Here are the differentiators I've noticed between the high-paying sales roles and the mediocre ones, for those of you wondering how $200k+ is possible.
Besides the "pure luck" situations (Selling Zoom at the start of the pandemic, for example), there's three main ways mediocre sales people can provide their employer enough value to make $200k+:
You have technical expertise and sales skills, ideally in a niche where the technical skills alone would be worth $80k+.
The product is something new that most buyers don't understand or know about yet, but which is remarkably better than alternatives. Buyers need someone to explain it to them before they can make a decision.
Anything where you can build your own book of business over time and aren't dependant on net-new clients, but this is typically a slow grind at first. Where you and your relationships are valuable and you are able to take those relationships with you if you leave, giving you leverage.
People make great money in other types of sales job, but these are the most consistent, and not dependent on being a top 5% rep. Yes, you can make 200k selling cars, but very few will. People already understand what a car is and what brands/models interest them, so there's less value the sales rep can provide to the company. Whereas very few buyers understand how AI agents work, so sales reps can provide more value there, just to give an example.
Are there any categories I'm missing?
TL;DR: Don't sell something that buyers already understand & don't care who they get it from.