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Lawyer turned Salesman joining the forum

ErictheRed

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Hi everyone:

Here introducing myself on the forum. I'm a 26 year-old guy that recently (about 1 yr ago) graduated law school and passed the bar. I practiced law for a little while, did not like it (long hours, billable hour, thankless work) and switched to a sales/business development job at a tech company in my area.

I love sales, and have been fortunate enough to post good numbers my first few months on the job. I've read both TMF and Unscripted , and joining the forum is my next step. I've been scouring the forum posts for a while, and am now actively working on business ideas to get a fastlane business started - on the side - that I can scale into a growing and thriving business to give me the financial freedom that I want.

Glad to be here and to exchange ideas/progress with you all.

Cheers!
 
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policebaton

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Awesome man good to see you on here, sales is really fun. Are you doing a B2B Saas of some sort?

And how's the switch going from practicing law into sales so far?
 

ErictheRed

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Awesome man good to see you on here, sales is really fun. Are you doing a B2B Saas of some sort?

And how's the switch going from practicing law into sales so far?

Thanks for the reply. I'm doing B2B for testing equipment.. In a very niche area of manufacturing and the food industry. It's a tough product to sell but rewarding when it happens.

The switch from law is going well. Business/sales is about building things that add value to other people's lives, and as long as you aren't overly pessimistic (which lawyers are) and use EI skills then you have some success and learn plenty about how to sell/grow businesses.
 

Denim Chicken

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Thanks for the reply. I'm doing B2B for testing equipment.. In a very niche area of manufacturing and the food industry. It's a tough product to sell but rewarding when it happens.

The switch from law is going well. Business/sales is about building things that add value to other people's lives, and as long as you aren't overly pessimistic (which lawyers are) and use EI skills then you have some success and learn plenty about how to sell/grow businesses.
Inside sales or outside sales? How do you like it?

My experience as an AE at a tech company gave me alot of insight on business in general, particularly saas. The experience was invaluable. I dont know how anyone could be an attorney, it is so boring and dry. Every attorney I know hates their job
 
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G

Guest24480

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How did you find the software sales job? I'm interested in finding one myself while I work on my own software on the side
 

Andy Black

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Can you add your sales experience on top of your legal experience and knowledge? (AKA grow what you know?)
 

tristano

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I'm a lawyer too, but in italy! I'm switching to sales, too. There are too much lawyers for the market here. It's very difficult to make your pay for your job, maybe, that's why lawyers are so pessimistic.
But, anyway, move on!
 
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Andy Black

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MJ DeMarco

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graduated law school and passed the bar. I practiced law for a little while, did not like it (long hours, billable hour, thankless work) and switched to a sales/business development job at a tech company in my area.

Wow, impressive. How did you overcome that overwhelming sunk cost of that decision? How did you know it was law itself, and not your firm?

Welcome to the forum!
 

Iammelissamoore

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Can you add your sales experience on top of your legal experience and knowledge? (AKA grow what you know?)
I was thinking same, I mean don't get me wrong, I'm super happy whenever reading these beautiful stories - love seeing my fellows on the forum winning-winning-winning at their hard work, especially now that you have found something that you are building successfully - and a huge kudos to that - my only thought is that you have put so much into becoming a Lawyer; there are possibilities where you can build products/services/items/software that answer to the needs in your field AND the fact that you have that wealth of knowledge in the industry just may be a huge plus.

Nevertheless, Super Kudos on building your success :)

Also, a HUGE Welcome to the platform - you're gonna love it here.
 
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ErictheRed

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Inside sales or outside sales? How do you like it?

My experience as an AE at a tech company gave me alot of insight on business in general, particularly saas. The experience was invaluable. I dont know how anyone could be an attorney, it is so boring and dry. Every attorney I know hates their job

Being an attorney is definitely boring, lots of paperwork and for the most part, you are working on deals that other people made (not you). Some attorneys do love it, but I kept waking up and saying to myself that I couldn't do it for the rest of my life, I needed to build something
 

ErictheRed

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Jul 13, 2017
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Boston, MA
Inside sales or outside sales? How do you like it?

My experience as an AE at a tech company gave me alot of insight on business in general, particularly saas. The experience was invaluable. I dont know how anyone could be an attorney, it is so boring and dry. Every attorney I know hates their job

And it's inside sales. A good entry-level job, will help me learn the ropes of the basics of business. How'd you like your sales gig, where'd it lead you?
 

