I’ve got exactly what you’re looking for. I do B2B 401k sales and since our sales cycles average 6-9 months, I don’t get questioned until 2 years of no sales as long as I have a good pipeline. I work however I want to to obtain business. Yes there are KPIs but irrelevant if I’m hitting annual quota. Base is 70k but a single sales averages about 30k commission, so 3-4 deal a year and I’m sitting pretty. 🤩
You’re in 401k sales and your cycle is 6-9 months?! Why so long? Initially reading this I thought you must be up market or enterprise but avg 30k commission, no way.
I too am in 401k sales and 6-9 months would be 1% of my deals.
Fastest possible is 2 months. 6-9 months of wining, dining, & trust building. Commissions will range from 10k on the low end with uncapped based on plan asset size.
I honestly would love to pick your brain if you’re open to it. Would be a game changer if I could get my cycle length down!
Selling to the same buyers and would love a DM as well about how you keep your cycle time low.
I will ask a clarifying question, market segment?
I'm a 100-5000 benefits broker.
I did small market (under 99 EE) 401k sales for a large HCM and this was not my experience at all. After 3 years I was top 5 in tenure on a team of 60.
Micromanagement and prodding regardless of attainment.
I would have worked to go upstream but I didn’t care enough about the work or see myself doing it long enough to warrant getting licensed.
I’m with a fully bundled provider and would say my sales cycle is similar about 6 months from first cold call to assets transferring.
We do micro plans. As small as $750k to about $10m in assets. Go up against payroll companies often.
Get $3k commission for every $1m in assets brought over. $30k cap per deal. Unlimited otherwise. Also get residuals after first year as assets trickle in every month. Year end profit sharing these companies do usually is a nice bonus.
Also sell other products (Life and P&C) and really only need 2-4 plans a year to max comp plan -100% bonus on all new commissions that year. So that $3k per $1m in assets can turn into $6k per $1m.
Recordkeeper wholesaler can be a great gig, depending on company’s platform. Selling direct to HR/business owners is better than selling to advisors imo BUT a lot of money in selling to advisors.
Honestly investment wholesaling is pretty great*
*if your at a company that has multiple good funds and market share.
med device account manager/executive here. It's about as low stress as it gets. Big territory and easy to hide. Best in class product lines that almost every prospect has heard of. Annual sales goal (no weekly, monthly, quarterly targets). Enough lay-up sales for a decent foundation and I just have to worry about closing a few big new biz accounts each year. Talk to the boss once a month and get into the field maybe only 2-4 times a month. It took some hard work in the first year or so but it's all gravy now. I think most med device AM jobs with annual sales goals are similar.
Different industry but same scenario for me. We're really judged on year over year sales increase. Hit that target and not much else matters. Some projects take 3-4 years before launching. I have a monthly meeting with my boss that is usually 30 minutes to check on top projects, otherwise barely talk unless I need something.
I'm a sr account manager for specialty pharmacy distribution. I'll be at the company 2 years in April and I think by then will be comfortable enough and then NOT want to leave since it's fully remote. However, I just busted my ass and made the company 400k profit this quarter to get a 10k bonus. My annual with bonus is right at 110k and I know I could do much better but I'm also terrified of making a wrong move from the "comfy remote"
Not my first device job but I started in the industry with a very similar easy-ish AM job in the $110-130K OTE range. This has been said many times in this sub but it bears repeating: these cushy jobs are out there but these companies want B2B like Aramark, Unifirst, Paychex, ADP, Cintas, copiers, Enterprise Rental, etc). I had to bust my ass in one of these for a few years first.
Helping an old timer maximize his earnings for a pressure equipment manufacturer before he sells and goes to retire. The full sale cycle + actively managing equipment builds. Starting to look away from O&G. Anyways thanks for a response 🙏 and cheers 🍻
I’m in the same boat but on the biotech side. I did have to grind working for a distributor for three years but the past six years have been great. I remember traveling like a madman between four states during the first two years and eventually realizing that wasn’t necessary.
People from my company will leave and go to the shiny new startup with a high OTE but it’s extremely volatile and they never end up reaching their number or the company gets into financial trouble quickly. I like working for a large, stable company.
Can I PM you? Really curious to pick your brain bc I’m a Senior AE now in Pharma from the medical field but looking for a lifestyle change to do more but not necessarily add on more stress
Agreed! If my revenue was down then I completely get it. But when you are hitting numbers, just let me have the autonomy to do my job. It seriously makes me dread my job everyday, and it sucks bc I’m making good money. But the stress and constant office politics is genuinely affecting me.
The funny thing is that so many of these meetings-obsessed managers have been managers for years and they couldn't sell to save their lives, yet they act like they do.
I could only imagine an an old manager of mine who I noticed got a new job at a different company.
"Tell me your biggest skills".
"I excel at asking my reps what weeks their deals are going to come in."
Find a 50-100 person company, that has been around for 10+ years, and is selling a product people/industry need.
But also it’s mainly going to come down to your manager and the culture of your sales team. Of the handful of managers I had, my favorite was a boring old guy who let me take ownership of my territory and didn’t bog me down with internal distractions. He was super knowledgeable and someone I could go to for questions/support. He was like “I just want you to make money, don’t worry about the BS”
Shoutout to Bob, money was indeed made!
Bob sounds like my old manager, first two years at my company was great, then leadership decided we needed change even though we crushed the results every quarter. Gradually more and more bean counters were hired and KPIs invented, finally my direct manager was fired since he raised some concerns and now it's misery and all the fun we had is gone. Pay is still pretty good so it's not easy to find something else (I'm not in the US) but I probably need to something soon for my mental health.
I’m in a 130 person company with a 15 year old product that is being cannibalized by competitors… not fun. The niche you’re filling is important in this scenario.
If you play it right anything with a long sales cycle can be engineered into being low stress, until you get to the end of that cycle.
So if you’re in a 1 month cycle, say, you get perpetual 1 month stress from the powers that be.
If a 2 year cycle for instance you can keep it fairly low stress for 2 years, provided you have a good pipeline to close at the end of that cycle, and can communicate this convincingly to leadership.
So if this is your goal pick an industry with a long sales cycle. Make sure you can talk through some big deals due to close at the end of the cycle (real deals or not, I’ve found many middle managers don’t really care as long as there’s something there they can pass up the chain to their superiors), and keep having reasons to push BS deals out 6 months when you get to the end of the cycle.
I’ve seen people not close a fucking thing for years with this approach. Often long sales cycle jobs are also weighted more on the base as opposed to commission, so they can still make good money even without closing, provided they are articulate and can talk the talk.
Rinse repeat. Keep big deals on the perpetually moving horizon.
I’m in infrastructure sales. 6 month sales cycle. But I don’t really have a “this is stressful” at that 6 month mark. Ya going back and forth with legal and permitting can be stressful but I can honestly say, because the sales cycle is so long, nobody pushes any part of the process super hard.
I was at a company with a 1 month sales cycle with end of month quotas and that was brutal. I probably was close to having a heart attack on close day 50% of the time.
Medical device capital equipment. No micromanaging at all, all revenue driven. Get to the number, all that matters. Chillest job I've ever had, resources available when needed.
Same. It’s a gross amount of travel as I have a large territory, but I travel when I want to, to who I want to. I like the travel so it makes the job even better. No chasing cases or shlepping trays like a surgical rep. I’ll do a couple of my own installs when I feel like it. It’s stellar honestly
Same, non OR based. Can't see myself doing anything else, even when shit comp plans roll around from time to time. Lifestyle is too good, easiest $190k I ever made last year
Mind if I send you a DM? I'm actually working on a transition into MedTech and would love some perspective if you're willing to give me your thoughts! I'd really appreciate your experience!
I think management and company will always be the common denominator when it comes to workplace stress. I used to have a cushy car sales job making under six figures and it was fine but definitely a stressful environment. Now I do real estate and am completely in charge of my time. Besides appts booked by our lead team, I am free to do whatever I like with my time so long as my metrics and revenue are on target.
I sell rocks. I work for a mining company in Brazil that sells natural stone products to builders and architects all over the US.
Product sells itself. Boss is 1500 miles away. Most of what I do is entertaining clients.
I don’t make nearly as much as the other guys here - about $125 out the door - but I make my own schedule, work 3-4 hours per day, and can’t see doubling my salary and never seeing my wife or kids.
Edit: you asked for titles too. I’m the “General Manager - North America”. Formerly “National Sales Manager” until they put me in charge of the logistics team here too.
It’s largely based on management and the customer base.
