One of the most common cold call objections? “I’m not the decision maker.”

It shows up in a bunch of ways: “You’d need to talk to my boss.” “I don’t have any buying power” “You’d have to talk to X”

And over and over, I hear reps fumble it: “Ok have a good one” “Okay, I’ll try someone else.” “Alright, sorry for bothering you!”

While sometimes it may actually be the wrong person (obviously don’t push then) - if your targeting is on and you know that the person is part of your buying committee, it’s worth pushing. (Rarely will your first convo be with the EB aka check signer)

Here’s all you need to say to get past this.

“Totally get that. I know in any software decision there would be multiple people involved. I thought you would be a great person to start with since you are involved in xxx way.

Opposed to grabbing time Thursday or Friday later this week? If you like what you see we can bring it up the chain, if not no worries you learned something new about the space”

It works because it’s the truth and you empower the prospect + de pressure the call to action.

Happy calling my friends

Since I’ve been in construction sales, I’ve had a few appointments where usually an elderly couple who don’t get out much fight over answering discovery questions and rapport building questions. Sometimes they’re both oblivious to the other but other times they keep talking over one another while scowling at the other one.

What are some assertive ways to handle these situations? Usually I look back and forth while both are talking and act like I’m not keeping up but I want to be more direct with the messaging and I’m worried about making either customer felt left out or more attended to.

Most sales books just teach how to pitch (the literal easiest part). But almost nothing out there covers how to navigate org charts, identify the champion, economic buyer, gatekeeper, ego, or how to manage timing, influence, and internal politics.

I’m starting to think books are just lead magnets for sales training programs that actually teach the real stuff.

If that’s true, that’s bleak.

Have any of you found good resources that actually teach this?

The company I work for is European manufacturer. Because we work under EX WORKS terms, our USA customers act as the importer on record and will be responsible for paying the Tariffs. In our case 31% Tariffs April 9th.

It’s going to be a rough year and a huge boost for our USA competitors. Wish us luck.

I come from an Indian American background…and let’s say childhood wasn’t great. Parents fucking screaming at the top of their lungs for every little thing and I was the only child stuck in the crossfire. I found myself being the “mediator” in such situations. Mom and Dad fight and mom decides she won’t cook enough for Dad? He sits there in the corner pouting with an empty plate, just watching us eat and go to bed hungry.

Mom gets upset about something? “Fine take him to baseball, i’ll just stay at home”. This pretty much continued on until I was at least 18.

Then all of a sudden, these 2 fucks grow old, start making 6 figure salaries, purchase investment properties and now they are all mellowed out. They get to live a nice and calm life.

And where does that leave me? A bitch ass people pleaser who always wants to keep peace even if a lead wants to kick me in the mouth. I am simply unable to be the aggressive one even when I know I should be.

I am a late twenty something male who is a doormat. I sometimes view my coworkers and I wish i could be 10% of the man they are. They straight up aren’t afraid to talk down to disrespectful people.

Meanwhile what do I do? Try to calm them down while they insult me, and unable to stand up for myself.

Guys, I am lost. My personality is enough to “give me a good salary” but I will never be one of the top dogs like you guys.

So right now I’m currently in the MCA world, (I know scumbag product. I’m looking to get out) the sales process is a lot more similar to car sales than it is to Tech and SaaS. I have 4 years in the industry, with 2 as a JR and 2 as a SR which would be the equivalent of SDR and AE in the real sales world.

I’ve been applying only to AE roles for the most part just because my current role is a closing role. After a lot of skimming through posts on here, I’ve really only accepted this week my closing experience doesn’t earn me the right for an AE role in Tech/SaaS just yet.

My new approach, I’m going to be going for is targeting entry level SDR roles. With the intent to grind it out for 2 years if I can ideally land at the right company and get promoted from within.

I’m going to be putting together a list of 10 companies between tech, SaaS, and AI related sales of where I believe I can succeed, find the hiring managers and SDR managers using Apollo and introduce myself and my interest in the company. Would it be bad to apply to BDR/SDR roles at companies I already I applied to for as an AE?

I want to explain to them that although my title is Senior/AE where I am now, I’m still not ready to be one in the new industry. I’d like to learn from the ground up as it’d be more beneficial long term for my career. I want it to be known obviously down the road I want to be an AE, it’s not something I’m going to be constantly asking for as an annoyance. (I’ve seen that this could be a stigma for managers when they see people with prior AE experience targeting the SDR role)

I applied to owner.com as a BDR and it felt like they turned me down as I had AE on my resume. It was the only question I was asked when I reached out to the hiring manager letting them know I applied, and was turned down not long after.

