How to grow your career in Tech Sales

In this episode of the Waddyado Podcast, we sit down with Alex King, revenue leader extraordinaire. Boasting a career of proven results for SaaS businesses from Seed to Series B, Alex shares insights into what it means to be a revenue leader, how to handle the ups and downs of sales and crucially, how to interview for a sales role and how resilience is key.

Having owned his own company, and then transitioned back to helping businesses grow, Alex highlights the importance of resilience in Sales.

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How to get into a career in Tech Sales

Claudia: Well, Alex, welcome to the Waddyado Podcast. It's an absolute pleasure to have you here today.

Alex King: Hey, lovely to see you. Thanks so much for having me. Appreciate it.

Claudia: So let's just kind of dive straight into it and get into the nitty gritty about you, your wonderful background in tech sales and your journey. So I guess to kick us off, how would you describe what you do for a living to someone who isn't in your field or industry?

Alex King: Yeah, we popped over to some friends at Christmas and they had some other folks around and that came up. What do you do? And I completely messed it up, so I'll give it another go. Right. So the way I sort of tried to describe it is when a tech company comes to market with a new product, at some point they need someone to come in and help them really start to expand their go-to-market efforts.

So helping them really refine who they're selling to, how they're going to go to market with that product, how they're going to scale the business and take it to the next stage. And often that involves bringing someone like me. So, yeah, that's the way I tried to describe it. How did I do?

Claudia: I think you did all right. Yeah. Haha. So obviously, your current role is VP of Sales. So you're kind of like head honcho of the commercial department within this tech division and tech company ultimately. So let's bring it right back to kind of like the very beginning of your journey and how you actually started in your career.

And then I'm really keen to dive into, like, how you got specifically into tech sales, because from what I gather, you actually started out in marketing, am I right?

Alex King: Yeah. Well, started sales, then sales, marketing bounced around for sure. So, yeah, I started. I started in media sales. Right. So we're selling advertising for a publishing house. And, yeah, I ended up chatting with the auditors, the accountants at the time, and it was.

One of the managing partners was making tea in the coffee from the firm, and before I knew it, you know, he said, come and work for me. Come and help us build this accounting firm. So. That really wasn't on the cards.

And so I started working in accounting on sales, marketing, business development, and did that for, I don't know, four or five years. That business ended up getting bought out like it does for accounting firms. And then the two managing partners, they had some spare money and they invested in the business idea I had. And I was, I don't know, mid twenties at that point, and ended up running my own business for six, seven years, which was brilliant, really good fun, learnt a huge amount.

Claudia: That's quite interesting. So what was that business? Tell us a little bit more about what you did and what was your idea and how it all came to fruition.

Alex King:Yeah, so the accounting firm was quite a traditional accounting firm. And I remember on numerous occasions sitting down with the partners when they were meeting with customers, and they'd get out the financial statements, you know, very quickly the customer's eyes would glaze over and there was very often just a lack of exchange of value. You know, there was an exchange of money, but the actual value the accountant was delivering wasn't very well perceived by the customer because they didn't understand what they were talking about. Very often, you know, the accountant spoke as if they were accountants. They didn't talk to the customer like the customer needs to understand and didn't adapt and all this sort of stuff.

After observing that for four or five years, I felt there was an opportunity. And this was way before SaaS became a thing. To really take the financial information back you get as a business and transform it into an easier way that allows business owners to perceive value and make decisions based off data.

You know, dashboards weren't really a thing back then either. So we created dashboards. We had a communication framework which tried to help the customer understand the value of the information we were presenting and drive action. And, yeah, we took that from just being an idea. We raised some angel funding, we did a bit of venture debt and grew that to a couple of million turnover.

And that was. Yeah, that was really, really good fun. Really, really, really hard work. But, yeah, that was my big thing, I think, for the early part of my career running my own business, it was a big deal. I think the thing that I think is coming off, like, nearly 20 years ago. Right?