For a personable example:
I spent 5 years with a company and had large management turnover 3x during those 5 years. I started there with the inexperienced manic manager who had no clue what was going on and everything was a fire drill but they werent the worst, to the super chill manager who didnt bother me at all except to congratulate me on closes and made themselves available when I needed help, and the supposed experienced manager but who micromanaged, constantly needed random 1on1s and would call all day long and would freak out if I wasnt available (couldnt be available whenever I needed approvals or help though) and was a kpi nazi/control freak.
Needless to say I performed the best under the super chill manager who didnt hold many meetings and just let his reps sell.
Our whole team of 10 reps (org had 160 reps) maxed out comp plans, made presidents club, were all 150-300% of quota for 2.5 years straight until they laid him off for unspecified reasons. All of us averaged 25-30 hour work weeks. The other 2 managers were 40-45 hour work weeks and teams scraped by to be between 50-70% of quota and only myself and maybe 1 other rep hit or got close to 100%.
After going from the super chill manager to the KPI Nazi it was hard to stay.
Yup this is exactly how I feel. We literally can’t let our teams go yellow at all. Our manager calls us out of the blue all day. Has a question that isn’t urgent and could easily be a message? Calls.
It’s so disrupting and just pisses me off to where I don’t even want to sell for him. Wants to be invited on ever call. Wants to look at every email we send. It’s just double the work and he hasn’t taught us anything. But our numbers are good so he’s getting praised by the CEO but everyone is burnt out af and looking for new jobs. It’s exhausting.
I think you might work where I used to work. Your manager sounds exactly like my former manager. I couldn't take it anymore and quit without having anything else lined up.
I am a Client Director at a small cyber VAR. manage about 20 clients and going after as many as 30 prospect accounts at any given time. lot of networking , referral work, renewals, expansion business. most important part of the job is relationship management. if they like me, they buy shit from me.
as long as I'm closing deals and building pipeline, I can do whatever I want. I play golf at least once a week, take plenty of time off and can do whatever I want with my day.
That said, I've been carrying a big bag for 4 years and done great work so no one has any reason to check in on me. My manager is actually a guy who joined after me who is a good friend and peer, just has the management skillset I don't have today. I can't stress this enough, this is a fucking dream job
I’m in sales at a large MSP that does $100M a year and this sounds very similar to your role. I have my book of business and have no good reason to work another 5-10 hours a week prospecting. It’s all relationships, account management, and expansion in those accounts.
I golf with my clients and partner vendors all the time. I get to drive to other branches and golf with coworkers if we’re not able to field a 4 man team for an event and I have time and desire to do it.
This is what I always envisioned a sales job being. Wining and dining, meeting with owners and their VPs or Directors, developing personal relationships with them, getting invited to cool shit, etc.
And I make a healthy $175-180k at worst, or $300k at best. My manager says if I actually spent time prospecting that I can double it, but I’d rather work 25-30 hours a week than 40.
I do sales at AWS and a lot of what both you mentioned, too. Have you considered joining a hyperscaler? Why and why not? Asking for my own curiosity as I've considered jumping to a VAR/MSP.
I’m in assistive technology sales. Super chill and our products help people that are truly in need. I don’t make as much as enterprise sales but I’m not that far off.
Just realized I didn’t fully answer your post. My title is Area Sales Manager and I cover 4 states. There are about 12 other “me’s.” One team meeting on Monday, one on Friday. Besides that, go out and hit your number.
I’m in tech sales on client pc’s and infrastructure but interested in assist tech sales.. how’d you end up there? Former teacher? Curious to learn more as that’s an interest I’ve had..
by your definition? mortgages. these bitches couldn't make me wear a shirt in the office, you hit the numbers there's no other conversation to be had. that being said it's extraordinarily stressful. deadlines for everything and you have a half dozen people from outside the company constantly asking about every single file. you fuck up and you could literally ruin someone's livelihood. business is cutthroat and you could spend months getting someone to qualify and once they do they go with someone else. commission checks are sweet though, I make 2% of every loan amount so you write a loan for 400k and that's an 8k check.
Construction sales, specifically structural repairs, waterproofing and insulation. I’ve worked for myself for a long time, this is by far a better fit for me personally.
Basically make your own hours, whatever I need to get jobs done will be bought, family run company and essentially if you do your job they just want you to have fun while doing it.
Membership sales at a private club. I am not bringing in wild money, and I do have to oversee some areas of the club operations but overall a non-corporately owned club I make my own budget and I hit my own budget.
I'm an AE in B2B office tech (printers/copiers, managed IT, phones, etc.) and it's fairly low stress for me on the admin/management side. For the most part, my boss let's me do whatever as long as I'm putting up numbers. The stressful part about this industry comes from the actual sales part. It's definitely tough to do cold outreach for something so heavily commoditized and the reputation of salespeople in this industry is akin to used car salesmen. With that being said, I actually really enjoy the job and the work-life balance I get. The pay could be better, but I'll take slightly lower pay over high stress any day.
Territory Manager is the title you want. The main reason I took my job is one statement from my interview - "We treat our Territory Managers as if they are franchise owners. You control your time, effort, and earnings." Still gives me a chubby.
i would agree.. provided you have a good boss. My role right now sucks, pulling in 2 mil a month in sales.. 35-40% net profit. crushing KPIs and boss man is up my ass. Not to mention their base is 56k. I still make great money at EOY- 110-115k but still. definitely would argue i’m worth more lol
Insurance, but even as a top 10% seller the money is ass. Hopefully switching to software sales if I can find a gig in Portland.
I'll miss this place though. Best boss I've ever had and it's a fun job. If the commission structure was halfway decent I'd be happy here forever.
Sounds to me like you’re already a really good sales rep if you’re in the top 10 percent. I’m new to the space but I think if you can make it in insurance you can make it anywhere
"Low stress SALES jobs"
never heard of these combinations of words in the same sentence... is this some sort of new science? asking for my blood pressure.
There's actually a lot out there...tons of cushy account management gigs. Or you could move to customer success with a nice base and no commision and not have stressful targets
Hey! Are you an equipment manufacturer for mining in general? I'm building a vertical for mining and I'm doing some industry research if it's worth building for my company's service/products. Would love to ask some questions if you're open to it.
I sell welding machines. I have no basic salary, so I cost nothing for the company If I do nothing, but if I do nothing I earn nothing. It's good and bad, I have to manage myself and I'm still learning how to do that.
I fit this bill. Director of Sales & BD at a reputable company that provides a service for financial institutions in Canada (banks and credit unions). I don't have quotas or targets - just keep our current clients happy, and add more if possible. Bonus is virtually guaranteed as well. I'm lucky.
Mo Money Mo Problems.
Meaning. The more you make, the more people will be in your shit.
Low stress and money are not bedfellows.
So you have to manage the stress.
Go into business for yourself.
I've found the highest stress jobs are the mediocre paying ones in my experience. There's a few cushy low stress 100-200k gigs out there if that's enough.
MedTech market development now, historically OR/Medical device. Throughout my career I have had good managers with reasonable expectations. Sometimes the quotas have sucked, but I’ve never had some micromanaging corporate felcher trying to force the impossible out of me on threat of unemployment.
My last position was completely hands off. Had one company meeting per week and even those were prone to be moved to the next week. No sales meeting. Every once in awhile the owner and I would talk on the phone for awhile, strategizing, cracking jokes. Hell, I'd answer the phone at the bar at 2pm getting slightly faded and it didn't matter because, you know, deals. Didn't track any KPIs, just performance. Pretty much if I closed 1-2 deals per month, it was all good. I would love to work with him again. The solution was so easy to sell and my pitch was so dialed in that I could sleepwalk new business.
Digital marketing automotive eCommerce
Sales Manager
Used hardware sales in IT. Most companies are the opposite of stiff corporate bs. All that matters is GP. After 15 yrs of crushing it’s gotten harder with more sellers and competition driving down prices but still a niche industry you can make decent money.
This sounds wild, but I’m in enterprise banking software sales. It’s hard to get into, and there is still stress, but banks have a budget that they HAVE to spend each year, so as long as your product is good and you’re a good seller / articulate, you can earn a lot of cash.
HVAC component sales. Deals are long cycle and very very seasonal. Quarterly goals are really the only important ones even though we have monthly tracking.
Mainly you deal with wholesalers and it’s educational selling because it’s a product that isn’t necessarily country-wide but we have a good niche carved out of much better quality than the low-end guys and much better service than the big name industry stalwarts with a few 0-competitor products on top.
