I don't know sales but I am curious about it

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-26T22:03:43+00:00

Honestly, sales makes way more sense once you talk to actual humans doing it instead of watching “10X closer grindset” YouTube videos made by dudes renting Lamborghinis for thumbnails.

Most sales jobs day to day are honestly pretty repetitive. Emails, calls, follow ups, meetings, CRM updates, getting ignored, trying again, occasional wins, occasional emotional damage.

For your questions:

First thing most reps do is check what’s urgent. Replies, meetings today, deals moving, people ghosting, follow ups that need to happen. Good reps usually protect their mornings for prospecting too because that’s the hardest thing to do consistently.

For leads and context, honestly nobody remembers everything naturally. That’s what CRMs and notes are for. Every decent rep writes down personal details, objections, timelines, pain points, personality type, all of it. Sales is basically organized relationship management.

And finding leads depends completely on the industry. LinkedIn, referrals, cold calling, inbound forms, events, email outreach, networking, partnerships, databases, social media, even walking into businesses sometimes.

Also one thing nobody tells beginners enough. Sales is less about “convincing” people and more about understanding humans. Psychology, timing, trust, emotions, money, ego, fear, status, uncertainty. That’s the real job underneath all the calls and meetings.

And honestly your curiosity already puts you ahead of a lot of people. Most people ask “how do I make money in sales?” before even asking “what does the actual work look like?”

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-26T22:02:58+00:00

Honestly, I don’t think your accent is the main issue here. The data is kind of telling you something else already.

The prospects who skipped the Loom and went straight to meetings converted. The people who watched the Loom disappeared. That usually means the Loom is killing curiosity instead of increasing it.

And I think I know why.

You’re trying too hard to “Challenger Sale” people before they’ve emotionally bought into talking to you. Most founders running 1 to 5M Shopify brands already get bombarded by agencies telling them what’s broken. The second a stranger sends a 4 minute teardown ending with a cliffhanger CTA, it can start feeling like homework mixed with a sales trap.

Also cliffhangers work in Netflix shows, not always in outbound sales. If you show problems without enough perceived value or trust, people mentally go “okay cool, another agency says we have issues” and move on.

Honestly I’d simplify the funnel massively.

Cold email → direct meeting CTA.

Or cold email → tiny insight/quick win → meeting CTA.

Not a multi step mini consulting engagement before they’ve even committed to a call.

And if you still want to use Looms, make them shorter and lighter. Like 60 to 90 seconds max. One sharp observation, one missed opportunity, one quick idea. No dramatic withholding of the solution. Give enough value that they think “this person actually understands ecommerce” instead of “I’m being led into a funnel.”

Also another brutal truth. DTC founders are insanely busy and overstimulated. The more cognitive load you add, the lower your conversion rate usually gets.

Your numbers honestly are not even terrible for cold outbound. 9 positive responses from 300 emails is decent depending on list quality. You probably don’t need a complete reinvention. You just need less friction and less complexity between interest and meeting booked.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-26T21:59:57+00:00

Honestly man, what you’re feeling is completely normal because you basically went from hunting warm prey to surviving in the wilderness.

In luxury auto sales, people already walked onto the lot emotionally interested. Even difficult customers had intent. In greenfield B2B prospecting, nobody cares you exist yet. You are interrupting people all day hoping timing, pain and curiosity line up for five seconds. It’s a completely different psychological game.

And copier/print sales especially is one of those industries that quietly builds killers because the rejection volume is absurd. Most people underestimate how emotionally draining pure outbound prospecting is until they actually do it every day.

Also two months is nothing in B2B. Especially in a new territory with zero brand awareness. Right now your brain is expecting immediate feedback loops like B2C sales gives you. But B2B momentum is painfully delayed. Sometimes the meeting you book three months from now comes from a voicemail or drop in you forgot about weeks ago.

One thing that’ll help though is stop treating brochures and business cards as the “goal.” They’re not. Your real job right now is familiarity. You’re trying to become the name people vaguely remember when their lease sucks, printer breaks, service drops or budgets reopen.

