Investment/Debt Sales VS Software Sales

Often on this forum it’s discussed how difficult it is to truly break into CRE sales and how high the turnover is. Everyone has a couple producers at their offices breaking 7 figures but, it seems as if it’s truly a grind to break the 6 figure mark and that the average good producer down the line make 200-300k (if you make it that far). While also not yet mentioning how low the pay in the beginning is.

Yet, in software sales it’s very common to have a base of 50K with bonus of 25K starting. Within a year the promotion is generally to account executive and I know multiple people that are making 200K plus 3-4 years out of college, some with stock options. In software sales it seems as more people are making more money out of college than cre sales and by a significant amount, while also having better hours and not having to abide by such a stiff corporate culture.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always been interested in cre sales as a career but, when I’m having more and more friends getting into the tech sales space, it makes cre sales seem less appealing. This is just a thought and interested in what’re you’re perspectives.

 
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Agree with above poster. Also, CRE is a relationship business, not a volume business. It is quite possible for people on both the principal side and brokerage side (through very, very different comp structures, admittedly) to make well beyond 200K further in their career.

The business model for brokerage has definitely shifted, though. If you're not on a true 'capital markets' team that has established clients, relationships and pipelines, the best way to make a living in CRE at the early stages is on the leasing side vs. sales/debt, since for the most part it's easier to cold call on tenants than it is on the principal/ownership side. This is why a lot of people who would be good sales reps end up starting as an analyst in the CRE space, because it gets them a good knowledge base but more importantly access and exposure to clients. At the end of the day sales is sales though (eat what you kill). You're also speaking about the software sales path in arguably the best tech job market in history. It's going to look a lot different when there's another downturn (i.e., those folks won't be making 200K at that point most likely, and a lot of the people with the 50K jobs may get the axe). Having a salary does not mean there's no risk associated with the job.

"Who am I? I'm the guy that does his job. You must be the other guy."
 

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