How did you get started in sales? Ethan O’Connell, SDR & Sales Strategy Consultant

We all have different stories for how we find ourselves in Sales, Sales Development, or Sales Management. 

There’s no degree or college certificate you can get (although there are more and more courses popping up), but there is a similar trend we hear a lot – someone gets a degree in something or is in a job they hate, so they try sales for a bit for a paycheck and end up loving it.

As you go into the new year, and you’re thinking about what you love about sales and what you want to do next, check out the journey of our SDR & Sales Strategy Consultant Ethan O’Connell, and how he’s now a consultant for a top-rated sales consultancy (that’s us!).

How did you get started in Sales?

It was by accident. Ethan graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Health Care Administration/Management and realized he did not want to do that for the rest of his life, so he worked for a bit in college admissions and then took his first SDR role at Emma (now Campaign Monitor) doing inbound sales and then progressed into outbound.

At KeepTruckin he developed his skills in enterprise sales development and then ended up building out a new segment and their first enterprise sales team as the sales manager. Here he discovered that he also liked coaching and helping people work through problems.

His next stop at LeadFeeder as the Outbound Sales Manger is where he developed his skills into sales and the full circle of the closing experience.

After this is when Ethan and Skaled met.

Connect with Ethan on LinkedIn

How do you serve clients at Skaled?

“I help B2B companies of all types and sizes with things like growing and building sales teams, interim leadership, optimizing their tech stack, creating content like playbooks and outbound sequences/cadences, and reinforcing that content with training and accountability programs.”

Ethan has worked with a number of growth-stage to enterprise clients since he started with the company in June 2021 and quickly moved from SDR consulting to more sales strategy and leadership.

What is the #1 thing you love about sales?

“It really is an art and a science, or part expression and part experiment.”

Successful sales is data-driven, but there is no one way to do something, and Ethan often advises different companies to take different approaches based on their goals and their buyer.

What do you love outside of sales?

(He had to ask his wife.)

Ethan lives in Nashville, Tennessee with his wife Jen, dog Rudy, and cat Kiki. 

Outside of sales he loves being outdoors, hiking, and snowboarding. He also loves a good candle and occasionally makes his own!

He also loves to travel and his most recent trip was to Montana to try out fly fishing… he caught 21 fish over three days. We think he succeeded at fly fishing.

Want to help create a lasting impact in people’s lives like Ethan?

Skaled is always looking for people who align with our core values and are passionate about sales. Check out our sales careers page for open positions.