A VP in tech sales shares 10 career lessons from a decade in the field, covering how to pick companies, spot product fit, when to stay or move on, building a distinctive skill, negotiating compensation, and why sales skills matter in any role.
10
About a decade
Changing jobs every 18 months
$20,000 (per jump)
In my decade in tech sales, I've seen acquisitions, IPOs and today I work for a best in class software company. Today I want to share my 10 best pieces of career advice. Number one, your career won't grow faster than your company if your company is stagnant. The only way roles open up is if somebody ahead of you leaves and opens up that spot. At growing companies, more spots are opened up continuously. If you want your career to grow quickly, make sure to join an organization that is growing. Number two, if executives are constantly defending your product as a need to have, then probably your product is a nice to have. Because if it's a need to have, your execs don't have to spend time convincing the employees that it's a need to have product. Number three, if you want to be at a company that has great, smooth, no frustration processes, join one that hasn't changed in years. Keeping in mind no change means no growth. Otherwise accept that growth means chaos and sometimes frustration. But for the most talented, chaos can be a ladder. Number four, maybe a little bit controversial, but changing jobs every 18 months will increase your short term earnings. But staying long enough to actually get good will increase your career earnings. I've seen a lot of people skip around for ten $20,000 pay increases. I am not familiar with anyone that has skipped around and is now earning consistently. Find $500,000amillion dollars or more a year which is possible for top performers in tech sales when they stay long enough to promote, earn significant equity grants and build out their territory in a way where they can sustainably close seven figure deals. So if you want to get short term increases, jump around. If you want to make significant money in your career, find a great place and stay long enough to actually get good. Number five, obsess over finding something you can be the best at. If you don't have a superpower, you are a commodity. And if you can't define a superpower, you're going to be perceived as a commodity. Number six, your company's goal is to retain you at the lowest possible cost to the business. That's just how companies work. That's the financial modeling. If you feel you are worth more, you have to ask for more. That ties into number seven. If you can't find a company to pay you what you think you are worth, then there's one of two things wrong. You either have a value problem, you're not actually worth as much as you think you are, or you have a messaging problem, you are not yet able to articulate the impacts you make to the business in a way that defends higher earnings. Number eight There are no shortcuts in your career, but there are accelerators. Don't be looking for hacks or tricks or ways to instantly increase your earnings or win more deals. What you should be looking for, though, are ways that you can accelerate your learning and your development and then leverage those to progress your career. Number nine Even if you're not in sales, learn to sell. In fact, no matter what your career path is, learn to sell because throughout your career, to maximize your income and your impact, you're going to have to be able to sell your ideas and sell yourself. And then finally, number 10, no matter your career path, learn to Write. This is one thing that I wish I would have started to learn much earlier in my career career because as I learned to better write, my ability to understand concepts and teach concepts accelerated. If you watched this far. Thank you so much. I hope that you find value in these 10 unsolicited but hopefully impactful pieces of career advice. If you found this video helpful, let me know. I'm going the right direction by leaving a like on this video. Then if there are any questions or topics you want to make sure I cover in a future video, let know me. Leave me a comment. I read all comments and I love recommendations that will help me help you sell more. Finally, don't forget to subscribe. That way you won't miss any of my upcoming content that I'm creating to help you improve the way that you sell.
