According to a report from McKinsey & Company, the average office worker only spends 39 percent of their time on role-specific tasks on any given day.
A successful tech salesperson requires ingenuity when it comes to how they optimize their time for selling, on top of gathering market research, building a network and gaining product knowledge. This is especially true for sales teams working in the early stages of a business where taking risks and evolving every week is par for the course.
To get a better picture of what daily life looks like for tech salespeople today, Built In NYC spoke with six sales employees from different organizations, each with their own unique professional experience and passion for tech sales. For sales representatives looking for their next career move, read more below to get an inside look at some excellent New York teams.
DearDoc is a growth management platform for doctors, focusing on supporting medical practices to grow and serve their client base through our various internet-based products
Describe your current role. What does a typical day look like for you?
My current role is to bring in new business to DearDoc. I have a calendar that is typically filled with meetings with prospects that our SDRs set. I then explain DearDoc to prospects. I discuss why it would be beneficial to their practice and persuade them to sign up. Once they decide to come aboard or not, I then fill out notes and get ready for my next meeting.
What is your favorite part about your job? What about the most challenging aspect? How do you work to overcome those challenges?
My favorite part of the job is getting to be around good people all day and it makes the grind feel a lot more effortless. In addition, being able to improve the lives and businesses of doctors across the nation is a very empowering feeling as well. The most challenging aspect is executing the one-call close. A lot of people are hesitant to give it a shot on the first call, so it takes time to work it down to where they feel comfortable giving it a shot right away.
What opportunities for advancement are there in your position at your employer?
DearDoc offers very fast promotion in-house, which should be intriguing for any potential candidate looking to get into sales out there. I am only 10 months into my tenure at DearDoc and have already been promoted from an SDR to a junior AE, AE1 and AE2 in that short amount of time. There is a lot to learn and a lot of transition, but the system and education of each role are planned out very well at DearDoc. I have never felt unprepared.
There is a lot to learn and a lot of transition, but I have never felt unprepared at DearDoc.”
Gynger provides AI-powered payments platform with embedded financing, built for buyers and sellers of technology.
Describe your current role. What does a typical day look like for you?
My main responsibility is supporting the go-to-market team by booking meetings with qualified accounts. What that entails is researching key accounts and prospects that fit into our ideal customer profile. Once I’ve identified the accounts and prospects, it is then important to understand the financial needs and company goals of who I am targeting, so I can effectively articulate how Gynger can help support them. I then craft creative outbound campaigns utilizing email, LinkedIn and cold calls to articulate Gynger's value proposition to finance executives. After an initial meeting is booked, I work closely with the rest of the go-to-market team to ensure a smooth handoff of qualified leads and maintain effective communication throughout the sales cycle.
What is your favorite part about your job? What about the most challenging aspect? How do you work to overcome those challenges?
My favorite part of my job is the variety of companies we work with. Since Gynger can help support companies within any industry, I’m constantly talking to captivating individuals, and learning about these different companies and industries keeps every day new and exciting.
I’m constantly talking to captivating individuals. Learning about them keeps every day new and exciting.”
It's awesome to see the direct impact Gynger can have on these growing organizations. Every company today depends on software and technology to get their business off the ground and can’t scale successfully without the right tech stack. We're allowing companies to buy the best SaaS tools possible, but on their own flexible financing plan.
A challenging part of working at any startup is brand recognition. Often when speaking with a prospect, it is their first time hearing about Gynger. So it is important to provide the right context and education — being in a market where raising capital is increasingly challenging and runway is top of mind, utilizing alternative financing options can be a great resource for high-growth startups.
What opportunities for advancement are there in your position at your employer?
Joining the go-to-market team at Gynger at such an early stage has provided endless career growth opportunities. It is a dynamic and fast-paced environment, and you need to be able to wear many hats. In doing so, I’ve been able to contribute new ideas, experiment with new approaches and see the direct impact of my contributions at a company-wide level.
I’m also lucky enough to not only have direct access to our leadership team, but also share an office with another startup founded by Mark Ghermezian and his VC fund as well. The office radiates energy with other like-minded professionals who have a passion for excelling in the startup environment.
Additional office perks include free lunch, happy hours, lunch and learns and more.