So looking back, just the amount of content you had back then was so different from what you have nowadays to learn to be a good CEO or anything like that. You had to read a book from. From the eighties by Peter Drucker or something. You know, there wasn't. There wasn't a constant feed on your screen of how to be good at doing something like you get nowadays, or you don't have access to webinars of Harvard. Right. There just wasn't that content. You had to go and buy a CD of Tom Peters or someone. Right? Like, it just. It was such a different world.

So it was really. It was really tough. It was really tough being a young CEO and actually quite a established old school industry where I was managing people, often two times my age at that point. So, yeah. It was really, really good, but just so hard.

Claudia: So you stepped down. What were the reasons for stepping down then?

Alex King: Yeah, I think back then I said I was tired, but I think you'd look back now and say, you know, I was burnt out, right? I'd worked every day, like, every day non stop for like, five years, five, six years. And I just got to the point when I was burnt out. Right. You know, we didn't refer to it.

I remember one of the non-execs on the board saying, Alex, you need to be careful. You're going to get really tired very soon. But I was young and I didn't even have a concept of that. And I got to a certain point where I felt I'd done everything I possibly could, and I was just tired. I needed to change. I needed to do something different. So we brought in a CEO.

I spoke with the chairman, said, look, I think my time's done. I think we need someone else to come in and take it to the next stage. The business is still going today. It's trading well, it's doing its thing, but I'm not involved. Right. So I decided at some point, it was after quite a long time to step down and move on to something new.

Claudia: And you’ve probably seen it evolving and changing since you left. How does that make you feel?

Alex King: Yeah, it was really good. I think the biggest challenge I had with it was I'd wrapped up so much of my identity in the business, and I remember one day driving in, I just sat in the car and I didn't really have an Alex. Outside work was just everything for me. So I think the biggest challenge I had was really trying to. To find a little bit of me in the transition because there wasn't really an Alex there, you know, like I was. I'm still very much now, but there's other things around me that, you know, I enjoy doing and all that sort of jazz. So I think just finding my own identity and not being the CEO was a big thing.

Transitioning from CEO to employee

And then also the transition of not being. I mean, I always think you never. There's never really a boss. You're never really number one. You know, you. Even if you're the CEO, you've got a chairman, you know? And even if you've a chairman, you've got shareholders. Right? So there's always. There's always someone else, I think, above you. So I think I didn't have too much issues not being the CEO, but I think just then moving into other roles and other companies where, you know, you're not in some ways, a key decision maker was. Was quite a big shift as well. But, yeah, I'd seen the business grow and develop and change over the time. It was tough because you put so much into it. Right. Like, everything. But it's in a better space and it's been managed by better people. Right. Which is part of the journey.

Claudia: Awesome. Well, thank you for those insights. That's really interesting. So, following on from there, talk us through your journey post the Financial Management Centre

Alex King: At TFMC [The Financial Management Centre], we had a product which we were selling to large retail businesses and hospitality companies, and we basically put a service wrapper around this product. And when I decided to step down, the CEO of the other business reached out to me and said, look, do you want to come help us scale this? And it was a very early retail accounting product and it's backed by one of the big accounting firms in London.

And so, yeah, we were selling to their core target market was large oil companies, major oil companies like Shell, BP. So total predominantly in Europe. So I spent the next, like four years or so selling marketing through direct and indirect sales to large oil companies.

And that was brilliant.

Claudia: So from Counter Books, you then obviously went to EasyRecruit. So talk us through that.

Alex King: Yeah, that was the first, I would say, venture back business that I joined. And that was a really interesting value prop. That was video interviewing and that was video interview. I think that was like 2017 or something, right? And that. I was chatting about this the other day with someone. Just the concept of doing interviews over video was just poo pooed by so many people back then, right?

There was a complete belief that face to face meetings were never, ever going to be replaced by video. And then Covid came. Seven years later type thing, it completely blew that out of the water. So, yeah, we provided a pre screening video recording platform and then a live video interviewing platform, which was really innovative back then.

And, yeah, that was a really interesting business. It was based out of Paris, my first or two that I've done, and, yeah, that was. I was there for a little while.

Alex King: The business hadn't really aligned its product roadmap to the UK market. I think this was one of the things that I took away from EasyRecruit, understanding different geos have different adoptions of technology and very often what can seem innovative in one country can actually be a laggard in other countries if you don't have the right product roadmap.