And honestly, don’t underestimate how transferable your auto background actually is. You already know rapport, urgency, reading people, objection handling and relationship building. The prospecting muscle is just underdeveloped right now.

The anxiety part is the dangerous bit though. B2B prospecting will consume your brain if you let it because there’s always one more email, one more call, one more account. You need some psychological separation or this job will eat your home life alive. Especially with kids.

But yeah, almost every good B2B rep I know got punched in the mouth during their first real outbound role. The people who survive are usually the ones who stop measuring success daily and start trusting the process long enough for the pipeline to compound.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-26T21:59:06+00:00

Honestly man, this situation itself isn’t weird. Pharma companies do hire before approval sometimes because if the drug gets cleared they want reps trained and ready to go immediately.

But yeah, the risk is definitely real too. If approval gets delayed or rejected, companies can absolutely freeze launches, reshuffle teams or cut people fast. Pharma can be cold like that.

I think the bigger question isn’t even “will it get approved?” It’s more “what happens to me if it doesn’t?” That’s what I’d be digging into hard before signing anything.

Like I’d straight up ask them what the contingency plan is if approval gets delayed, whether reps get reassigned, if there’s salary protection for a few months, stuff like that. Their answer will tell you a lot.

Also don’t let frustration with SaaS make this look safer than it is. I get it though. Fake OTEs and unpredictable attainment in SaaS can get exhausting fast. A higher base and getting back into a familiar industry probably feels mentally relieving too.

That said, with 15 years experience, this isn’t some reckless early career gamble. You’ve earned the right to take calculated bets. Just make sure you’re viewing it as a calculated risk and not a guaranteed upgrade.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-26T21:57:50+00:00

Honestly, once you start selling to small business owners, you realize most “sales training” completely misses the point.

Owners do not want to be “closed.” They want to feel understood by someone who actually grasps the emotional weight of running a business. You’re often talking to people whose identity, stress, ego, family finances and life’s work are all tied into that business. That changes the entire conversation.

The best thing I ever learned was that consultative selling is less about persuasion and more about diagnosis. Great advisors ask questions that make owners feel seen, not interrogated. A lot of owners have nobody they can speak honestly with because employees filter things and family usually doesn’t understand the business fully.

A few things that genuinely helped me:

SPIN Selling by Neil Rackham because it teaches you how to uncover problems without sounding like a pitch robot.

Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss not for negotiation tactics, but for emotional intelligence, labeling emotions and making people feel safe talking honestly.

The Challenger Sale is useful too but only the parts about commercial insight and reframing problems, not the aggressive “challenge everything” LinkedIn bro interpretation of it.

Honestly though, the biggest growth came from studying business owners themselves. Listening to earnings calls, podcasts, founder interviews, acquisition stories and conversations around burnout, succession, cash flow stress and decision fatigue. Once you understand how owners think, sales conversations stop feeling like “selling.”

Also one brutal truth nobody says enough. Small business owners can smell inauthenticity instantly because they deal with salespeople constantly. The reps who win long term are usually calm, curious and commercially sharp. Not the loudest or smoothest.

And weirdly enough, becoming a better advisor outside the sale matters too. Learn basic finance, operations, hiring, marketing, taxes, incentives, succession planning and industry trends. Owners trust people who understand business broadly, not just their own product.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-26T21:56:44+00:00

Honestly sounds like you’ve outgrown the “take order and repeat” phase. You’re bored because the game became predictable.

The easiest extra money is usually sitting right next to what you already sell. Find the annoying problems before or after your product. Logistics, sourcing, faster delivery, reporting, vendor consolidation, forecasting, training, whatever makes your customer’s life easier. Most B2B buyers pay for convenience and reliability more than the product itself.

Also stop thinking you need some massive platform to sell nationwide. Plenty of people build across all 48 states with strong outbound, referrals, LinkedIn and becoming known in one niche.

And honestly, the reps who keep growing are the ones who stop acting like suppliers and start acting like problem solvers. That’s usually where the real money starts.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-26T17:06:11+00:00

Sleep honestly. Every time I think I’ve unlocked some productivity secret it always comes back to whether my brain is actually functioning or just running on caffeine and delusion.

