I have over 10 years of experience in sales, selling technology as a product. I am in the process of transition of SaaS, I am looking for a remote SDR position as I do not live in London. My question to my fellow peers is, Will I be at a big disadvantage starting the industry remote, it terms of learning?
Thanks Ryan, for getting back to me and giving me your honest advice. I did think originally to bypass the SDR role but I want to master the core duties in the industry and be able to then move into an AE. I am quite confident I will quite well in an SDR role, but having not done it in this industry I want to perfect it and I hope bettering these skills will help me in my career in AE once I do transition over. Question for you Ryan, if you don't mind. If there is a remote position as an SDR, do companies use any tools which try to replicate the office such as being able to listen to your peers calls live, or watching an AE do a demonstration live? Many thanks, Ryan
Kinda seems like a demotion with your experience.
Ahaha, sometimes in life you have you to take a step back to be able to runner faster. Thanks for getting back to me though. Appreciate it!!
Fair enough. Good luck in your search
Look for AE roles instead, and in terms of a remote role, I am looking for a remote role as well, and I do believe it is slightly harder, but not a huge disadvantage.
I've heard top companies usually ask people who are extern to the company to start as an SDR before getting the AE role (even if you have experience). The goal is to learn the product that you are selling. Have you seen this before?
I appreciate your honest advice, however I want to find a SDR role and learn the industry from the ground up. Master the core responsibilities.
Does the role have to be in London?
Ideally not in London, as I live over an hour away. Manchester and Birmingham is more achievable.
There are a number of companies in the U.K. hiring (or have hired) for remote AE roles. Have you compiled a list of companies that hire remotely or signed up to sites like Welcome to the Jungle? Once you have your shortlist of companies, you can target applications/ask for referrals to them. Great companies like Gitlab, Hubspot etc hire remotely/are remote first. Good luck!
Firstly, I appreciate your honest advice and getting back to me. I have listed a few roles but I have listed more the SDR roles rather than AE, as I want to take a step back and learn the industry from the ground up. I currently do cold outreach but not cold calling. With the industry shifting over to more AI outreach, I want to be able to have a foundation before it switches over. I have actually listed GitLab and Hubspot aswell. Do you know what their training is like once you start in these remote roles? Is the onboarding remote?. Many Thanks
I don’t know what their onboarding is like, but I work in a remote AE role for a successful tech company and the onboarding is great. If you have that cold outreach experience, try to go for SDR and AE roles (SMB maybe) to see what fits, you never know. And frame your experience in the positive as you have a lot of relevant experience and no one ticks every box anyways. Most AE roles these days requires cold outreach so the experience you have in that area is an advantage.
You need an AE role not SDR. Not sure what you meant by step backwards but this isn’t stepping backwards. You taking an SDR role is starting from ground zero. Don’t do that
I appreciate you getting back to me, the reason for it is my cold calling and cold outreach is at a basic level, I do a lot of cold outreach but not specifically cold calling so I want to master this before I step in to the pressure of a role like AE. Do you understand where I am coming from, or I'm I wrong?
I mean, you will likely be at a disadvantage, but realistically there are very few entry level SaaS roles that will accept a fully remote candidate. For more senior roles, yes. The critical piece of the SDR role is getting training, hearing calls, working with peers. So even if you were able to land an SDR type role, yes, you'd likely be at a disadvantage there. Similar to what others have said, if you have 10 years selling technology, you could try to work your way into an AE role and bypassing the SDR role, which would likely open up a few remote opportunities. Good luck!