8 must-know tips to becoming an American saleswolf in Israel
Sales teams are behind the growth of all major companies. But the potential recruit entering the world of sales in Israel can feel a sense of trepidation.
The challenges include an overwhelming directness in culture (Intel’s advice for doing business in Israel includes expecting heavy interruption in any presentation). There is also the prospect of working late hours (to sell into the United States). Plus ensuring you do not fall into devil-selling such as binary options.
Israel: a sellers market
Nevertheless, for those looking for a job, there are plenty of legitimate and highly lucrative sales positions for English speakers. The constant demand for top sellers give opportunities to the huge numbers of immigrants into the country (an average of 3697 North Americans immigrate to Israel each year). In particular, salespeople fuel the revenue of the country’s 6000 high-tech companies in the so-called “startup nation”.
Booming software companies, disrupting sectors from cybersecurity to data analytics to financial technology rely on closing deals with big-name customers in the United States, the UK, and Europe. This needs salespeople who understand those cultures (almost no time is spent selling to the domestic market of 8.5 million Israelis).
Fight to capture top sales talent
The demand for top English-speaking salespeople is outstripping supply, however. This is leading to innovative new approaches from fast-growing startups to grab new talent . The CEO of social media management platform, Oktopost, for instance, published the pay slip of one his team to bring in more closers (the salary he posted of an Oktopost sales member equated to US$10,724.80 in a month).
In another innovative move, a major Israel VC, Aleph, itself launched a program and trained a new pack of 31 sales wolves giving them the basic of sales within the Israeli sales landscape.
In announcing the initiative, Aleph partner, Michael Eisenberg (he recently did the same trick for content marketing) says Israel has turned on its head a belief that sales positions can only be based in a target market only (that is the United States or Europe). In fact, he points out that many super growth companies such as Panaya WalkMe, Monday, Yotpo, and Clicktale have built a sales force in Tel Aviv as a route to worldwide domination (WalkMe for instance recently announced its status became a $1billion unicorn).
The Aleph course for new salespeople clued up candidates about sales pipelines, the sales funnel, and how to handle rejection. The sales executives from across fast-growing companies in Israel provided a complete sales ABC crash course (in sales of course “ABC” stands for “Always Be Closing”).
In particular, for those looking to enter the sales force, there are 8 key learnings.
- High salaries are on offer (but experience is required)
Companies have taken dramatic steps to lure the best salespeople with big paychecks. But headhunter, Tahl Wilson, says that in practice, less experienced people may start on a lower rung. This may involve doing unsociable graveyard shifts (in order to work US hours) but experience is king. Wilson says: “In the United States, companies are willing to look more at your skillset but in Israel it is more about experience, of at least 1–2 years.”
2. Sales is tough
Though there is some glamour, sales can be nerve-racking and challenging. Avi Weisenberg, General Manager, International Markets at digital analytics company, SimilarWeb, which has clients including eBay, Booking.com and Airbnb, told the Aleph conference: “We often see ourselves as hunter gathered bringing in the deals. Generally, I spend most of my time looking at rejection emails and Salesforce, figuring out how the hell I am going to hit my quota for this quarter.” He adds: “Sales is the most measurable job in the world. I don’t think there is another job where you live and die by your numbers like sales. Did you hit your number, or did you not hit your number. Did you close the deal or not?”
3. Drive and resilience
Gilad Komorov, a long-time Director of Sales says he remembers spending 15 years at LivePerson, which develops products for online messaging, and is now a publicly held company with 18,000 customers. However, his sales role started in a renovated chicken coop near Israel’s Raanana district. He says in his role of sales development he learned tenacity required in the role (sales development representatives help with the lead qualification process and passing on qualified leads). He cites research that it takes at least 5 phone attempts, 3 emails and at least 8 attempts to reach someone. Joseph Fuerst, VP Global Outbound Demand at WalkMe says “attitude and work ethic” is key to landing a role and succeeding. “You bring the right attitude and work ethic it is worth everything else that a person brings to the table.”
4 Think about Sales Development
Salespeople are advised to start with sales development, qualifying opportunities to pass on to sales executives. UK-born David Garcia Senior Director, Sales Development at LawGeex has been in this role to great success (the previous two Israeli startups he worked at have been acquired (one by Microsoft and another by DocuSign). Garcia says: “You do not have to be aggressive or cutthroat to succeed. In fact, the opposite is true. You should be professional, and target the right people with a personalized message that helps them with their specific requirements. If you can show value for the customer, you have already succeeded.” Fuerst adds that SDR is crucial in creating predictable revenue behind every top company that is succeeding, arguing that “a great pipeline builder is as valuable as a pipeline closer.”
5. Be part of something (potentially) big in the startup nation
Though there are downsides of a sales role in Israel, salespeople will join a team of English speakers from the UK, US and other nationalities as a “family” in a foreign land. The promised land is to build the next Israel success story, such as Waze, or Mobileye. But until then, resilient salespeople are boosted by two positive phrases: the importance of “losing fast” and that “no is the second best answer”.
6. Be curious
Komorov says a key trait is to be curious and genuinely talk to the customer about their business and problems. He says: “I have personally always done this. I took the product manual, which was this big binder just explaining the product and I became an expert and sat with the product team. I always did make sure to stay curious, lift my head and look around and understand the bigger picture.” This enables you to fully understand your customer better and how to help them.”
7. Be hungry
In terms of career advice, Tahl Wilson says: “In sales you must recognize that you are interviewing from the very first conversation you have with a recruiter either a headhunter or from a company.” In sales, non verbal communication is even more crucial, whether tuning your active listening, practicing your fake laugh, or building rapport. Weisenberg says: “Stop waiting to talk. The best in sales are speaking only 20% of the time because they have been actively listening .”
8. Have clarity (in what you are selling, and yourself)
Be clear you understand the questions and problems of your buyer. This revolves around answering these basic questions from the prospect on the other end of the phone: “Why should I do anything? Why now? Why you?” You will need to explain concisely who you are and what your product and solution is concisely. Fuerst adds “I have literally sat in on over 600 interviews in my career and I cannot tell you how many people I have said “so tell me a little bit about your background. If you cannot tell me who you are concisely you are not going to be able to tell people who we are concisely”.
Diverse habitat for sales roles
At the time of writing, one job site, Secret Tel Aviv lists more than 60 current roles across the high-tech spectrum of companies selling disruptive or innovative products in everything from games and apps (Tab Tale) to workflow solutions (Monday.com) to a delivery logistic platform (Bringg). High tech companies are searching variously for a “hunter” outbound sales executive at business analytics platform, Sisense to a position as sales director at Proov, software streamlining the proof-of-concept process (two years experience). This shows the diverse nature of companies and growing opportunities for sales-minded stars.
The habitat for salespeople in the country is constantly expanding. But wolves will always be welcome.
Catch all the talks and advice (via Aleph VC) on getting a sales job in Israel, fromLori Brigg, VP Customer Success at Datarails; Amit Bendov, CEO of Gong.io; Keren Halperin, VP People, Feedvisor; Adi Azaria, Co-Founder of Sisense; Gilad Komorov, CEO, Clozers.io; Avi Wiesenberg, General Manager — International Markets at SimilarWeb; Joseph Fuerst, VP Global Outbound Demand, WalkMe
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