The first step of your journey to a six-figure software sales career starts here.
Answers to commonly asked questions about the Prehired training program, software sales careers, and Income Share Agreements.
Prehired is a sales community to help you get hired, promoted, and making 6-figures & relationships with people who have your back for the life of your career. Because we're a membership association and not a school or a bootcamp or postsecondary education, we are tied to your career success.
That starts with training, mentoring and networking to help you land a full-time sales job in a business-to-business (B2B) software company within about 12 weeks -- even with no previous sales or tech experience. And it continues with lifetime access to our multiple courses, content updates, mentoring, job references, our active online members-only group, live trainings, our yearly summit and partner job opportunities.
The rest of the answers in this FAQ give more details.
For quick reference, here's a table comparing Prehired to everyone else.
Prehired is a lifetime community, with ongoing access to our multiple courses, content updates, mentoring, job references, our active online members-only group, live trainings, our yearly summit and partner job opportunities. We're not a course, a bootcamp, an academy or postsecondary education.
With that in mind, when you're considering how to take your career in a new direction, we suggest you also ask some key questions:
How long does it take to get started? Many programs take weeks or months to even decide whether to let you in. And then you have to wait more weeks to months to start the program. And then you need to invest months in the training. With Prehired, you can apply, interview and find out if you're offered enrollment within days. And you start the program as soon as the day after your enrollment offer.
How much content and training is there? Look how much training they're really giving you. Prehired’s program is 40+ hours in course content, another 20 hours of 1:1 work with your Mentor, plus 60 to 120 hours to run our Career Search Process until you choose the job offer right for you.
Do you have to attend training live? If a program doesn't let you train on your own time (since you may be working a full-time job, have family obligations, etc.), it won't work for you. Our core training is video-based, and you can then schedule live mentoring at your convenience.
How many people have landed jobs? We've got hundreds, with many videos, screenshots, and full names so you can find the people on LinkedIn and elsewhere to verify they're real.
How long does the average member take to land a job? The average member takes about 12 weeks from starting the Prehired program to land a job offer they like. That pace requires putting in 1 hour per day, on average.
How exactly do people get jobs? Unlike other career trainers, we don't demand you move to drop you in any company we want to after your training.
It can sound like a big perk when a trainer says they'll hook you up with work, but wouldn't you rather be confident you can land a job elsewhere when you decide to switch companies?
That's true security in our eyes.
With that in mind, we show you a proven system to do outreach to companies YOU want to work for.
Because the outreach is so targeted, personal and done like a sales professional, members often get interviews with about 50% of companies they contact and offers from around 20%.
(IF you're a fit for a company in our growing partner network, we're happy to make an introduction. We just don't want people coming into the program with that expectation.)
What kind of support is there over time? If a company doesn't offer the lifetime support benefits we listed at the top, what do they offer and for how long?
We look for the 4 A's...
Attitude - We like people who have a positive outlook and are coachable. Whether you have 40+ years of sales experience or are completely new to sales or the tech space, you're in good company.
Very few of our members had any previous tech experience when they joined. More than half of our members have no previous sales experience. These include fresh college grads, Uber drivers and mid-career switchers.
Wherever you are on the spectrum, what's important is you're open to our guidance. Members hungry for mentorship and who take action succeed.
Our members work at companies like Zoom, Google, Drift, Gong, Houzz, OutboundEngine, Outreach.io, Salesforce, and many, many more (100s in fact).
Aptitude - If you have native-level English (reading, writing and listening) skills, you can follow instructions without being told something several times, and you have basic computer skills (including typing without thinking about where the keys are), you can probably learn software sales.
Ambition - If you're excited to join the tech industry, to challenge yourself and to keep stepping up even after stumbling, you've got the drive you need. Remember, even average software sales reps make $60,000 to $80,000 in year 1 and $100,000+ from year 2 onward. Yet many people either can't land or keep software sales jobs because they give up before learning how to succeed.
Accountability - This one is about doing what you say you're going to do. It's important that you complete your coursework, comes to interviews on time and prepared, etc. It's also about taking full responsibility for your actions.