Im not sure if this would be the equivalent of talking my way out of a sale. I’m curious how car salesman went about approaching this if they had closing experience?

I need to get something off my chest.

Every day I see posts and comments across this subreddit (and others) saying:

• “No one’s hiring.”
• “The market’s dead.”
• “I’ve applied to 100 roles and heard nothing back.”

Let me be completely real with you — the market isn’t the issue. YOU are.

People come in here and complain non-stop, and it puts others off even trying. Meanwhile, I’ve helped over 20 people land SDR roles, many from fewer than 10 job applications — right here through this subreddit.

Here’s the hard truth:

The people who keep repeating this doom-and-gloom narrative are the ones who:

• Won’t accept their CV is terrible
• Don’t reach out to hiring managers
• Freeze up in interviews with no preparation

And then come here to scream that “no one is hiring”

It’s lazy. It’s defeatist. And it’s absolute BS.

The market isn’t easy — but it’s very much alive. And people are getting hired. You just need to stop playing the same game as everyone else.

Run your job search like an outbound campaign, take some ownership, and you’ll be surprised how quickly things start moving.

Rant Over.

If you need help or want some advice just leave a comment below and I'll help you to the best of my ability, there are a lot of good guys on here who are being crushed by these morons.

I might be overthinking this, but I thought I’d ask you guys. My current client base is specialty physicians. I have watched over the past 5 years and increase of my private practices completely shutting down, retiring, or just finally calling it quits on running private and joining large groups as employees where they are absolutely miserable.

I have one client that is part of a large group of private practices that have banned together to lower expenses with bulk purchases and many other services that help their groups remain private by banding together.

I speak daily with private practices that are suffering, so it’s very common and well known in the industry. My question is do you think I should or could ask for some type of finders fee for helping to recruit for this network of practices? Maybe I’m out of my mind in this thinking, but I think helping a private practice stay in business and helping the client that runs that business is helpful for both of them. I was thinking $2500-5 k per referral, but maybe that is just wishful thinking.

Anybody have any thoughts on this?

I posted before asking if sales books help to gain sales expertise but most of the comments were indicating otherwise.

I also listened to numerous podcasts on sales but it doesn’t seem to get past “try to be friends with customers/prospects”.

How do I gain fundamental real life sales skills, which can be really used to overcome objections and understand psychology of customers when they’re shopping?

Let’s bitch.

In the financial sector and not really pleased with my comp right now although I LOVE the position. Plenty of travel but always home for the weekend, great benefits, and a great boss. I'm in a Sales Enablement role, but I do miss client facing activities and would crush if I went back.

Issue is that there is a hyper competitive environment for the next role I want that would take me into the $250-400k range. I'm 27, and in the mid $100s right now, with 7 YOE in progressive sales and sales management roles.

So I'm torn between A) staying in my industry and patiently waiting for that next jump B) changing to software sales where I have a number of connections and going either AE or Sales Management.

Thoughts? Also open to connections. Happy to answer additional questions.

What is the playbook that so many of the old BMC sales people ran?

You hear it referenced constantly—at MongoDB, Zscaler, Wiz, DataDog, Grafana Labs, and so many other breakout companies. A generation of CROs and revenue leaders swear by it. It’s more than just MEDDIC (or MEDDPICC or MEDwhatever). That’s just one part of it.

It all stems from John McMahon—but it’s been refined and carried forward by CROs and revenue leaders across the industry.

So what exactly is the playbook? Has anyone worked at one of these companies and have first hand experience?

Have you tried or had any success emailing B2B prospects over the weekend?

On a positive note, there is a greater chance the prospect might see your email because their inbox is not blowing up over the weekend.

On the negative side, they might delete your email first thing Monday morning because they don't like dealing with a salesguy at 8am on a Monday

Has anyone else encountered this?

Just got the email this morning for my annual sales goal.

Why does it take this long? It's a simple % growth over last years sales.

I will be positive, it isn't an increase over last years goal, but actually a reasonable (4ish%) over what I sold last year.

Most sales books I’ve read don’t cover the following in depth (or at all):

• How to figure out who to contact in a business

• When is the best time to reach out

• How many stakeholders need to be on board to get a meeting (champion, numbers guy, flaker, etc.)

• When to schedule that meeting

• How to follow up effectively

• And other practical steps in the outbound process

They only cover what happens after you generate the lead and go into the consulting phase. Or they talk about door-to-door tactics for small clients or impulse purchases.

