To break into tech sales with no experience, most people start as a sales development representative (SDR), booking meetings for account executives, then move up to closing deals. The way in is showing the traits managers screen for, mainly coachability, resilience and curiosity, by prospecting the hiring manager the way you'd prospect a customer.
Definition: Tech sales is selling software, hardware or technology services to businesses (B2B), usually through a team split into roles that find prospects, close deals and keep customers, with pay split between a base salary and commission.
Tech sales has an unusual front door. In our view, few other well-paid corners of tech hire people with no related degree or industry experience.
The catch is what's behind the door: a quota, a lot of rejection and pay that depends on results.
How to break into tech sales: the SDR to AE path
Most tech sales teams split the work into a few roles. Titles vary, but the usual ladder looks like this:
- Sales development representative (SDR) or business development representative (BDR). Researches prospects, sends emails and makes calls, and books first meetings. This is the most common entry point. Our guide on how to get an SDR job covers the interview and the role in detail.
- Account executive (AE). Runs demos, manages the deal and closes it. AEs are often segmented by customer size: small business, mid-market and enterprise.
- Account manager or customer success manager. Keeps and grows existing customers through renewals and upsells.
- Sales engineer or solutions consultant. The technical partner on deals. Per the Bureau of Labor Statistics, a bachelor's degree is typical, often in engineering, though sales experience plus technical training can qualify some candidates. The BLS reports a median of $124,900 in 2025.
How fast does the ladder move? Per The Bridge Group's 2025 SDR benchmark of 351 B2B companies, SDRs ramp in about 3.0 months on average and stay about 1.9 years. Of the report's 40 percent median annual attrition in 2024, promotions made up 16 points, meaning about one SDR in six moved up; in 2020 that figure was 34 percent. Meanwhile, its 2026 AE report found companies asking for an average of 3.7 years of experience at hire, up from 2.7 in 2022.
Our read: the SDR seat is still the main entry point, but the step up to AE has gotten harder to earn. Plan to spend 12 to 24 months as an SDR, and ask in interviews how many SDRs were promoted last year.
How tech sales pay works: base, variable and OTE
Tech sales pay has two parts:
- Base salary: paid regardless of results.
- Variable pay: commission or bonus tied to a quota (meetings booked for SDRs, revenue closed for AEs).
On-target earnings (OTE) is base plus variable if you hit exactly 100 percent of quota. The BLS describes most sales employers as using a mix of salary and commission or salary plus bonuses, and the split is where the risk lives.
Benchmarks from The Bridge Group, both vendor surveys of B2B companies:
| Role | Median OTE | Split or quota | Share at quota |
|---|---|---|---|
| SDR (2025 report) | $80,000 | 68:32 ($55K base, $25K variable) | 60 percent |
| AE (2026 report) | $200,000 | Median quota $960,000 | 48 percent |
The SDR median OTE has stayed at $80,000 since 2022, per that report. For a broader comparison, the BLS reports a May 2025 median of $104,920 for sales representatives of technical and scientific products, versus $72,080 for other wholesale and manufacturing reps.
Worked example: what OTE means in practice
An illustrative SDR plan using the Bridge Group medians: $55,000 base, $25,000 variable, and a quota of 10 qualified meetings a month.
- Variable at 100 percent is about $2,083 a month, or roughly $208 per meeting.
- At 70 percent of quota (7 meetings a month all year), you earn $55,000 plus $17,500, or $72,500.
- At 120 percent, with a plan that pays linearly above quota, you earn $55,000 plus $30,000, or $85,000.
Now an illustrative AE plan: $200,000 OTE split 50:50, with a $960,000 annual quota. That's a commission rate of about 10.4 percent. At 70 percent attainment ($672,000 closed), pay would be about $170,000.
Real plans add accelerators, caps, clawbacks and ramp periods. Still, OTE is a target, not a promise. With fewer than half of AEs at quota in the 2026 Bridge Group data, it helps to ask what the median rep on the team actually earned.
What B2B sales looks like now
B2B sales means selling to organizations, usually with several people on the buying side, longer timelines and a contract. Three shifts are worth knowing before an interview:
Buyers want less of you, earlier. In a Gartner survey of 646 B2B buyers fielded in August and September 2025, 67 percent said they prefer a rep-free buying experience. In our view, that raises the bar for reps rather than removing them: buyers arrive better informed, so the rep has to add something a website can't.
AI is moving into the workflow. Salesforce's 2026 State of Sales report, a vendor survey of 4,050 sales professionals in 22 countries (fielded August to September 2025), found reps spend about 40 percent of their time selling, 54 percent have used AI agents, and 55 percent use AI for prospecting. Expect questions about how you'd use them.
