[zx10guy]

I'm in IT sales. Started as a networking specialist. Then transitioned into a "generalist". I'm the technical resource for the sales team so my title is Sales Engineer. With that said, getting into software sales is extremely broad. There are subsets of software which are very significant. You have security, mobile device management, applications, backup/data assurance, analytics, logging, systems monitoring, etc, etc. You need to pick which area strikes your fancy and which business sector you want to target. Yes, the industry/business sector is extremely important as one sector has specific needs that another won't care about. You have Fortune 500, state and local, Federal, SMB (small/medium business), etc, etc.

Having sales experience is a plus, but don't be surprised if you are slotted for a more junior position as you're just starting off in software sales. But this is with me not knowing what previous sales experience you've had.

The nice thing about software sales is the payout in commissions. With hardware, typically commissions are paid out when the product ships to the customer. And you can imagine that this is a huge challenge in today's climate with supply chain issues. I have sales with an OEM that have lead times/back logs going a year out. Software sales, you have none of that. You pretty much get comp'ed immediately as software is just a download with a license key. There are other nuances with IT sales in general which you'll get to understand such as comp differences on maintenance renewals and now the big battle with subscription models. Also, the push to cloud is affecting how sales are being driven.