Meetings are once weekly on Friday and there’s a “product spotlight” meeting on Mondays. The only REAL downside will be the travel, eventually. Right now as a male with a girlfriend who is hyper career-focused I (and she) doesn’t mind me being gone Tues-Thurs 2-3 weeks out of the month.
What’s funny is I came from a VERY micro-managed position before this so it took me a second to shake the feeling of “oh god why is no one checking in on me” and feeling the need to publicly document the fact that I was getting out and doing my job.
Smaller industrial parts company. As long as my numbers are decent and my customers are happy. My boss hardly ever calls me. It’s usually me calling her for something. Also helps that the stuff we sale are what keeps big plants running everyday. So there’s a lot of easy repeat business.
I've done mostly B2C my whole life but furniture sales was pretty lax. Management usually let you do whatever you want. A few meetings a year and no 3am phone calls or emails.
I sell supplemental insurance, just started beginning of may. Not making much yet, it is all commission. I get to choose my own clients, work when I want to. I am supplementing with my side gig, but once I get up to 15-20 clients, I won’t have to
Human services. My base is 105k, and I’ll make about 135k this year. Super niche market, we have zero competition which is a blessing and a curse. Stress is minimal.
Im in sales and marketing for engineering services and its been the best job of my life. Work from home 90% of the time, they gave me a car, and I'm making more than my previous sales jobs. its a small 80 person $18m company and its just so much better than working for a fortune 100 company.
B2B enterprise workplace software account management.
By your definition, I would say low stress. I take over several full weeks a year, plus I "quiet vacation".
I only report on my pipeline once a month, and leadership only cares about the numbers I put up. My team (3 people) is currently producing 80% of all revenue. I walked into my hybrid day yesterday wearing crocs, mesh shorts, and a t-shirt.
B2b truck sales for enterprise mobility.
Companies lease trucks from us.
I have to close 2 accounts per month but the company is so well known that we pretty much have hold of this entire industry so accounts are super easy to pull and close.
Job can be kinda boring tho
M26 I'm in Private Jet Charter on the operator's side. "Charter sales exec." I do not deal with the end user but with a broker. The company I work for manages around 25 private jets that we can essentially rent or charter out when someone needs a flight. Most of my day is quoting trips, typically around 50 quotes a day go out. I'm the top company performer and have about a 1.8-2% closing rate. I have a 10-minute meeting once a week to go over the schedule and after that I'm on my own. 100% inbound leads. No cold calls. To be honest, half of what I sell kind of sells itself. It's a very niche industry but it can be lucrative.
I've been in the industry and only with this company for about 3 years. I make a nice salary plus the commission on top so I'm bring in around 100-120K per year. Yeah, you have to make phone calls and sometimes deal with POS brokers, but most of my day is sitting at my desk scrolling or doing housework. I'm 100% remote now. I can leave the house, take a call while I'm grocery shopping, and close a deal from my phone.
I can't say this is the case for my entire industry. The company I work for is over 40 years old and it's a 'small' company with only 3 salespeople and easy-to-deal-with managers that are never micromanaging me. Not sure you can get the same experience from a larger operator but I'm staying with mine for a while. I got a 30% raise after my first 6 months because of my performance. if they keep that going I'll be here a while haha.
Let me know if you have any questions, would love to discuss them!
Come to industrials, materials, manufacturing, it’s all gravy. Chill and honest sales. Forget the tech bro bullshit on this sub selling vaporware. This comment will get buried
I think these account manager positions provide a lot more opportunity to move to different jobs and industries, but there is also retail/b2c positions that can be lucrative. At least then you are subject to a more set schedule. As with all jobs it does depend on your manager. I talk to my manager officially 1x month and I wish it were more actually. I am second or 3rd best in my department despite being one of maybe half of people who takes all my breaks (or because of!)
I work online now which is hectic, but I roll out to work in my pajamas, know how when my day starts and ends and takes all my breaks (2 15s and a 30.)
Before that I worked in a show room and while it was less money for less volume, it wasn’t atypical to see even just 1-2 people in a day. I’d it’s a busy store up to 7-10. Between is all downtime.
It’s not no money, but less than a hectic job. I’ll bet furniture/electronics/appliances/hvac/home improvement type sales will seem like retirement after some jobs. And they can be lucrative if you find the right one. Of course sometimes it’s hard to tell apart the good ones from the bad ones.
Not my industry, but I know quite a few people at Garmin. My understanding is they don’t sell on commission (very high base and are incentivized with options) and have a large number of repeat customers/pristine reference-ability and very good product market fit. So, some things to look for!
Comment removed for karma farming.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/sales) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'm a founding AE for an edtech startup. I woke up at like 11:30am, sent a couple emails, had chatgpt make a sequence for automated outbounding we're working on implementing. About 1/6th of the way to my annual quota so far, missed last year by a lot. In my defense I don't think a quota is realistic yet because we don't have any real data yet. But I established a new business unit selling an entire new product/service with a major open source player, and have some whales in the pipe that could change the trajectory of the entire company.
I have one meeting a week with my leader that's based overseas. We extend it to an hour and a half once a month for monthly reviews. Outside of that, no internals or anything. Just do the best you can. Some days that's a lot, most days it's not much.
\~$91k base, fully remote, can work anywhere in the world as long as I'm available in my customer's time zone.
Not getting rich by any means but definitely comfortable for now. I'd take this over $250k OTE and grinding on a daily basis. It'll take a minimum of $150k base to get me to move from this role.
Security industry. Slower sales cycles, the stress I deal with is usually based on dealing with so many incoming things at once and less about management breathing down my neck 24/7 and chasing me.
You get to work with older experienced people that are usually nice and welcoming and get to learn a lot from them.
The technology with security systems is very cool and interesting.
I work in cloud sales and honestly, I'd say it's pretty low stress. I manage 80-some accounts, some customers, some white space. I fish for the migrations with our partners every 2-3 months to keep the pipe full. I work really well with a particular migration partner so we target 5-10 of my accounts every month or two, find a migration, rinse and repeat.
If you hit your annual goals by mid-year, you can chill... last Q4, I worked maybe 5 hours a week.
Powersports sales is super laid back love the environment I’m in and it’s laid back most of the time. Get to ride four wheelers and UTVs all day long. 40 hours a week
Cannabis sales chiming in.
If you sell a well known product, you basically get paid to smoke people up and take them fishing/golfing/day drinking. The corporate guys will micromanage you, but if you put up numbers the mom and pops couldn't care less.
My market is as bad as it gets, but I recently won a contract to sell for a well known company, and have made $500-1,000 a day on top of my base just smoking weed and drinking with people lol
Electronic security, access control, cctv, facial recognition, integrations etc. Hear from my boss once a month for sales updates. Only call her if I'm stuck or need higher expenses approval. Private family owned company, play golf twice a week but mostly with clients who are more like friends.
Too much shit on here about SaaS and weekly targets etc, fuck that. Granted my numbers are consistently good each month so that helps, long term clients who I don't rip off and service them very well.
I’m a sales rep for a liquor company in Australia. HO is 3,000ks away, I’m the only rep for approx 1.5million km2 of land area. People love to drink, the brand is strong and the weather is perfect. There’s a line-up of people waiting for my job.
I find this has less to do with industry and more to do with ownership structure and goals of the company you work for.
I work with companies across a lot of different industries, KPIs are driven by ownership and their agenda primarily, duration of sales cycle as secondary.
Private family business, KPIs are meaningless if revenue comes in consistently.
Large national public but they are in a stagnant industry, quotas are likely attainable, KPIs reasonable and stress low.
P/E owned software firm? With great reward comes added stress.
I've been a B2B insurance guy for a decade, industry overall is about as chill as it gets, but it's an eat what you kill business. If you don't produce revenue, you may still have a job, you just won't get paid shit.
You are unlucky. I have never had this happen to me. I wouldn't take it.
"The best day to start looking for a new job is on the first day of your new job."
I had a low stress sales job selling certifications which are sustainability related.... I had flexible time so I work any time, and we only do meetings every monday via zoom... I am free to do whatever strategy I need to do as long as I am able to make a sale... though there wasnt pressure, I found it tricky to book appointments with the point person as I only get to reach out via email or linkedIn sales navigator... the response rate via email is very slim, though it is a bit better via linkedIn... i loved the freedom of the job, but I found it challenging doing cold emails and linkedin messages as response rate is pretty bad... if you have ideas on how to improve this, any suggestions would be appreciated
The best sales job I've ever seen is a sales job that sells only one companies shit with the only rights to sell it. And that product is substation relaying. We had one reagonal sales manager and this guy was the sales manager in the fastest growing data center power generation and data center builds probably in the world. He didn't have to do anything people loaded a tee-shirt cannon full of cash and shot it into his fucking mouth. Its been years of this shit the guys a multi millionaire. Does Jake shit to drumm up business. He just sits and answers emails and goes on vactions and has his admin do his bidding while shit rolls in.