Healthee’s AI-powered employee benefits app transforms the healthcare experience by simplifying complex insurance and benefits navigation to improve health outcomes.
Describe your current role. What does a typical day look like for you?
I am a regional sales executive at Healthee. In my role, I focus on establishing new relationships and nurturing existing relationships with my broker partners to bring their clients a seamless healthcare experience. My territory currently covers 11 states, so prioritizing my day is extremely important.
To start my day, I check my inbox for any new emails, read a blog or two on a benefits website, browse LinkedIn for any new updates and prepare for the day's meetings and demos.
By mid-morning and into the afternoon, I dive into email and phone call outreach and schedule calls for the week, or I'm in meetings running product demos and having strategy calls with my partners.
Before I end each work day, I make sure I am prepped and ready to go for any meetings that I have scheduled for the following day.
What is your favorite part about your job? What about the most challenging aspect? How do you work to overcome those challenges?
I love the people I get to work with every day, both internal and external. I have the opportunity to travel and meet with my broker partners and prospects throughout my territory which certainly makes things fun!
The most challenging aspect of my role is ensuring that I am staying organized and on top of it at all times. I make sure to take diligent notes — for me that means in our customer relationship management tools and on paper — and utilize tools like Gong to keep items recorded in case I miss an important piece of a conversation I'm having with a partner or prospect. We have a very robust tech stack at Healthee which helps streamline processes, helping me stay more efficient throughout the day.
What opportunities for advancement are there in your position at your employer?
We are a small but mighty — and growing — team at Healthee. As we continue to scale, more opportunities for promotions, management and other leadership positions will be available.
Aside from perks such as LinkedIn Learning that Healthee provides, we have monthly meetings where we can pitch our own ideas, changes we'd like to see, strategies that we think should be implemented, etc. It is such a fun and unique way to have your voice heard — I've never been a part of a company that does something like this, and it is very special that leadership wants to hear from us. We have great benefits, and one that I personally enjoy having available is our unlimited telemedicine and mental health visits. I really appreciate how much Healthee supports and cares for all of their employees.
I've never been a part of a company like this — leadership wants to hear from us.”
HiBob is a people management platform that helps businesses transform the way they manage people.
Describe your current role. What does a typical day look like for you?
As an account executive at HiBob, my job is to acquire new business for the organization by running the sales process from inception to close. This spans the initial call with a prospect, demos, business case creation, contract negotiation, collaboration with professional services and legal and closing of the opportunity upon signature.
Ultimately, every day varies as an account executive. Some days are meeting heavy. Others are consumed by prospecting and the development of my network in New York. Enablement and further skill development are woven into these days as well. Despite the variance from day to day, my consistent goal is to build new pipelines, progress existing opportunities and up-level myself as a salesperson and colleague.
What is your favorite part about your job? What about the most challenging aspect? How do you work to overcome those challenges?
My favorite parts about being an account executive include partnering with clients, learning about a diverse range of businesses and industries and owning my book of business. There is a lot to be said about working with some of the best minds in HR, constantly improving my business acumen and having the independence to make impactful decisions.
While there are many good days in sales, there are just as many difficult days. The most challenging aspect of my role is centered around generating new opportunities. I truly believe in HiBob's platform, our mission and our ability to help customers globally. With that being said, I can't have an impact on a business if I can't get them to engage with us in the first place. For this reason, I consistently partner with our business development, marketing and customer success teams to build trust in the market and drive new interactions. It's still a work in progress, but as we continue to do the right things, we will see a return on our investment.
What opportunities for advancement are there in your position at your employer?
HiBob is in hyper-scale mode, but that hasn't kept the organization from focusing on its people, especially as it relates to career advancement. In my current position, there are a handful of opportunities for informal and formal mentoring, semi-annual performance reviews, and self-service education through our learning management system.
Personally, I have leaned most heavily into informal mentoring opportunities, having most recently spent time with our Revenue Operations team, so that I could better understand how they are looking at the business from a metric-driven perspective. While we certainly have room to grow, I am genuinely impressed by HiBob's commitment to its employees and the evolution of its people-centric programs.
I'm genuinely impressed by the evolution of HiBob's people-centric programs.”
Box provides the leading Content Cloud, a single platform that empowers organizations to manage the entire content lifecycle, work securely from anywhere, and integrate across best of breed apps.
