SDR - AE in 11mo 🐲 traveling salesman 🚗 non-profit for fun 🌿
The South
Joined April 2021
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Your favorite SDR is now an AE.
(11 months later)
And I broke all the rules to get here
I job-hopped
I joined a startup
I even switched industries (bye SaaS)
Here’s how I did it 🧵
Working less is my secret sauce
it’s not laziness, no
It’s my “lucky buffer”
I maintain excess capacity in my workdays to pounce on unexpected opportunities as they pop up
Or chill if they dont!
While newbies are stretched too thin, and unexpected tasks & opportunities overwhelm them..
I consistently show up with a “winning attitude” & lead team in closed won :)
What @BowTiedSalesGuy doesn’t tell you about improv
Is that after 1.5y of training it gets exponentially harder to hold back the jokes during corporate meetings
Just closed a deal that died on a VP’s desk 5 months ago
Old champ brought in a new champ, new timeline, closed in 3 days.
We love a zombie deal
After dia de los muertos as well
Can confirm…
An IC loves a public case study or speaking opportunity on their project
Seen this multiple times
Worth a read
for technical champions, it's often very difficult to figure out the "what's in it for them"
sales leaders love to simplify and pretend that these ppl are being bombarded w/ 3am pings, etc and that better infra gives these ppl their weekend back
ive seen like two or three deals where thats really the case
tactically, ive found that case studies and speaking opportunities really move the needle for technical champs
i didnt really expect technical champs to like this sort of thing but they've been unbelievably eager ever since i started offering either in late stages of the land deal or right during onboarding
they know the job market for senior ICs and eng leaders is brutal and public case studies that validate how someone identified a problem, evaluated solutions, and solved the problem are worth their weight in gold
Closed $120k yesterday
Also
My fall 2026 Spotify playlist is DIALED
Playlist Dopamine hits are bigger & recurring
…fascinating
🤡 sellers: talk shit on competition.
🐲: start modest. Let champions sell their peers against the competition.
You just sit & shut up.
The pattern interrupt is goated
ENT customer: “do you have a monthly quota?
“It’s quarterly, but I already hit my yearly target in August. Now I’m only working for the love the game”
…as I show how to do more with less products
He loved that
Meanwhile competitors are pushing products
He hated that
Headset nailed it.
It’s that simple
Build a mountain of trust by taking your customers’ perspective at every step - suggesting options that make the most sense for them, not the most money for you.
Long term, trust earns you big money
Lately I feel like all I do is make sure things go smoothly in meetings
Is this how execs feel?
…Becoming valuable for my expertise & mentorship to senior customers - not actually screwing nuts & bolts anymore
We hired a class of new AEs
The standout?
- He’s the best communicator
- Always asking Qs, not afraid of dumb Qs
- Has serious technical chops
- Made sales
- Contributing to the team culture
- works weekends (**or makes ppl THINK he works weekends)
The BDR life is simple:
Book meetings, make sure ppl show
If you’re looking for that AE promo…
Stay involved in the deals you source. Shadow your AE.
You’ll learn that 50% of the AE job is phone calls where you do customer support, prospecting, multithreading, vibing, problem-solving rolled into one, not just with customers but also internally.
It a lot of spaghetti to untangle
But this bigger picture is how the sausage get’s made
Who can simplify this?
This. 100%
For context, we already won the competitive POC
Beat 11 other vendors
Our SE is developing a super niche software tool that will save 400+ hours on setup
Way outside our product lineup
And I’m finding the price that keeps buyer + our leadership happy
This morning -
my fav SE & I meeting ENT customers to work on a $500k we’re trying to close in Q4
This afternoon -
my fav SE & I going gokarting 🏎️🏁
This wins deals, trust
For example:
My skill is sussing out great customers & building very strong relationships
That value is large $$$ from ENT logos that require minimal support resources for expansion
Aka lots of value, scarce skill