Higher Levels Tech Sales Podcast

This week I'm speaking with Connor Murray who recently joined the Higher Levels team and has spent more than 6 years at Oracle promoting into several positions, most recently Enterprise Account Executive.

Connor has a YouTube Channel I highly recommend you check out, as it has some of (if not the best) free content on YouTube in my opinion

He's currently an Enterprise Account Executive at Oracle and shares his experience promoting from SDR to AE, then to SDR manager for 2 years, and now to Enterprise Account Executive. During his 5th year in tech sales he was also tired of seeing gimmicky sales advice and started his channel to give practical and actionable advice.

I hope you all get a lot out of todays episode, it was DENSE.

Learn what it's like to lead a 10+ year career in tech sales (both good and bad). I wanted to share an honest take from someone I trust that has no alternative agenda other than sharing an honest opinion about why you should and should not consider a career in tech sales.

Anthony Saucedo is currently an Enterprise Account Executive at PagerDuty and has worked at other major private and public tech companies including Palo Alto Networks and Circle CI.

In this episode we get real about some of the pros and cons of a tech sales career. Tech Sales definitely has a strong allure given the financial upside, but it's also one of the riskier career paths in tech.

We hope you get a lot out of the episode, and a major thank you to Anthony for taking the time to join and share his perspective!

Everyone has a tip or trick they love to talk about with discovery calls in tech sales. It's rare we see people sharing in depth conversations and honest mistakes they've made in the past throughout their Tech Sales career. In this episode we take a look at the most common MISTAKES at every level of tech sales when it comes to the discovery call. Thanks for tuning in!

In this week’s episode of the Higher Levels Podcast, Eric Finch sits down with Trent Dressel, widely known for his tech sales cold calling content. Trent is back on the hunt for a tech sales job after a stint as a solopreneur, aiming to break into tech sales as an Account Executive in 2024. They dive into how the tech sales landscape has evolved since 2018, sharing practical job hunting tips using LinkedIn Sales Navigator and discussing how to stand out in interviews with unique approaches like personalized video pitches.

Eric and Trent also discuss the importance of finding a company culture that fits, whether you prefer remote work or an office environment, and how to land top tech sales roles in a competitive market. If you’re in tech sales or thinking about making the jump, this episode is packed with real-world advice to help you break into tech sales and navigate your career. Enjoy!

Learn how to structure a cold call in tech sales minute by minute.

Our issue with most advice around discovery calls and tech sales is that it focuses narrowly on too many situational details, but doesn't teach a rep how to structure the entire discovery call. As we've experienced ourselves, when you get too deep down a rabbit hole, you can often lose control of the call, impacting your sales cycle and also appearing to your prospect as unorganized and 'salesy'.

This minute based approach allows you to structure a discovery call to handle almost any situation. Using the framework, you can fill in the details specific to your company and market, and be prepared in real time to handle the call wherever it goes.

We hope you get a lot out of the episode! Follow us for more actionable tech sales deep dives. Thanks!

Many of you have asked us about the Sales Engineering career path. Today I wanted to deep dive into it by bringing a Sales Engineer who has worked at companies like Snowflake, Twilio, and now at Collibra.

I brought Devon on specifically because he actually broke into tech as an SDR in a direct sales role and ultimately made the transition to sales engineer. If you're looking to better understand the Sales Engineering career path, what it takes to be successful in the role, and how to break into Tech and Sales Engineering specifically in 2024/2025, this episode is full of incredible insights. I hope you get a lot out of it!

In this episode, we dive into the world of tech sales training and influencers, exploring the pros and cons of online courses and advice from top salespeople. We candidly discuss the pitfalls of trying to piece together various sales methodologies, which can often lead to a fragmented approach that doesn't feel authentic. Learn more about our own experiences with different training programs, highlighting how crucial it is to apply these learnings to your unique context rather than blindly following popular advice.

Moreover, we stress the significance of learning from top performers within your own organization before seeking external training. Eric and Kris talk about their journey, spending thousands on training and understanding that while investing in personal development is essential, it’s equally important to filter out irrelevant noise. They recommend looking for live coaching and community support tailored to your industry, as real-time feedback and shared experiences can be invaluable.

Learn the biggest mistakes in tech sales interviews from a team with over a decade of tech experience. We've also coached hundreds of current and future tech sales reps at the best companies in the world on our platform higherlevels.com.

I'm not sure if it's accurate to say we've truly seen everything, but it's fair to say we've seen 99.99% of everything when it comes to tech sales interviews. Hope you get a lot out of it!