Describe your current role. What does a typical day look like for you?
As a sales development representative team lead at Box, I am responsible for managing a team of six other SDRs, with my overall goal to create pipeline and contribute to the overall success of the sales organization. A key role in my position is qualifying leads to ensure they meet the criteria for becoming potential customers, which involves understanding the prospect's needs, budget and decision-making authority.
Once a lead is qualified, we use a combination of outreach methods such as launching targeted email campaigns and calling to establish a strong connection and generate interest with these potential customers. If the opportunity is small, we are able to run the full sales cycle ourselves, but if it is larger, we pass it off to our account executives. We are in charge of scheduling meetings and product demonstrations for the account executives, ensuring they can focus on closing deals and building relationships while we facilitate the initial stages of the sales process.
What is your favorite part about your job? What about the most challenging aspect? How do you work to overcome those challenges?
One of the aspects I truly appreciate about my role is the incredible people and culture. Everyone at Box is approachable and willing to help, and there's a shared commitment to success. It fosters an environment where I feel encouraged to bring my best self to work each day. It's an inclusive environment that values open communication and continuous learning, and this encouragement to share ideas and the receptiveness to feedback create a positive atmosphere that motivates me to excel in my role.
Everyone at Box is approachable and willing to help. There's a shared commitment to success.”
On the other hand, one of the more challenging aspects of being an SDR is handling rejection. In this role, we often reach out to prospects who may not be ready to engage or may not have an immediate interest. Dealing with rejection regularly requires a high level of resilience and persistence to maintain a positive attitude despite numerous "no" responses. The key is to learn from each rejection, adapt our approach and stay motivated to keep moving forward. Despite the challenges of handling rejection, the unwavering support and encouragement from my coworkers and managers create a collaborative environment where everyone is genuinely invested in my success as an SDR.
What opportunities for advancement are there in your position at your employer?
One of the main reasons I chose to work at Box was the endless avenues for career advancements. Successfully meeting or exceeding sales quotas and demonstrating a strong understanding of the sales process can open doors to transitioning into higher positions such as outside business representative or account executive roles. Even though this is the usual path for an SDR, you are not stuck to only selling. You can join a variety of different teams such as customer success, solution engineering, renewals and more.
Personally, at Box, I take advantage of the mentor program. Through this five-month, one-on-one program, I am paired with a mentor in my role of choice. I meet weekly with my mentor and they provide me with guided solutions, resources and suggestions for personal or professional development activities. I aspire to be an account executive, and this program has provided me with the guidance and tools I need to keep striving toward that goal.
Augury uses purpose-built AI, to help manufacturers eliminate production downtime, improve process efficiency, maximize yield and reduce waste and emissions.
Describe your current role. What does a typical day look like for you?
Currently, I am both a strategic account director and enterprise sales manager. There is no typical day. My days are driven by customer needs. I engage in diverse activities, from quarterly business reviews to technical discussions and product demos, all aimed at enhancing manufacturing efficiency. Collaborating closely with Augury teams, including services, field, product and research and development, is crucial in devising effective strategies. Given the complexity of a manufacturing organization, much of my day is spent with Augury account teams to collaborate on delivering technology and services that drive tangible, positive outcomes for our customers.
What is your favorite part about your job? What about the most challenging aspect? How do you work to overcome those challenges?
My favorite and most challenging aspect is engaging with Augury’s diverse clientele. I find it incredibly motivating to discuss technology transformation with Fortune 500 customers, understanding their unique challenges, opportunities and goals. Yet, the complex nature of manufacturing digital transformation poses hurdles. Hiring team members who empathize with our customers is crucial. Augury's exceptional team inspires me to do my best, day in and day out.
Augury's exceptional team inspires me to do my best, day in and day out.”
What opportunities for advancement are there in your position at your employer?
Opportunities for advancement at Augury are available, with internal mobility across teams and promotions into management roles actively encouraged and integrated into the business plan. I recently transitioned into a sales management role after interviewing for the position, a testament to the company's commitment to employee growth. Additionally, Augury offers appealing perks such as co-working spaces for remote employees, bi-weekly Fridays off, unlimited paid time off, LinkedIn Learning and a dedicated learning and development budget.