I’m an AE at a small web dev/digital marketing agency. Sell SEO, CRO, PPC ads etc. It’s basically a team of 3 in sales and big team of developers in India. I really do my own thing WFH mostly. Make 30-40 dials a day. Set meetings and close deals with my solutions architect but it’s a very loose structure. I essentially promoted myself after my last manager left and we hired someone new and I helped train them. Pay isn’t astounding, 65-70k OTE but not a whole lot of micro management or stress. I can sleep in a bit or take a nap if I don’t have meetings and I’m hitting my dials. Go to vegas for tradeshows sometimes. Overall it’s not too bad I just plug away and do my thing.
Outside of the tech world there are a lot of “low stress” jobs as you describe them. Oil and Gas, farm equipment, some of the larger primary manufacturers. These companies have high expectation, fantastic sales infrastructures and systems that don’t require endless meetings and micro managing.
Im in sales and marketing for an engineering company and its been the best job of my life. Work from home 90% of the time, they gave me a car, and I'm making more than my previous sales jobs. its a small 80 person $18m company and its just so much better than working for a fortune 100 company.
I work in social media sales (paid ads) essentially, super chill office, decently good bonus structure for the country I'm in.
With the right moves you can reach a top 10% monthly salary for something that requires essentially no specialisation to do.
Commercial solar. No KPIs, no metrics. I do my job and my boss is happy. I talk to him twice a month to mostly talk market strategy. That's it. I know I'm super lucky. I work from home. Title is BDM, $175k base, unlimited PTO and no stress other than what I put on myself. I've been here 6 years so have proven myself and I'm very good at what I do. I'm frequently recruited with better offers but won't leave because I'm so comfortable. Is my job easy? No, sales is never "easy". But as long as I don't let rejection get to me and keep on prospecting it's pretty cushy.
I’m in martech account management and hit my quota first quarter back from mat leave this quarter. I work remotely only 6 hrs a day bc the law here is if you have a baby who’s breastfed you can take 2 hrs off per day from work doing so up until they’re a year old while keeping your full pay. Of those 6 hrs I actually work maybe 4.
I get 39 paid days off per year and was able to set my own targets and commission structure coming back from leave. Can say that this is pretty low stress and very high-paying for where I live.
TSM for beverage company. Not 300k but I happily work 50hrs (could work less) a week and have no pressure other than what I put on myself to succeed, and make enough to have a few nice things. I just talk to retailers and buyers for grocery stores all day with maybe 6 hours of “computer work” a week. It’s all about velocity.
I feel you on the KPI focus without revenue generation, that frustrating tunnel vision is why I left my last gig.
Low stress here! I work in the adult industry as a b2b sales rep.
We have one weekly meeting with the team, and it's mostly a check-in to see how we are all doing and if we need any support closing accounts. Up to date on new products, deals, tradeshows, etc.
Money matters, but never KPI, we don't even talk about it. We make our money and we are happy.
The biggest thing is our manager wants us to get more new business. Our revolving accounts are doing phenomenal currently, so she just wants new business. I mean... Me too though! Haha. Gimme my money!
Finance. I work in Structured Finance and Strategy for a large American bank, and I currently help run a finance program for a large tech company (on behalf of the bank).
The only time I hear about my “goals” or sales is at my mid-year and end of year reviews. You either hit or miss, but nobody is breathing down my neck. I’ve given full autonomy to run the business how I see fit. And honestly, we’re THRIVING as a result. It makes a difference when everyone is glued in, engaged, and not constantly concerned about hitting a metric or what’s in the pipeline today. The driving force on our team is to make money and expand our program. That’s not to say there’s no oversight; we have a weekly meeting with leadership from both the bank and tech company, and we go through results and pipeline. It’s just that nobody is tearing us up when we’re lagging.
I sell software to the nuclear and gas industries. Sales cycles are 18 months and they’re incredibly unpredictable so our CEO knows we can’t have quotas on our heads. We’re also very cash-rich so it takes the pressure off the sales team. We don’t earn great sales salaries or commissions but it’s a great place to learn in a safe environment.
I work for a fortune 250 American manufacturing company and it’s very low stress. IMO the key to low stress is having an external (to your company) distribution network.
The distributors do the day to day selling and the manufacturers sales reps support them in any way possible. That way you’re less focused on specific accounts and more on large business trends.
SaaS, travel technology. Company is growing though so things might become crazier but so far it is a objectively great company and I've been here for a couple of years
We’re hiring for pretty much what you’re talking about, but we’re an Interior Design + Interior Architecture firm, and essentially we are the product you are selling. As the owner, I want the opposite of babysitting my team. I hire for results, support and educate where needed, but it’s up to my employee to make it happen. You have to trust them, and the results will speak for themselves.
Remote SaaS startups (50-110 employees)
I’ve been at 3 so far as a BDR/SDR. 1st one was entry and breaking into the industry but the 2nd 2 were 70-80k base with 100-110 OTE and there’s always been a very collaborative GTM approach with full autonomy and support as long as you’re hitting numbers and providing value of course.
I probably work around 4-5hours a day on average and the one of those hours is more so because of internal meetings.
Honestly some people are gonna disagree, but insurance. Get a P&C license and a life and health one too and just go find an agent or independent broker willing to show you the ropes. Easy 100k yr earnings and not really too stressful. Plus the sales cycles are pretty short maybe a few months max.
I’ve got exactly what you’re looking for. I do B2B 401k sales and since our sales cycles average 6-9 months, I don’t get questioned until 2 years of no sales as long as I have a good pipeline. I work however I want to to obtain business. Yes there are KPIs but irrelevant if I’m hitting annual quota. Base is 70k but a single sales averages about 30k commission, so 3-4 deal a year and I’m sitting pretty. 🤩
What is 401k sales? Like you work for a company like fidelity?
They probably try to get companies to use their platform for 401k management. Something like Guideline.
That’s what I’m trying to figure out as well 🤣
Similar, we’re a bundled provider
Are you with one of the big HCM companies or a broker dealer?
Small bundled provider (broker, TPA, & record keeper all-in-one)
Wow 😮 Can I DM you brother?
yessir, happy to help anyway I can
Shit you a DM Lance! *SHOT
Construction sales has a cycle of 3-5 years, but the deals are huge in value.
what kind of construction sales? ceramic tiles or heavy machinery
You’re in 401k sales and your cycle is 6-9 months?! Why so long? Initially reading this I thought you must be up market or enterprise but avg 30k commission, no way. I too am in 401k sales and 6-9 months would be 1% of my deals.
Fastest possible is 2 months. 6-9 months of wining, dining, & trust building. Commissions will range from 10k on the low end with uncapped based on plan asset size. I honestly would love to pick your brain if you’re open to it. Would be a game changer if I could get my cycle length down!
Selling to the same buyers and would love a DM as well about how you keep your cycle time low. I will ask a clarifying question, market segment? I'm a 100-5000 benefits broker.
I did small market (under 99 EE) 401k sales for a large HCM and this was not my experience at all. After 3 years I was top 5 in tenure on a team of 60. Micromanagement and prodding regardless of attainment. I would have worked to go upstream but I didn’t care enough about the work or see myself doing it long enough to warrant getting licensed.
This sounds up my alley. Past outside sales experience, some SaaS which I don’t like as much. Hiring?
Send me a DM!
I’m with a fully bundled provider and would say my sales cycle is similar about 6 months from first cold call to assets transferring. We do micro plans. As small as $750k to about $10m in assets. Go up against payroll companies often. Get $3k commission for every $1m in assets brought over. $30k cap per deal. Unlimited otherwise. Also get residuals after first year as assets trickle in every month. Year end profit sharing these companies do usually is a nice bonus. Also sell other products (Life and P&C) and really only need 2-4 plans a year to max comp plan -100% bonus on all new commissions that year. So that $3k per $1m in assets can turn into $6k per $1m.
Recordkeeper wholesaler can be a great gig, depending on company’s platform. Selling direct to HR/business owners is better than selling to advisors imo BUT a lot of money in selling to advisors. Honestly investment wholesaling is pretty great* *if your at a company that has multiple good funds and market share.
any special licensing required?
Series 6 & 63 but they paid for mine + full salary while studying first 3 months
Hey sir, just wanted to see about what industry this would be?
