Athletes Registration

→ Experienced SaaS Candidate Registration

Please watch this video before signing up to work with Shift Group. It gives a brief overview of who we are and our process.

Your 1st step in our program is simple, complete the 60 minute Intro Course to decide if sales is for you or not.

To start the course:

Click the button below
You'll be redirected to our training and hiring platform - Shift Connect to create an account
Follow the prompts through the Intro Course and then you'll schedule time with your coach!

Get Started with Shift Group!

→ Veterans Registration → Our Process

Why Sales?

Sales is a great opportunity with a low barrier to entry.

The technology industry can be intimidating, leaving most wondering how to get into software sales with no experience. However, in reality, there are no formal education or training programs for sales professionals, thus leaving it open to people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. Although you are selling technology, the learning curve is not technical, but rather it is about understanding what your product does (not how) and then, being able to apply that capability to how it solves a business problem.

Why you?

As an elite athlete, you already have the key characteristics that every company in the world wants to add to their sales organizations.

• Resiliency is defined as the capacity to recover quickly from difficulties – to withstand adversity and bounce back from those difficulties.
• Athletes have grown up losing games, getting cut from teams, coming back from injuries. You can’t have success in sports without failure first – athletes understand this inherently.
• Everybody loves to win – but not everybody hates to lose. Athletes take losses personally – and always want to be the best.
• The highest performers in any career or at any company consistently work to be at the top of the depth chart, study their competition and repeat what works and improve what doesn’t.
It takes long hours, consistent practice, and incredible discipline to master your craft as an athlete. You are what you do – not what you say. Athletes have been putting their words to practice since a young age, something that pays off greatly in a new career like technology sales.
• Being confident enough to perform but humble enough to take feedback and use it to get better is a key indicator of success, especially in this new career.
• Sales is a team sport, with coachability comes the ability to work on a team of differing personalities towards a common and hard goal to achieve.
• A growth mindset as an athlete means living out of your comfort zone. Great salespeople are continuous learners, always working on their weaknesses, and always trying to master their craft.
• Athletes have a strong desire to know and to learn and to use those teachings to execute. This is subjectively the most important aspect of what it takes to be great.

On top of the low barrier to entry, there are several other reasons sales is an incredible career.

High Demand

A recent survey of 300 HR managers said that 80% invest most in the recruitment of sales talent

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Great Pay

Average base salary start at $60K with average earnings after commission landing at $118K

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Endless Upside

It is always surveyed as one of the most promising jobs (salary, job openings, and growth)

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Job Security

Never automated out of a job, as B2B decisions are driven mainly through direct interaction

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Interesting

Tech is everywhere, so easy to find a tech space that works for your interest and passion.

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Hiring managers are looking for athletes.

Anne Nardone

“One of the key characteristics I look for in a great SDR that athletes bring is the grit and grind needed for this role. These are people that have grown up working and proving themselves to earn that spot on the team. I can teach skills but not attitude. They are born with that.”
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Director of Sales Development at Cynet Security
Terry Flynn

“The list of attributes that describe men and women college/pro athletes is expansive. For example, passionate, driven, determined, consistent, outcome-focused, problem solver, dependable, tenacious, and respectful. But what I have found most impressive about people with an athletic background is their dedication to their craft, their team, and a shared goal. Hiring great people is hard. Starting with the right kind of DNA is critical. In my 20+ years of experience, former college/pro athletes have an abundance of the kind of DNA that make successful sales professionals.”
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VP of Sales, Strategy, Analytics, Operations and Enablement at HP Enterprise | 1 Year - WPHL
Dan Hatch

“The best sales reps are made up of a combination of grit, work ethic, hunger, passion, and commitment. If you have the opportunity to hire an athlete, you are all but guaranteed to get these ingredients - from a young age, in high school, in their fun college years, they make sacrifices to get better and get beat up physically for the love of the game. The reality, a prospect saying not going to stop an athlete.”
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Vice President of Business Development and Enablement at Gryphon Networks
Mike Shoer

“Whenever I’ve sat with sales candidates, I’ve always focused on a few key traits - drive, leadership, coachability, and teamwork. The reason that these are so important, and translate from sports to sales so well, is because a good SDR needs to have the drive to outwork, outlearn and outperform everyone around them, while also being a team player. The job is very hard and has its ups and downs, so having those key skills can really make the difference. Coachability and drive can help you in your development, while teamwork helps it all come together.”
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Senior Sales Skills Program Manager at LogMeIn
Chris Ward

“Over the course of my career, I’ve interviewed, trained, and promoted 1000s of sales professionals. Their backgrounds have differed, but one commonality was all could learn technology. What isn’t as easily teachable are traits like leadership, team-work, and being coachable. These traits are inherent in athletes making them more employable and successful in the business world! When a premier athlete applies the focus that made them so great at their craft to their new purpose, they achieve huge results!”
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RVP, Sales at Vercel