Is tenure one of the most important characteristics of top sellers?

General
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The post here about the end of the golden years of tech sales and the general sentiment in the market got me thinking.

When I look at my current and former companies, there are still A-players out there who beat quota every quarter and bring home big cheques.

When I look at them, I don’t see them as experts in discovery (sure, they’re good, but nothing to preach about), they’re not masters of prospecting with a 6x pipeline, and they’re not relying on some AI shortcut or being great Clay maestros.

What I see is one thing: they have been with their company and in their industry for several years. I am talking about at least 5 years in the same company and maybe 10 years in the industry.

I think this idea of tenure is often overlooked. The successful salespeople I see survive long enough to actually benefit from their pipeline. They survive long enough to finally get that one good book of business. And, of course, they are able to build their accounts strategically and live off upsells and, importantly, referrals, because their clients know them well enough to be there for them.

Of course there are always salespeople who come in and get big deals straight away. But I think the simple idea of tenure is an aspect that is very often overlooked when we try to find a quick fix in our sales approach and look for the next silver bullet.

Survival is important.

Is the current trend of changing jobs every 2-3 years actually damaging our chances of having a shot at real success? What do you think?

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I find your thoughts really interesting.

My feeling is that it usually takes about one to three years, depending on the segment, to build a solid pipeline that isn’t dependent on luck.

Once you’ve got that pipeline set up and running, you can start closing new customers/expanding customers on a regular basis.

I also agree that if you’ve built up experience in an industry, your network will definitely be a big help to you.

At the same time, the situation inside of the company is really important. I’ve seen sellers build a great pipeline and then lose a lot of it after a big hiring phase.

In particular, when accounts are distributed and assigned each year and each seller should get the same chance of achieving targets each year, it’s difficult to guarantee long-term success.

There is a saying, "Timing, territory, talent, in that order. I don’t agree with it because manifesting this saying is like giving up, not taking control of your own destiny. But there’s some truth in it.

The industry you’re in can be more important than your talent for success. That’s why we sell software, not clothes. The fashion industry had it’s prime long time ago, the same for the newspaper industry, telecom industry, etc. It’s also easier in Tech Sales to sell things that are in demand than products or software that have already peaked.

Overall, I think that tenure is important for success to materialize. However, I can also imagine that someone who joins a Series D or E company every 5 years with huge growth rates and a brand hot product will have the most success because the growth usually makes promotions easier and also allows for better compensation, especially with the pre-IPO equity.

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I just read a post from Ryan, the CEO of RepVue in which he said in order to be successful effort is the fundament and then:

  1. Product
  2. Territory
  3. Talent
  4. Timing

The more experience I collect working in big organizations the more I think it is true. I also underestimated the influence of territory a lot.