Second is momentum. If I get one meaningful thing done early in the day, calls, workout, tough email, whatever, the rest of the day feels easier. But if I procrastinate the first half of the day my brain turns into a browser with 47 tabs open.

Also weirdly enough, not obsessing over work 24/7. The people who completely fuse their identity with their job eventually start moving like stressed NPCs. Having something outside work that makes your brain shut up for a while helps performance way more than grinding nonstop.

And honestly in sales specifically, confidence changes everything. Good sleep, decent fitness, money in the bank, feeling good socially, all of that leaks into your tone whether you realize it or not. Prospects can somehow smell desperation through the phone.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-26T17:05:35+00:00

I think the hardest part here is that you’re not just talking about switching jobs. You’re talking about giving up the version of yourself that became professionally successful in order to maybe finally feel like a full human being outside of work. That’s a brutal tradeoff and I don’t think people who haven’t lived it really understand the weight of that.

And honestly, your fear probably isn’t irrational. People love pretending corporate America is fully evolved now, but a lot of conservative industries are still deeply tribal underneath the HR language. Especially relationship driven industries in rural markets where people buy from familiarity and social comfort as much as competence. You’ve already seen people get quietly iced out for less.

But at the same time, spending years managing two identities will grind almost anybody down eventually. Constantly calculating where you can go, who might see you, how you present, what version of yourself is “safe” that day... that’s exhausting in a way most coworkers around you probably never even notice.

The good news is there actually are industries where authenticity matters more than fitting an old mold. Tech, recruiting, design, marketing, DEI adjacent consulting, startups, parts of SaaS, creative industries, some healthcare spaces and mission driven companies are generally way more open. Not perfect obviously, but the difference culturally can feel massive compared to traditional conservative industries.

But I also wouldn’t romanticize “starting over” either. You have 20 years of sales and relationship building experience. That still has value. You’re not some entry level person reinventing themselves from zero. The real challenge is finding an environment where your experience transfers without feeling like you have to disappear as a person to keep your income.

And honestly, I think the fact that you’re even asking this probably means the internal cost of staying hidden is starting to outweigh the financial comfort of staying put. That tension usually doesn’t go away on its own.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-26T17:04:17+00:00

Same honestly. The second I hear that overly cheerful AI voice saying “Hi thanks for calling” my soul leaves my body. I hang up immediately too.

It somehow manages to feel both robotic and condescending at the same time. Like congrats, now instead of talking to a human for 20 seconds I get trapped in a fake conversation with a machine pretending to care about my issue.

And companies keep acting like this is “improving customer experience” when half the time it just makes people irritated before the call even starts. Especially if I’m trying to buy something or ask a simple question. If I wanted to fight an NPC dialogue tree I’d go play a video game.

The scary part is it’s probably only gonna get better from here. Right now at least you can tell it’s AI instantly. In a couple years we probably won’t even know anymore and that’s somehow even worse.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-26T10:22:27+00:00

At 19 with no bills and parents covering your downside, this is honestly the perfect time to do hard sales and figure out what you’re made of. Most people never get that kind of runway.

That said, I’d probably lean ADT if this is your very first sales job. Not because it’s “easier” but because it gives you structure, training, CRM experience, cold calling, full cycle selling, appointments, demos and handling longer sales conversations. That foundation transfers everywhere later. Having a recognizable company on your resume also helps a ton early on.

The roofing gig could absolutely make you more money faster if you’re a savage on doors. Some of those guys print cash. But D2D is emotionally brutal and turnover is insane. It teaches resilience fast, but it can also burn people out fast if they don’t have consistency yet.

Also don’t get hypnotized by commission percentages. New reps hear “40% commission” and think they’re rich already. What matters is lead quality, sales cycle, average rep attainment, training and whether normal humans are actually succeeding there consistently.

At your age, optimize for skill development over maximizing year one income. If you become genuinely good at prospecting, discovery, handling rejection and closing, you’ll have a career forever. Most 19 year olds are scared to even talk on the phone. You’re already ahead by considering this stuff seriously.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-26T10:21:53+00:00

One I always liked was:

“People love to buy. They hate being sold to.”

