AMA: RocketReach VP, Sales, Michael A. Rosenberg on Developing Your Sales Career

In the end, the lagging indicators are what will justify a raise. They used to call it "earning your seat," referring to the physical seat you sit in. Within sales, you are either creating, winning, or keeping revenue, so those that can portray the most will typically get the increases and promotions. Now to get there is different and this is where leading indicators come in: who, when, how, and how often are you contacting who you need to in order to produce results. Successful sales reps can f ...Read More

My favorite to ask always starts with, "Tell me a story about..." The ending can be anything from professional to personal. Tell me a story about your proudest customer win. Tell me a story about a lost opportunity that you wished you won. Tell me a story about the last vacation you went on. Tell me a story about someone you stopped being friends with and why. For me it's not the answer, it's how you give the answer. In sales you need to be quick on your toes and engaging. Storytelling is the ke ...Read More

I avoid burnout in 3 ways: Make your job easier by always having pipeline ready to go. Burnout is most common when a rep feels they need to start over, and then think that maybe they should just start over somewhere else. Always have good prospects to call, pipeline to win, or customers to contact and sell to. Try new sales tactics, but don't stray too far from what has made you successful. Testing and trying new things is fun and spices things up, but do not overhaul your entire approach. Ask t ...Read More

I wish I could say there was a typical path but it is not often the case. If you were stay within the same company, and want to go the individual contributor (IC) track, you might view a typical career path to look something like: inbound SDR to outbound SDR to AE to Sr AE (or AM). If you were stay within the same company, and want to go the management track, it depends on what you are most interested in and the opportunities that are created. In the example above, you can stay as an SDR but mov ...Read More

Strategy. That's the major difference between a Manager and Director. If you can operationalize strategy, that makes you a great manager. But if you can identify why things are or are not working, and know what to try and measure (creating a strategy), that's the makings of a great director. My steps are: Have great data. Always be able to track what you are doing down to the smallest activity. The data should be measurements of success, both as a point-in-time and over a time period. This will ...Read More

I see 2 different places that sales is headed: Do more with less. Brute force (hiring more) used to be the answer to growing sales. Now the strategy is to load up the top reps, keep them busy, and get the best from them before we even think of hiring someone else. Sales efficiency is key from a profitability standard which is where the market is right now. AI. Not saying the robots are coming for our jobs just yet, but with technology now that automates so many manual processes, is it so far fet ...Read More