It seemed like the good old days of slingin software at Salesforce is suspended for the time being. The market is saturated with the customers left over that DO NOT want to move away from their homegrown or preferred systems. Or they do, but can't get there personally to change their whole company's way of doing things; OR the company's employees stage a revolt and flat out refuse to use the software the owners are about to buy. If you don't mind that internal struggle of, why in god's name aren't these people getting it, then you will do fine.
I was in the Quarterback position and regret that decision. DEFINITELY, go in as a Specialist IF you are hired as an outsider. (Meaning you have had a successful run at other sales jobs and didn't 'grow up' at SFDC as a BDR) Reason being, you will be able to focus on your one solution to learn the ins and outs of it. Granted Specialists will have some of the same responsibilities as Quarterbacks.
Working here IS A LOT. That's the only way to describe it. As a Quarterback, you are: managing the deal, which consultant to introduce the customer to or which consultant they already have, internal SFDC Specialists and team for your manager/BDR/Solution Engineer/Service Specialist/Marketing/Pardot/ECommerce/and literally every possible solution they have or will acquire down the road. You will need to memorize enough of each to know when to pull in those Specialists and be able to sell the idea of exploring this other solution to the customer.
All awhile you as the new hire that didn't 'grow up' in SFDC have to learn all the actual products and be a technical expert for the customer. Your current customers will ask you technical questions and THERE IS NO ONE TO SEND THEM TO. Now, I don't mean this literally but there isn't much support for the customers unless they pay for it. They will have to wait for standard tech support to get back to them in 48 hours. And in that time, YOU are the person they are asking to solve it for them but you have no idea because you are not the technical expert and either give answers you humanly can or put them off until support gets back to them. This happens a lot and is not a one off situation.
Oh and then you have to go back to that customer the following week and ask them to enter into an evaluation for xyz tool that will solve xyz need that they most likely don't have or have been asked many times before by other reps.
Every month, you have to visit your customers in territory, whether they want you to or not. There is definitely evidence that meeting your customers in-person and getting that face time puts you in a better position to really make a difference in their business. But, it matters what type of territory you have. Long-term customers and 1-3 year old customers are not the best. Either they know what SFDC can do for them and are tapped out on what they need/want. Or the newbies had horrific and borderline criminal implementations that they can't justify any more expense on a system that wasn't implemented correctly or not even in use yet. The push for monthly visits makes sense, when it makes sense....
Finally, your previous experience will make you. Have you worked before in a "team selling" environment? Have you sourced consultants? Team Selling here is on steroids and can involve eight to nine people internally. Consultants are your Partners for winning deals and sometimes they are the reason you lose or delay deals. If you get a deal delayed, then you will be blamed for not managing your Partners. Similar experience will bolster you but if you have done well other places that lack the consultant piece or steroid team selling activity, then that is just another thing you will have to learn on top of everything else.
It was a great experience and this is definitely not to dissuade anyone. More so for those hired in directly into a sales role. This is what you need to know before starting.
Good luck :)
