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How to Get Promoted Quickly:

It’s hard to advance your career when your company isn’t growing.

I’ve seen good reps get stuck in a role because their company is working through changes.

And average reps rise through the ranks quickly because they joined a growing company at the right time.

Compare these two people:

• Alex = top 2 rep on team, 35% company YoY growth, 1 year tenure

• Sally = top 2 rep on team, 9% company YoY growth, 1 year tenure

Who do you think is going to get promoted first?

From my experience, the answer is almost always Alex.

Your environment is as important to your success as the work you’re doing.

Finally, the reality is most hiring decisions come down to one individual.

Imagine relying on one person (your boss) for promotion, when you could:

1. interview at other companies (even if it’s just practice)

2. connect with other members of your leadership team

3. build a personal brand to 100x the audience

If you don’t promote yourself, no one will.

A Journey in Two Parts:

It took me 7 years to go from SDR to Director.

Here's the story most people will see:

• 2015: joined start-up as SDR

• 2016: promoted to Sr. SDR

• 2017: quit on 2 year work anniversary

• 2018: joined start-up as AE

• 2019: moved to BDR leadership

• 2020: scaled team up to 10 reps

• 2021: grew to 18 reps

• 2022: Director

Seems pretty natural right?

This is what happened behind the scenes...

• 2014: graduated college as student-athlete. No real work experience.

• 2015: spent 5 months job searching. Finally hired as an SDR at a start-up through a family connection.

• 2016: start-up pivoted. My inbound role is deprecated. Asked to transition to an outbound SDR.

• 2017: quit on 2 year work anniversary. Company exploded. Missed on equity worth 6-figures today.

• 2018: spent 5 months traveling then started interviewing again. Rejected 10+ times. Hired as a Sr. BDR then quickly promoted to AE.

• 2019: STRUGGLING as an AE. Told I should look for a new job OR move to BDR leadership. Chose the latter and took on a team w/ 3 reps.

• 2020: hired my first 2 reps. Bad hires by me. Had to restart after 4 months. Scaled the team to 10, thanks to post-COVID tech boom.

• 2021 H1: company acquired. The biz we merged with had an inbound only GTM motion and needed to add on outbound to scale. Lucky for me, that's my background.

• 2021 H2: leading a team of 15. Burning out. Approval to hire 2 managers. Promoted to Director.

It's easy to compare yourself to others.

Remember, you're only seeing the highlight reel.

There is no "right path" or career arc.

Keep moving forward.

Until next Thursday,

TSG

P.S. I reply to all emails.