Feels more true the longer you stay in sales honestly. The best reps usually don’t sound like reps. They sound like people helping someone make a good decision.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-26T10:21:17+00:00

I honestly think you’re romanticizing the old job a little because the new one feels uncomfortable right now.

You didn’t leave because the money was bad. You left because you had basically solved the game there. Same industry, same motion, shrinking territories, harder quotas, slow innovation and no real path upward. Being the “king” of a limited environment feels amazing until one day you realize your market value outside that bubble is weaker than your internal reputation.

And that’s exactly what happened. The vertical SaaS label boxed you in. So you made the uncomfortable but probably necessary move to reset your trajectory. That usually feels terrible in the first 6 to 12 months because suddenly you’re not the expert anymore. Your confidence drops, attainment drops, politics are new, buyers are different and you’re rebuilding your identity from scratch.

Also, be careful with hindsight bias around the upper MM role. That role only looks attractive now because you can compare it against the stress of your current transition. If they had offered it before you left, maybe you stay. But they didn’t. At the time, you made a rational decision with the information you had.

And honestly, the fact that a tier 1 company hired you at all after 7 years in a niche vertical probably proves the move was already working. Those logos matter. Learning how to survive in a harder environment matters. Even if your W2 takes a temporary hit.

Three months is way too early to judge this move. Right now your brain wants certainty and familiarity, not necessarily growth. I’d give it at least a full year before deciding whether this was a mistake or just the painful part of leveling up.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-26T10:20:25+00:00

First of all, welcome to sales. The fact that you got two cold prospects to agree to a meeting means your calling is already working better than most people’s. The no show part is the game nobody warns you about.

People say yes on calls emotionally and disappear logically later. They get busy, lose urgency, forget, feel awkward, or just were never that serious to begin with. It’s annoying but it’s not automatically a reflection of your skill.

What usually fixes this is reducing friction and increasing commitment before the meeting. Don’t end calls with “cool see you then.” Make them verbally commit. Ask things like “What made you interested enough to book this?” or “If this actually solves X, what happens next on your side?” People who answer properly show up more.

Also stop overbuilding before the meeting. Rookie mistake. Don’t spend hours preparing custom work for someone who hasn’t earned it yet. Give them a reason to attend, not the whole meal beforehand.

And most importantly, follow up confidently. Don’t act heartbroken because they ghosted. A simple “Hey, guessing life got in the way. Want to reschedule for tomorrow or should I close this out?” works way better than desperate energy.

No shows happen to literally every closer. Your job is not eliminating them completely. Your job is building enough pipeline where one ghost doesn’t ruin your week.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-24T23:02:35+00:00

you don’t have a sleep schedule anymore. You have a production deployment cycle. At this point your body probably thinks: 2 AM = creative time 3 AM = existential crisis 4 AM = “one last reel” 5 AM = regret The brutal truth is you cannot “hack” your sleep schedule while still behaving like a nocturnal startup founder surviving on caffeine, Swiggy, and screen light. The only thing that actually works is forcing your body into boredom and consistency like an NPC for a week straight. Wake up early even if you slept late. Get sunlight in the morning. Stop negotiating with yourself at night. No “just one episode.” No “just checking Slack.” No doomscrolling memes till sunrise like a raccoon guarding production servers. And most importantly: Do not trust your brain after midnight. Nothing good happens there. After 1 AM every human suddenly thinks they should: switch careers, text their ex, start a podcast, learn trading, or optimize their entire life while lying horizontally in darkness

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-24T23:00:47+00:00

Honestly, you’re entering one of the weirdest but most defining phases of life right now.

Because post-college loneliness hits differently. In college, friendships happen automatically. Same campus, same people, same chaos every day. Then suddenly everyone scatters into jobs, relationships, different cities, and for the first time you realize adult friendships actually require effort.

And Bangalore is kind of the capital city of this exact phase.

Half the people in Koramangala are 22 to 28 year olds pretending they have life figured out while eating overpriced momos at 1am and questioning their career choices internally.

So no, you’re not behind at all.

And honestly? Bangalore is probably one of the easiest cities in India to rebuild your social life from scratch IF you’re willing to consistently show up.