Recommendations on how to get into tech sales

Claudia: So you've kind of dipped your toe in quite a lot of different types of tech, which is quite versatile, which is awesome to see. I would normally ask the question, you know, how did you research getting into this chosen career? But it kind of sounds a little bit like you kind of just organically. Moved throughout and into, obviously, the tech sales stuff organically through your network and things like that, which I get. So many people ask me and reach out to me on LinkedIn asking, how do I get into tech sales? And ultimately, the first thing that you should really do is tap into your network.

Have you ever had a vendor sell it into you? Maybe you can approach them on that basis that you're the buyer of that product and therefore you understand the use case, et cetera, and therefore you're quite able to be in a good position to hopefully sell it because you know the benefits of the product.

That's what I've heard a few times over. So I would definitely recommend that to anyone who is looking. So for anyone looking to get into the, into Tech Sales, what would be your recommendations?

Alex King: Think your recommendation is really good. I think if you've never done sales, you don't have to have done SaaS sales to get into tech sales, or you can go in from other verticals and other sort of things. So I think. Being really clear what people are looking to hire for, and that's often grip determination. You're resilient, you're coachable, you're adaptable. They're the main things that people want to see. They want to see curiosity.

So I think being really clear about what people are hiring for, what attributes people are hiring for, and then make sure that when you apply for the role, that you demonstrate those attributes throughout, you know, through the interview process.

Ask really good, informed, intelligent questions to show you're curious, you know, follow up after the interviews, communicate what you learn, type up your notes, demonstrate that.

My best advice is think about the interview process as a sale and demonstrate in the interview how you would sell. Right? So do your research, communicate afterwards the interview what you, what you learn. Be really clear around what the next steps are. Commit all of those sort of things, things that show you're good at sales. Do that in the interview process because that makes you stand out.

I'm still amazed. You know, in the last couple of years I've interviewed a load of AE's and not always do I get a follow up. And I think it's such a basic thing, right? So I think just doing the basics and showing you can sell has such a big impact in getting into how you actually get into it. It is quite hard.

I think your advice is a really good one to get your initial foot in, but then I'm, after you've got your foot in, demonstrate you can actually sell through the interview process would be my advice.

Typical day in the life of an SDR (Sales Development Representative) in Tech Sales

Claudia: So for those that wouldn't necessarily know, could you maybe describe a typical day in the life of someone? Let's start off with an SDR [Sales Development Representative] and then we can go into an AE [Account Executive] and then maybe more VP of Sales and actually what it's really like to do.

What's it like to be an SDR on a day to day?

Alex King: The primary goal of an SDR is to create pipeline or close one business. Really the way to do that is to understand what target accounts you're going to be selling to, and then it's building your outreach. So depending on whether you're mid market or enterprise, would depend on the velocity or the number of accounts and activities you're doing. But you're coming in the morning, you'll have your list of your target accounts.

You'll then very often, if you're using a sales engagement tool, SalesLoft, Outreach, whatever, you'll have a list of tasks that you need to execute before that day. And each one of those tasks might be at a different stage in the sales outreach process.

So it might be the first day where you're doing research to prepare for your initial email, which you're going to do some outreach on. Or it might be a phone call and it's the 7th day or, you know, of the sequence and it's the second or third step or whatever.

And really what you would do in the first part of the morning is do your admin, get ready, and then you block out time for your calls. So, you know, you might spend an hour, hour and a half doing calls and that would be back to back just to get the energy. You might do that as a team, do your admin before lunch, to your lunch, and then you try and repeat that again.

So generally, what you find on SDRs is breaking out their calendar into blocks, into chunks, so they know that, you know, they don't end up doing this. Multitask on that and multitask on that. So it is quite formulated, quite structured, but that's there to make sure you keep focused because it's so easy to end up with slack, WhatsApp, everything else going on.

So, yeah, their core day to day is executing steps to engage with target accounts, to try and book meetings for other people, often within the business.

Claudia: Thank you for that insight.

