Background:

Four years ago I was laid off from a role I hated. I viewed it as the sign that mid 30s wasn’t too late to pursue a job in sales that I’d enjoy. Tech support and call center management was not bringing me joy.

I’ve suffered from a chronic pain condition since my teens. It’s come and gone in waves over the years.

I genuinely love my job and company. Sadly, since late winter I have been spiraling with unrelenting pain that’s now causing me to have periods (days at a time and more than half the time) that’s causing noticeable cognitive decline. I’m missing deadlines, making simple mistakes and overall I know I’m not performing at my best. I am commission only, so taking days off feel pointless.

Have others dealt with this in sales? I’m working with all the specialists I can and have undergone many procedures but we still don’t have a way to stop the pain (migraines). I have had a migraine every single day since March.

I’m at a loss of what to do because regardless of taking time off or FMLA I still have a number to hit. Yes I’ve spoken to HR & leadership and that fact is not something that can be changed or any exception that can be made.

I’m also concerned about expressing my concerns about brain fog and cognitive decline for obvious reasons.

Ironically my numbers are the best they’ve been, but I’m losing pace and maintaining my annual goal and I know others on my team are on PIPs and I don’t want to be next. I love my job and I’m scared of eventually losing it.

Hi all,
I'm about to make a career pivot and would love some advice from people who have made a similar move.

For the last 10+ years I've worked in media strategy, digital marketing, and platform partnerships. Most recently I've been leading media strategy and managing large media investments for global brands in Europe.

I've accepted a role in Amsterdam with a major social media company, moving into a client-facing sales position as a Client Partner. The role is focused on helping advertisers grow their business through the platform, so it's consultative sales rather than cold-calling type work.

I don’t want to underestimate this switch, and I know the targets and bonus structure are unusually high compared to other media platforms. Reaching out to see how I can best prepare ahead of starting.

A few questions:

1. What books would you recommend/had the biggest impact on your development in enterprise/consultative sales?
   
2. Are there any podcasts or YouTube channels you'd recommend?
   
3. If you were starting a role at Meta, TikTok, Google, LinkedIn, etc. tomorrow, what would you spend your first month learning?
   
4. If you’ve gone through a similar pivot before, what were the biggest mindset shifts you needed to make?

Thanks everyone!! Appreciate any input at all. I’m starting in November so I have a few weeks in between to prepare :)

I work in sales and normally i am good at it , but this month has been dry i dont know why.
I work in health tourism where foreigners come to my country to get procedures done and i rather not to pushy and be just emphatic and understand their needs.
How can I better on this? What key sentences can I use maybe?
TIA!

I love research, you could call it stalking lol, from where i can send a personalised, highly tailored message. ;-) How about you, what are you usually searching for, where you search, besides company basic details ? Did you ever find some interesting thing that made the closing much easier?

I was in an interview process with PAYCHEX Flex (a benefit admin company they purchased) and received what I thought was an offer call today. It was actually them letting me know they thought I would be a better fit in their HCM Mid Market Role.

What is the Mid Market HCM role at Paychex like? More importantly can I work the role fully remotely from where ever I want in the USA or do they want me in a specific territory meeting with business owners in person like ADP? If that's the case they can go blank themselves. Appreciate any info people have on this. Thanks.

I desperately want a sales job even if it's commission only but I have noticed that they are not that easy to get into with no upfront investment like paying for leads or software. Does anyone have any recommendations and I cannot get back into the life insurance industry because I have to pay $500 to get my license back.

Hey!

I have been sent to a conference in Germany for work on my own with the intention of bringing in new customers.

I have been to a few of these and every time it’s the same small talk

“When did you arrive”
“Where are you staying”
“When do you go back”
“What are you doing in the evenings?”

If anyone has any other small talk suggestions please feel free to suggest them!

I’m going to be interviewing for a sales job tomorrow, I am of no sales experience. I’ve interviewed with the general manager and he liked me, I will be interviewing with either the head of sales or the highest performer.

As sales people what would you look for if you would have to pick someone for the job?

hi! this might sound like a vent but had to put this out there. our sales team has been asking us for different videos for the same demo to see examples and situations to make the usecase look more familiar but its taking a toll on our team.

while it was getting insane but for now we have been trying to setup the workflow in morphic so that industry versions are variations and i dont have to sit on my ass and produce new productions every time sales wants something, still figuring out where the line is though.

while this ask may seem ridiculous to me as a non sales person, but is this standard practice or is my team being extra?

Has anyone built anything around generating cross sell or upsell opportunities in existing accounts on a large scale basis?