Many programs take weeks or months to even decide whether to let you in. And then you have to wait more weeks to months to start the program. And then you need to invest months in the training.
With Prehired, you can apply, interview and find out if you're offered enrollment within days. And you start the program as soon as the day after your enrollment offer.
You do NOT need any previous sales experience. More than 50% of our members in a given month come without a sales background. In a way, it's actually a benefit, because you won't have any bad habits to unlearn.
We've had former Uber drivers, pastors, moms who want to re-enter the workforce after raising kids, people in their 40's and 50's hankering for a career change, etc.
You do NOT need any experience in the industry, nor do you need to be a tech geek. You can leave that for the software engineers building the software. We're here to sell it.
Selling software is about clarifying people's needs in businesses. We'll teach you how to use the various tools you need to do your job well.
That said, you DO need basic computer proficiency to do our program.
First, we have no need to disguise our sales process. We're proud of our Clarity > Closing® mindset, which is our "always create clarity" and "always be helping" way of selling.
Furthermore, we accept under 5% of all applicants, and those accepted applicants use the membership benefits for $0 upfront, and only pay us once they've landed a high-paying sales job.
For those reasons, we're happy to turn away anyone who we don't feel will succeed with in Prehired.
The admissions interview is a exactly what we call it: an interview. A casual interview, though, so you can relax. We just expect you to bring your questions for us, and we have our questions to ask you.
If we don't think we can help you, we'll tell you. And if we do think we can help you, we'll also tell you. We're here to give you clarity, so you can make the decision best for you.
Yes, you can find more information on our guarantee here.
See our Member Code of Conduct.
Feel free to apply for software sales positions and go through the interviews, if you get called for any. You'll see how challenging they are. Even veteran salespeople from other industries often don't get hired into software sales roles because they don't know the right tools, skills and workflows.
Many of these folks then come to us. We teach you how to reach out to employers for an interview the way a software sales rep would approach a prospect, and ace all the interview rounds (usually 3-4) by demonstrating the exact knowledge they're looking for.
For an accepted member, the first course typically takes about 60-120 hours over 6-12 weeks (about 10 hours per week), which includes coursework assignments you submit to get feedback on (and may need to re-do) to prove your understanding. Your abilities prior to joining Prehired often determine how long it will take for you to finish.
If you're currently unemployed or have a few hours a day, you could finish the program in even less time.
Getting hired takes another 6-12 weeks after finishing the coursework.
Since you control how fast you go through the 60ish hours of course content and your coursework assignments, you can do it in as little as 1-2 weeks if you have the time.
That said, your mentor will make sure you understood key concepts with hands-on assignments. You won't get to move onto your Career Search Process (CSP) to land job offers until your mentor sees you're ready.
Aside from our member success stories, we've also been given the stamp of approval by some notable names...
CareerKarma named us the top tech sales career launch program for 2020.
HubSpot named our Science-Based Sales® system (which you learn in our program) to its Top 27 list of sales trainings for 2018, 2019 and 2020. We are the only software sales career training program on the list.
SalesHacker, the largest sales community online, named our founder, Josh Jordan, to their Top 10 list for Sales Leadership out of 5,000+ people nominated for the award worldwide.
Billion-dollar sales engagement platform company, Outreach.io, is also a fan. They've recruited several of our members and praised us on their Sales Engagement Podcast interview with our founder, Josh Jordan (which is ranked in their top 10 most popular episodes). Here's what Julianne Thompson, an Outreach.io manager who hired our members, said. (See the 19:50 mark)
Another billion-dollar software company, Drift (the first conversational marketing platform), also partnered with us to hire our members to fuel their growth.
We're also backed by a financial institution that only supports university programs and other trainings proven to boost members' income afterward. They told us upfront they'd rejected ALL the other sales training programs who applied, since they couldn't prove their members made more money after the training. They backed us only after nearly two months of intensive research on our training & member success.
You're free to exit Prehired within your first 7 days of membership as long as you're less than 30% through the first course. (You'll know how far into the course you are because our portal shows your exact % progress as you go.)
If you choose to exit under those milestones, and you signed up with an Income Share Agreement (ISA), you'll be released with no future obligations. Or, if you signed up by paying upfront, you'll receive a full refund.
