If you’re looking for an entry-level position in tech sales then chances are you’ve seen Course Careers content on the internet. They are responsible for the recent viral marketing army of SDRs that has been released into the world, all recent graduates, and all promoting course careers with their own custom affiliate links. Now, I’m not knocking down someone’s hustle, but as your friendly neighborhood salesman, I’m here to tell you that you don’t need Course Careers to start your career in tech sales. You don’t need any certification course for that matter to start a career in tech sales. In this post, I’ll go over 4 reasons why you don’t need course careers to start a career in tech sales.
Is Course Careers Worth It?
1. Their Course Takes Too Long:
The amount of time it will take you to go through their 8 weeks of training is time that you can spend networking and meeting actual sales professionals. This is time that you can spend applying to actual jobs and going on actual interviews. It shouldn’t take 8 weeks to “learn” tech sales. Tech sales is something that is learned by selling, preferably under the supervision of skilled professionals in an active and growing market. It is not something that can be learned in a classroom. Therefore, the sooner you get to the actual stuff, and the selling, the better off you’ll be towards achieving your goals.
2. The Skills they are teaching you can be learned by reading a few books:
Moreover, these are skills that need to be practiced in real time and with real people in the field. These are not skills that are to be pontificated upon in a classroom and in roleplaying scenarios. The sooner you can get out there and apply these skills in your actual job search and then in your actual job, the closer you will be to realizing some of your dreams with this career.
3. The Cost is Too High:
Years ago when I got started, there was no gatekeeper on sales training. Sales is not a certification sport. It’s an action sport, a sport of grit, consistency, and emotional intelligence. No one can teach you this. This is something that you have to learn by doing it on the job, persisting, and iterating to become better. And you certainly don’t need to pay someone for something that you can learn yourself on the job search and then later on the job. Besides, if you’re going to pay for training, save it for when it counts for methodologies like Sandler Selling, MEDDIC, etc.
4. You Learn when you get on the job
Most companies that hire SDRs will have a playbook of success. When you get to the new company, you won’t be following Course Career’s Playbook, you will be following the playbook that your Sales Manager gives you. You will be following the playbook that the most successful reps are using. This is not something that can be understood until you get to an organization and understand how they sell their products successfully. Every product, every market, and every customer profile is a little bit different and requires calibration.
In Closing
Ultimately, I’m sure Course Careers is fantastic. But the truth is you can save both time and money without it. You certainly don’t need it for the job. I’ve laid out a step-by-step plan on how to get that job as an SDR. You should check it out here.
All the best in your search, TJ
