Harshvardhan Mishra 👹

I was in my very first Sales Job, right out of college, I was more excited than scared. 

Probably that's a good thing. 🤷 

But yeah, one fine day, I asked help from a Senior Director in my team, to give me some e-mail templates & cold call scripts, if the lord had it.

Lord smirked at me, and said: "You are a wild horse Harsh, you have not been tamed yet"

My eyes wide open, in disbelief, I questioned, 'if I was a Horse all this time?  " 

First of all: "Excuse me, what??" 😮

But come to think of, I do love open grassfields, have empathy and am intelligent but still, the confusion prevailed. 🤔 

Only to realise that he had left me on my own. 

And probably that's a good thing too. 🌼 

Because dramatically getting hurt by his one small comment, I ignited fire in me, called another founder ( Sridhar - B2Brain ) and said:

"I can't take this anymore" 

"We need to build a support system" 

"He said, 'I hear you'" 

"Let's do it" 

And thus somehow a Sales Community for SaaS Sellers was born 🥂

In the midlife, it became to be known as Sales 101, and man we did and do some great fun 🤩 

- Brunches ( Mixers ) 
- Workshops 
- Rant Sessions / Zigs 

and much more. 

So that little idea is now a movement, where we want to build an ecosystem for Indian SaaS Sellers and provide a home, a village, a shoulder to take them forward together 🫂

Account Executive

Working in SMB Sales

Harshvardhan Mishra

Back when I started as an SDR, 

- I didn't have pre-made playbooks

- No power dialer ( or any dialer for that matter ) 

- No Database tool 

- No SEP or Intent Signal or Website De-anonymization platform 

I was handed an email ID ( yeah just one, not 30 different ones ) and a list of accounts where I was supposed to setup meetings. 

And was just thrown into the deep end of the pool. 

Instead of drowning, I learned to swim 🏊 

Used free credits of tools, guessed email IDs and asked people for contact numbers. 

Ended up booking 120+ Enterprise meetings in a year. 

I felt un-stoppable, and that built the muscle which is helping me earn till date. 

____

No, this is not to say that today's SDRs have it easy, if anything, they have it harder than me. 

I was operating in a less noisy environment, selling AI 5 years ago, people were curious and afraid, that did lead to conversations and conversions. 

But as we at times feel that using too much ChatGPT has made us dumb, similarly, I feel the SDRs of today are too much dependent on the tool, intent signals, and power dialers. 

All of this was invented to operate at scale, to be able to remove guesswork, to become more efficient, and it did all that. 

Except maybe building that muscle became weaker. 

Remember all these tools, platforms and tech will only help if you know how to use them correctly. 

I'd ask every SDR right now: 

"Will they be able to book meetings if they were stripped of most of the tech available to them?" 

If answer is YES, then good for you, you will survive a long time. 

If it's NO, then I'd ask try doing it without any fancy tech. 

It will build that muscle. 💪 

_______

PS: If you have this muscle I keep talking about, reachout to me, I am helping few companies hire their Founding SDR and you might be the right one for them. 

PPS: That is younger me, attending his first conference, plus people like seeing photos on Linkedin.

India’s OG SaaS Sales Community | Sales 101

We just helped a YC company hire their Founding SDR! 

Wasn't easy to find a good fit, but that's why we exist. 

But there are more roles where we are helping, read and reachout ONLY if you fit the bill. 

__________

For Chennai - 

1. SDR - US Shift 
2. SDR - EMEA Shift
3. Associate Director of Sales - APAC 
4. Director of Demand Generation

__________

For Bangalore - 

1. Founding SDR - US Shift 
2. AE - India Shift 

_________

For Pune - 

1. SDR ( B2B Outreach but not SaaS ) - India Shift 

________

Remote - 

1. SDR ( B2B Outreach but not SaaS ) - US Shift 

______

Share this post with people who might be a fit, tag them below or if you yourself are looking for a switch, DM away!

Sometime ago, we ( Sales 101 ) hosted an AE mixture in association with Wayground (formerly Quizizz). 

It was a combination of fun, knowledge and good food 🍱 

Rajdeep Pundir talked about the journey of Wayground.
 
Mihir Bhanushali made a lot of us laugh for sure while answering rapid fire questions.

and an amazing team behind the scenes - Nishant, Gayatri, Priyanka, Aayushi, Sangram & Namratha, people who made it possible. 