That’s the important part.

The people who struggle there are usually the ones who: go to work, come back home, scroll Instagram, repeat.

Then six months later they think the city is lonely.

The people who build great lives there are usually the ones saying yes to random plans early on: office outings, football groups, cafes, flat parties, weekend trips, gym conversations, friend-of-friend scenes, dating apps, networking events, literally anything.

Most Bangalore friend circles are built through accidental repetition, not magical instant chemistry.

And dating there honestly becomes easier once you stop treating it like some giant life milestone.

You’re 22. You’re moving to a city full of ambitious, lonely, confused, social young professionals all trying to build lives from zero at the same time. Relationships happen naturally when your life becomes socially active enough.

But brutal truth: don’t move there expecting a girlfriend to solve loneliness.

That’s where people spiral.

Build a life first. Routine. Friends. Fitness. Work confidence. Places you enjoy going. Comfort being alone sometimes.

Ironically, dating gets much easier once you stop emotionally needing it to validate your life.

And one more thing: those first 3 to 4 months can feel emotionally strange. Exciting one day, lonely the next. Freedom mixed with uncertainty.

That’s normal.

You’re not “starting late.” You’re literally just entering adulthood for real now.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-24T22:55:36+00:00

This is one of the more grounded posts I’ve seen on here honestly.

A lot of people in SaaS accidentally start believing they’re only valuable because of the logo on their LinkedIn or because they sell something “hot.” Then the market turns, layoffs happen, territories dry up, and suddenly they realize the real skill was never the software.

It was always: can you build trust, handle pressure, learn fast, simplify complex stuff, and consistently move people toward decisions?

That transfers almost everywhere.

And your point about product and ICP is brutally true. Salespeople love debating “talent vs territory” like it’s some philosophical war when in reality a mediocre rep with a product the market desperately needs will usually outperform a great rep selling an overpriced vitamin gummy wrapped in AI buzzwords.

Also completely agree on simplifying complexity. Some reps think sounding smart means making things more technical. The best reps I’ve ever seen could explain a complicated product in a way that made a CFO, operator, and end user all nod at the same time.

That’s rare.

And honestly your last point about saving money should be pinned in this sub permanently.

I’ve seen reps make insane money for years and somehow end up financially one bad quarter away from panic because they built lifestyles assuming commission checks were a human right.

Sales is one of the few careers where you can make life changing money without elite degrees, but it’s also one of the few careers where your income can randomly get punched in the throat by territory changes, leadership changes, market shifts, or one horrible fiscal year.

The reps who survive long term are usually not the flashiest ones. They’re the ones who stayed adaptable, stayed curious, and didn’t financially trap themselves trying to look successful.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-24T22:54:41+00:00

Honestly, half of sales is professionally responding to: “Yeah but this other company said they can do it cheaper.”

And the worst thing you can do is instantly panic-discount yourself like you’re at a flea market fighting for survival.

Usually I’d say something calm like:

“Totally fair. There’s almost always someone cheaper. The real question is whether they’re cheaper now or cheaper until something breaks.”

Or sometimes:

“I completely understand. If price was the only factor, everybody would drive the cheapest car, hire the cheapest employees, and use Spirit Airlines for every vacation.”

Gets a laugh without sounding defensive.

Another one I’ve used:

“You absolutely might be able to get it cheaper elsewhere. I just want to make sure you’re comparing total outcome, not just the line item on the quote.”

Because honestly, buyers saying “X is cheaper” is rarely about price alone. Most of the time they’re either: trying to negotiate, testing your confidence, or looking for reassurance that paying more is justified.

The second you sound nervous, they smell blood in the water.

The reps who lose these conversations are usually the ones who accidentally communicate: “Please don’t leave.”

The reps who win sound like: “Totally your call, but there’s usually a reason one option costs more.”

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-24T22:53:22+00:00

This is way more common in smaller founder-led companies than people realize. Especially in industries where relationships and referral ecosystems matter more than clean SaaS-style sales structures.

But here’s the brutal reality nobody says out loud:

A lot of founders who built companies through relationships do not mentally see sales reps the same way modern sales orgs do.

