Posted by Angus Gilmour • Posted on November 8, 2021
Athlete Origin’s mission is to empower Athletes to live successful and fulfilling lives beyond sport.
Our core service connects athletes with business development focused careers across the technology sector. Why? Simply put, they are highly rewarding careers that align with the qualities and drivers that athletes often possess.
What is Tech Sales/Business Development?
The technology sector is continuously expanding, with new and existing companies inventing products and services to solve problems globally and address our needs and wants. It encompasses hardware (physical devices) along with various types of software and services to enrich our lives. A tech sales professional connects these products and services with customers, either individual (B2C) or organisations (B2B). Responsibilities vary across company and position, but often include:
- Researching and reaching out to potential buyers (prospects).
- Discovery calls to establish whether your prospects have a need that your product or service can fulfil.
- Live demonstrations to highlight where your product can solve your prospects challenges.
- Negotiating terms, overcoming objections, and closing deals.
- Ensuring customers are satisfied with the product or service and wants to keep using it.
What are the entry-mid level roles, and what do they involve?
SDR/BDR
SDR/BDR (Sales Development Rep or Business Development Rep) is a common entry level role for those starting a career in tech sales. It involves researching and reaching out to potential prospects and having discovery calls to establish whether these prospects have a need that your product can fulfil. Depending on the company, SDRs may focus on inbound prospects who have shown interest in the product, or you may be expected to find your own prospects, known as outbound. SDRs/BDRs are foundational to the sales process.
Account Executive
Account executives are ultimately responsible for closing deals and have wider responsibilities than SDRs. They carry out product demonstrations and negotiate commercial agreements. You’ll often have full responsibility for key client accounts and seek to identify new business opportunities within these accounts. Account Executive positions can be highly lucrative and have wide scope depending on the type and size of organisation you work for, and type and size of customer you serve.
Customer Success Manager (CSM)
Customer Success Managers are typically focused on supporting customers as they become active users of your product or service. It’s very much focused on building close professional relationships with Customers – this can involve consulting to understand how to develop the product or service and being proactive in suggesting new ways to keep customers succeeding with the product. The CSM’s ultimate responsibility is to keep the customer succeeding with your product or service.
What do companies look for in trainees?
A business development focused career in tech is both challenging and rewarding. To be successful in an application, candidates will likely need to demonstrate the following:
- Engaging communication skills
- A willingness to learn/coachability
- A competitive spirit: Happy to go the extra mile to gain a competitive edge.
- Highly motivated by what the role can offer. E.g., financial incentives, career progression potential, the opportunity to be “successful” in a meritocratic environment, and passion for the company’s mission, product, or service.
- Resilience: It’s a challenging role especially for the first year, companies need to know an applicant can deal with the challenges
Progression Pathways
The broad range of skills learned provide access to opportunities across the wider business world, and the meritocratic nature of these career paths enable rapid progression for high performers. Progression pathways can often include:
- Fast-track into management/leadership roles in tech companies, where role evolves into people management, P&L, product, and general business management.
- Progression into enterprise sales/business development leadership roles. This progression continues to focus on sales/business development, but typically facilitates large deals with large companies
- Move to senior business development roles across different industries
- Move into early-stage start-up companies. You’ll have a network and skillset to be highly attractive to early-stage start-ups.
The specifics of these careers vary across companies and sub sectors, and each can have unique roles and responsibilities. The common theme is these positions are excellent entry points into progressive and rewarding new careers for athletes.
To find out more, contact us directly on angus@athlete-origin.com or info@athlete-origin.com. We look forward to working with you!