There isn't one.
You can apply any time, often interview within one day, and you'll usually know whether you're admitted by the end of the interview (pending our financial health checks).
If you're admitted, the course is video-based, so you can access it 24 / 7. And you can schedule live one-on-one meetings with a Mentor at a convenient time when you're ready to get certified.
Note: We do require you to meet weekly with your Mentor within a timeframe you agree to before starting. This is so we can make sure to give you and others in the program all the support you need.
You need a working computer with a camera (NOT a tablet, it needs to use Mac or Windows OS), cell phone, wifi and ready transportation to and from job interviews.
Absolutely nothing.
This is a lifetime membership, including all of these programs and benefits to get hired and to keep leveling up.
By following our Career Search Process after finishing Coursework Assignments, members land jobs in 6 weeks, on average, by investing about 1.5 hours / day in outreach to companies.
Our members don't apply for jobs the normal way, a big reason for their success. 30-60% of companies they choose want to interview them, too, which is how they line up dozens of interviews in a short amount of time.
We know these numbers sound high, but they're normal for Prehired members, since they're among the best sales professionals in real-world ability.
There are usually 3 to 4 interview rounds...
Round #1: 20-minute phone screen, either with Human Resources (HR) or a hiring manager
Round #2: Either a Zoom interview with the hiring manager or a peer interview
Round #3: Interview with a VP (the hiring manager's boss) or a peer interview
Round #4: Either a panel interview and/or interview with the CEO
Why so many rounds?
Because it's common for 100s of people to apply, and many aren't qualified even if they put the right keywords on their resumes and sound good at first. Our mentors prepare you and guide you 1:1 through your interviews, so you stand out and get hired.
See the 100s of reviews (including video interviews) on our website from previous members. (We encourage you to find them on LinkedIn and reach out to ask about the program.)
Also, check out the 200+ reviews on CourseReport and CareerKarma, the two leading sites for tech-related training programs.
And the 200+ recommendations on our founder's, Josh Jordan's, personal LinkedIn profile. (If you can't read them, you just need to create a free LinkedIn profile.)
There is some overlap between these reviews (since we asked some people who reviewed us in one place to share their review on another website). That said, we have more success stories coming in weekly.
You may. If you don't live in or near one of these cities already, we require you to be willing to move to one since there are more jobs there than other places.
If you're near one of those cities and prefer a remote role, remember: many companies want you to work in-office for 6-12 months before letting you go remote. There are also many benefits to sitting next to your coworkers and your manager when you're new.
If you're set on getting a remote job as your first job, the good news is 74% of tech startups (of 451 surveyed) said they plan to go either mostly remote or fully remote. That said, we can't guarantee you'll land a remote position since this is only an emerging trend so far.
Google, Apple, IBM and many other top tech companies no longer require you to have a college degree. Even the federal government decided to hire people by prioritizing skills over degrees. Many companies say they require a degree, yet our members have routinely landed interviews and job offers because they prove they can do the job through Prehired -- regardless of degrees.
After all, in sales, what matters is how you perform. That's why Software Sales Managers often interview people with impressive degrees from prestigious universities... and don't hire them.
Managers want to meet someone who can do the job, and who they'll enjoy working with. We take you from zero knowledge to being ready to prove yourself in interviews.
Age isn't the important factor. Coachability is.
We've had successful members ranging from 20-something Uber drivers who opted-out of college, plus highly educated people in their 30s and 40s looking for mid-career shifts.
That said, we haven't had much success so far with people under age 20 or over 50. We'd love to have great candidates in both age groups, though!
We are NOT a staffing agency.
We DO have partner companies that actively hire our members, and sometimes make introductions if we feel there's a good fit.
Still, around 80% of our members choose to find their own jobs. They accomplish that by contacting companies they want to work for, using the workflow we teach.
Throughout the entire process, you'll have one-on-one mentors who will help you build your personal brand, provide feedback on the emails you write, prep for interviews, and discuss job offers you've received.
The exact work is different for every company, but it involves 3 things:
1. Prospecting
2. Qualifying
3. Scheduling
Prospecting includes identifying ideal businesses (who fit your Ideal Customer Profile) and reaching out to them (usually via email or phone) to start a conversation.