Enjoy the aftermovie, and keep an eye for our future events ❤️

Companies don’t want to invest in enablement, that is the truth of today. 

Life of freshers is tougher than ever. 

Companies want exact fit, 

-someone who has already worked in X geo, 

- talked to Y persona and 

- comes in their budget 

Why all of these filters? 

Because they want to maximise their chances of success and get results ASAP. 

The 3 month ramp up period has become more of a probation that is tied to results. 

Patience level has gone down because founders/sales leaders themselves don’t understand what needs to be done. 

Treating junior employees like SDR and AE as your revenue bearers and expecting them to keep your company afloat is lazywork. 

Why are you a leader then? 

I remember when I started, Sales Enablement used to be a function which has disappeared now. 

Even then the sales enablement team was doing low impact tasks like preparing your ppt for you, writing messaging or giving case study at best. 

Instead everyone wants a silver bullet, someone to join them and crush revenue targets. 

It’s almost ridiculous to see how a lot of companies are operating, you’d think they are doing things right at the top level and that trickles down, but mostly it’s guesswork and pressuring the sales team. 

People who had low pressure, worked in less noise, were early sellers, are now leaders who are almost clueless. 

And this leads to toxicity and mis-alignment. 

I have a feeling things will heal themselves, golden era of SaaS has ended and only people with substance would survive. 

Rest will hit a wall. 

So think if you can become a salesperson of substance.

There's a lot of money to be made by throwing people under the bus 🚌 

By eating out of the benefits that were supposed to go to them, by underpaying people, by cheating them or playing loopholes with them. 

We could be one of the biggest sales hiring agency in India, but because 

- we created a community, 

- care about the candidate and 

- also want to create a good name in the long term

we loose on money! 💰 

And that is fine, because I believe eventually we will find more of the people that we want to work with. 

Plus in Sales, none of the company is best for salesfolks, 

- there's always some sort of compromise that you will have to make, 

- some pressure/toxicity to bear 

- some bad leadership 

- some product defects 

But I think even if it is 70% good, if it's a decent company for you, then you should be thankful for that match. 

Do avoid shiny titles, un-real promotions or hikes, promises of the future and Red flags. 

But junior employees specifically fall prey to these, because they have less knowledge, less self-confidence, are insecure and low on runway ( money money money ).

Investors don't give a shiit about the junior most employee or culture in general, rather they sit with founders and give audacious revenue goals, which will result in a good exit for them. 

No one's striving to build a great workplace anymore, rather growth at all costs. 

Recruiters crying about short stint of SDRs, meanwhile SDRs being used and thrown without an iota of enablement and care. 

Then people come and say you can earn upto 1CR as a fresher in SaaS, I mean what bullshiiit guys!! 

There's a company paying 4 LPA for 4-5 years experience SDR and still hiring, there's another one hiring 17 SDRs meanwhile so many people at that company had short stints.

Man, if I had my way, I'd call out a lot of bullshit, but I also have to live and earn with these mfers, so just trying to steer out of un-necessary bs.

Employers and Employees both do wrong to each other sometimes. 

So in that case, it should be called a fair deal, right?

Part and parcel of the game, shiiit happens and various other things that we tell ourselves. 

But in case of an Employee, the Employer can do some serious damage to your career and life. 

- Negative Ref Checks ( leaving you un-employed for a long time ) 
- No Severance 
- Forgetting about you as soon as you are out the door 

And as an Employee, you can't do much. 

- Labour laws in India are shit 
- Sales as a profession is vulnerable to bad name ( because people usually hire based on trust and gut feeling rather actual skills, because they are super hard to verify ) 
- Can get served a defamation notice and what not! 

So my bias would still go towards an employee who was making 8-10 Lakh rupees, has no legal support, is dependent on your review to keep his career going on and can be pressurized at per employer's will. 

We all have heard Employees committing suicide due to pressure and toxicity, ever heard an Employer do that, because the employee harassed them?

Almost all of these fancy, hustling, super-genius founders are just people who can use people well, some might care about you, but to most, you are a way to make "their" company great.

[ATTENTION] - If you are in SaaS Sales, and looking for your next play: 

 🫵 GO CLICK THE LINK IN MY PROFILE 

Or just visit www [ dot ] emplyod [ dot ] com

_______

Why? 

- Most of the job opportunities never see themselves on a notice board 

- They are filled through asking within close circles or take help from someone like us 

- And often at times, you might know the opportunity but when you apply directly, you become a part of the rest 450 people who applied. 

