I have a useless boss who basically only cares about the imagine of my company, not the dysfunctional systems we have to ruin our customers day. I defended my customer today but saying our brochure directly contradicts this predicament and that our company should reevaluate. my boss was LIVID at me. mind you I’ve been screamed at nonstop over this project all week. anyone have this happen? (important to note I am the best rep on my team)

*edit - also, the customer thanked me for the email and told me he loved the way I was handling the situation and told me he wants to do more work moving forward

For about 10 years I was on the buying side of this. I started as a software engineer, then architect, then VP of Engineering. Last year my inbox took maybe ~80-100 cold emails a week (if I only count the Inbox) and the phone called a few times a day, with a sales rep on another end trying to convince me I need their observability solution.

I was annoyed by it at first, but then something switched and I decided to start playing along. I must admit, it took me embarrassingly long to understand, that on another side of the phone is another person, and this person makes tens of calls, and it would might make his hard day emotionally easier if I engage in a friendly conversation.

On the other hand, nothing gimmicky ever got a rely out of me. A “quick question” as a subject line in 2025? Seriously? What did get a reply, was recognizing the problem that I would struggle at that moment, and honestly, sometimes just three plain lines with no personalization at all, because at least it wasn't pretending.

The ones who got somewhere with me did things that appear simple, but now I know, difficult to execute. They would be friendly, calm and they would ask the right question and them stop talking, and let me describe the problem in my own words, engage in pleasant conversation. This conversation would build trust and allow me, as a buyer, to see that this “just another sales rep”, although not an engineer, clearly understands the domain. As I would explaining my situation out loud they would help me understand the gaps in it. By that time this call would have provided me with some value already!

Recently switched to running my own startup (B2B SaaS), and while I was busy building the product I first thought of finding someone to do the outreach for me. Everyone I talked to, including people with real B2B outreach experience, got enthusiastic about the same thing: all these new tools, volume, automation, AI. My gut reaction was that they wanted to AI the hell out of my prospects and spam them with generative nonsense, full of “— “ and "no pitch, genuinely interested". And what bothered me, was that you might be able to automate the opening (although it is very hard already), but the part that actually worked on me was empathy and attention. I don't know how you automate trust, and I'm not sure you're supposed to.

At this point I'm a founder with ~2-3 appointments scheduled a month, not a rep with a number to hit. I understand that if you're doing 400 touches a week you can't do what I'm describing.

So, for people who've been doing this longer than 3 months: does the listening part survive quota?
Or is the real skill knowing which small number of accounts get the human treatment and which get the sequence?

​

• CRO- They just got hired and are making a list of people mentally they want to fire. They'll show you pictures of fancy vacations they took, and you have to walk the line of kissing ass enough to save your job, while not being too obviously a brown noser. They have a subtle drinking problem, and their jokes will get meaner throughout the flight.

• Field Marketing- They think they know sales better than you, will twist your words and go back to the CRO behind your back to curry favor. Thinks sales is easy. Won't stop talking.

• Sales engineer- They literally hate you, or your best buddy. Flip a coin. They may or may not have a hygiene problem.

• Sales Enablement - Sold a completely different product 10 years ago, hasn't sold since. Similar to Field Marketing, but they want more time on your calendar, and use the words "Salesforce" "Weighted Pipeline" and "optimize" every other sentence

Who else am I missing?

I have a couple years experience in door to door and in home sales (solar), so I know what I'm getting into. I'm just not sure which industry I should pursue.

For financial reasons, I'm starting out D2D for the hourly pay, but eventually, I will transition to either closing or possibly D2D manager.

Windows D2D job: $15 per hour + roughly $750 per install

Permanent Lighting D2D job: $20 per hour + $100 per install

My head is telling me windows is the better industry, because the tickets are bigger (often around $15k per sale), so my commissions will be bigger if I start closing.

However, my heart is telling me lighting. It's more affordable (usually around $5-6k), and something people can get excited about. I want to feel like I'm helping people make their homes more beautiful.

However, I'm not a homeowner. Do people get excited about windows? It's never anything I've paid attention to as a renter. If I'm going door-to-door, which product will people be more excited to hear about: Windows or permanent lighting?

If you’re engaged in cold outreach, you should be aware of the TCPA: Telephone Consumers Protection Act.

There’s an ecosystem surrounding punishing violators. And some people are making a living filing lawsuits against those of you that use automated systems to personal phone numbers. Also failing to be aware of the DNC: Do Not Call database.

Cold calling mobile numbers can be hazardous to your bank account.

Read the article:

https://www.leadgen-economy.com/blog/litigator-scrubbing-services-comparison/

Enterprise AE here and we have no defined internal process or territory. For instance a prospect I was emailing for weeks was just booked by another AE on my team.

When I brought it up to my team lead she shared some thought-provoking wise words: “that sucks.”

This…isn’t normal, right? It’s the second time he’s done this to me. I was kicking ass in my assigned vertical and now he’s booking meetings in my industry since his well is dry. Management doesn’t care as long as we book. Which I get but god it’s demoralizing.

We’re really out here double tapping prospects and snatching bait off each other’s hooks to get fish, huh?

What would you do? Give it me to straight 🥃

I’m 5 weeks into a new outside sales role.

I know some people will see this as rookie numbers, but I’ve probably made somewhere around 600-800 calls so far.

I’ve closed a few sales and sent out a few quotes from my own cold outreach, so it’s not like nothing is working.

I usually aim for around 40 calls a day because I still have admin work, quotes, follow-ups, CRM stuff, and I’m also still learning the product side.

The thing is, even though I think I’m pretty good at the calls, I still get stressed and tense before and during them. I get this tightness in my neck, and even when I’m not calling, if it’s during the 9-5 workday, part of my brain is like, “You could be making more calls right now.”

I also have days where I’m going to networking events or working on quotes, and even then I sometimes feel like I should be calling instead.

It’s weird because I know I’m doing the work, but I still feel like I could be doing more.

For people doing cold outreach, does that feeling go away at some point, or is it just part of the job?

$90K salary

Average deal size: $5,000

~$1,000,000 draw ($83,333/mo.) - no commission till this is paid.

What comes to mind immediately?

Hi everyone! My company’s sales motion is very event driven of just inviting people to things and driving awareness about our company through leadership thought type meetings

We’ve done things like
- wine/whiskey tasting
- charcuterie board kits
- build your own sundaes
-mixologist cocktail stuff

Basically an activity for them to do while we talk thought leadership and plug how we help as well

Anyone have suggestions around this we could add to the rotation? Bonus if you have a go-to vendor suggestion!

I cut my teeth door knocking and was a top producer. Transitioned to B2B and was bdr after 2 years of that. Did that for a year, been an AE for a year now, killing quota with both weekly kpi’s and total margin I bring in. I’m making about 100k. I’m in logistics now, when (if not now) would/could I start looking into jobs with the 130-180 base and OTE of 200 plus? What’s a path youve seen to get there? My best year door knocking I actually made 175 but that’s pre tax and door knocking was a terrible job, genuinely right on the line of being worth the 175 or not. Just looking to get back there asap but with a stable career.

Has anyone else seen a decline in responses received from cold outreach? I can't really pinpoint when it started but I used to at least receive a handful of responses when I sent cold emails. Now, I send hundreds and don't get any. Anyone else struggling? Any suggestions on how to improve my response rate would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!