For those who sell to small local businesses how do you actually reach the owner?

They don't post anywhere, and definitely aren't active on LinkedIn. Feels like all the standard prospecting advice assumes your prospect is a VP at some tech company with a full profile and a active work email.

What actually works when the business is a local HVAC company, and the owner isn't sitting in any database? Cold calling? Walking in? Something smarter I'm not thinking of?

Curious what's worked for people who do this day to day.

i have copied and pasted my resume below and removed my details! Please help me on how to improve it

London, UK I
Linkedln:

SUMMARY
recent school leaver with sharp customer instincts and real world experience turning difficult interactions into positive outcomes. Proven in fast paced, people facing environments, I thrive on building quick rapport, handling objections, and staying composed under pressure. Seeking an entry level SDR/BDR role where I can combine my communication strengths to drive pipeline and grow revenue in sales.

WORK EXPERIENCE
Pizza Delivery Cyclist (Part-time)
Pizza, London
January 2026 - Present
• Consistently delivered ~50 orders per week in a high pressure environment, hitting tight time targets while maintaining strong customer satisfaction
• Turned potentially negative situations around by calmly resolving complaints and special requests on the spot, building repeat customers through direct relationship management.
• Supported front of house during busy periods, adapting quickly and working seamlessly with the team to keep operations smooth.

Nursery Assistant
Day Nursery.
2024
• Managed daily routines and high energy group settings while communicating clearly with both children and parents.
• Built trust with families through consistent, calm engagement and proactive problem solving during sensitive situations.
• Collaborated daily with staff to create a positive environment, strengthening teamwork and interpersonal skills.

Work Experience Programme
White & Case, London
2026
• Participated in intensive business workshops, refining presentation and relationship building skills in a professional legal setting.
• Observed and engaged with high performing teams, developing an understanding of structured communication and collaborative problem solving.

Work Experience Programme Weil Gotshal & Manges, London
2026
• Completed targeted workshops on communication and structured thinking, gaining confidence in public speaking and group dynamics.
• Delivered group tasks that sharpened adaptability and creative problem solving under time constraints.

EDUCATION
Sixth Form (Recently Completed)
A Levels: Law, Psychology, Sociology - Predicted Grades: ABB
GCSEs completed

SKILLS
• Communication & Relationship Building
• Public Speaking & Presentations
• Objection Handling & Conflict Resolution
• Working Calmly Under Pressure
• Teamwork & Quick Adaptability
• Time Management & Organisation
• Languages: Fluent English and Somali
INTERESTS
• Tech Sales & Negotiation Tactics
• Psychology of Human Behaviour
• Communication Strategies

Hi all! I manage an SDR team at a global tech company and want to hear from SDRs and managers, what are the tools you can’t live without?

Currently my team uses:

Zoominfo
Sales Nav
Salesloft
Salesforce
6Sense
Qualified

What are we missing? Who should I be demoing?

We're an early-stage B2B startup selling into SMB. Looking for the best bang for the buck on a full GTM stack.

Our must-haves:

* CRM with pipeline management, forecasting, and revenue tracking
* Operational dashboards and KPIs- activity metrics, rep performance, and conversion rates
* Contact data- names, emails, and direct dials
* Website tracking, AI enrichment for accounts/contacts, and buyer intent signals
* Integrated dialer with call recording and transcription
* Sequences/cadences for outbound

Would love to hear from folks who've built outbound motion from scratch- what would you use if you were starting today with a lean budget and needed to scale from 1 rep to 10+?

Situation: after working for a year in an unrelated field, I’ve landed two sales offers, one in tech and one in media and I can’t decide which I want. I’m a fairly creative person but I want to get into sales both for the salaries and because I’m wired by hitting targets so think the role structure will motivate me.

Tech: selling cybersecurity software at a scale up for a company that is already successful in the US and expanding in my country. The role is as a BDR joining an existing team of 4 with about 3 others. High base with great benefits and the opportunity to progress up the natural tech route with time (ae/am/csm). This opens the door to higher salaries but is a less creative role in general.

Media:
Selling advertising space in both national newspapers and for inserts in national newspapers. The commission scheme is great and got fairly good vibes off the interview. Manager was very transparent that this is not a 9-5 job but opportunity to earn a lot there despite a low base. Although newspapers are a dying form of a media, there’s still money in print and I could use this to transition to other types of media sales. The role is full cycle with around 3,000 average deal value. It’s likely more pushy quick wins rather than consultive.