Good Luck Buddy :) 

Butt 🍑 , if you go through us:

- We analyse which opportunity would be a good fit for you 

- We reachout to you if we find something and guide you through the whole process 

- We tell you the pros and cons 

- We help you with your resume, assignment, building up confidence and even negotiations

_________

What does it cost?

Nothing from your end. 

So if you are someone in SaaS Sales, serious about your career path, and would like to take our help, drop your resume in the portal. 

You can even refer your friends, colleagues and juniors. 

CC: Astha

People don't engage in meaningful discussions on Linkedin anymore. 

It's all "Me-this" "Me-that" "My achievement" "Me Me Me"

So let's treat this post as sort of brainstorming wall, Ask me Anything, I will try to reply to best of my knowledge, and maybe others will also join. 

That's it, that's the post.

I keep screaming that "Average will not work anymore".

and trust me, for a lot of sales-people, this realization will come far too late. 

Because of AI + Funding Crunch + Outbound getting noisy and more, the pressure to deliver more in less has started showing up. 

I don't know much before 2020, but during 2021-2023, India SaaS was hiring like anything. 

If you could 
- speak decent English, 
- knew some jargons, and 
- were even average, 

money was being thrown at you 💰 

Because companies had fresh funding and wanted to scale as much as they could. 

But now, it's all back to optimizing, and when it comes to that, companies start cutting budgets, reducing salaries and hiring talent which actually deserves it. 

They have the leverage and we need to level up. 

So what can you do?

- Do an audit 👀 

Identify knowledge gaps, understand the scope of your role, growth opportunities and where a pivot is needed. 

- Talk to people 🧍‍♂️🧍‍♀️ 

Talk to people in your industry ( Peers, Junior and Senior ) and see what are they doing right?

- Prepare a plan  ✍️ 

How will you fix it, how will you upskill, who all can help?

- Execute it ⚙️ 

Go do it, and then keep auditing and retrospecting

So many of you won't do it, because it's hard, boring and doesn't give any immediate results, and hence people who'd do it, would definitely survive better.

It's been a long time since we did something in Delhi. 

Hence, with no further ado, presenting Sales 101 - Delhi Brunch. 

Although it's no longer a Brunch ( Linner?? - Lunch + Dinner ?? ) 

But yeah, same old format, same old vibe. 

Limited spots, no sponsor and a promise of a good experience. 

Get your spots through the link in comments or just ask Me or Astha in DM. 

See ya!

SaaStock

Hands down one of the coolest and nicest folks to work with. Trying to grow and manage the founders' community at SaaStock by doing outbound, managing inbound interest, maintaining Hubspot, curating events and a lot more.

Lead - SaaStock Founder Membership

Sales 101

Chief

Factors.ai

Loved everything here, had to move on cuz was busy getting married and could not be in the office setting 5 days a week or 4 or even 3. All in all, was prepping for a fat wedding and had tons of fun.

Peakflo (YC W22)

Grateful for the CEO to trust me and offer an AE role, met some of the coolest Indonesians, made 2 friends for life. 

Did an okay job in closing given it was my first AE role, could have done better NGL, but was working a bit too much, started to get mentally and physically exhausted, office politics started to happen, heard leadership bitched about me to a newly joined AE ( he told me lmao, I was the one onboarding him ) and that was the end of it. 

Quit and chilled for like 3 months. Closed some good logos though, one of which was a $31K ARR deal.

yellow.ai

They totally snatched me from Skit, along with my the then boyfriend, now husband. 

Did the same sh*t as Skit.

But this time, not just Big Banks, also worked on Big Retail. Everything was Big because back then conversational bots were hella expensive and only Big companies were doing it.  

Wanted to become an AE, was confident will do a good job, management didn’t want to promote, Boom I quit without a job at hand. 

Made some fine commission money to get me going.

Enterprise SDR

Skit (previously Vernacular.ai)

Found myself the first SaaS sales role during the pandemic. 

Proud of myself for not knowing what SaaS or SDR really was, to learning about it, to finding a job on LinkedIn within 10 days of trying.

Made a cover letter without chatGPT ffs.

Generated ‘don’t remember the number but decent enough’ meetings with CXOs at Big Banks in India.

Skit builds conversational bots to reduce ‘inefficiency’ in contact centres led by humans. Tsk!

