As someone currently in management consulting who has previously done tech sales for a major software company, I was amused by Martin Keller’s article championing tech sales (sometimes known as consultative or customer success driven sales) over management consulting. Both are great career options and anyone starting their career or doing a career pivot would be well-served either way. While one is not necessarily better than the other, it comes down to personal preferences. In particular, the amount of risk one is willing to take.
I want to compare these two career options in 6 respects.
- Professional Development
- Transition Opportunities
- Pay
- Work-Life Balance
- Job Stability
- Culture
1. Professional Development
In tech sales, professional development is focused on specific strategies and tactics that can be used to meet quotas. There can be a wide variation in how much and what professional development is conducted based upon the needs of each customer portfolio. For a few of the most demanding customer portfolios, it may very well be a broad learning experience that matches management consulting. However, many customer portfolios only require the sales team to master a narrow band of skills and knowledge, and that is what professional development will focus on.
In management consulting, professional development is generally focused on shaping adaptable business professionals that can competently use major productivity solutions (PowerPoint, Excel, Tableau, etc.). Although most management consultants won’t get into the weeds of specific product functionalities, the broad professional development they receive makes them well suited to tackle a wide range of business strategy and operations issues.
2. Transition Opportunities
Tech sales professionals generally progress along a sales and marketing career track. Granted it is possible to pivot to product, operations, or strategy roles, but this is not common outside of a grad school attendance driven pivot. Management consultants generally have a lot more flexibility in their career transition, being sought after by various functions across industries. When I was in tech sales, I constantly got LinkedIn messages checking my interest for jumping over to other tech sales roles. As a management consultant, I have had interview requests from tech, healthcare, and industrial companies for a wide range of roles.
3. Pay
Every tech company will have their own compensation formula (base pay and commission) for their sales teams. Yes, there are tech salespeople out there who hit the higher end of the formula and easily make $200K+. However, that is not necessarily common, and a fair amount of tech sales success depends on luck in terms of customer business conditions. I know of plenty of terrific tech salespeople who due to unexpected economic conditions or industry developments beyond their control have had their customers change product choices unexpectedly, resulting in rather disappointing compensation.
Management consulting does generally have a bonus structure (not counting sign on bonus). It usually doesn’t determine more than 15% or so of the annual take home pay. However, the safety behind management consulting at the junior and mid-level is that your pay is based upon your performance and not the whims of client politics.
4. Work-life Balance
There are definitely people in tech sales who work 10AM to 4PM and call it a day. However, I have known plenty of tech salespeople who work 100-hour weeks non-stop. It really depends on customer demands, which no one can fully control. Management consulting also has some level of variation in terms of hours with 12-hour weekdays and a few hours on the weekend being common. However, the hours are generally easier to plan and organize.
5. Job Stability
For junior and mid-level people, tech sales carries some inherent risks relating to job stability. If a customer all of sudden decides to not buy your product, the entire account and all of its salespeople can have their jobs jeopardized. Companies are constantly considering product changes and adaptations, so this does happen. If a project doesn’t materialize in management consulting, the consultants can easily pivot to other available work. As long as the consultant has good performance and people who will vouch for it, there is usually job security.
6. Team Culture
Tech sales generally tends to be more about long lasting team relationships whereby everyone works hard together and plays hard together. In management consulting, there are definitely strong relationships forged, but since most junior and mid-level people are jumping across projects and accounts regularly, team dynamics have to be regularly re-established.
The Bottom Line
Tech sales has a lot of potential upsides, but it is also rife with a lot of unpredictability. If anyone is seriously choosing between the two, I recommend they focus on the differences in risks and common career pathways for each. I am happy that I am in management consulting, but I also have friends who are happy in tech sales because it fits their personal preferences.
Hall Wang is a dual degree MBA and Master of Public Policy graduate from Georgetown University who has recently matriculated into a major management consulting firm. He has worked at America’s most innovative companies including Blue Origin and Facebook, as well as having done two combat deployments as a US Army Officer.
Image: Unsplash
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One reply on “Tech Sales vs Management Consulting: Considerations”
I disagree with compensation part, but commission is usually based on firm performance so most people at the same level in tech sales get the exact same commission which is nothing compared to what they get in signing bonuses and stocks. Additionally, they have a huge base salary and signing bonus which amount to over six figures and tops what management consultants make, not even counting RSU or commission, especially considering that management consultants in traditional financial firms don’t get RSUs. The top salespeople actually make over $500k+, while entry level positions make over $110k their first year.
As for job stability, sales in tech is one of the more stable jobs because it takes special skill to sell and if a company is not working for you, you can easily just leave for another tech company that is more profitable because these skills are in high demand and sales is what drives most of the company’s revenue. Giving someone in sales $200k is nothing because they probably cover that amount for the company by closing way more than that amount.
Also, I would argue that tech sales and management consulting aren’t that different in terms of pivoting to another role. Even if recruiters only reach out to people already in tech sales for tech sales roles, that doesn’t mean they can’t do other things, more so that it’s more of a niche industry. I’ve seen people easily move into product, marketing, analytics, and program management without additional schooling as their job experience is more than sufficient.