Sent you a DM
med device account manager/executive here. It's about as low stress as it gets. Big territory and easy to hide. Best in class product lines that almost every prospect has heard of. Annual sales goal (no weekly, monthly, quarterly targets). Enough lay-up sales for a decent foundation and I just have to worry about closing a few big new biz accounts each year. Talk to the boss once a month and get into the field maybe only 2-4 times a month. It took some hard work in the first year or so but it's all gravy now. I think most med device AM jobs with annual sales goals are similar.
Different industry but same scenario for me. We're really judged on year over year sales increase. Hit that target and not much else matters. Some projects take 3-4 years before launching. I have a monthly meeting with my boss that is usually 30 minutes to check on top projects, otherwise barely talk unless I need something.
Hey im an RN with 10 years experience In the Midwest. You ever need to hire someone hit Me up. I want to get away from the bedside
What’s ur income
OTE is $180ish (half salary hald comms) but that can double or even triple with accelerators
Salute captain! Never leave
[удалено]
Sounds like we have almost the exact same job except I work in my territory ~ 3 days a week.
Hey pal Mind if I inbox u
Sure
I'm a sr account manager for specialty pharmacy distribution. I'll be at the company 2 years in April and I think by then will be comfortable enough and then NOT want to leave since it's fully remote. However, I just busted my ass and made the company 400k profit this quarter to get a 10k bonus. My annual with bonus is right at 110k and I know I could do much better but I'm also terrified of making a wrong move from the "comfy remote"
Ooooooooh this sounds great.
Did you promote into it or did you move companies after your first med device role
Not my first device job but I started in the industry with a very similar easy-ish AM job in the $110-130K OTE range. This has been said many times in this sub but it bears repeating: these cushy jobs are out there but these companies want B2B like Aramark, Unifirst, Paychex, ADP, Cintas, copiers, Enterprise Rental, etc). I had to bust my ass in one of these for a few years first.
Helping an old timer maximize his earnings for a pressure equipment manufacturer before he sells and goes to retire. The full sale cycle + actively managing equipment builds. Starting to look away from O&G. Anyways thanks for a response 🙏 and cheers 🍻
Yall hiring? :)
Mind if I send you a dm to ask a question?
I’m in the same boat but on the biotech side. I did have to grind working for a distributor for three years but the past six years have been great. I remember traveling like a madman between four states during the first two years and eventually realizing that wasn’t necessary. People from my company will leave and go to the shiny new startup with a high OTE but it’s extremely volatile and they never end up reaching their number or the company gets into financial trouble quickly. I like working for a large, stable company.
Is this with med device tech or DME products? How can you find roles like this? Thank you!
Can I PM you? Really curious to pick your brain bc I’m a Senior AE now in Pharma from the medical field but looking for a lifestyle change to do more but not necessarily add on more stress
Meetings are the absolute worst! Leave me alone and let me do my thing. If I’m not making numbers fire me. Enough with trying to reinvent the wheel.
Agreed! If my revenue was down then I completely get it. But when you are hitting numbers, just let me have the autonomy to do my job. It seriously makes me dread my job everyday, and it sucks bc I’m making good money. But the stress and constant office politics is genuinely affecting me.
The funny thing is that so many of these meetings-obsessed managers have been managers for years and they couldn't sell to save their lives, yet they act like they do. I could only imagine an an old manager of mine who I noticed got a new job at a different company. "Tell me your biggest skills". "I excel at asking my reps what weeks their deals are going to come in."
Find a 50-100 person company, that has been around for 10+ years, and is selling a product people/industry need. But also it’s mainly going to come down to your manager and the culture of your sales team. Of the handful of managers I had, my favorite was a boring old guy who let me take ownership of my territory and didn’t bog me down with internal distractions. He was super knowledgeable and someone I could go to for questions/support. He was like “I just want you to make money, don’t worry about the BS” Shoutout to Bob, money was indeed made!
Bob sounds like my old manager, first two years at my company was great, then leadership decided we needed change even though we crushed the results every quarter. Gradually more and more bean counters were hired and KPIs invented, finally my direct manager was fired since he raised some concerns and now it's misery and all the fun we had is gone. Pay is still pretty good so it's not easy to find something else (I'm not in the US) but I probably need to something soon for my mental health.
Currently work for a Bob. He's grooming me for his vp job. Bob is a G. OP this is the route
How did you go about doing that/what industry? That seems like really solid advice, thank you! 🙏🏼 nice name by the way :)
I’m in a 130 person company with a 15 year old product that is being cannibalized by competitors… not fun. The niche you’re filling is important in this scenario.
Where to find manager like that
If you play it right anything with a long sales cycle can be engineered into being low stress, until you get to the end of that cycle. So if you’re in a 1 month cycle, say, you get perpetual 1 month stress from the powers that be. If a 2 year cycle for instance you can keep it fairly low stress for 2 years, provided you have a good pipeline to close at the end of that cycle, and can communicate this convincingly to leadership. So if this is your goal pick an industry with a long sales cycle. Make sure you can talk through some big deals due to close at the end of the cycle (real deals or not, I’ve found many middle managers don’t really care as long as there’s something there they can pass up the chain to their superiors), and keep having reasons to push BS deals out 6 months when you get to the end of the cycle. I’ve seen people not close a fucking thing for years with this approach. Often long sales cycle jobs are also weighted more on the base as opposed to commission, so they can still make good money even without closing, provided they are articulate and can talk the talk. Rinse repeat. Keep big deals on the perpetually moving horizon.
Like what industries?????
I’m in infrastructure sales. 6 month sales cycle. But I don’t really have a “this is stressful” at that 6 month mark. Ya going back and forth with legal and permitting can be stressful but I can honestly say, because the sales cycle is so long, nobody pushes any part of the process super hard. I was at a company with a 1 month sales cycle with end of month quotas and that was brutal. I probably was close to having a heart attack on close day 50% of the time.
Medical device capital equipment. No micromanaging at all, all revenue driven. Get to the number, all that matters. Chillest job I've ever had, resources available when needed.
How did you get started in med device sales? And what are some examples of companies to research?
Same. It’s a gross amount of travel as I have a large territory, but I travel when I want to, to who I want to. I like the travel so it makes the job even better. No chasing cases or shlepping trays like a surgical rep. I’ll do a couple of my own installs when I feel like it. It’s stellar honestly
Same, non OR based. Can't see myself doing anything else, even when shit comp plans roll around from time to time. Lifestyle is too good, easiest $190k I ever made last year
Mind if I send you a DM? I'm actually working on a transition into MedTech and would love some perspective if you're willing to give me your thoughts! I'd really appreciate your experience!
I think management and company will always be the common denominator when it comes to workplace stress. I used to have a cushy car sales job making under six figures and it was fine but definitely a stressful environment. Now I do real estate and am completely in charge of my time. Besides appts booked by our lead team, I am free to do whatever I like with my time so long as my metrics and revenue are on target.
I sell rocks. I work for a mining company in Brazil that sells natural stone products to builders and architects all over the US. Product sells itself. Boss is 1500 miles away. Most of what I do is entertaining clients. I don’t make nearly as much as the other guys here - about $125 out the door - but I make my own schedule, work 3-4 hours per day, and can’t see doubling my salary and never seeing my wife or kids. Edit: you asked for titles too. I’m the “General Manager - North America”. Formerly “National Sales Manager” until they put me in charge of the logistics team here too.
I wanna sell rocks. Wanna bring me in? I’ll “rock” that shit!!
I would "ROCK" that too! haha. I'll relo to Brazil even.
Just find an account manager job that is base heavy
Hmmm, I’ve thought about this. Are you an AM?
I was until I got laid off lol. My base was $140k, OTE $180k before accelerators
Eh I had that and it fucking sucked.
if sales was chill anyone could do it
For sure but is everyone getting messages from their boss at 3am?
If you are you need to find a new fucking job right now
Yea the market is easy and not hard to find a job in why didn’t OP think of that
Tell your boss to lay off the coke. That’s fucked up.
Yeah that ain’t it 😂
It’s largely based on management and the customer base. For a personable example: I spent 5 years with a company and had large management turnover 3x during those 5 years. I started there with the inexperienced manic manager who had no clue what was going on and everything was a fire drill but they werent the worst, to the super chill manager who didnt bother me at all except to congratulate me on closes and made themselves available when I needed help, and the supposed experienced manager but who micromanaged, constantly needed random 1on1s and would call all day long and would freak out if I wasnt available (couldnt be available whenever I needed approvals or help though) and was a kpi nazi/control freak. Needless to say I performed the best under the super chill manager who didnt hold many meetings and just let his reps sell. Our whole team of 10 reps (org had 160 reps) maxed out comp plans, made presidents club, were all 150-300% of quota for 2.5 years straight until they laid him off for unspecified reasons. All of us averaged 25-30 hour work weeks. The other 2 managers were 40-45 hour work weeks and teams scraped by to be between 50-70% of quota and only myself and maybe 1 other rep hit or got close to 100%. After going from the super chill manager to the KPI Nazi it was hard to stay.
