Sales careers unfold in the most interesting ways. Although sales skills can be highly transferable, most companies want to hire salespeople with specific selling experiences, educational backgrounds, or achievements.
They won’t hire you just because you can sell. They’ll hire you because you’ve:
- Proven you can sell to a specific set of target clients
- Worked in the same domain as their buyer
- Sold contracts with similar ARR
- Closed deals with similar sales cycles
Why Good Beats Great in Sales Hiring
Behind closed doors, most sales leaders agree that great salespeople can sell anything. Nevertheless, good salespeople with matching experience get hired over great salespeople every time, for one simple reason: companies don’t grow without new customers.
The only way to ensure a company gets new customers is to hire high-performance sales talent who’ll bring in new business month after month, year after year. And this simple truth makes hiring sales talent risky business. Poor hires mean no new customers, no growth, no money, and a few rounds of bad sales hiring depletes cash without filling the pipeline with new business opportunities. That makes hiring salespeople one of the most important decisions any business will make. Frankly, there’s a lot at stake.
So what’s the number one way companies minimize sales hiring risk?
They hire salespeople who have performed under similar circumstances, with similar prospective customers, selling similar solutions. When it comes to hiring, past performance is a good predictor of future performance.
If you have to place a bet on your company’s future, and there’s a lot to lose, tried and true choices are the best choices for most companies.
What This Means for You as a Job Seeker
Find customers you enjoy selling to and stick within that sector, because you’ll be most attractive and most valuable to employers who sell to the same type of prospect.Â
This is your career capital, and you’ll build on it and leverage it throughout your sales career. You’ll be paid more as you develop experience with a particular type of buyer.
When you’re looking for a new sales job, don’t overlook companies that sell to the same audience. Companies in your competitive landscape are strong employment prospects.
When you’re ready to make a move, your willingness to sell for a competitor, or a company with a similar solution, the same target market, and comparable deal sizes, will help determine the quality of opportunities you’ll be considered and ultimately hired for. After all, your past selling experiences determine your future selling opportunities.
Make every move count.
When you’re weighing what a smart next step looks like in this market, start with smart sales career strategies for balancing risk and opportunity.
And if you’re searching while still carrying a number, here’s how to look for a new software sales job while hitting quota.
