The Subtle and Not So Subtle Differences between SDR, AE, and SE

Notes:

What is the difference between a Sales Development Representative (SDR), Account Executive (AE), and a Sales Engineer (SE)? Is one better than the other? Is an SDR role or an AE a good stepping stone for an SE role? Which job pays better?

In this episode, Eric Finch provides advice on making a smart career choice between AE, SDR & SE. Eric Finch is a former US national team athlete and engineer who transitioned into tech sales. He became a global no. 1 seller for two years in a row at a 300-person high-growth startup, which has now gone public. Now, he runs an online business helping people break into tech sales. In this episode, I talked to Erich about the differences between sales engineering and tech sales and how one can make a smart career choice between the two.

Key Takeaways:

Parallels between sales and sports
How Eric came to engineering
What enticed Eric to sales
The relevance of competition in sales
Engineering vs sales
Why Eric chose to start as an SDR
What an SDR is
Where an SDR gets leads
The importance of product knowledge in sales
SDR vs sales engineering
How SDRs do cold calls in a day
Eric’s experiences in his first months as an SDR
Eric’s advice for people who want to do tech sales to transition to sales engineering
How Erich got promoted from SDR to sales in just three and a half months
How Eric became “sick” of engineering
The day-to-day reality for an SDR
What makes a good SDR
What the Tech Sales Ascension program is all about
How to do a self-assessment to see if you would be a good SDR
Sales influencers you could follow for knowledge and inspiration

Quotes:

“In almost all cases you’re dealing with leads and what you’re trying to do is reach out to prospects at companies that may use your product and try and set up a meeting to further investigate if it’s a fit.” — Eric Finch

“In a very highly technical sales role, I’m not sitting there spewing about the benefits of the product, but I’m using my knowledge of the product and how prospects use that tool or competitors to effectively drive a result.” — Eric Finch

“I don’t think SDR is a stepping stone to sales engineering…. there are better roles that are stepping stones like customer success or technical account management.” — Ramzi Marjaba