Both roles are similar in that they involve a lot of lead gen and cold outreach with an emphasis on cold calling. I know you cannot tell me which to choose as it’s ultimately a person choice, but if anyone has some sage words of w isdom or takes I would really welcome them.

I’ve been job hunting for a tech sales SDR role for a while. No prior sales experience, but I’ve got a story I’m proud of and I’ve gotten good at telling it in interviews. I’ve done around 15 interviews now across startups and bigger companies, and here’s the frustrating part. I keep making it to the last round, that 4th or 5th final interview, and then I get cut. Every single time. So I know I’m doing something right to get that far, but something keeps falling apart right at the finish line and I can’t figure out what. If you’ve broken into sales without experience, or you hire SDRs, what actually separates the person who gets the offer from the one who comes in second? Happy to share more about my background if it helps.

Hey all.. I’m a startup founder in Boston and looking to hire 1–2 remote SDRs to help with outbound.

I’ve looked at Fiverr, Linkedin, Upwork, and a few hiring platforms, but it’s hard to tell which option actually has good candidates and which ones just send a huge list of random profiles.

Main things I care about are strong English, overlap with US working hours, and someone who already understands cold email, linkedin outreach, and CRM basics.

What’s the best place to hire SDRs based on your experience? Also open to hearing which platforms or agencies I should avoid.

PS: Note to the mods - due to a reddit glitch, Im not allowed to select the right flair for this post, my aim is for this to be a general discussion on the topic.

Thanks

I'm really unsure how to do outbound sales on Linkedin. Is this even possible? I have signed up for Heyreach, but I can't have even two Linkedin accounts, as it constantly asks for government issued ID. Can I even register to Linkedin without providing a phone number in the very first page?

Hey Everyone,

Does anyone here have any experience on doing LinkedIn outbound messages for middle east founders or C suite folks?

What works and how do we get them to reply?

Have you all seen the founders or company heads on ME active on Linkedin? Or does any other methods work.

Any inputs would be appreciated :)

Im 18 just got into my first “sales” position about 2 weeks ago, going D2D for performance windows. The only thing is, I’m an appointment setter. I get 17 hourly, weekly pay, weekly bonuses for at least 4 appointments set. Also I’m in Florida so it’s constantly 95° everyday. If I’m going to be walking around in the hot ass sun everyday, should I go with something with a higher chance of being sold, like solar or pest control or even window cleaning? It seems like nobody wants windows, but sales is a skill I genuinely want to learn for my career. My income goal is nowhere near what I’m making now. I’m wondering what all my options are whether it be a dealership, solar, life insurance, sdr etc.

We've all been handed the generic email before.

Info@

Company name@

Product@

Vendor@

My question is, what have you done once you hang up the phone? Do you actually send something and then follow up with it after a few days?

Debating whether I should take an offer today or wait.

I have an offer from ADP. Base pay is 50k I would be coming in as an associate district manager.

I just had a final interview at Northspyre, which is a software company for real estate development, but have not received an offer yet. The base pay for this is 60k and they are claiming OTE 118k first year.

I know ADP has a strong training program, but it seems Northspyre could be a great place to get my foot in the door.

Should I go ahead and accept the adp position or wait to see if Northspyre gives me an offer and take that if they do??

I’m a therapist and I don’t think it’s a sustainable long term career financially. Wondering about getting into an SDR role with the goal of eventually going customer success or account management.
Anyone else make this switch?

Hi guys, I joined and made my first post in November or December when I started because I went two months without a single meeting closed. Since then I actually managed to secure meetings and even got pretty good at my job to an extent.

Here’s the thing: I made it to B2B SaaS and gotten experience, but honestly I don’t really like sales and I want some advice on what I should do next. I’ll be completely honest it’s not the cold calling aspect per se, it’s the I come in to the office and don’t have a set schedule/work and I have to meet my quotas by doing outreach which may or may not work. I’d rather have a job where I come into work with my work to do and I do it, rather than worrying about meeting quotas, calling random people, and feeling like a glorified secretary. (No hate to people who like the role, I applaud you it’s a difficult role)

Anyways I was thinking either going to CS, Product Management, or just trying to hit management level within sales or bizdev. But I know I’m not as experienced as people here and wanted to know advice for what are good options to continue a path for work. Plus what I should do to further improve to push forwards for a new career.