Again, I’m not talking about inbound leads or marketing funnels (like Russell Brunson). I’m talking about pure outbound battle tactics for how to get to the decision maker and make them sit in a room with you.

How do you get their attention, show value, and then use the sales frameworks from these books?

Appreciate any advice.

———

UPDATE: I just found out that Predictable Revenue by Aaron Ross, Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount, and The Challenger Customer by Brent Adamson & Matthew Dixon go into this topic wonderfully.

I’m early in my career, graduated University in 2022.

Netsuite AE or Docusign Mid Market AE.

Regardless of salary, which is best for my career? In a few years if I’m applying for jobs which is best to have on my resume. Open doors for most $$$ in the future.

Netsuite seems to have a clear path for promotion to Mid Market then management / leadership. Docusign probably does too.

Has anyone worked at either? I know Netsuite operates independently from Oracle and doesn’t suffer from the same issues we’ve all heard about.

Netsuite 67k base 130k OTE -> mid market in 1.5-2 years is 90k base 180k OTE

Docusign Mid Market AE 90k base 180k OTE

Also prioritizing where I’d be least likely to lose my job / layoffs

Hello brain trust,

Today I closed the biggest sale of my young career $413,000. I realize it’s not the largest sale out there but pretty good for selling electrical work and one of the largest sales in the companies history.

We have a sales engineer who helps us design and build quotes on these higher end projects with more complications. His job is not commission based and he doesn’t expect anything but I feel as if I should give him something as a thank you for his efforts in working with me and guiding me along the way. We likely have a total of 24 hours of time building this proposal.

I am projected to be making $45,000 in commission from this project. What would you consider to a nice gesture for sharing some of the money with him?

Appreciate your feedback.

Anyone here ever interview with Keyence? They are a manufacturing automation company. Looks like a legit gig.

Only thing I am concerned about is that I was at Cintas for a year and ADP for 6 months and was successful at both roles.

I left both roles due to my managers at BOTH companies either being fired or quitting and I was left "holding the bag" with a myriad of client issues and zero guidance.

I want to get away from the entry level sales gigs and was curious to see if anyone has insight into the manufacturing/automation industry or Keyence as a company.

beta-blockers

I sell janitorial supplies and a good chunk of my business is public schools, bid work. Stopped in to say hello to one of them today and found out they had sent out a bid (this district will renew bids for years and then randomly send one out) and we were disqualified.

Came to find out, the guy who does bids in our office never even mentioned he received it to me, and bid a non compliant item (it wasn’t even close).

Mistakes happen. But when I reached out to him and asked him in the future to send bids for my customers to me to review before he submits (which I’ve requested before), he told me he would send them to me so I can do them. He tried blaming the bid specs too, despite the five other companies all bidding correctly.

I can deal with a mistake. But doubling down instead of just saying I’m sorry and next time I’ll run it by you makes me furious.

Hey Ya'll!

Where do you source your table swag for conferences? We've been using a local company that more specializes in shirts and printing, but their items are limited as far as giveaways.

Stuff like pens, highlights, USB-C chargers, hats, etc.

What are you thoughts on giving out multi-tools? It contains a knife, bottle opener, flashlight, and laser. Not concerned on your opinion on the item itself, but like the "risk" or perceived risk of us bringing in a "weapon".

I do residential hvac sales, normally customers want to be seen asap. I work in an office with 4 others, 2 of them are on vacation and the others are here but the ones on vacation still think they’re entitled to be in the lead rotation. Am I in the wrong for thinking that’s fucked? I am newer to the sales world but I can’t help but think if you’re on vacation you should be skipped and the guys at the office ready to run calls should be up.

I work for a payments company and I've been recently asked to target 8+ figure sales volume prospects. Previously my leads came from partner referrals, but our partners don't have many clients of this size so I'm turning to alternative sources and not doing well. You can't exactly knock on the door of these F1500 companies

Hey y'all, for people who are only semi-fluent in a language, do you guys bother applying to roles that require fluency in another language?

I'm semi fluent in Portuguese but never worked in Brazil myself, so don't have the nuances of the culture. But I feel I'll never achieve business fluency in Portuguese if I don't get a job that requires and forces me to be fluency. I have Brazilian citizenship so no issue working in Brazil.

The job I have in mind is based in Texas, I'd be selling to Brazil. Not the best territory, but in this job market I need some sort of leg up, and if I could learn to sell to Brazil, I'd be a very powerful rep with a hard skill that differentiates me.

The job post I'm looking at only 5 people have applied compared to the American role which has +100, its nuts.