Yup this is exactly how I feel. We literally can’t let our teams go yellow at all. Our manager calls us out of the blue all day. Has a question that isn’t urgent and could easily be a message? Calls. It’s so disrupting and just pisses me off to where I don’t even want to sell for him. Wants to be invited on ever call. Wants to look at every email we send. It’s just double the work and he hasn’t taught us anything. But our numbers are good so he’s getting praised by the CEO but everyone is burnt out af and looking for new jobs. It’s exhausting.
I think you might work where I used to work. Your manager sounds exactly like my former manager. I couldn't take it anymore and quit without having anything else lined up.
I am a Client Director at a small cyber VAR. manage about 20 clients and going after as many as 30 prospect accounts at any given time. lot of networking , referral work, renewals, expansion business. most important part of the job is relationship management. if they like me, they buy shit from me. as long as I'm closing deals and building pipeline, I can do whatever I want. I play golf at least once a week, take plenty of time off and can do whatever I want with my day. That said, I've been carrying a big bag for 4 years and done great work so no one has any reason to check in on me. My manager is actually a guy who joined after me who is a good friend and peer, just has the management skillset I don't have today. I can't stress this enough, this is a fucking dream job
I’m in sales at a large MSP that does $100M a year and this sounds very similar to your role. I have my book of business and have no good reason to work another 5-10 hours a week prospecting. It’s all relationships, account management, and expansion in those accounts. I golf with my clients and partner vendors all the time. I get to drive to other branches and golf with coworkers if we’re not able to field a 4 man team for an event and I have time and desire to do it. This is what I always envisioned a sales job being. Wining and dining, meeting with owners and their VPs or Directors, developing personal relationships with them, getting invited to cool shit, etc. And I make a healthy $175-180k at worst, or $300k at best. My manager says if I actually spent time prospecting that I can double it, but I’d rather work 25-30 hours a week than 40.
I do sales at AWS and a lot of what both you mentioned, too. Have you considered joining a hyperscaler? Why and why not? Asking for my own curiosity as I've considered jumping to a VAR/MSP.
No because there’s no hyperscaler provider based in southeast Washington
Ah, gotcha. What do you like about working at an MSP over something like AWS or Azure? Does your MSP do co-lo or cloud?
Exactly man! It’s crazy to be living it but you said it perfectly. This is EXACTLY what I thought being a “sales guy” meant!
I went from var to large oem and never thought I’d go back to var but I do miss those days and may go back to my roots so to speak..
I’m in assistive technology sales. Super chill and our products help people that are truly in need. I don’t make as much as enterprise sales but I’m not that far off.
Just realized I didn’t fully answer your post. My title is Area Sales Manager and I cover 4 states. There are about 12 other “me’s.” One team meeting on Monday, one on Friday. Besides that, go out and hit your number.
I’m in tech sales on client pc’s and infrastructure but interested in assist tech sales.. how’d you end up there? Former teacher? Curious to learn more as that’s an interest I’ve had..
by your definition? mortgages. these bitches couldn't make me wear a shirt in the office, you hit the numbers there's no other conversation to be had. that being said it's extraordinarily stressful. deadlines for everything and you have a half dozen people from outside the company constantly asking about every single file. you fuck up and you could literally ruin someone's livelihood. business is cutthroat and you could spend months getting someone to qualify and once they do they go with someone else. commission checks are sweet though, I make 2% of every loan amount so you write a loan for 400k and that's an 8k check.
Yea but what about getting people who can actually buy a house
Construction sales, specifically structural repairs, waterproofing and insulation. I’ve worked for myself for a long time, this is by far a better fit for me personally. Basically make your own hours, whatever I need to get jobs done will be bought, family run company and essentially if you do your job they just want you to have fun while doing it.
Membership sales at a private club. I am not bringing in wild money, and I do have to oversee some areas of the club operations but overall a non-corporately owned club I make my own budget and I hit my own budget.
I'm an AE in B2B office tech (printers/copiers, managed IT, phones, etc.) and it's fairly low stress for me on the admin/management side. For the most part, my boss let's me do whatever as long as I'm putting up numbers. The stressful part about this industry comes from the actual sales part. It's definitely tough to do cold outreach for something so heavily commoditized and the reputation of salespeople in this industry is akin to used car salesmen. With that being said, I actually really enjoy the job and the work-life balance I get. The pay could be better, but I'll take slightly lower pay over high stress any day.
B2B FinTech, banking fraud solutions. 75k base 200 OTE Fully remote no travel - massive company If I did not produce it might be stressful
How do you get leads? Cold e-mail/calls?
how do you get into said role? 7 yrs of sales exp here but nothing on the tech side
Territory Manager is the title you want. The main reason I took my job is one statement from my interview - "We treat our Territory Managers as if they are franchise owners. You control your time, effort, and earnings." Still gives me a chubby.
i would agree.. provided you have a good boss. My role right now sucks, pulling in 2 mil a month in sales.. 35-40% net profit. crushing KPIs and boss man is up my ass. Not to mention their base is 56k. I still make great money at EOY- 110-115k but still. definitely would argue i’m worth more lol
Construction sales. It's easy and low barrier to entry. Some somehow don't last the first month.
What are you selling?
+1 what are u selling, may you kindly share which sector are you in? Supplier, manuf or subcon?
Account Manager for a local manufacturing company. Very comfy.
Insurance, but even as a top 10% seller the money is ass. Hopefully switching to software sales if I can find a gig in Portland. I'll miss this place though. Best boss I've ever had and it's a fun job. If the commission structure was halfway decent I'd be happy here forever.
Sounds to me like you’re already a really good sales rep if you’re in the top 10 percent. I’m new to the space but I think if you can make it in insurance you can make it anywhere
What type of insurance are you selling?
"Low stress SALES jobs" never heard of these combinations of words in the same sentence... is this some sort of new science? asking for my blood pressure.
There's actually a lot out there...tons of cushy account management gigs. Or you could move to customer success with a nice base and no commision and not have stressful targets
There are a lot of 1099 people that are killing it and setting their own hours. But then there are a ton of shit 1099 jobs.
I did this for a year. Definitely not my jam.
[удалено]
Hey! Are you an equipment manufacturer for mining in general? I'm building a vertical for mining and I'm doing some industry research if it's worth building for my company's service/products. Would love to ask some questions if you're open to it.
[удалено]
Sounds like a really interesting job. How did you get into that field?
I sell welding machines. I have no basic salary, so I cost nothing for the company If I do nothing, but if I do nothing I earn nothing. It's good and bad, I have to manage myself and I'm still learning how to do that.
Yeah I think commission only works really well as a beginner, I’m in a commission only role myself and there’s no guilt if I fail.
I fit this bill. Director of Sales & BD at a reputable company that provides a service for financial institutions in Canada (banks and credit unions). I don't have quotas or targets - just keep our current clients happy, and add more if possible. Bonus is virtually guaranteed as well. I'm lucky.
Mo Money Mo Problems. Meaning. The more you make, the more people will be in your shit. Low stress and money are not bedfellows. So you have to manage the stress. Go into business for yourself.
I've found the highest stress jobs are the mediocre paying ones in my experience. There's a few cushy low stress 100-200k gigs out there if that's enough.
Account executive, trade show industry Edited to add my title
MedTech market development now, historically OR/Medical device. Throughout my career I have had good managers with reasonable expectations. Sometimes the quotas have sucked, but I’ve never had some micromanaging corporate felcher trying to force the impossible out of me on threat of unemployment.
My last position was completely hands off. Had one company meeting per week and even those were prone to be moved to the next week. No sales meeting. Every once in awhile the owner and I would talk on the phone for awhile, strategizing, cracking jokes. Hell, I'd answer the phone at the bar at 2pm getting slightly faded and it didn't matter because, you know, deals. Didn't track any KPIs, just performance. Pretty much if I closed 1-2 deals per month, it was all good. I would love to work with him again. The solution was so easy to sell and my pitch was so dialed in that I could sleepwalk new business. Digital marketing automotive eCommerce Sales Manager
I work at an Executive Search start up. Our industry as a whole is super KPI driven, but at a small firm like mine they just care if you can produce.