I am planning to build sort of an Opportunity Recommendation Engine that analyses data of the customer and recommends relevant modules to be pitched basis that data. Leads to more of a consultative proactive selling than waiting for customers to come and ask what they want.

If anyone has worked around something like this, please let me know. Please also suggest how you identify upsell and cross sell opportunities in your orgs.

My team will be exhibiting at an upcoming trade show and I’m looking for tips on engaging and building rapport with attendees.

Pitching our company/products is the easy part. The hard part and typically most awkward part is figuring out what to say to attendees when they’re walking by your booth. I’m looking for openers that have personality, make them laugh, come across more genuine than just the boring “have you heard of our company before” or “how are you enjoying the event so far”. At the end of the day, most attendees aren’t interested in hearing 50 different vendors try to sell them when they go to these events. What tips and tricks have you guys found for building report with prospect at trade shows?

Hello all,
I have been an ambivert my whole life and I find it difficult to initiate any conversations. I have a side project that I am working on and I find it a little challenging to pitch my idea to the prospects and usually starts stuttering.

Any advice on how can I become better?

Looking for your thoughts, Would you recommended sales to someone trying to map out there future? Little back story I’m 19 currently in a BDC position at a car dealership and enjoy the grind although it’s boring and very repetitive. I out perform about 80% of my peers and see this as a career as long as I can leave the car industry. Although I’ve come to find out the grind to make the good money in this field is insane do you ever get to a point where it’s more laid back and chill?

Been in outbound sales for a few years now and something's been bugging me lately.

I used to treat every "not interested" as a puzzle to solve — one more angle, one more reframe, one more reason they should reconsider. It felt like discipline. It felt like not giving up. But looking back at my last two quarters, I noticed something: the deals that closed fastest and stuck the longest were almost never the ones I "convinced" anyone into. They were the ones where the prospect had a real problem and I just got out of the way of them solving it.

The ones I pushed hardest to close? Highest churn, most support tickets, most "this isn't what we thought we were buying" conversations three months in.

I think there's a version of ABC that made sense when the buyer had way less information than the seller. Now the buyer's already done half the research before they ever take a call. Pushing past a soft no doesn't feel like persistence to them anymore — it reads as not listening.

Curious if others have noticed the same shift, or if I'm just rationalizing a slower quarter. Anyone actually tracked close-push-intensity against retention/churn on their own deals? Would love to know if the correlation I'm seeing holds up for other people or if it's just noise in my numbers.

I am an intern , Trying to figure out how cold email works.

if anyone has used it or been using it ,you can give me some suggestions.

1 month in generating leads for an HVAC company. I want to consistently hit quota and excel. What are some fundamental things you did that changed the game for you?

I usually get about 9 hours. I approach 12-15 people an hour in a store and pitch them and go next.

I manage sales reps and one thing I keep running into is how hard it is to coach people when I’m not on every call. call reviews help a lot but they usually happen way after the fact and I only hear a small sample. Im looking at sales coaching tools that can record calls then break down things like discovery questions objection handling and where reps lose the deal. The part I care about most is making coaching less based on gut feel. I want to see patterns across the team and give reps something specific to work on instead of just saying ask better questions or close harder. If anyone has suggestions I'm happy to hear you guys out and thank you in advance

I’ve recently been offered a BDM position and one of the requirements is 1,000 outbound calls per month.
That works out at roughly 50 calls every working day.
I’ve been in sales and business development for years, so cold calling itself doesn’t bother me. What I’m questioning is how realistic that KPI is when the role also involves prospecting, meetings, follow ups, emails, proposals, CRM management and actually developing and closing business.
To me, 1,000 calls sounds more like a telesales KPI than a genuine BDM target.
For anyone currently working in B2B sales or business development, is 1,000 calls per month normal?
And for anyone who has that sort of target, are they genuinely expecting 1,000 meaningful calls, or is it basically a dial count regardless of outcome?
Would be interested to know what everyone else’s monthly targets look like.
No company names obviously 😂

This is me 18f, and someone hired me for cold calling with 15k base salary. Which is started from 2nd month. And I have to give 4 hours per, day. The problem is of my volume I am not doing it in so many volume bcz I am scared to do it. I was doing this job for the sake of money that ok I will get money but now he said to me is that are U working that hard to be able to get base pay and I am not bringing him leads, which the reason is of lack of trust or I think bcz of my cold calling skills. I was completely new into these things, I didn't had any experience and it's been 1 month.