Deals climb higher. In a September 2024 essay, a16z's growth team wrote that enterprise sales is back, with heavier cycles that often bring in the CFO alongside the CIO, and that most CIOs want software with clear, measurable ROI. For a new rep, that means learning to talk about cost and payback, not just features.
If you want the founder's-eye view of complex B2B deals, our enterprise sales playbook for founders shows what the buying side looks like.
What tech sales hiring managers screen for
Entry-level sales hiring usually isn't about product knowledge. It's about traits that are slow to teach. The ones we'd expect most managers to probe:
- Coachability. Can you take feedback in a role play and do better on the second try?
- Resilience. Have you kept going through repeated rejection, in work, sport or anything else?
- Curiosity. Did you research the company, its customers and its competitors before the interview?
- Clear communication. Can you explain something simply, in writing and out loud?
- Drive with evidence. A target you set and hit, with a number attached.
That list overlaps with what operators publish. Pete Kazanjy, a cofounder of TalentBin, laid out his sales hiring process in a 2015 First Round Review piece: screen for coachability, resourcefulness and persistence, then run a mock presentation and watch whether the candidate asks for the sale.
Most loops include a mock cold call or a prospecting exercise. Two things help: practice handling objections out loud (our VC Unfiltered piece on handling cold call objections is written for founders but transfers well), and treat your outreach to the hiring manager as the first test. It is one.
How to get a tech sales job with no experience
"No experience" usually means no tech sales experience. Many backgrounds already carry the screened traits. A quick translation guide:
- Retail and hospitality: reading people fast, upselling, staying calm under pressure, working to targets.
- Customer service and call centers: handling objections, product knowledge, phone stamina. Per the BLS, customer service representatives earned a median of $44,770 in May 2025, with employment projected to decline 5 percent from 2025 to 2035, which makes the move worth considering.
- Recruiting, teaching and athletics: quotas, presenting to a tough room, and taking coaching.
Rewrite your resume in the job's language. "Served 60 tables a night" becomes "Handled 60 customer interactions a night and raised average check size 12 percent through recommendations." Numbers make transferable skills believable.
Myth check: the follow-up statistic
You'll see claims like "80 percent of sales happen after the fifth follow-up" in sales content. We couldn't trace that figure to a primary study, so we'd treat it as folklore. What benchmarks do support is that persistence and volume matter: the Bridge Group's 2025 data shows a median of 112 activities a day per SDR. Follow up, but don't quote that number in an interview.
How to transition into tech sales from another sales job
If you already sell cars, insurance, real estate or retail, you have a head start, and you may not need to start at the bottom. Some experienced reps go straight into SMB AE roles, especially at startups. Others take an SDR seat to learn software sales and get promoted fast.
The deciding factors tend to be your pay floor, your proof of quota attainment, and how close your old buyers are to the new ones. Our sibling guide on moving from sales into tech goes deep on that decision and on reading comp plans.
A 90-day plan to break into tech sales
Days 1 to 30: learn and pick a lane. - Learn the basic sales process (prospecting, discovery, demo, negotiation, close) and the vocabulary (pipeline, ICP, ARR, churn). - Pick a segment where your background helps: healthcare software for a former nurse, restaurant tech for a former server. - Write your resume around numbers and the five traits above.
Days 31 to 60: build a target list and start outreach. - List 30 to 50 companies hiring SDRs. On the 1752vc careers board, filter by Entry level and Past 7 days to see fresh roles at venture-backed startups and AI companies. - Find the sales manager for each role and send a short, researched note (template below). - Practice cold calls out loud every day, ideally with a friend playing a tough buyer.
Days 61 to 90: interview and close. - Expect a role play. Prepare a short pitch for the company's product. - After each interview, send a follow-up that recaps the buyer's problem, as you would after a sales call. - Ask about ramp, quota attainment on the team and how many SDRs were promoted last year.
A realistic weekly routine
An illustrative routine: 10 tailored applications and 10 notes to sales managers a week. At a 15 percent reply rate, that's about 6 conversations a month. Treat it as a planning figure; reply rates vary a lot. Recheck the careers board each Monday sorted by newest, since it's refreshed weekly.
Outreach note to a sales manager
Subject: SDR role: 3 accounts I'd call first
Hi [Name], I applied for the SDR role today. I spent an hour on your customer stories and noticed most are [segment]. Three companies that look like a fit: [A], [B], [C], each because [one-line reason].
I've spent [time] in [previous job], where I [result with a number]. I'd love 15 minutes to hear how your team ramps new reps.
[Name], [LinkedIn]
The note is your first sales email. Keep it under 100 words, specific to them, and with one clear ask.