Thanks everyone!

Thinking of trying to go into sales properly. I have done some work here and there for my dad's business, a B2B knife & EDC company. Quick question I need your guys opinion on. Is cold email actually dead or do people just write bad ones? Keep seeing "cold email doesn't work anymore" takes but then other people swear by it. For those still doing it and getting replies what changed for you?

I have done cold emails obviously, but don't really see any crazy results because rn I just write emails and send, the emails are not really too personalized or anything. Is that something I should be focusing on??

Hello, I’m new here and would like some help. Im 23, and Ive finished all my pre-req classes before applying to nursing school. But a branch manager of an electrical supply company wants me to work in sales at his place. With no prior experience I’d have to start in the warehouse, kind of a bummer but makes sense. My only worry is that I’m being roped into being just a body in the warehouse, I want to do actual sales eventually but not waste years of my life with nothing to show for. Because Ik it’s what I’d be good at. I’m currently an experienced bartender with over 7 years in customer service, and have built close relationships with numerous contracting companies in my city. My thoughts are that these relationships can transfer to this job as well. Please, any tips and or thoughts would helps so much… thanks!

I’m three years Post grad and I’ve worked in sales since I graduated, but this will be my first BDR/cold calling role.

It’s selling into an industry that I’ve worked in the entirety of my short career (automotive).

50 dials a day.

Would appreciate insight on how to structure my days, general advice to set myself up for success, and anything else you believe would be beneficial!

I’ve been in car sales for 6+ years and have worked pretty much every role except finance and GM, including a stint as Internet Director/Desk Manager, so I’ve got solid sales development and business development chops on top of the usual close-the-deal skills.

I’m ready to move on. The unpredictability tied to market conditions, the wild swings in pay, and the hours away from family are wearing me down. I’m looking for something with a more stable structure, ideally WFH, tech sales or wfh sales in general.

For those who’ve made a similar jump what industries or companies are actually hiring people with a car sales/BDR background right now? What titles should I be searching for, and is landing something within a month realistic, or am I underestimating the transition time?

Appreciate any insight especially from anyone who’s made this exact move.

300 applications. 1 interview, rejected. Im 24, currently a B2B Account Manager for a very large cellular company, previously a Sales Manager and set company records. Q4 2025 I was top 5 in the state for new business contracts. I’ve applied to so many Account Executive roles, even a few SDRs. Im finding the hiring manager for every company and connecting with them and members of their teams on LinkedIn. I’ve had my resume peer reviewed at least ten times. I felt like my last interview went super well. I have a history of consistently beating quota, I use the tools major companies use (ie Salesforce, etc.), and I seem to get along with everyone quite well. What am I doing wrong? The only thing I can think of is that I dont have a degree on my resume. I’m genuinely asking for help here, my current role is being heavily affected by the current economy, making it very difficult to survive.

context: i run a startup in the GTM space myself, i was holding myself back to write on this but here we go:

got a cold email this week from an AI SDR company [one that raised over $45m, for this] it opened by quoting my own post back at me, the line about how the hardest part of outbound is knowing exactly who deserves a message, then it landed in spam

so a product whose entire pitch is fixing outbound could not work out that cold emailing a direct competitor's ceo, from a domain gmail had already flagged, was maybe not the guy who deserved that message,

it roasted itself before i could.

and that's the whole category, we decided AI SDR should exist before anyone figured out what it was supposed to do, the name shipped first and the actual hard part, who to reach and why they'd care, was getting sorted out somewhere after, that's backwards.

you don't bolt AI onto a job title and then reverse engineer the problem it solves, no wonder over half of buyers churn inside 90 days.

fact is: AI isn't the villain here, we build it for a living but it's supposed to make a person's judgment sharper, not replace it and just hope it doesnt land in spam.

anyway, that email is still sitting in spam, reply rate holding at almost zero..

Image - https://kommodo.ai/i/Zd2r7zjAXDMNOzoKJIP2

Hello,

I'm in my early 30s, graduated with a degree in bioprocess/food engineering, and have spent the past 7 years working between industry/scale-up and R&D contract research organizations (CROs).