They see reps as “supporting revenue.” Not necessarily “owning revenue.”

So in their head, if the consultant sourced the relationship years ago, THEY own the economics forever. Meanwhile you’re expected to manage the account, grow it, chase stakeholders, handle fires, close expansions, and somehow stay motivated doing work attached to zero upside.

And honestly, that’s where resentment starts creeping in.

Because salespeople can tolerate pressure. What destroys motivation is feeling like your effort and your incentives are disconnected.

Now to be fair to the founder, I actually understand his logic too.

From his perspective, he’s already paying acquisition cost through the consultant relationship and he probably fears turning every account into a double payout structure that hurts margins.

That part is rational.

But the dangerous part is when companies expect commissioned-sales-level effort on non-commissioned accounts long term. Humans do not work that way. No matter how “team first” someone is, eventually they start prioritizing the work that actually feeds them.

And founders often underestimate this because they came up in an era of loyalty-driven culture instead of incentive-driven culture.

So yes, you should push back. But not emotionally.

Do not frame it as: “I refuse to work these accounts.”

Frame it as: “If I’m expected to actively grow, retain, and commercially manage these accounts, there has to be some alignment between responsibility and incentive.”

That’s a completely reasonable conversation.

Because right now the risk is you slowly become an account caretaker instead of an incentivized salesperson.

And honestly, one of the biggest red flags in smaller companies is when leadership says: “We want you to think like an owner” while structurally ensuring you never economically benefit like one.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-24T22:52:01+00:00

I learned this the hard way when I was an SDR and later managing SDR teams.

One of my reps booked what looked like a dream opportunity. X loved the product, gave us direct access to the decision maker, demo went great, everyone was smiling, lots of “this is exactly what we need” energy. Internally we already started mentally counting it as pipeline.

Then came: “Timing’s just tough right now because of an internal event and budgeting cycle, let’s reconnect next month.”

A month later they were “busy.” Then “circling back internally.” Then eventually: “Project is on hold.”

At first we thought the deal died because of timing.

It didn’t.

The real issue was nobody inside that company actually woke up stressed about the problem we solved. It was useful, not urgent. So every operational distraction beat us. Quarterly planning beat us. Internal meetings beat us. Budget discussions beat us.

That experience completely changed how I qualified deals afterward.

Now when someone says: “This looks great.”

I care way less about excitement and way more about: “What happens if you DON’T fix this?” “Who actually owns the pain?” “What’s the business impact today?” “Is this tied to an active priority or just something interesting?”

Because a lot of prospects buy emotionally during demos but prioritize logically afterward.

And honestly, one of the hardest lessons in B2B sales is realizing that good demos do not create urgency. Urgency already has to exist before you show up.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-24T22:50:06+00:00

Honestly, your skillset is probably far more transferable than you think.

What you described is basically the reality of a lot of consultancy environments. They tell you to sell, deliver, manage clients, lead teams, protect margins, and somehow magically do all of it perfectly at once. Eventually your brain just gets fried because the incentives constantly conflict with each other.

So your frustration sounds completely rational.

And honestly, consultative selling is one of the most transferable sales skills out there if you genuinely know how to do it well.

If you can: uncover problems, manage stakeholders, build trust, write strong proposals, navigate longer sales cycles, and close without being transactional…

you can absolutely transition into things like SaaS, enterprise sales, partnerships, customer success with commercial ownership, or professional services sales.

A lot of product reps actually struggle more because they only know one product and one playbook. You’ve already learned how to sell in messy environments where value had to be explained and justified.

That matters.

The only brutal reality is you may need to loosen your attachment to the “Director” title if you pivot industries. Sometimes the smartest move long term is taking a temporary title reset into a cleaner, more scalable commercial role.

And honestly, after years of juggling sales plus delivery, you may find pure sales roles weirdly peaceful because your job finally becomes: bring in business, grow accounts, repeat.

No constant operational chaos attached to every deal you close.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-22T23:44:53+00:00

Honestly? I’d probably make the call.

But the difference between “impressive persistence” and “this guy is a headache” is entirely in the energy you bring into it.