Qualifying is asking questions to see if someone is a potential fit for your product.
Scheduling is setting meetings between the prospect and an Account Executive (AE) for a software demo.
Or, if you're the one doing demos (most SDRs don't do demos), you'll mostly do those via video conferencing with screen sharing, since in-person meetings are rare.
That said, here's what a pretty typical work day looks like:
8:30-9:30am: Get to the office. Coffee + emails, calls, connecting on Linkedin
9:30-noon: Research, mapping and outreach to decision makers at companies
Noon - 1:30pm: Lunch and then a short round of ping-pong in the game room
1:30-4:30pm: Meetings with potential clients (video, phone, demo via computer -- NOT traveling)
4:30-5:30pm: Plan work for tomorrow, answer emails
If you're working remotely (not in an office), your normal day-to-day is still roughly the same. You just won't hang out with coworkers in person.
P.S. If the work sounds terrible, software sales probably isn't the right fit for you. Or, if it sounds good, yet you just don't have the experience yet, that's what we train and mentor you to give you.
Knowing how to help people clarify their problems and potential solutions using a proven process (which is what sales is) gives you confidence.
It's also how you avoid being among the 24% of new software Sales Development Reps who get let go (source: Bridge Group, 2018).
You won't have to travel at all for most software sales jobs. Email, phone and video conferencing are your connections to the world.
Of course, not meeting face-to-face makes building trust & rapport harder. That's one reason our training is all online. When you're going through certification, you have to prove your selling skills the same way you will on the job.
According to Glassdoor.com, the average income for an experienced person is ~$145,000 in 2020.
BUT making $100,000+ is NOT average for software salespeople in the first year.
In your first year, the average total earnings (base salary + commissions) is $60,000 - $80,000. Of that, $40,000 - $60,000 tends to be base salary.
From what we've seen from, making 6 figures is very common starting in your second or third year of software sales.
That said, how much any person makes comes down to the work they put in.
The tech industry has a half-million companies and ~50k new tech startups each year, so there's plenty of room to move between companies if you ever need to or want to.
Software sales is also one of the most recession-proof careers because companies still need software during a downturn to be efficient.
Our program will give you the real-world skills to perform well almost anywhere (and you have a lifetime membership to keep getting mentoring), so losing your job for non-performance is rare.
After being a Sales Development Representative (SDR), it's common to become either an Account Executive or a SDR Team Leader, with promotions to Sales Development Manager or other management roles afterward. Some people also go into Marketing or other departments. For a visual reference, check out this career paths diagram.
Yes, you can use the modern sales tools, skills and workflows you learn in our program to work in any industry.
Yet, why would you want to?
Many sales jobs don't pay as well as software sales, don't pay a base salary, hardly give you time off, don't offer the same perks, require way more than 40 hours per week, require extensive travel, aren't as stable, or need you to sell products you don't believe in (like pharmaceuticals).
ISA eligibility is not determined on the basis of age, sex, race, sexual orientation, religion, national origin or any other protected class. There are certain minimum requirements, however, to be eligible for an ISA.
An ISA is not a “loan” or “debt”. Instead, an ISA represents our investment in you.
Specifically, we are investing our time, money and resources into your increasing your future earning ability. Accordingly, we place our emphasis on your future potential. We call this your merit profile, and we do this by examining your fortitude along with your academic, military and work achievements to ascertain your overall eligibility.
As part of the application process, (i) we will conduct a ‘soft’ credit pull, which will not affect your credit score; (ii) ISAs are only available to people who live in the US, who are US Citizens or US Permanent Residents; and (iii) since we want to make sure your ISA payments are always manageable, we may consider any other pre-existing financial obligations you have (including whether you have any other ISAs), which may make it harder for you to manage your ISA payments.
Lastly, certain merit-based indicators may also overlap with items typically included in your credit file, such as whether you have any: recent garnishments, lien attachments, judgments or tax liens, have recently declared bankruptcy, or whether there are any unsatisfied suits or judgments pending against you.
Most of our members pay with an Income Share Agreement (ISA). See ISA payment details and examples here.