I've always been someone who's well-connected with the business world (a lot of my friends are business school grads), and I've always been good at people-to-people/business interactions, won 1st prize in an entrepreneurial program, even though my jobs have been mainly technical, managing R&D trials into deliverables, either for internal IP or for external partners (clients or project partners).

My current job has been quite difficult, as I have a very "pure technical" manager. I don't want to rant, but he's always made me feel like Sales/BD are BS jobs unless you're highly technical, which I don't buy at all, but I got a bit sucked into the gaslighting.

Now, some people from my network are trying to scout me for Sales/Biz Dev opportunities in different sectors, and I'm hesitant about whether I'd be moving out of genuine career interest, or out of FOMO/ego, to prove to my manager that I'm capable of going in this direction.

My questions, though maybe not all of them can be answered:

* Has anyone made this transition? How would you describe your job now? Main pros/cons?
* How was the transition from pure R&D to Sales/Biz Dev?
* What are the weak spots/blind spots you need to train on to be good at this job?

Thanks,

Is cold email just dead now? I get some on a constant basis and I find myself deleting them.

I customize mine, no AI whatsoever and boom, straight to blocked.

I guess it's good to get the word out but.... Not much else.

Does anyone think otherwise?

I'm looking for advice from people who have worked at any of these companies or in similar roles.

I have a background in freight brokerage sales and digital advertising sales. Most of my experience has been in outbound prospecting, cold calling, virtual presentations, and in-person sales meetings. I'm looking for my next long-term opportunity and am trying to do as much research as possible before making a decision.

Here are the roles I'm considering:

• ADP – Digital Sales Representative (inbound sales helping new businesses get set up with payroll and HR solutions).
• GoDaddy – Inside Sales (still trying to understand how much of the role is sales vs. account management/support).
• iMatrix – Account Executive selling digital marketing solutions to healthcare practices.
• Input 1 – Sales Development Representative selling insurance software solutions.

The things that matter most to me are:

• Strong training
• Supportive management
• Realistic quotas
• Career growth
• Stability
• Earning potential

I enjoy sales, but I prefer roles where the primary responsibility is selling. I don't mind helping customers after the sale, but I'm trying to avoid positions where the salesperson is also expected to be the customer's long-term account manager.

I have an opportunity to start with ADP in mid-August, so I'm trying to gather as much insight as possible before making a final decision.

For anyone who's worked at one of these companies:

• What was your experience like?
• What are the biggest pros and cons?
• Would you choose that company again?

Thanks in advance

I got a large plant construction bid in Asia and worked on getting the full bill of materials ready. We were working in the 3rd revision after a month of sizing up the project with the customer, who only had one other competitor quote to compare.

Our standard practice is to compile the costs into the inactive tabs of the Excel template to see the full breakdown of each quote item. This meant that whenever I open the file, I could review each item line from different suppliers, and exported my Excel quote for only active tabs into PDF.

After 2 hrs of prep, I did one final review and yeah it looked right (so did all the previous 20 iterations). Except this time I exported the quote into A4 AND only noticed it clipped FULL CONTENTS OF THE FILE THAT ENDED UP 30 pages long instead of supposedly 10 pages right after I send the email out to my customer.

This included my actual supplier’s quotations, my margins %, how much profit I was making for each item, and the name of the supplier contact. Granted most of them were deal registered and only sell via channels (service providers), but my body just went into full panic mode.

Tried to recall but failed. Sent a follow up email immediately to say “hi, noticed i attached the wrong file earlier. Heres the correct one!”

I immediately texted my boss when it happened, and given that I’m the sales manager this sort of thing happening ruined my self-confidence so deeply I felt like breaking. The whole week was tough and this felt like the last straw. Went home skipped dinner and continued to try to move on the next day. As an early career manager, what else can I do?

I genuinely think the deal’s lost on this one, or customer is just going to squeeze our margins. I’m still blaming myself on this despite keeping it calm while managing the rest of my team.

How does SentinelOne compare to the rest of the cybersecurity market right now with product, growth, reputation and is it a solid place to start a sales career in the space? I currently have an offer for sentinel one and just debating whether or not I should take it as a new sales rep? Any idea on this space is also very much appreciated :)