Typical day in the life of an Account Executive in Tech Sales

Claudia: So we can then go on to the progression, obviously, into an Account Executive. So could you talk us through what a day to day would typically look like for an account exec?

Alex King: Yeah. So once again, depending on mid market and enterprise, you will have anything from. One to four or five new business meetings a day. So yeah, first thing most people do come in, they clear out their inbox and that's really important. You want to get on top of your emails as quickly as you can because quick response time shrinks your sales cycle.

So, yeah, get on to your emails, get that done, and then first step is then doing your prep for your next call. Do your call, type up your notes [into the CRM], get ready, booking your next steps, send out the calendar invites and then on. Mid Market Account Executives, like I said at the top, do one to four, five meetings a day and just making sure that you know, you're doing those meetings, locking in the next steps, doing the discovery on the call, presenting the product in the way that needs to relate to the use case, to the Persona. Yeah. And understanding the decision making process, the criteria and all the things that you need to do when you sell.

Typical day in the life of a VP of Sales in Tech

Claudia: What does a typical day look like for a VP of Sales?

Alex King: Yeah. So chaos, I think it really varies on where you're at in the month for the quarter very often, but very often I would do either stand ups with the team and then my week generally I will have three to five customer calls and I think that's really important to try and make sure that you're as close as you can be to the customer, making sure that in many ways you're the voice of the customer for the business. Right. So you've got to make sure that you're spending time, you're getting the direct feedback from the market.

So customer calls is often a key thing, but then it will be a mix of either a coaching session with one youth team, it might be speaking with a peer within the business to I don't know whether you're speaking with the head of marketing or speaking with finance. You might be working with RevOps on sorting out the contracting process or working through red lines with one of your sellers because you need to get that turned around in quick order.

So I think it is very varied depending on where you're at in the month and the quarter, like I said. But I think the common themes are speaking with customers, coaching the team, making sure that you're aligning with the stakeholders internally, and then yeah, getting your reports and your forecasting ready, and liaising with the CEO to make sure you're driving the business further forward.

Claudia: Awesome. Thank you for those insights. I'm sure that'll be very insightful to anyone looking to progress their career up into leadership.

Best parts of a job in Tech Sales

Claudia: What are the best bits of tech sales as a job?

Alex King: I think for anyone looking at it as a career, I think the opportunity earns amazing. So you can earn, if you work really hard and you really hone your skill and you commit, you can earn really, really good salaries. You can earn an enterprise sales, hundreds of thousands, millions a year. So if you really commit to large enterprise sales, significant, life changing money, very often those titles come with good equity as well.

So I think, yeah, working in tech sales, you can be very, very successful if you're very, very good, like any sort of sales role, there's a lot of rejection. There's a lot of failure. You're losing anything between 80% to 70% of the deals you're working. So you've got to be really resilient. And that comes ups and downs. And those ups and downs.

It's funny, like, it's still, still dealing with experienced sellers, just reminding them that it's the roller coaster, it's the game, you know? And it's easy to get in your head. And I've seen it so many times where people start failing, they start losing deals, and then they start thinking it's them, and then they get in their head and then it's self fulfilling. So, yeah, I think being resilient is a really, really important thing.

So you've got the highs, and the highs are amazing. The best thing in the world. Similar to probably recruitment. Right. But the lows are just brutal. Absolutely brutal. So, yeah, the ups and downs are there, the opportunity to earn is there.

But, also, I think the brilliant thing about sales for me is just the blend of art and science. Like, there's so much about human psychology, about human interaction, about all of that really interesting science stuff. Then you've got all the data that fits in behind it, like understanding how you can scale a sales team, understanding your time to ramp your productivity per salesperson, all of these really cool things and filtering that down into your team. But then you've just got the, just the pure art and beauty of sometimes sitting on the call with one of your sellers who's just doing an amazing job communicating the value proposition, you know, delivering the messaging in a way that shows passion and everything.

So, yeah, I think that's the really cool thing about sales. You've got the science part, but also then just the beauty in the art of it, which is amazing to be part of.

