“I think just digging in and being persistent but also being personalized were some real keys to getting through and to find that there are still a lot of companies posting jobs regularly and was really encouraging me throughout the process.” – Dan Grille in today’s Tip 471
How about you? Did you get a new sales job during this pandemic?
Join the conversation below and connect with Dan on LinkedIn!
Episode 90: Grit Personified with Gong’s top SDR Sarah Brazier
Dan Grille on LinkedIn
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Transcript
Scott Ingram: You’re listening to the Daily Sales Tips podcast and I’m your host, Scott Ingram. Today’s tip comes from Dan Grille. Dan is a Sales Success Stories podcast fan who sent me a note about a week ago where he said quote: “I took this pandemic as my chance to get into SAAS sales.” And of course, I had to dig into the details of how he was able to run 5-week process during the peak of the Pandemic and land his new job at Form Assembly where today is actually his very first day. Here’s Dan:
Dan Grille: All right. So yeah, Dan Grille, SDR at Form Assembly and I brand new to SAAS sales. And when I decided I wanted to make the transition, it was, this pandemic was really hitting and I always told myself, If anything ever comes where I have a major career interruption, I’m going to get into software sales. So I decided, I had to really make the decision cause I had my up and down days, but I was like, “You know what? I’m going for it, something’s good it’s going to happen.” And I’m a hockey guy. So Wayne Gretzky said, “You miss a hundred percent of the shots you don’t take.”
So I had some sales experience, nothing in the industry. So the Sales Success podcast was huge for me to dive into notably episode 90. And just hearing what is working for SDRs and what’s valuable to their managers.
So in doing that, I found that personalized messaging was really important in differentiating yourself. So for me, I kind of found some companies made a list of ones that I thought I could fit into coming kind of in cold, I realized that I don’t have a ton of industry experience. So I decided to go after SDR roles where I could leverage my sales experience and learn the industry. And part of me proving myself would be actually getting through to decision-makers involved in the hiring process on not just a recruiter to say, “Hey, this is what I’m going to do for you guys.” Which really ended up working out when I got a personalized video through an in mail on LinkedIn to the director of sales who forwarded it and said, “You know, interview this guy.” So I guess, I was just, I probably applied to over 30 companies and I had heard back from a handful, but all it took was one and they haven’t been affected by this whole downturn at this time.
And I’m really excited to get in. So, you know, I had to treat it like a sales process and I had to be diligent and get my numbers in. But the more that I did research and dug and found ways to get my messaging through, the more I even got any response, whether it’s yes, no, or anything in between.
So I think just digging in and being persistent but also being personalized were some real keys to getting through and to find that there are still a lot of companies posting jobs regularly and was really encouraging to me throughout the process.
Scott Ingram: I hope you’ll help me congratulate Dan right now. If you’ll click over to DailySales.Tips/471 we’ll have a link to Dan’s LinkedIn profile where you can connect with him and tell him congratulations. We’ll also have a link to episode 90 of the Sales Success Stories podcast that Dan mentioned and that was my conversation with Gong.io’s top SDR, Sarah Brazier. It’s a killer interview.
Thanks for listening and be sure to come back tomorrow for another great sales tip!