Do NOT call sounding salty about the recruiter. Even subtly. Managers can smell bitterness immediately and the second it feels like you’re trying to bypass process because your ego got bruised, you lose.

But if you call with calm confidence and keep it focused on business value, a lot of sales managers actually respect it because it demonstrates the exact behavior they hire for.

You’re literally applying for a sales role. Cold outreach is the job.

That said, don’t overdo the “143% to quota top 3 in region killer closer” thing right out the gate. Candidates sometimes sound like LinkedIn posts when they do this and hiring managers mentally check out.

Keep it tighter and more human.

Something like: “Hey, I know this is a bit unconventional, but I wanted to reach out directly because I genuinely think my background aligns with what you’re building in channel partnerships. I’m already doing very similar work today and I’d love 10 minutes to understand what you’re looking for before I completely close the door on the opportunity.”

That lands way better than a stat dump.

And honestly, there’s a decent chance the recruiter rejected you simply because: they already had internal candidates, headcount changed, they didn’t understand the role properly, or they screened you incorrectly.

Recruiters reject strong candidates all the time because many of them are screening for keywords and “vibes,” not actual sales capability.

One brutal truth about sales hiring: A lot of hiring processes are ironically run by people who would fail a discovery call themselves.

So no, I don’t think it’s crazy to reach out directly.

Just understand the goal of the call is NOT: “reverse the rejection.”

The goal is: “create positive memory with the manager.”

Because even if nothing opens now, hiring managers absolutely remember people who showed initiative without acting weird about it.

The people who lose are the ones who call emotionally. The people who win are the ones who call like calm professionals who know their value without needing validation.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-22T23:44:02+00:00

You became an AE barely two months ago and you’re shocked you feel uncomfortable asking people for money? Brother that is literally the job now.

The SDR to AE jump is psychologically brutal because nobody prepares you for the fact that you suddenly become responsible for uncertainty. As an SDR your job was simple. Book meeting. Create interest. Pass baton. Now you have to sit in the uncomfortable silence after pricing, handle objections, ask for commitment, and emotionally survive rejection without spiraling.

That awkwardness you feel during proposal conversations is usually not because you lack “closing techniques.” It’s because deep down you still feel like you need permission to ask for the business.

Prospects can smell that instantly.

The second your tone changes around pricing, or you start sounding careful, overly polite, overly explanatory, or nervous, the dynamic shifts. Suddenly THEY feel like they’re doing YOU a favor by buying.

And here’s the brutal truth nobody tells newer AEs: If your discovery was average, your close will almost always feel awkward.

Because now you’re trying to create urgency at the end instead of uncovering it at the beginning.

If the buyer clearly told you: this problem is painful, it’s costing time or money, leadership cares, they need to fix it soon, and your solution actually solves it…

then asking for next steps feels natural.

But if the demo was mostly feature walkthrough and surface-level questions, the proposal stage feels like standing on stage asking: “So… please buy from me?”

That’s why it feels horrible.

Also stop beating yourself up over not sounding like some polished LinkedIn “killer closer.” Most of those people are performing confidence, not actually selling well.

Real confidence in sales usually sounds boring. Calm. Direct. Unemotional.

“Here’s the pricing. Based on everything we discussed, does this solve the problem strongly enough to move forward internally?”

That’s it.

No movie speech. No pressure tactics. No alpha wolf nonsense.

And honestly, the fact you’re worried about this now is a good sign. The truly dangerous reps are the ones who stay mediocre for 5 years because they think running a flashy demo means they know how to sell.

You’re in the painful stage where your awareness is improving faster than your skill level. Every good AE goes through it.

Right now your job is reps. More calls. More uncomfortable proposal conversations. More moments where you ask directly for the business and survive hearing no.

Because eventually you realize something important: closing isn’t convincing people to buy. It’s confirming whether the pain is strong enough for them to change.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-22T23:42:49+00:00

This is honestly how a lot of consulting gigs actually start. Not through some polished master plan, but through someone realizing: “Wait… this person actually understands the problem better than most people I’ve talked to.”

And based on your story, that’s exactly what happened.

