2023 is shaping up to be an interesting year in the world of SaaS sales recruiting. I have read a few year-end commentators telling sellers to “buckle up”. This warning is more about your current role but I think you also need to have a healthy dose of paranoia and at least a semblance of a contingency plan if the buckle fails. Here’s what I suggest to be prepared and to keep that Spidey-Sense of paranoia tingling for your own good…
You
* Online profile – Make sure your LinkedIn profile is up-to-date and recruiter-search ready (see my last post https://lnkd.in/e247Ng9s)
* In-person profile – get back out there and network. Check out garysguide.org for what’s on this week in NYC, Meetup nationwide, or join sales networking organizations like Pavilion or RevGenius or Thursday Night Sales
* Compensation – Talk to recruiters to make sure you are marked to market (significantly above market puts you more at risk)
* Performance – be keenly aware of your sales performance AND, sometimes more importantly your political positioning performance with your chain of command viz-a-viz your peers
Your company
* Hiring reputation – Glassdoor is always useful to get outsiders’ perspectives on your firm right now.
* Sales comp. Check out RepVue to see how your peers are doing. Levels.fyi too (thanks Joe Bransom for the tip). Can the org sustain those achievement levels at the same staff levels?
* General malaise? – For larger firms, sometimes outside recruiters like us get an early sense of an exodus. Ask us.
Your industry
* Spotting Downside – check out layoffs.fyi to see if your competitors are laying off (could be indicative of TAM issues)
* Spotting upside – who is bucking the trend in your space and hiring for lots of roles right now?
* Relative Reputation. Check for slippage with Forrester /Gartner/G2 reviews versus the competition.
Beyond your industry.
Try and see the wood from the trees. Are you still in the right industry area with the best TAM and growth prospects?
* Money trail – Spot who is getting funded. Sign up for funding newsletters from Crunchbase and John Gannon‘s new funding newsletter ( https://lnkd.in/emCbk5CW )
* Research – see what areas CBInsights.com is highlighting, follow LUMA Partners‘ quarterly updates, track how Scott Brinker’s MarTech diagram and Matt Turck’s Big Data landscapes (Data Driven NYC) are changing so you can see where the action is. Also, now is the time to look at the 2023 predictions from VCs like Fred Wilson and pundits like Scott Galloway.
It’s a jungle out there. Buckle up but with a hint of paranoia in the day job and sharpen your spidey senses for career options beyond it. You can check our our latest listings here – https://lnkd.in/eSpmMH8V