Zomato

Onboarded over 10k+ restaurants on Zomato's platform. Used to make calls, send agreements, made sure documents and certificates were in place, worked with the content/menu team to take them live for you all to order cheesecake shamelessly at 2 am after rolling one.

Got bored, moved to another place.

Sales Manager

Heyyoo!!

Welcome to one of the awesomest LinkedIn of a sales person.
Not saying I am the awesomest sales person, YET. 

I started sales by accident like 99% of us, when I did not want to continue with my chosen subject in graduation. 

Eventually fell in love with this profession. Recently started learning & upskilling, after a few realisations.
I have sold multiple SaaS products to C-level execs, sweet <3

Currently on a mission to be the best AE in the market.

Other than this, I run 3 sales communities catering to 400+ SDRs and AEs in India to enable more people with knowledge and confidence. 

Update-
Doing communities full time now. Don't have a fixed plan to 'where do you see yourself in 5 years?' May be I'll be on TV, and you'll see me. Who knows!

Thanks for reading, for anything else, please email if you wish to - astha.thk@gmail.com

Astha Thakur

After attending 10+ in office sales mixers, I can say this one tops the chart. 

It had everything. From talk of sales to unwinding with a tall glass, from quizzes to debates. We all felt like a kid, rushing across the hall, giggling and tippy tapping. 

And, Mihir, you did a fantastic job at Rapid fire, I truly loved your example of Vendr. We need more leaders to speak their heart out and spend time with the eco-system. 

Thanks to everyone for joining us with Wayground (formerly Quizizz), it was truly an evening well spent. The goodie bag made me happy. 

Thanks Nishant Gayatri Priyanka <3

#sales #mixer #wayground #sales101

Exponential Risks → Exponential Rewards 💵 

True in only few cases that go as planned. 

Rest are exponential risks that lead to disasters. 

In Life and in Business, we should take risks, maybe more calculated risks and more sustainable rewards. 

That is the only safe-r way to launch a business, pick a hobby, quit that job, move places or build partnerships. 

Looking back, the moves that happened in our life might seem planned, but at times they were super random, impulsive in nature. 

- Starting UnfairAdvantage ( A Sales community ) 
- Then later pivoting to Sales 101 
- Doing intimate brunches to doing them at scale no one has yet achieved in India 
- Testing waters with SDR and AE retreats 
- Building a hiring layer on top of it ( www [ dot ] blazehire [ dot ] xyz ) 

and we will do many more things, while paying bills, dealing with personal emergencies and having fun. 

Making your own salary is tough and also exciting. 

So if this teaches you anything, let it be, that "to pull rewards out of life, you have to take calculated risks".

Hiya folks, 

Sales 101 is helping an early stage MarTech startup hire their founding SDR. 

Key attributes:
1. Founding SDR
2. US shift
3. Salary no bar, will pay what it takes to get the right guy or girl
4. Seed funded with paying customers

We need someone with at least 1 year of outbound SaaS experience in US. 

Please reach out if you fit the bill, if you don't, expect delayed or no response. 

#sales #hiring #sales101 #community #SaaS

Let's gooo 🚀

UnfairAdvantageHQ was India’s first ever SaaS sales community.

We started a revolution long before people realised it was possible.

But this isn’t about people.
This is about us.

People assume my and Harshvardhan’s journey was all planned out.
Good news or bad news, it wasn’t. Not a single thing.

We started UnfairAdvantageHQ in 2022 as a Slack group because, as SDRs, we had zero mentorship.

No play books. No LinkedIn gurus guiding us. No "how to do this" content.

Except 🧠 Sridhar, literally the only person who cared to talk to 23-year-olds.
We were nobodys, he was somebody. 

He told us, “Make a Slack group. Talk to each other. Learn from each other.”
So we did.

And from 2 clueless SDRs, we scaled to 600+ B2B sales professionals.
All organic. All real. 

Then we moved from UnfairAdvantageHQ on Slack to Sales 101 on WhatsApp because we wanted deeper engagement, people who actually have skin in the game.

We monetised it. Out of 600, 290 people stayed.

And honestly?
Those 290 people were the community.
They shared the vision. They cared. They helped build Sales 101 with us.

Because communities aren’t run by 2 or 3 people.
Communities are built by everyone who chooses to show up.
And we showed up too.

Hours and hours of talking to people one on one, asking how we can do better, what needs to change, what they want next, multiple webinars, workshops, retreats, mixers, brunches. You name it, we have done it.