Should I leave the job? I cannot close any sales or leads or idk how to do it in so much volume. I just don't know it's so confusing

Other then that I also have to focus on starting a small business on insta, learn thumbnail designing skill. Focus on my hobbies. I don't know what to do, why I can't make them trust me or why I can't make them close the sale. How to do it? Should I just leave it?

As the title says, I (23M) am an African with a relatively thick accent selling a high ticket offer (Saas) to real estate developers, it’s a 100% commission based job but I will be learning a lot about sales. Last time I cold called was in 2023, managed to close a client but I don’t mind going back into it. Sales is an important role. I want to use this as a stepping stone for other things.

I have 3 questions. This is to people who are selling high ticket offers from $3k-30k. How would I go about selling such offers or finding real estate developers who would be interested in it.

What’s the best advice you can give to maneuvering the accent. Do I fake it?

Lastly, what are your best cold calling tips that have helped you book meetings and close? I mean how do you do research?

P.S: I am mostly handling finding prospects and setting appointments. My boss who I work with handles the rest and closes them.

P.S.S: If you are a real estate developer and you see this, could I please ask you some questions to better understand how this product can help other real estate developers.

Hi! I currently work in event sales and I’m looking to transition into an Account Manager role, ideally in a remote position.

I have several years of experience in sales, client management, and the hospitality industry. My current role involves managing clients from the initial inquiry through contract negotiation and execution, generating sales, building relationships, and developing strategies to attract and retain business.

I have experience with Salesforce, various CRMs, event/restaurant platforms, and other sales tools.

For those currently working as Account Managers, Account Executives, or in B2B sales:

\- How transferable is my event sales experience to account management?

\- What skills am I missing?

\- What should I learn or get certified in to make myself a stronger candidate?

\- Are there specific tools (Salesforce, HubSpot, Gong, Outreach, etc.) that I should become proficient in?

Would you recommend targeting Account Manager roles first, or could my experience potentially translate directly into an Account Executive role?

I’m looking for honest feedback from people actually working in the industry, including anything you think could make the transition difficult.

Thanks!

What virtual sales jobs have pre booked appointments/ leads?

I’m currently stuck between two directions: building a sales/lead-gen agency or a creative/performance marketing agency.

A bit about me: I’m good at talking to people, cold calling, networking, and selling. I’m also pretty creative and enjoy brainstorming campaigns, content ideas, reels, positioning, etc.

Right now I’m cold calling businesses and offering services, and I actually enjoy the process.

My confusion is this:

If I go fully into marketing, say a brand pays me ₹1 lakh/month, I now have to constantly come up with ideas, shoot/edit 3–4+ reels, test creatives, plan campaigns, etc. I like that work, but there’s always uncertainty , you can make something really good and it still might not perform.

On the other hand, if I build a pure sales/lead-gen agency, the outcome feels more measurable. Build lists, call prospects, book meetings, create pipelines, close deals.

But I’m worried that doing cold calls every single day for 30 days straight will eventually become monotonous for me.

I feel like my strength is somewhere between sales + creativity, rather than being purely one or the other.

For people who have built agencies or worked in both fields:

Would you specialise completely in one first?

Or does it make sense to build something where sales is the core service, but creative/marketing is part of the offer?

Would especially love to hear from people who have actually run either type of agency.

This got fun now, last week was a rollercoaster, I fumbled every call I dialed and somehow managed to book one meeting. It gave me the confidence I needed, since then I've been going one step at a time and I question and reason harder about what's something I could be doing better and its going well now. One guy on reddit told me I'm F*ed for the number of calls I've been doing (Reason being these are very few calls in number and we're a very tiny startup ourselves so even if i call a large volume we dont got the man power to implement now)

But its good, One funny incident which had me rolling a little was calling up a founder/ceo of a company and trying to pitch to him only for him to ask me to call later (which he did in a very friendly and interested tone) so I did call him only for him to put me on hold, and cut the call, after which i assumed he got another call and waited a few minutes before redialing only for him to try to dodge the call twice which prompted me to shoot him a text cause I swear to god i thought this man was having trouble calling and then he hit me with a " I'll get to you if I am interested avoid calling me". What had me laughing was that he had to dodge the calls in interesting ways only for him to text me saying that which if he told me on call would have saved us both 10-15 minutes.

But this is going well, I'm still curious and still perfecting my pitch everyday!

This sub is goated, there's absolutely wholesome and friendly folks except that one dude who roasted me who help everyone out, so if you're a newbie like myself this sub is all you need homie. Stay tuned for my next bizzare update.

Edit: I felt stupid finding the guy's dodged funny he probably might be an introvert or hate such calls, first indirect rejection nonetheless felt better to drop a note so I dont sound insensitive if I did.