Question : I want to change career from a support engineer to sales. Is that possible ? I have 4 YoE in technical support and want to change to sales.
Any ideas where to start, and what positions I should be looking for given I have not worked sales before ?

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I just landed my first sales job as an AE after 5 years in Client Success. It took me nearly 2 years of persistence to get this.
Read:
GAP selling by Keenan
Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss.

Follow Troy Barker (and other sales pros) on LinkedIn - TikTok

Meet with Sales Directors / Managers and shadow sales calls in your company. Join meetings.

Consume as much sales content as possible

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Show your management you can sell - I bet there are additional services you can sell from your current position. Find someone supporting you, share your plan, socialize internally to know vacancies first, apply and change career within your own company. You know your product - you „just“ need to learn how to sell it which is easier than switching role & product at the same time

Did it as described 10 years ago and never regretted it. Support is not the fanciest part of tech but it is possible to leave if you convince with performance and personality. After a couple of years in support sales I am now able to work as Account Executive representing our entire technology portfolio. Support Sales was quite easy as an entry point since I sold my former colleagues and had the best possible insight to share with my clients

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Going straight into carrying a quota as a rep may be hard without any experience. They may offer you and mdr/bdr role which is mostly cold dialing and lead gen.

If you still want to be technical, try going into Sales Engineering / Presales. Your current company may be an easy way to jump. Look internally for any that are available, identify the hiring manager, and reach out to them and ask what they look for in their candidates. If you think you can do it, then apply, if not try then to build those skills. Key thing here is to build a relationship with a hiring manager.

The SE role is all about getting the tech win (at a high level). We do that by demoing, and walking the customer through the evaluation/POC. As an SE you will learn a lot of sales skills. Moving from SE to sales rep/account manager/account executive is a pretty common jump.

If you want to try to move directly into a Sales role, it is possible. Just don't be selling too much on technical features alone, it's all about business value. Be confident, have a great 30/60/90 plan, and sell business value as you're looking at the sales job.

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Hi there, the key to pivoting is a) updating all your personal branding materials to be in line with keywords for your new direction (resume, professional summary, linkedin profile, cover letter, video pitch, website/portfolio) b) pursuing reputable upskilling opportunities (use networking to understand which ones are worthwhile) and highlight these on your branding materials c) having a clear understanding of your target role/path so you understand the nuances of how people actually break in, in reality d) having a deep understanding of your target roles so you can easily speak to your fit during interviews e) working with a coach, mentor, or peer to see any gaps and areas for opportunity.

BTW, I’m Rachel, a Career Coach (http://iamwoken.com), and I offer a ton of free videos and blogs on my website here - http://iamwoken.com/resources, and also a free initial career coaching call here-- http://calendly.com/woken/demo. On my website I linked a 7-step guide (in the banner) focused on how to successfully make a career pivot which will have a lot of helpful tips for you!

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Perhaps the best intermediate step is to go in Technical Sales / Sales Engineering or Solution Pre-sales (different names but same job) where your technical knowledge is valued but your lack of experience in Sales is accepted.

Read John McMahon's book.

I know people who moved from Support Engineer to TAM then Presales.
Support and Sales are two different world.

It’s not impossible but a direct jump might be a big tough.
Especially because sales don’t really focus on tech that much compared to support.

You might want to have do other positions before getting into sales. Figure out which ones and get a mentor

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