Start in SaaS Sales

"𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗹, 𝗶𝘁'𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗻𝗼. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝗿𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗼 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗹𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝘁 𝗼𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀."

That was my entry into SaaS. It would be hard to understate how my reaction to hearing that changed not only my life but my daughter's lives forever.

It was 2011, and I had been trying for several months to get into SaaS. Still, I kept getting the same feedback, "You don't have 2-3 years experience in SaaS"(I'll table for a moment the irony that anyone would need SaaS experience to get into SaaS). I came across this company called Demandforce, and it just looked great. I felt like I understood the platform's value and could explain that value to a business, so I applied. I was contacted by a recruiter and told I could not be an Account Executive, but maybe I could start as a BDR and work my way up. "I'm in. whatever it takes.", so I was invited to a hiring party. Unfortunately, I was not able to get an interview. I was told to follow up to get an interview. After several calls and emails, I was still not able to get an interview.

A month went by, and I was finally asked to come interview for an Account Executive role. I prepared my presentation and gave it everything I had. I was supposed to hear back in 2 days. I emailed(screenshot of the emails that were not responded to) and called several times but never got a response back. I blocked my number while calling and finally spoke to the recruiter to get the reply: "Well.....It's not a no, but they're going to keep looking".

I was heartbroken but also pissed! I knew I could do well if just given the opportunity. At this point, I had nothing to lose, so I emailed the managers in the interview to politely tell them what a mistake they were making was.

They invited me back to interview again. I did the same presentation, but after several rejections, they made me an offer this time.

I accepted the offer and never looked back(well, I guess writing a post about it could be considered looking back, but you know what I mean).

Rejection is part of life and a major part of success. You can't have one without the other. Don't wait for things to fall in your lap. You have to create your opportunities.

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