People want to work where they believe they have the best chance to live the lives they want. There are tons of good reasons to choose an employer, from the opportunity to make a good living to the chance to work on meaningful projects. 

But the single most important factor that makes people thrive professionally? According to Mercer, it’s work/life balance—54% of employees say this is the one thing that makes all the difference.

There’s a lot to be said about finding that balance, but it’s not about landing a job where you can just put on your professional hat each morning and put it away at quitting time. For much of today’s workforce, work/life balance doesn’t mean finding a way to make room in your life for your job. It means finding an environment that’s in sync with every part of you—your goals, your beliefs, your vision for your future.

Nowhere is that idea more applicable than in software sales jobs. There’s a lot that can make or break your career helping to connect a software company’s offerings to the customers who need them most. 

But without one thing, your new career in software sales could be a total non-starter: Culture fit.

The Best Software Sales Jobs are about a Greater Mission

Culture is something that can’t be imitated or invented. It’s what happens when people come together to share in a community and to work towards a common goal. Culture reveals itself in the way groups of people value each other. In the traditions that spring up over time as they work side by side. In the way leaders express their vision and empower others to help make that vision a reality. 

Establishing a clear company culture, then, isn’t about building something from nothing. According to Joe Mills from ElementThree, company culture is something that needs to be uncovered.

“We don’t really think about ‘good’ and ‘bad’ company culture,” Joe says. “We think about what culture is authentically yours… Our real goal here is to find the values that are uniquely yours and bring them out, so you can find the talent that’s the right fit.”

Top tech employers recognize that success in today’s marketplace requires a team that really believes in what the company is trying to accomplish. 

Likewise, if you’re looking for the best sales jobs out there, you need to look beyond the software sales job description. Focus on finding a company with a clear mission you can get behind—and an authentic culture that stems from that mission.

Being Genuine is Critical to Success in Software Sales

Here’s the thing: the software marketplace is crowded. Every day, new companies spring up around incredible solutions to real problems. If you’ve got a mind for sales, there’s no shortage of employers out there looking to get their software into the right hands. With that kind of work comes plenty of opportunity for surface-level success—but it doesn’t always guarantee that you’ll truly thrive.

“Success for its own sake is awesome all by itself,” says David DeRam of Greenlight Guru. “But if you can add a fantastic mission to that, like improving the quality of peoples’ lives, then your organization starts to take on a soul. It’s got a heartbeat, and there’s a ‘meaning’ and a ‘why’ that’s behind that sales team.”

That meaning, in turn, is the key to not only giving you a true work/life balance, but also to making you a truly exceptional software sales professional.

“When you think about a great salesperson, the first thing that comes to mind is elite,” David says. “They want big goals. They want to stretch. They want to grow. They want their career to grow, their bank account to grow.”

In other words, finding an employer with a culture that allows you to thrive and reach your fullest potential, rising from entry level software sales jobs to the role of a software sales executive, can take a “job” measured in terms of quotas and commissions and turn it into a true career. After all, what does a software sales representative do if not create real growth?

Find the Software Sales Job with the Right Culture Fit

Finding a long-term career where you can be successful, happy, and fully engaged is something we all hope to find for our lives. But here’s the best part: Getting into software sales in 2019 means you don’t have to settle for anything less.

Jason Price, CEO of Covideo, has this advice for anyone on the hunt for their next software sales opportunity: 

“Work is such an incredibly big part of your life. We spend a lot of time at our jobs. When you go out and you’re looking for the right career, I would take time to focus on the culture. Find a place [where you] really believe in the purpose, you love the way they treat their people, you like the way they incentivize, and the way they run their business.”

This is truly a candidate’s job market. When the unemployment rate in the United States dropped to 3.7% in late 2018, it reached a record low not seen in 50 years. 

Choosing your next gig, then, means looking at potential software sales companies to work for as closely as they look at you. “There are so many options out there,” says Jason. “Unemployment is extremely low, so I highly recommend you take the time and, just as they’re interviewing you, you’ve got to interview them back to make sure they’re going to take care of you the way you want to be taken care of.”

We can’t tell you what type of corporate culture is right for you, but take these questions into your next software sales interview to get a good sense of culture:

• What is this company’s bigger mission?
• What traits do you value in your employees?
• How do you incentivize your employees?
• What are some traditions you share?
• What makes this company a unique place to work?
• What does success mean to you?

Start Your Software Sales Search Now

It’s our mission to help professionals and tech companies alike connect and find that magic culture fit. Create your profile now and start reviewing software companies between the coasts that are hungry for their next great software sales hire. And, in the meantime, check out our breakdown of software sales, including a look into software sales salary levels and software sales requirements, to learn more about what it takes to cut it in this growing field.