Confessions of an Enterprise Sales Rep
Excerpts from a Q&A with a seasoned enterprise rep. As part of the “deal”, I promised not to disclose his identity. Anonymity brings out some interesting insights ;)
What’s the best thing about being in enterprise sales?
Chairman’s Club. There is nothing else like that. I can afford a trip myself to anywhere in the world so it’s not about getting a free trip. It’s how you get treated, man. They make you feel like the leader of the free world.
Is there something about this job that you think people don’t know?
We don’t sell used cars. We don’t sell laptop warranties at BestBuy either. Enterprise sales is complex and long. Requires a lot of thinking, planning, coordination. It’s not an easy job. We have to be well versed in our products and with our clients’ business.
What do you think of Marketing?
They’re nice people. That’s really all I’ll say. They don’t do anything for me and there’s nothing much I do for them either. I guess their job is to just do events. I wish they had better food at those events.
What % of your leads come from Marketing?
Tough to answer that. Probably not much. Every now and then they’ll send me someone’s contact info as a “lead” if that person attended a webinar but I’m usually already engaged at that company.
Have you ever shared this with your Marketing team?
Common, man. I don’t want to be the jerk who’ll tell them this. Live and let live.
How much do you like your CRM?
As much as I like going through TSA at the airport. CRM is for management, not reps. I know what I do and I don’t think I have amnesia that I need to record everything I do in CRM. CRM is for management to spend their days running reports.
You seem a little perked up with this question?
Yeah. We just had a call where we were told that we really need to put everything in CRM as the business is suffering. I don’t understand that. I’m the one working on deals. Business suffers when a deal doesn’t move. I think CRM is just a way for management to spend their days. I guess they need to stay busy, after all.
How do you see AI impacting enterprise sales?
Well, instead of me driving to clients I’ll be riding in an autonomous car. (LOL). I don’t really understand AI or BI.
Any parting thoughts about Enterprise sales.
I love it and it pays really well. I majored in Philosophy at a small liberal arts college in Virginia. I probably make more than all philosophers in my class combined. It really is a great job.