Tracking sheet columns
Company, role, link, date posted, sales manager, date contacted, reply (yes or no), next step, call notes. Review reply rates every two weeks to see whether your message or targeting needs work.
"Tech sales is a burnout treadmill"
The worry is reasonable. The Bridge Group's 2025 SDR report shows median annual attrition of 40 percent and only 60 percent of SDRs at quota, the lowest on record. Its 2026 AE data shows ramp times at a study high of 6.2 months. Some teams churn through new hires.
But averages hide a wide spread. A team with a clear ideal customer, decent lead flow and real coaching is a different job than one with a cold list and a dialer. The interview is your diligence: ask what share of reps hit quota, how long people stay and what happened to last year's SDR class.
Our read: tech sales is a solid path into tech for many people, as long as they pick the team carefully. It's not for everyone, and that's fine.
Common mistakes
- Applying with no outreach. In sales hiring, a researched note is evidence of the job itself.
- Taking OTE at face value. Ask what the median rep earned, not what's possible.
- Skipping the team questions. Ramp, quota attainment and promotion history tell you more than the title.
For early-stage companies specifically, our sibling guide on getting a sales job at a startup covers founding AE roles and quota risk. For the wider picture, see how to get a job in tech.
Where we land
We think tech sales is one of the more open doors into tech for people without a technical degree. The SDR role rewards traits many people already have, and the pay structure is learnable once you see the math. The path to AE is slower than it used to be, so choose a team that promotes.
That's our read of the current data, not a verdict.
The bottom line
Tech sales doesn't ask where you've been. It asks whether you'll pick up the phone again after the tenth no.
Your resume gets you the interview.
Your outreach note is the interview.
Key takeaways
- Most people break into tech sales as an SDR or BDR, then move to account executive; promotions have slowed, per The Bridge Group's 2025 data.
- OTE is base plus variable at 100 percent of quota; median SDR OTE was $80,000 (68:32 split) and median AE OTE $200,000 in Bridge Group's reports.
- Fewer than half of AEs hit quota in the 2026 Bridge Group data, so ask what the median rep actually earned.
- Hiring managers screen mainly for coachability, resilience, curiosity and communication, and test them with role plays and outreach.
- Retail, hospitality, customer service, recruiting and teaching backgrounds translate well when you rewrite them with numbers.
Frequently asked questions
Often, yes, for SDR and BDR roles, where managers tend to screen for traits like coachability and resilience more than credentials. Some companies still list a degree, and technical roles such as sales engineer typically expect a bachelor's degree, per the BLS. A resume with clear numbers and a researched outreach note can offset a missing degree.
Many SDRs aim for promotion within 12 to 24 months, but it varies by company. The Bridge Group's 2025 benchmark puts average SDR tenure at about 1.9 years and found about 16 percent of SDRs were promoted out of the role in 2024, down from 34 percent in 2020. Ask each employer how many SDRs it promoted last year.
OTE, or on-target earnings, is your base salary plus the variable pay you'd earn by hitting exactly 100 percent of quota. It isn't guaranteed. If you hit 70 percent of quota, you earn base plus roughly 70 percent of the variable, depending on the plan. Ask for the share of reps at quota and the median rep's actual pay.
It can be. Customer service and hospitality build objection handling, composure and fast rapport, which entry sales roles screen for. Per the BLS, customer service representatives earned a median of $44,770 in May 2025, with employment projected to decline 5 percent through 2035. Expect a quota, frequent rejection and pay that depends partly on results.
Mainly coachability, resilience, curiosity and clear communication, plus evidence of drive such as a target you set and hit. Interviews often include a role play or mock cold call to see how you take feedback. Researching the company and sending a specific note to the sales manager also shows the prospecting skill the job needs.
Sources
- The Bridge Group: SDR Models, Motions and Metrics, 2025 Research Report
- The Bridge Group: AE Models, Motions and Metrics, 2026 Research Report
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Wholesale and Manufacturing Sales Representatives
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Sales Engineers
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: Customer Service Representatives
- Gartner: Sales Survey Finds 67 Percent of B2B Buyers Prefer a Rep-Free Experience
- Salesforce: State of Sales Report 2026
- First Round Review: The Anatomy of the Perfect Sales Hiring Process (Pete Kazanjy)
- Andreessen Horowitz: Selling Is Hard Right Now. Here's How to Win Business in the Gen AI Era
Disclaimer: This guide is for general education only and is not legal, tax or investment advice. Laws, market data and program terms change, so it may not reflect the latest developments or fit your situation. Treat it as a starting point, not a source of truth, and talk to a qualified lawyer, accountant or financial adviser before you make decisions.
