11 traits that make a sales job desirable

Last week, I listened to Ross Pomerantz (AKA Corporate Bro) on the ZoomInfo Labs podcast. He shared how his sales career was miserable, prompting his decision to go to business school:

"I was sick of this sales thing and wanted to attend business school. I needed something else."

I don't blame him; his roles at Oracle, a struggling startup, Glassdoor, and another unknown startup weren't ideal. Four tough experiences would make anyone reconsider sales.

Not all sales jobs are bad - some are extremely rewarding, but you must know how to choose them right.

At GTMBA, we often get asked how to assess a sales opportunity. Below are 12 key traits that make a startup sales role truly great.

The more these factors present, the harder it will be to land the role, but you should still try to land as many as possible. I tried my best to order these, with the two most important first.

1. High Talent Density

This is the most important thing to look for in a company you want to join.

Smart, hard-working colleagues will inspire you when you're working with them (which will make you better) and will also pull you to the next companies they join. People get their next jobs from referrals and former colleagues vouching for them internally, so focusing on this flywheel earlier in your career will pay off dividends later.

Sam Altman agrees with me here, and it's the reason everyone wants to work at OpenAI. Find your talent vortex.

2. Inbound Lead Flow

A strong inbound flow indicates a strong market pull, more enjoyable work (as you'll be closing rather than sourcing), and a signal of the company's ability to properly plan GTM capacity (more demand for the product than salespeople hired).

Per Sam Blond (see his post here), if you get hiring and capacity right (which are accounted for in #1 and #2), you have 80/20'd your decision and are directionally set up for success. I'd focus on these two as the must-haves and the rest as nice-to-haves.

3. High Growth Company

High growth is getting in at series A --> D (although this depends on the company, I'd still recommend you go to Anthropic even though they're in a later stage). They're ideally growing 100% YoY and already have a few mil ARR-10M in ARR (to show that they already have PMF), and you want to join them in that 10M --> 100M ARR journey.

This allows you to hit a period of arbitrage, where you are most likely past product-market fit but have the upside in deal velocity and pre-IPO equity.

It's been well documented on this, and see below for some good lists here:

• Why Join A Breakout

• Exception Startups List

• Next Play

• Prospect

4. Path to Enterprise Sales & High Comp Potential

The product might have a strong PLG motion with inbound, but can it scale to the enterprise?

Selling big deals is how you make a ton of money in GTM and is a highly marketable skill that companies want to hire you for. Ensure that the company shows a signal that they can go up-market in a repeatable fashion.

For quota attainment, these smaller companies might have a GTM team that is too small to have a RepVue ranking. If they have a robust RepVue review page, they're probably already too big for you to capture meaningful upside.

5. Hot & Interesting Industry (For You)

Sell in a field that genuinely interests you.

This might seem obvious, but I've seen the top performers align to products and industries that they are extremely interested in—it makes them better sellers.

This is a huge reason why everyone is flocking to AI right now rather than wanting to sell salon CRMs or another HR tech tool.

6. Sell Technical Products

A lot of people give GTM shit for not being "technical," - which pretty much means you never sold to a developer/engineer/CTO, or they don't think you have the intellectual horsepower to figure it out. There is almost this "club" that people are proud to be in for having sold to devs before.

Selling technical products allows you to learn tech deeply and disarms the "not technical enough" objection, which will make any cerebral seller mad.

The smartest and most talented people in GTM sell technical products (think Stripe, OpenAI, etc.). Assuming this interests you, I'd choose a more technical sale over one simpler in the stack's app layer.

Technical products are stickier and usually have a PLG motion, which is generally easier to sell. There is a paradox here, as the smartest people in tech go into situations that allow them to be successful in easier sales environments (aka PLG).

7. Ability To Do Other Things In GTM (Besides Selling)

Smaller companies allow you to contribute beyond sales, enriching your experience in marketing, strategy, product feedback, or operations. This broadens your skill set and makes you more valuable within (and outside) the organization.

It's also just more fun and intellectually stimulating than being the 100th AE at a Series F company, where you only sell into 3 zip codes in Michigan. Top performers I've spoken to want more than just doing that.

Smaller companies naturally will give you this opportunity despite having fewer resources—just make sure to confirm this.

8. Modern Sales Leadership

Work for leaders who are cerebral, modern sellers (who adopt and use tools like Clay). They see sales as more of a science (using data) than an art (schmoozing over a steak dinner). They come from banking/consulting/startup backgrounds and are thoughtful builders.

Don't work for old-school, crusty sales leaders from Jurassic SaaS companies like Oracle/PTC/Outreach/etc. The ones who offer expiring month-end discounts to create urgency, the ones who ask, "How does this affect you personally?" and the ones who use fear to motivate their sales team rather than create a thriving GTM environment for top performers to be attracted to them.

9. Presence in NYC/SF

The best companies recognize the talent density of NYC and SF, and they foster offices/hubs in these cities. Top performers want to be near other top performers in person, so look for companies that understand this.

10. Shipping Speed / Technical Co-Founding Team

A technical founding team that iterates quickly keeps the product relevant and adaptable. Fast shipping helps the product stay competitive and promptly addresses customer needs, which is crucial in competitive markets or technology with a mediocre moat (which is more common now with software being easier to spin up than ever). To assess this, check the company's changelog vs. its competitors.

11. Product-Led Growth (PLG) GTM Model

Selling in a PLG environment lets prospects try before buying, making it easier to build trust.

Assuming the opportunity you are evaluating has some of the other traits above, lean towards one that has a PLG motion — it will be more rewarding for the seller to be able to tell a buyer, "hey, try this, and if it doesn't work then you'll know you won't be buying shelfware).

For those who want help evaluating a sales opportunity, please DM Julian or me!