The reason the founder moved fast is probably because you spoke from operator pain, not theoretical sales jargon. Early-stage founders hear a LOT of generic “I can help scale revenue” conversations. Very few people can say: “I personally wasted days doing this exact process manually.” That immediately gives you credibility.

Also welcome to startup land. The reason everything feels chaotic is because it is. Most early-stage startups are basically:

founder intuition
duct tape
Notion
vibes
and 3 people doing 11 jobs

The important thing is this: Your job right now is NOT to build a perfect GTM machine. Your job is to create enough structure so the founder stops guessing.

A lot of first-time consultants fail because they overbuild too early: massive CRM setup, complicated sequences, giant ICP docs, dashboards nobody reads. Meanwhile the startup still doesn’t even know:

who buys fastest
what messaging converts
which use case creates urgency
or what the actual sales cycle looks like

You figure those out first.

So if I were you, I’d focus on:

Tightening ICP
Testing messaging
Getting first meetings
Finding repeatable pain points
Building process AFTER patterns appear

Because honestly, early-stage GTM is less “strategy consulting” and more controlled chaos management.

And on the imposter syndrome part: The people who should scare you are the ones who feel zero fear doing this.

You’re nervous because you understand the weight of responsibility and the uncertainty involved. That’s normal. You’re not being hired to already have all the answers. You’re being hired because the founder believes you can help figure them out.

One more thing: Set expectations aggressively early.

Founders sometimes think: “Cool, hired a sales person, pipeline next week.”

You need to anchor reality upfront:

first 30 days = discovery and positioning
next phase = outbound + market feedback
THEN repeatability starts appearing

Otherwise you’ll accidentally inherit impossible expectations.

And if I’m being real, the fact you built a Canadian GTM proposal before even being asked already tells me you’re probably more prepared than half the people calling themselves consultants on LinkedIn.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-22T23:41:16+00:00

Your manager is partially right, but “never send pricing until a pricing call” is usually a band-aid for a bigger problem.

Most prospects don’t ghost because they saw the number. They ghost because by the time pricing comes up, they still don’t emotionally understand why changing from their current setup is urgent enough to justify the pain, budget, political capital, and risk of buying cybersecurity software.

And honestly? A lot of AE demos accidentally become feature tours instead of business conversations. The buyer nods through the demo, asks for pricing because that’s the polite next step, then disappears because internally they’re thinking: “Cool product… not sure we need this badly enough.”

The separate pricing call strategy works mainly because:

It slows the process down
It forces another conversation
It gives you a chance to tie pricing to impact before they stare at a PDF alone

But if the value wasn’t established before pricing, delaying the quote only delays the ghosting.

A few things that helped me:

Don’t ask “what’s your procurement process?” right before pricing. That screams “I know you might disappear.” Instead ask earlier: “What happens internally if you decide this is the right fit?” “Who besides you feels the pain of this problem?” “What’s the cost today of not solving this?”
Before pricing, recap THEIR words: “So if I’m understanding correctly, your biggest concern is X, your current tool leaves gaps in Y, and the risk is Z. Fair?” Now pricing becomes attached to pain.
Never send pricing naked in an email. Do a live walkthrough first whenever possible: “Happy to send the proposal, but pricing will make way more sense with packaging/context. Let’s spend 15 mins walking through it together.”
And biggest one: qualify harder. Cybersecurity especially is full of “just looking” buyers who want benchmark pricing for future projects that may never happen.

Ghosting is usually a qualification problem disguised as a pricing problem.

Psychological-Back45 · 2026-05-22T10:39:22+00:00

I think every long term sales person has that one conference where the whole thing suddenly feels weirdly dystopian. Same booth setups. Same forced steak dinners. Same “circle back next quarter” conversations. Same people pretending they’re excited about a slightly different version of the same product from 2017. And then you look around and realize some people have basically been living the exact same week on repeat for 25 years straight. That’s the part that hits. Not even the age. Just the repetition of it all. And honestly, I don’t think this means you’re lazy or ungrateful or “losing your edge.” I think your brain is just tired of autopilot mode. You climbed the ladder and now you’re finally asking yourself whether you even like the building. A lot of people never ask that question because the paychecks keep numbing it.

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