How to build resilience in sales

Claudia: Okay, so I have one question I want to dig a little bit further into, and that was you, where we discussed resilience there. So what actionable steps can you provide to people where, I mean, let's be honest, the last year and a half in tech sales has been pretty rough ride for a lot of people with a lot of redundancies, et cetera. And so what advice would you give to people within tech sales in order to build their resilience?

Alex King: Yeah. Jesus, there's a book there, isn't there, Claudia? I think, I think, yeah, maybe we should write it, you know? Do we have to share this now?

It's tough for a load of reasons. I think resilience comes down to just having a grasp on reality. And I think having a grasp on reality making is making sure you've got a work life balance. So for me, like, you know, keeping up my fitness is really, really important. I really, really just find that so, so helpful just to put things in perspective. And it's so easy, you know, just to be wed to your desk all day, you know, especially working from home, like a lot of us do, you know, you end up just locked in and you need to get some time away. So I think having, definitely having a work life balance, making sure you get away from throughout the year and doing things that you enjoy and focusing on.

But then also making sure that throughout the week or day, you're doing fitness or whatever you do to help you mindfulness, whatever it is, just to find that balance. So I think that's one thing. Just finding that balance is really, really important. And then with that, it helps you put things in perspective. At the end of the day, you're always going to get more rejections. And I think it's important sometimes to reflect back on when you were really successful. One of the things that I remember is doing like anchoring.

I don't know, you know, it's like an NLP [Natural Language Programming] technique where you can remember like times of when they were really good and trying to reflect back on those times and trying to remember, you know, it was all possible. It's not all over. It's not. You're doing anything wrong. Right?

So I think anchoring yourself back to when things were good and putting that into perspective is really important, but then also building the support network around you as well, especially at work, you know, if you've. If you're in a good team of AE's [Account Executives] or anyone in the business, there should be a good support network around you where you guys can collaborate, share stories, share best practise and really lean into some of that coaching.

Always amazed when things start getting tough. One of the first things that generally gets dropped is coaching. And I think it's such a powerful, such a powerful mechanism for you to reflect, learn and put things into perspective and actually develop and feel like you're growing. Because I think that's one of the reasons why people also burn out or aren't so resilient is because they're not learning and developing. They get stuck in a hole. So I think that personal development piece and really making sure you're committing to coaching even when things are really over, when you're really stacked out, is so important.

Claudia: I think that was wonderfully put. Thank you very much for that. Awesome.

Best advice received from a mentor in sales

Claudia: So what would you say is the best advice that you have ever received from a mentor?

Alex King: I think when I had my business, I had an amazing chairman called Vic, and he had the charm of Warren Buffett, you know, that sort of very witty, charming, sort of old white guy sort of vibe to him. And I remember at the end of a board meeting, he said, how are you, Alex? It's quite a lot at the moment, Vic. And he goes, good, because if you ever feel you're in control, you're not going fast enough.

And I think that's always, like. I've always stayed true to that, but I think that's, like, one of the things I would share. But then, as a sort of counter to that is there's no easy win, right?

"If you ever feel you're in control, you're not going fast enough."

Alex King: There's not a quick route to success, and it's really, really hard. So even if you are going fast, it doesn't mean you're going to get anywhere faster. You know, it just means the journey. You're not going to avoid the downs, you're not going to get more ups, you're just really going to experience it. Hopefully a little bit quicker. But, yeah, those would be the two things I would say.

Claudia: Yeah, it's all about putting yourself outside of your comfort zone in order for you to stretch and grow. And what's it called, elastic, what's that phrase of talking about like elastic brain functioning or something like that where it pushes your boundaries on your brain? I can't remember what that's called, but there you go.

Alex King: Neuroplasticity.

Claudia: So that's it. You got it. Neuroplasticity. There you go.

How much can you earn as a SDR [Sales Development Representative]?

Claudia: Okay, so let's get into the nitty gritty of salaries in tech sales. So SDRs, obviously you mentioned up to mean 50k is kind of pushing it. I would say at the moment, but I would, you know, from my experience, but it does happen in certain locations.

So for the UK market, what SDR salaries are out there at the moment?