Within Sales 101, we’ve raised funds for a dog shelter, helped a member during a personal crisis, arranged blood donations, helped people get jobs, and honestly, half of it we didn’t even realise was happening until much later.

But we are not perfect.
We mess up. We learn. We apologise. We take accountability.

And honestly, that’s where a massive gap exists between us and the rest of the ecosystem. We own our mistakes, and we’re proud of that gap.

But now… it’s time to go BIG again.
Time to do the next revolutionary thing.

Time to shake things up so others feel that same spark again.

We don’t have anything thought out yet.
But we can feel it.

Something in the sales ecosystem is about to shift.
Get ready to witness the magic, yet again.

#thanksforcomingtomytedtalk #sales #sales101 #community

Yo employees at Whatfix, I know some of you have been let go. 

Sales 101 might have a job, reach out if you are an SDR, AE or Director of Sales. 

ps - I can't get you a 1 crore INR job as a fresher, but definitely one that makes sense and pays good. IYKYK.

Talk soon!

#sales #jobs #community #sales101

Wayground (formerly Quizizz) <> Sales 101 hosted a thoughtful and smartly curated event for sales folks a few weeks ago, catch a glimpse of curious and happy faces. 

Ps - If you are a founding SDR or have done 0-1, I have 2 great opportunities in Bangalore. DM to know more :)

#wayground #event #sales #community

Sales - ✅
Recruitement - ✅
Community - ✅

Out of all the three above mentioned jobs, I think I enjoy recruitement the best ( at least currently ). 

I enjoy because I’m good at it, slow at times yes, but still good. 

I love speaking to candidates who sound energetic, and have a quick TAT. Hiring managers prefer them too. 

However, lately I have also spoken to a few candidates who have been fired from their current job, or have been unemployed for a few months, and my finding is not ideal. 

Instead of being prompt and well prepared, 
-some sound lathargic, 
-don’t prepare well, 
-tell me they need a hike of minimum 30% 

( after getting fired from a job on performance basis, I know the truth, I know their managers, colleagues, best friends, security guard ). 

Them, I don’t like at all. And I believe no recruitement agency does. 

So this post is just a rant, and if you are on of ‘them’, do better. Be better.

Yo Delhi NCR. 

The wait is over!!!!! On popular demand once again..

Sales 101 is back in town to host a sweet and small sales mixer. 

Come and chill with like minded people, the ones that get you, and the ones that get you through. 

When? Dec 13th, Saaturrdaaay, Satturrrdaay! 
Where? Green Park
Time? 1 - 4 pm

See you all super soon! RSVP link in comments.

#sales #sales101 #community #brunch #salesmixer

We are going through a Sales revolution in India currently. 

This happened with UI/UX design just before Covid and soon after, it's dead now though. Design was all the rage just until 2-3 years ago. We saw a similar shift happen in Product management. 

Now? Only the ones that actually care and love are surviving. 
Rest? Dead. Dead like the 1st strain of corona virus. 

The things that feel like an extension of yourself are the ones worth doing. 
If you are doing it just because someone else was/is doing it, you won't go far and long. If short and quick is your mantra, the fruits will taste bland, and then fruits will stop growing altogether. 

But those who become a part of such revolutions on the sidelines get hurt. 
The ones who pour their trust and time suffer when the main one disappears. 

There's so much noise in every industry, every stage, every role, every business. 

Pick what you think will survive. Pick what you think is genuine. It's easy to see blur from clarity. 

Ps - Sales 101 has 5+ founding BDR roles for NAM. If you have 2 years of US outbound experience in SaaS, I can help you crack it.

A common mistake SDRs make in interviews:

Being unclear about their near-term goals.

I often hear feedback from companies saying, “He/She wants to become an AE as soon as possible, so we won't be moving forward.”

While that’s a perfectly reasonable aspiration, talking too much about future growth during an SDR interview ( present need ) can sometimes backfire. 

A smarter way to approach this?

Talk about your strengths and past wins, and tie them to what you plan to deliver. Instead of setting a date for your growth, set KPIs.

For example:
-If I achieve X within X amount of time, I’d like to discuss a possible growth plan.
-If I’m able to establish X in X amount of time, I’d like to set some expectations around a potential promotion.

It's all about chances!

#sales #SDR #interviews

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The Battle

Harshvardhan Mishra

Astha Thakur

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The Battle

Harshvardhan Mishra

Astha Thakur

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Harshvardhan Mishra's LinkedIn Performance

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