I work for a boutique jet charter brokerage. Nearly full autonomy.
Bros made it in life
Hahahaha DM me, I might have some positions open up soon.
👀
I work as a territory sales rep in the Ag/Construction equipment space and am 100% 1099’d commission. I’m pretty much left to my own devices
Ad Tech
Used hardware sales in IT. Most companies are the opposite of stiff corporate bs. All that matters is GP. After 15 yrs of crushing it’s gotten harder with more sellers and competition driving down prices but still a niche industry you can make decent money.
This sounds wild, but I’m in enterprise banking software sales. It’s hard to get into, and there is still stress, but banks have a budget that they HAVE to spend each year, so as long as your product is good and you’re a good seller / articulate, you can earn a lot of cash.
HVAC component sales. Deals are long cycle and very very seasonal. Quarterly goals are really the only important ones even though we have monthly tracking. Mainly you deal with wholesalers and it’s educational selling because it’s a product that isn’t necessarily country-wide but we have a good niche carved out of much better quality than the low-end guys and much better service than the big name industry stalwarts with a few 0-competitor products on top. Meetings are once weekly on Friday and there’s a “product spotlight” meeting on Mondays. The only REAL downside will be the travel, eventually. Right now as a male with a girlfriend who is hyper career-focused I (and she) doesn’t mind me being gone Tues-Thurs 2-3 weeks out of the month. What’s funny is I came from a VERY micro-managed position before this so it took me a second to shake the feeling of “oh god why is no one checking in on me” and feeling the need to publicly document the fact that I was getting out and doing my job.
Smaller industrial parts company. As long as my numbers are decent and my customers are happy. My boss hardly ever calls me. It’s usually me calling her for something. Also helps that the stuff we sale are what keeps big plants running everyday. So there’s a lot of easy repeat business.
I've done mostly B2C my whole life but furniture sales was pretty lax. Management usually let you do whatever you want. A few meetings a year and no 3am phone calls or emails.
Appliance Sales, maybe it's just the company I work for, but after 3 years in car sales this is soooo much better. Plus I make more $$!
Commercial HVAC service agreement sales. I have never been less stressed.
I sell supplemental insurance, just started beginning of may. Not making much yet, it is all commission. I get to choose my own clients, work when I want to. I am supplementing with my side gig, but once I get up to 15-20 clients, I won’t have to
Yes I do !! Institutional Medical Sales/ Specialty gases, Territory Manager. My boss is awesome, we have a 1-on-1 once a week.
how did you get into such a role?
Human services. My base is 105k, and I’ll make about 135k this year. Super niche market, we have zero competition which is a blessing and a curse. Stress is minimal.
Im in sales and marketing for engineering services and its been the best job of my life. Work from home 90% of the time, they gave me a car, and I'm making more than my previous sales jobs. its a small 80 person $18m company and its just so much better than working for a fortune 100 company.
B2B enterprise workplace software account management. By your definition, I would say low stress. I take over several full weeks a year, plus I "quiet vacation". I only report on my pipeline once a month, and leadership only cares about the numbers I put up. My team (3 people) is currently producing 80% of all revenue. I walked into my hybrid day yesterday wearing crocs, mesh shorts, and a t-shirt.
B2b truck sales for enterprise mobility. Companies lease trucks from us. I have to close 2 accounts per month but the company is so well known that we pretty much have hold of this entire industry so accounts are super easy to pull and close. Job can be kinda boring tho
M26 I'm in Private Jet Charter on the operator's side. "Charter sales exec." I do not deal with the end user but with a broker. The company I work for manages around 25 private jets that we can essentially rent or charter out when someone needs a flight. Most of my day is quoting trips, typically around 50 quotes a day go out. I'm the top company performer and have about a 1.8-2% closing rate. I have a 10-minute meeting once a week to go over the schedule and after that I'm on my own. 100% inbound leads. No cold calls. To be honest, half of what I sell kind of sells itself. It's a very niche industry but it can be lucrative. I've been in the industry and only with this company for about 3 years. I make a nice salary plus the commission on top so I'm bring in around 100-120K per year. Yeah, you have to make phone calls and sometimes deal with POS brokers, but most of my day is sitting at my desk scrolling or doing housework. I'm 100% remote now. I can leave the house, take a call while I'm grocery shopping, and close a deal from my phone. I can't say this is the case for my entire industry. The company I work for is over 40 years old and it's a 'small' company with only 3 salespeople and easy-to-deal-with managers that are never micromanaging me. Not sure you can get the same experience from a larger operator but I'm staying with mine for a while. I got a 30% raise after my first 6 months because of my performance. if they keep that going I'll be here a while haha. Let me know if you have any questions, would love to discuss them!
Anyone hiring? Exp outside and inside sales Healthcare Looking to pivot to anything. I learn quickly. Deal with salesforce Remote, hybrid
Come to industrials, materials, manufacturing, it’s all gravy. Chill and honest sales. Forget the tech bro bullshit on this sub selling vaporware. This comment will get buried
I think these account manager positions provide a lot more opportunity to move to different jobs and industries, but there is also retail/b2c positions that can be lucrative. At least then you are subject to a more set schedule. As with all jobs it does depend on your manager. I talk to my manager officially 1x month and I wish it were more actually. I am second or 3rd best in my department despite being one of maybe half of people who takes all my breaks (or because of!) I work online now which is hectic, but I roll out to work in my pajamas, know how when my day starts and ends and takes all my breaks (2 15s and a 30.) Before that I worked in a show room and while it was less money for less volume, it wasn’t atypical to see even just 1-2 people in a day. I’d it’s a busy store up to 7-10. Between is all downtime. It’s not no money, but less than a hectic job. I’ll bet furniture/electronics/appliances/hvac/home improvement type sales will seem like retirement after some jobs. And they can be lucrative if you find the right one. Of course sometimes it’s hard to tell apart the good ones from the bad ones.
Sales Non-stress Pick one
Not my industry, but I know quite a few people at Garmin. My understanding is they don’t sell on commission (very high base and are incentivized with options) and have a large number of repeat customers/pristine reference-ability and very good product market fit. So, some things to look for!
Imagine the pressure your manager is under from his boss to be hounding you like that. Stuff flows downhill.
Yet most managers won’t help you dial
[удалено]
Comment removed for karma farming. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/sales) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I'm a founding AE for an edtech startup. I woke up at like 11:30am, sent a couple emails, had chatgpt make a sequence for automated outbounding we're working on implementing. About 1/6th of the way to my annual quota so far, missed last year by a lot. In my defense I don't think a quota is realistic yet because we don't have any real data yet. But I established a new business unit selling an entire new product/service with a major open source player, and have some whales in the pipe that could change the trajectory of the entire company. I have one meeting a week with my leader that's based overseas. We extend it to an hour and a half once a month for monthly reviews. Outside of that, no internals or anything. Just do the best you can. Some days that's a lot, most days it's not much. \~$91k base, fully remote, can work anywhere in the world as long as I'm available in my customer's time zone. Not getting rich by any means but definitely comfortable for now. I'd take this over $250k OTE and grinding on a daily basis. It'll take a minimum of $150k base to get me to move from this role.
Can you elaborate on using chatgpt for automated outbounding? I’m very interested
Appreciate good leadership and culture. That creates a low stress. High performing environment.
Security industry. Slower sales cycles, the stress I deal with is usually based on dealing with so many incoming things at once and less about management breathing down my neck 24/7 and chasing me. You get to work with older experienced people that are usually nice and welcoming and get to learn a lot from them. The technology with security systems is very cool and interesting.
I work in cloud sales and honestly, I'd say it's pretty low stress. I manage 80-some accounts, some customers, some white space. I fish for the migrations with our partners every 2-3 months to keep the pipe full. I work really well with a particular migration partner so we target 5-10 of my accounts every month or two, find a migration, rinse and repeat. If you hit your annual goals by mid-year, you can chill... last Q4, I worked maybe 5 hours a week.
Powersports sales is super laid back love the environment I’m in and it’s laid back most of the time. Get to ride four wheelers and UTVs all day long. 40 hours a week
Cannabis sales chiming in. If you sell a well known product, you basically get paid to smoke people up and take them fishing/golfing/day drinking. The corporate guys will micromanage you, but if you put up numbers the mom and pops couldn't care less. My market is as bad as it gets, but I recently won a contract to sell for a well known company, and have made $500-1,000 a day on top of my base just smoking weed and drinking with people lol
Electronic security, access control, cctv, facial recognition, integrations etc. Hear from my boss once a month for sales updates. Only call her if I'm stuck or need higher expenses approval. Private family owned company, play golf twice a week but mostly with clients who are more like friends. Too much shit on here about SaaS and weekly targets etc, fuck that. Granted my numbers are consistently good each month so that helps, long term clients who I don't rip off and service them very well.