Cash and flat-payment plan options are also available.
Whichever option you choose, you have LIFETIME access to our content updates, mentoring, job references, our active online members-only group, live trainings, our yearly summit and partner job opportunities.
You have the right to cancel your Prehired Membership within 7 days of starting as long as you've not completed more than 30% of the course.
You will know exactly how much of the course you've completed, since the course dashboard shows you as you go.
It'd be hard to fake 400+ documented member success stories (including many video interviews) on our website and third-party sources like Facebook, LinkedIn, CareerKarma and CourseReport (the biggest review websites for tech training programs).
So, here are some other questions to spot a scam:
• Does the company have a phone number you can call? Even if you get their voicemail, do they call you back when you leave a message?
• When you email them, do you get a personalized response?
• Does the company have a physical mailing address?
• When you talk to someone in the company, do you feel pressured to buy? Or do they ask questions to see if their offering is a good fit for you?
• Can you find the company founder and other staff on LinkedIn?
• Does the company have reviews from past clients?
• Can you find those past clients on LinkedIn or elsewhere?
• Can you message past clients to ask if they're still happy now?
Of course, we pass all these sniff tests. See for yourself.
Your ISA payments are based on your pre-tax income, so it depends:
• If your income never reaches the $3,333.33 monthly threshold, you pay nothing.
• If you're making $6k per month (which is average for our members in year 1), you'll pay $750 per month (12.5% of the $6k).
• If you're making $9k per month (which is average for our members in year 2), you'll pay $1,125 per month (12.5% of the $9k).
• If you’re making really good money (congrats!), you could pay up to the $30k cap.
• You’ll never pay more than $30k.
An ISA isn't a loan, so there is no interest.
Yes, the 12.5% is from your gross (pre-tax) income each month.
Your ISA repayments start 30 days after your first day on the job. You don’t pay a penny in any month in which you earn less than $3,333.33 (pre-tax).
Your ISA expires once you've made 48 payments, or after 8 years, or after you've paid $30k, whichever comes sooner.
The ISA requires you to do a few things, which include:
• Reporting your monthly income
• Reporting your job status
• Submitting your tax returns
We require these details because we need to make sure payments are made fairly according to the agreed terms (for both you and us).
Our ISA servicer partner, Meratas.com, handles all of the collecting, reporting and other administration related to our ISAs.
So, if you’re accepted to Prehired, you’ll sign and manage your ISA through Meratas. It’s important to understand the ISA contract obligates you to self-report your income and job status, and to submit your tax returns for an income reconciliation.
Our ISA servicer, Meratas.com, handles all of this on their website where you create your account. You sign up after we admit you into Prehired, and you report your income and job status each month.
The ISA requires you to submit your tax returns. That said, we’re only interested in your personal income. We won't include your spouse's income if you can provide document it.
The ISA contract specifically says:
"If you are married or get married and file your taxes jointly with your spouse, you agree to provide evidence of your individual Earned Income so that we can exclude your spouse’s income from your Monthly Payment."
If you don't have a bank account, you need to open one to do an Income Share Agreement.
We void your ISA if you leave Prehired during the cancellation period (which is within 7 days of joining or completing 30% of the course, whichever comes soonest). If you paid upfront and leave before hitting these milestones, we give you a full refund.
After the cancellation period, the ISA remains in effect and you keep your lifetime membership as long as you make the requirement payments and follow our Code of Conduct, agreed to in our Membership Agreement.
The ISA repayment period begins 30 days after your first day working. You don’t pay a penny in any month in which you earn less than $3,333.33 (pre-tax), and we only get paid after you do.
The ISA expires either after you make 48 monthly payments, or after 8 years, or once you've paid $30k, whichever comes first.
Once your ISA is paid off (or the 8-year ISA term has ended), you can sign another ISA if you like.
Until then, our ISA requires that you sign no other ISAs because our goal is to help you get a software sales job. You won't need more education after us to do that.
Prehired is open to people age 18+ in the US, UK and Canada.
However, you must be a US citizen or a permanent resident to do an Income Share Agreement (ISA). Otherwise, you can still join (if accepted) by paying in full upfront.