Hunt #3: Earn $200k+ selling intent data in a full-cycle sales role

Good morning hunters!

Today's newsletter covers an overview of Intentisfy (an intent data provider) as told by a seller who’s ROCKED his quota for 4-straight years, some recently captured HOT jobs I think are interesting, and parting words of wisdom based on a conversation I had with a long-term Amazon salesperson.

Enjoy!

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Main event

Recently met with Matt Barbieri who has spent the last 4 years at Intentsify, a leader in the intent data industry. He’s (only) 6 years into his career and has already built an incredible perspective on life, sales, and success.

Let’s dive in!!

Here’s a quick backstory:

Matt attended UNH and gained a love for sales through his work with their professional sales group. His first sales job was at Fidelity, and after commuting 1.5 hours EACH way 5x per week, he knew it was time for a change.

He grew up playing hockey with Jake Citrano and joined him at a young Intent Data company.

He gained a crash course in how to conduct business as he, Jake, and one other salesperson had to teach themselves about the intent data space, figure out who to sell to/how to sell, and even create their own sales contracts.

This unconventional opportunity taught Matt lessons like:

• A strong work ethic

• How to teach himself

• How to be resourceful

And he said someone that really stuck with me:

Being in that chaotic/unstructured environment taught him how to be self-sufficient, which in my opinion, is a key skill necessary for top salespeople. Matt learned that lesson very early in his career and has benefitted greatly from it!

Then in August 2020, after a year of learnings and growth, he got connected with the founders of Intentsify and jumped aboard as employee #12.

Overview of Intentsify:

Intentsify helps marketers & data scientists gather precise buyer insights uniquely calibrated to their needs to help move buyers forward wherever they are in their journey (learn more by checking out their website!)

There are other competitors in their space (like Bombora & 6sense) but their differentiator is data + activation services along with the highly prescriptive approach they take.

They sell to large enterprises like Adobe, AWS, Oracle, Nasdaq, and Mastercard and having a lot of success driving successful campaigns that keep these large clients happy (and coming back often!) They now have 200+ employees and are growing quickly.

Overview of their ICP & day-in-the-life of a salesperson

Their ideal customers have 2,000+ employees and Matt mostly engages with marketers and data scientists (but mostly marketers) and sells campaigns that cost high six and even 7-figure deals each that last for 90+ days.

As an Account Executive, Matt works full-cycle and spends half his day prospecting into ~100 named accounts and the other half engaging his book of business that have active campaigns.

One of the pieces he enjoys most about his job is getting to travel in-person to his clients which he does 1-2x per month. I loved this quote from him:

His quarterly and annual goals have two main components:

• Net-new logos 

• Revenue

He’s been working with many clients for several years where he’s built deep relationships with many business units leading to additional revenue as he expans his accounts.

When new Account Executives join them, they typically work a list of 150-200 accounts which can span different geographies and industries.

Who’s an ideal fit to be a salesperson at Intentsify?

From Matt’s perspective, industry experience is not required and personality and soft skills determine whether someone can blow out their goal and crush $200k+ in income (or fail).

Successful attributes include:

• Hard work

• Buying into their model/learning from peers

• Outgoing personality

• The right attitude

• Ability to multi-task back and forth between prospecting into new accounts/reactivating dormant accounts and taking care of clients

Interested in learning more about Intentsify? Check out their career page!

Recently captured jobs

Based on a recent poll I conducted (along with conversations with many experienced SaaS AE’s), it’s clear that $75k+ salary is what it will take for many to move outside of SaaS.

For hunters that feel similarly, I highly recommend checking out companies in data (like Intentsify) along with those in IT Services and Consulting.

Here are a few companies we’ve hunted that could be worth a look:

• K Logix

• Technium

• Exaltaret

• Expedient

• Visual Edge IT

• Prolifics

• iCorps Technologies

• Forrester

• Rightpoint

Words of wisdom

I recently caught up with a salesperson at Amazon who’s worked on several of their sales teams. What I learned blew me away…

He does NOT have any variable commission! Between his salary & RSU’s, he’ll take home well north of $300k in 2024. And given how well he’s performed, his annual performance reviews often include salary & RSU increases.

He’s incredibly happy & has no FOMO from not getting commission, especially considering he has access to incredibly smart people and is learning & growing every single day (along with the ability to take on new challenges). He also has plenty of worklife balance which was surprising to hear based on what I’ve heard about their culture. Interested in that kind of environment? Check out Amazon!

Note: The vast majority of Amazon sales teams DON’T offer commission (but their AWS & Ads sales teams DO).

That’s all for this week. Happy hunting!

Jay Green “The Quota Hunter”