Alex King: I would say for an SDR mid market you're looking at £40k to £45k plus OTE [on-target-earnings] is probably the range.

Claudia: And what would the OTE be on that?

Alex King: Anything between £10k to £20k

How much can you earn as an Account Executive in Tech Sales?

Claudia: Awesome. And for am Account Executive?

Alex King: Yeah, I mean, there's probably more, more variations there. For an SMB AE [Small, Midsize Business Account Executive], I would say anything between £45k to £55k and then maybe going towards £60k and then at mid market [focusing on mid-market account sizes], a £60k to £80k and then enterprise, you know, £80k to £150k, depending on what type of sale and seniority that is.

Mid-Market Account Executive and Enterprise Account Executive probably have like a two times the OTE [on-target-earnings], so they're earning twice their base.

Claudia: Awesome. Thank you for that.

Actionable steps to get into Tech Sales

Claudia: And what three actionable steps would you recommend to those getting into the industry?

Alex King: I think it comes back to some of the things we spoke about. I would just absorb as much content as you can.

There's so much out there nowadays. There's some really, really good books, even modern ones like Gap Selling, reading those books and really trying to ingest and use some of the learnings and some of the teachings that they have in those books. That's so, so important.

So just try to absorb as much content as you can. Try and engage with people which are doing the job at the moment and try and learn from them and try and be once again a sponge from what experiences they've had.

And then the final one, I think, yeah, just you've got to never give up. It's an up and down thing. So you've got to maintain, you know, where you're wanting to go and just lock onto that and just commit to it fully.

Claudia: Absolutely. It's very easy to give up. And I think the key to being successful in anything is sticking out things. And then, you know, you'll be someone in that market seen as an expert because of your tenure and also your experience, hopefully dealing with more and more things within your time of doing that role. So that's really helpful.

And could you recommend any resources specifically, for example, like podcasts, any websites, any content platforms that you would recommend for this industry?

Alex King: Yeah. If you're going into tech sales, SaaStr is brilliant. Jason Lemkin, he's a prolific investor and real big thought leader.

Science for Scaling by Mark Roberge is brilliant.

Revenue Builders with John McMahon and John Kaplan is brilliant. John McMahon is probably one of the most successful enterprise sales leaders in the world.

And yeah, the things he drops on that podcast are just out of this world. So I would say those things. And then, yeah, I mean, just involving yourself in pavilion if you get a chance.

Pavilion's a really, really good community. I'm not on any commission. A brilliant community if you're in tech sales, because, yeah, there's everyone from all the different types of businesses there. So I highly recommend that. It's been amazing for me. Really amazing.

Claudia: Awesome. Well, just for anyone listening, those links will all be in the description. So have a little look at that and you can get access to all those podcasts that Alex has just mentioned and also links for pavilion to cheque that out too. So thank you very much, Alex.

So lastly, I'm going to ask you a bit of a curve ball. What is the most unusual interview question you've ever had?

Alex King: I can't think of one I've got asked which is unusual, but one that I've asked, which I think is unusual was, what's your favourite Adam Sandler film? And that came out of when we were at FixFlo, me and the CEO felt that, yeah, if you like Adam Sandler films, you're good fun to work with. So, yeah, it was sort of said in Jessica and, yeah, I think. There you go. Says something about my comedy.

Claudia: What if someone doesn't like Adam Sandler or is a little bit more dry? Because that's quite, like an obvious type of comedy. Right. Does that mean that they're not going to get on your team?

Alex King: No, I think how you answer the question is probably more the juice. Right. But, yeah, if you don't find Adam sounding funny. Probably don't have a great sense of humour. Come on. I mean, he's hilarious, right?

Claudia Gasson: Maybe. Maybe it's you who doesn't have a good sense of humour. Very subjective.

No, to be fair, I'm a fan, but I'm just trying to tease you.

Alex King: There you go.

Claudia: Well, Alex, thank you so much for the wonderful insights that you've given today. I really hope that it's very insightful for anyone looking to get into text sales. You've been on a wonderful journey throughout your career, so you insights have been fabulous. Thank you so much.

Alex King: Amazing. Thanks, Claudia. I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me.