I kinda just want someone to tell me this transition is not impossible, but I want to move where the money is at. Tech sales. And all I have is 8 years of traditional sales experience. For those who’ve moved from traditional sales into tech sales, what were the biggest skill gaps you had to overcome, and what advice do you have for quickly getting up to speed with the technical side while still leveraging your core sales experience?

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Absolutely, it’s totally possible. And your 8 years in sales are a huge asset! I made the jump myself and there was a learning curve for sure.. the core sales skills like building relationships, understanding customer pain points, and closing deals all translated really well to tech sales. The biggest gap for me was getting comfortable with the technical side and learning the products, the jargon, and how to demo software confidently. What helped most was shadowing colleagues, diving into product trainings, and not being afraid to ask “dumb” questions.

My friend made the jump from car sales to tech sales and is crushing it now. What helped was learning the lingo. She binge-watched SaaS sales YouTube, practiced mock demos, and focused on pain-point selling over features. One of her challenges was understanding the product well enough to sell without sounding like a robot. But honestly, if you know how to build trust, handle objections, and close, you’re 80% there. The rest is homework and confidence.

Start looking for BDR/SDR roles in tech. The sooner you get into it, the better. Learn by doing and get the experience. It might take a while to get in somewhere, so I encourage just trying and learning from there.

Learn your product..ne confident in your knowledge..use the sales skill you have learned over time.
Have a conversation, offer the solution

You'll be gine

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