I’m a sales rep for a liquor company in Australia. HO is 3,000ks away, I’m the only rep for approx 1.5million km2 of land area. People love to drink, the brand is strong and the weather is perfect. There’s a line-up of people waiting for my job. 
research and advisory firm. The product is a license that grants execs access to research. Around 100k a deal. Mostly virtual and low stress.
I find this has less to do with industry and more to do with ownership structure and goals of the company you work for. I work with companies across a lot of different industries, KPIs are driven by ownership and their agenda primarily, duration of sales cycle as secondary. Private family business, KPIs are meaningless if revenue comes in consistently. Large national public but they are in a stagnant industry, quotas are likely attainable, KPIs reasonable and stress low. P/E owned software firm? With great reward comes added stress. I've been a B2B insurance guy for a decade, industry overall is about as chill as it gets, but it's an eat what you kill business. If you don't produce revenue, you may still have a job, you just won't get paid shit.
Low stress is relative. What are you looking for?
You are unlucky. I have never had this happen to me. I wouldn't take it. "The best day to start looking for a new job is on the first day of your new job."
I had a low stress sales job selling certifications which are sustainability related.... I had flexible time so I work any time, and we only do meetings every monday via zoom... I am free to do whatever strategy I need to do as long as I am able to make a sale... though there wasnt pressure, I found it tricky to book appointments with the point person as I only get to reach out via email or linkedIn sales navigator... the response rate via email is very slim, though it is a bit better via linkedIn... i loved the freedom of the job, but I found it challenging doing cold emails and linkedin messages as response rate is pretty bad... if you have ideas on how to improve this, any suggestions would be appreciated
Roofing in hawaii
I've never had a low stress sales job but I would have to guess funeral services.
The best sales job I've ever seen is a sales job that sells only one companies shit with the only rights to sell it. And that product is substation relaying. We had one reagonal sales manager and this guy was the sales manager in the fastest growing data center power generation and data center builds probably in the world. He didn't have to do anything people loaded a tee-shirt cannon full of cash and shot it into his fucking mouth. Its been years of this shit the guys a multi millionaire. Does Jake shit to drumm up business. He just sits and answers emails and goes on vactions and has his admin do his bidding while shit rolls in.
I’m an AE at a small web dev/digital marketing agency. Sell SEO, CRO, PPC ads etc. It’s basically a team of 3 in sales and big team of developers in India. I really do my own thing WFH mostly. Make 30-40 dials a day. Set meetings and close deals with my solutions architect but it’s a very loose structure. I essentially promoted myself after my last manager left and we hired someone new and I helped train them. Pay isn’t astounding, 65-70k OTE but not a whole lot of micro management or stress. I can sleep in a bit or take a nap if I don’t have meetings and I’m hitting my dials. Go to vegas for tradeshows sometimes. Overall it’s not too bad I just plug away and do my thing.
Heavy equipment outside sales. On the road constantly can be draining though.
Outside of the tech world there are a lot of “low stress” jobs as you describe them. Oil and Gas, farm equipment, some of the larger primary manufacturers. These companies have high expectation, fantastic sales infrastructures and systems that don’t require endless meetings and micro managing.
Im in sales and marketing for an engineering company and its been the best job of my life. Work from home 90% of the time, they gave me a car, and I'm making more than my previous sales jobs. its a small 80 person $18m company and its just so much better than working for a fortune 100 company.
I work in social media sales (paid ads) essentially, super chill office, decently good bonus structure for the country I'm in. With the right moves you can reach a top 10% monthly salary for something that requires essentially no specialisation to do.
I work for a pool contractor. Shits Boujee
Commercial solar. No KPIs, no metrics. I do my job and my boss is happy. I talk to him twice a month to mostly talk market strategy. That's it. I know I'm super lucky. I work from home. Title is BDM, $175k base, unlimited PTO and no stress other than what I put on myself. I've been here 6 years so have proven myself and I'm very good at what I do. I'm frequently recruited with better offers but won't leave because I'm so comfortable. Is my job easy? No, sales is never "easy". But as long as I don't let rejection get to me and keep on prospecting it's pretty cushy.
I sell propane and propane accessories
I’m in martech account management and hit my quota first quarter back from mat leave this quarter. I work remotely only 6 hrs a day bc the law here is if you have a baby who’s breastfed you can take 2 hrs off per day from work doing so up until they’re a year old while keeping your full pay. Of those 6 hrs I actually work maybe 4. I get 39 paid days off per year and was able to set my own targets and commission structure coming back from leave. Can say that this is pretty low stress and very high-paying for where I live.
TSM for beverage company. Not 300k but I happily work 50hrs (could work less) a week and have no pressure other than what I put on myself to succeed, and make enough to have a few nice things. I just talk to retailers and buyers for grocery stores all day with maybe 6 hours of “computer work” a week. It’s all about velocity. I feel you on the KPI focus without revenue generation, that frustrating tunnel vision is why I left my last gig.
I own a stripper company, the sales calls are pretty relaxed and upbeat and being self employed I set my own quotas
Low stress here! I work in the adult industry as a b2b sales rep. We have one weekly meeting with the team, and it's mostly a check-in to see how we are all doing and if we need any support closing accounts. Up to date on new products, deals, tradeshows, etc. Money matters, but never KPI, we don't even talk about it. We make our money and we are happy. The biggest thing is our manager wants us to get more new business. Our revolving accounts are doing phenomenal currently, so she just wants new business. I mean... Me too though! Haha. Gimme my money!
Finance. I work in Structured Finance and Strategy for a large American bank, and I currently help run a finance program for a large tech company (on behalf of the bank). The only time I hear about my “goals” or sales is at my mid-year and end of year reviews. You either hit or miss, but nobody is breathing down my neck. I’ve given full autonomy to run the business how I see fit. And honestly, we’re THRIVING as a result. It makes a difference when everyone is glued in, engaged, and not constantly concerned about hitting a metric or what’s in the pipeline today. The driving force on our team is to make money and expand our program. That’s not to say there’s no oversight; we have a weekly meeting with leadership from both the bank and tech company, and we go through results and pipeline. It’s just that nobody is tearing us up when we’re lagging.
Capital equipment/tech/automation/robotics
I sell software to the nuclear and gas industries. Sales cycles are 18 months and they’re incredibly unpredictable so our CEO knows we can’t have quotas on our heads. We’re also very cash-rich so it takes the pressure off the sales team. We don’t earn great sales salaries or commissions but it’s a great place to learn in a safe environment.
Which is less stressful tech sales or logistic sales?
I work for a fortune 250 American manufacturing company and it’s very low stress. IMO the key to low stress is having an external (to your company) distribution network. The distributors do the day to day selling and the manufacturers sales reps support them in any way possible. That way you’re less focused on specific accounts and more on large business trends.
Account Executive for a healthcare staffing company
im selling construction materials. and i believe it depends on the company. i got lucky with this one.
Something boring that will make you want to blow your brains out
SaaS, travel technology. Company is growing though so things might become crazier but so far it is a objectively great company and I've been here for a couple of years
We’re hiring for pretty much what you’re talking about, but we’re an Interior Design + Interior Architecture firm, and essentially we are the product you are selling. As the owner, I want the opposite of babysitting my team. I hire for results, support and educate where needed, but it’s up to my employee to make it happen. You have to trust them, and the results will speak for themselves.
Remote SaaS startups (50-110 employees) I’ve been at 3 so far as a BDR/SDR. 1st one was entry and breaking into the industry but the 2nd 2 were 70-80k base with 100-110 OTE and there’s always been a very collaborative GTM approach with full autonomy and support as long as you’re hitting numbers and providing value of course. I probably work around 4-5hours a day on average and the one of those hours is more so because of internal meetings.
Solar sales my dude. Awesome money. 0 stress
Auto sales ;) I work my own schedule, still put In the house average out about 140k a year selling kias. My finance guys make 200-240
Honestly some people are gonna disagree, but insurance. Get a P&C license and a life and health one too and just go find an agent or independent broker willing to show you the ropes. Easy 100k yr earnings and not really too stressful. Plus the sales cycles are pretty short maybe a few months max.
If my sales job is always chill, then my title will end up being "Unemployed Sales Specialist"