What to Expect When You Join the Sales Team at Salesforce

When you join Salesforce, you're joining a world-class sales team (we've even been told it's like getting an MBA in selling)! Here, you’ll be a trusted advisor to the world's most admired companies — from non-profits to Fortune 500 businesses — and help them connect with their customers in a whole new way.

But starting a new role, no matter your level or experience, can be intimidating and require ramp-up time and continuous training to stay ahead; that's why we have built-in support from the beginning. Discover more about how we set up our Sales team members for success — whether you're joining as a Business Development Rep or VP, starting your Day One or Day 1,000.

Interested in a career opportunity as part of our dynamic Sales organization? Learn more about our team.

Built-In Support From the Start

In their first week, all new hires at Salesforce will have time dedicated to learning more broadly about Salesforce’s business, culture, values, and technology. 

After that initial week, we break out onboarding by organization, ensuring that each new hire has the functional knowledge they need to succeed. Within our Sales org, that means training programs catered to the needs of a new hire’s specific role, from Sales Development Representatives to Solutions Engineers to Account Executives.

These programs include:

• Sales Development Onboarding Experience: Sales Development Reps (SDRs) and Business Development Reps (BDRs) are introduced to selling in a highly technical industry, and learn what it means to be a trusted advisor. One onboarding participant, who started his career at Salesforce as an SDR and then transitioned to an AE, shared:
  
  
  “Sales Development really is a well-oiled machine from a training perspective. Salesforce has the structures and the measures in place for you to get in and hit the ground running. My background was in an entirely different industry to tech, but, because of that onboarding, I was quite successful in my targets in my first couple of months.”
  
  
• Account Executive Onboarding: Account Executives (AEs) enjoy a robust and immersive training program focused on sales process, product and industry application, and assessed learning to support the create-to-close motion. From an anonymous AE onboarding participant:
  
  

  “Every day I gained valuable knowledge, I am light years ahead from day one.”
  

• Sales Leader Onboarding: Sales Leaders are challenged to expand on their foundational and technical skillset to cultivate a high-performance global culture across the global Sales organization. Hear what a Sales Leader had to say:
  
  "[My onboarding was] engaging, thought provoking, and I can use and implement the learnings immediately."

New hires on the Sales team also get to network with other sellers during onboarding through simulation experiences, like gamified customer scenarios, pitch presentations that are judged by peers and sales leaders, and a unique certification process. Along the way, tenured Sales leaders also play an active role — participating in fireside chats, sharing pitch feedback, and more.

“There is so much training coming your way; there's so much coaching coming your way,” explained Marta Klimisina, Director, Sales Development. “It's really down to every single sales rep or employee to own that career and own that learning journey."

Continued Learning & Development

And the support doesn’t stop after onboarding. Salesforce is committed to creating an environment of ongoing learning and development, where sellers stay up-to-date with the latest technology, selling motions, and more. Here are a few of your support resources when you come on board:

• Salesforce Technology: When you join the #1 AI CRM, you’ll have best-in-class technology that youneed to succeed. FromSlack — ourperformance platform for ongoing connection and collaboration — to our AI innovations — like Einstein Copilot — we give our sellers the tools to work more productively, build deeper connections, and connect with customers like never before. Everett Easterling, Senior Account Executive, leverages Salesforce AI tools, like Einstein, to draft emails with customer insights or generate summaries of sales calls — helping him save time and connect with more prospects.
  
  
• AI-Powered Learning Applications: Our sellers have access to groundbreaking learning tools built into Slack, including SEED — or Sales Excellence Enabled by Data. Using real-time data, SEED provides sellers with personalized tips to help them increase their productivity — and crush their quotas. The Sales org also uses a sales enablement platform to help bridge the gap between strategy and execution.
  
  
• Trailhead Learning: Learning is at our sellers’ fingertips with Trailhead, Salesforce’s free learning platform. Sellers can use the tool to deeply understand our products and how to pitch them, including Einstein Copilot and Data Cloud. With thousands of trails to choose from and more added every quarter, the learning never stops.
  
  
• Mentorship & Learning Circles: New hires and seasoned employees alike are welcome to join dedicated learning circles led by Subject Matter Experts to discuss and learn about critical products and processes in their role. Ongoing mentorship opportunities specific to the Sales org are also available.

For Chris Lynam, Director, Sales Development, what has kept him here is simple: the learning. “One of the things I get asked – as I have been in the company for over ten years now – is why I've been here for so long,” shared Chris. “And one of the reasons I always say is that the learning never stops. In the last ten and a half years, there's always been something to learn and to grow into your role.”

Unlimited Growth Potential

That growth is critical to our talent philosophy; after all, when our people succeed, we succeed.

Career growth in Sales at Salesforce can take shape in many forms — like going from Business Development Representative (BDR) to Senior BDR to AE, like Ireland-based Aileen Bayer, or becoming a Boomerang like Caren Wachtenheim, who started at Salesforce as a Regional Manager leading a team of Account Executives, then transitioned to being an Account Executive herself. After leaving Salesforce for an opportunity at another software company, she then came back a year later — elevating her role from Account Executive to Regional Vice President of Sales.

“Salesforce really enables every person to find out what they're good at, to find out what they're interested in,” shared Regional Sales Director, Christina Secchi. They give you so many opportunities to meet new people, meet new teams.”

Looking to jumpstart your own Sales career with Salesforce? Learn more about the team, and stay in touch by joining the Salesforce Talent Community.