’ve worked along side thousands of salespeople in my career, and I can say, definitively, their personalities run from introverted to extroverted. As an example, one of my favorite sellers ever at one of my first startups was the type who worked from 9am – 5pm on the dot. Always showed up to meetings, but did not say much, never too high or too low emotionally, but was a complete beast on the phones and sales leaderboard. They knew the sales process and script perfectly – the consummate professional. Sellers do need to be effective communicators, but they certainly do not need to be loud and boisterous. “

Danny Leonard, Principal at Keep Scaling