ErictheRed

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Jul 13, 2017
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How did you find the software sales job? I'm interested in finding one myself while I work on my own software on the side

It's not a software sales job. I just said 'tech' because it's a very niche, technical B2B product. Honestly I just applied on LinkedIn and found a good fit
 
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ErictheRed

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Boston, MA
Can you add your sales experience on top of your legal experience and knowledge? (AKA grow what you know?)

Thanks for the note. Yeah I guess down the road I could go into what's called "legal management consulting", which is business consulting for attorneys. The problem with that is that it's not very scalable. The other avenue is to build a legal tech product, and the other issue there is that there's a limited number of people (attorneys/others seeking legal help) that would buy the product/service. If anything, a legal tech product would be cool.
 

just10

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Cool, I'm in the same stage as you, just waiting for the right idea/inspiration to hit.
 

ErictheRed

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Jul 13, 2017
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Boston, MA
I was thinking same, I mean don't get me wrong, I'm super happy whenever reading these beautiful stories - love seeing my fellows on the forum winning-winning-winning at their hard work, especially now that you have found something that you are building successfully - and a huge kudos to that - my only thought is that you have put so much into becoming a Lawyer; there are possibilities where you can build products/services/items/software that answer to the needs in your field AND the fact that you have that wealth of knowledge in the industry just may be a huge plus.

Nevertheless, Super Kudos on building your success :)

Also, a HUGE Welcome to the platform - you're gonna love it here.

Thanks for the reply my friend. Yes, the forum is filled with a lot of go-getters that seem to have a similar attitude. I've looked at exploring building on what I know in the legal field. As far as I can see, that involves either (1) legal management consulting, or (2) building a legal tech company. For me, I'm leaning towards building a side business right now that I can spin into a software/SaaS company to be sold down the line. Then, with all the business knowledge plus the JD, legal management consulting would be a nice way to have some income plus something to do.

Another route I've seen former JDs take in the business world is working their way up to CEO. Law school teaches you a different way of thinking that you can't get readily anywhere else in terms of analytical thinking and problem-solving skills. This path here is a long road obviously.
 
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ErictheRed

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Jul 13, 2017
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Boston, MA
Wow, impressive. How did you overcome that overwhelming sunk cost of that decision? How did you know it was law itself, and not your firm?

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks for the reply! I wrestled with the sunk cost decision for a while, but the pain of waking up and doing legal paperwork all day was just too much not to make a change. Once I was mentally over the sunk cost fallacy, I looked at other avenues of work where I could (1) learn how to build a business, and (2) add value to others lives in the process. I landed on sales and am digging it so far - eventually working towards my own business.

The firm was filled with great people, but it was the actual legal work that bored me to death. Firm to firm, legal work remains the same with contracts, litigation, court dates, etc.
 

ErictheRed

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Jul 13, 2017
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Boston, MA
I'm a lawyer too, but in italy! I'm switching to sales, too. There are too much lawyers for the market here. It's very difficult to make your pay for your job, maybe, that's why lawyers are so pessimistic.
But, anyway, move on!

Italy is a great country. Spent four months studying abroad in Rome, and would think that dealing with all those regulations in Italy as a lawyer would be cumbersome! Good luck with the switch, just keep talking with people and connect with them. Something about being a lawyer oddly makes this a skill you pick up.
 

Iammelissamoore

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Thanks for the reply my friend. Yes, the forum is filled with a lot of go-getters that seem to have a similar attitude. I've looked at exploring building on what I know in the legal field. As far as I can see, that involves either (1) legal management consulting, or (2) building a legal tech company. For me, I'm leaning towards building a side business right now that I can spin into a software/SaaS company to be sold down the line. Then, with all the business knowledge plus the JD, legal management consulting would be a nice way to have some income plus something to do.

Another route I've seen former JDs take in the business world is working their way up to CEO. Law school teaches you a different way of thinking that you can't get readily anywhere else in terms of analytical thinking and problem-solving skills. This path here is a long road obviously.
Lol, great, totally overstand. Most importantly is that you are building something great and you can apply the Fastlaning principles to it. Kudos on your venture.
 
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