building sales channels for start-ups | tips on cold outreach, outbound & partnerships | growing @sticktothemodel
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Joined February 2023
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a few thoughts on running AI agents in sales, 6 months in:
1. most of the admin side of selling should be run by agents now. follow-ups, meeting prep, CRM notes, account research
2. the outbound tools I was paying for would organize outreach, track follow-up sequences, and research accounts. nowadays i’m just using Claude and slowly replacing software i don’t need
3. build lots of small agents, not one. my chief of staff is Vera, my head of content is Gus, my researcher is Scout. each one stays good at one thing
4. train a watchdog. one agent’s whole job is watching the others. every time i fix something (an email, a meeting note, how a deal got logged) the fix gets written into the rules automatically
5. build it around your best reps. the hard part of any sales team is scaling what your top performers do. write down how they prospect, run discovery and follow up, then build the agents to mirror it. now the whole team starts from their playbook
6. AI isn’t killing outbound or the SDR
7. start with one agent: the morning brief. every day it tells you what moved, who to follow up with, and what’s on the calendar. connect it to everything you use
8. talk to it. my best input isn’t a prompt, it’s a voice note on a walk. the agents sort it into tasks, posts and follow-ups by the time i’m home
9. my current approach to AI is "be the last mile" ie. it does the prospect research and email drafting, you review and send
10. we’re in the golden age of AI. the monthly plans are priced to get you hooked, and running these workflows will probably never be this cheap again
I’ve spent the last 6 months building workflows in claude code to manage all elements of my life - personal, prioritization, professional, writing etc.
Intrigued by Grok but hesitant to start building from scratch again
Is it an “either / or” thing or are people using both?
Tech Sales Guy retweeted
boomer investors hearing your latest funding came from an X post
🤝 Paid partnership
The founder of Uber texted our client at 2am after their launch.
General Atlantic and KKR reached out.
An investor wired money from a DM. They still haven't talked.
100+ customers booked calls for a B2B infra fintech.
Here's what @Moneymamba & @mustafabillion said about launching with launchvideo.com:
boomer investors hearing your latest funding came from an X post
🤝 Paid partnership
The founder of Uber texted our client at 2am after their launch.
General Atlantic and KKR reached out.
An investor wired money from a DM. They still haven't talked.
100+ customers booked calls for a B2B infra fintech.
Here's what @Moneymamba & @mustafabillion said about launching with launchvideo.com:
fin.com got investors reaching out, money wired from a DM, 100+ inbound customer calls, and a text from uber’s founder at 2 am.
nobody gets fired at 130% because the manager didn't like them
at 85%, it's a tiebreaker
so if you're interviewing after one of these situations, don't bring up the manager at all. talk about your number and what you contributed
nobody's hiring you to hear about your old boss
Saw You Can See Everything last night. One of the craziest movies I’ve ever watched. Loved every minute
Tech Sales Guy retweeted
Was at an event in Vegas this week
On Wednesday, I had dinner scheduled with a partner I’m working
We get to the restaurant and it’s packed (no resy)
I’m thinking we’re about hit the next spot but this guy had other plans….
He pulls out a $100 bill and slips it to the hostess
We get stated immediately:
“I’m hungry and I don’t do lines”
They you can learn a lot about how your customers, prospects and candidates treat the staff
What’s the read here?
Was at an event in Vegas this week
On Wednesday, I had dinner scheduled with a partner I’m working
We get to the restaurant and it’s packed (no resy)
I’m thinking we’re about hit the next spot but this guy had other plans….
He pulls out a $100 bill and slips it to the hostess
We get stated immediately:
“I’m hungry and I don’t do lines”
They you can learn a lot about how your customers, prospects and candidates treat the staff
What’s the read here?
Underrated career moves:
1. read the rules of engagement
six months into a job my manager asked where I was getting my pipeline. marketing had been buying signups that never logged in. no owner, no task, no follow up. I was the only one on the team who knew Salesforce reporting well enough to find them. easiest calls I’ve ever made. the VP eventually changed the rules. the best paid reps aren’t always the best sellers. but they know how to prospect
2. do the job before you have the title
a few years ago I hired two reps the same week. same accounts, same messy data. one complained about the data. the other built an outbound play selling through companies that shared investors, before it was in every playbook. when I’m deciding who to promote I’m not JUST looking at who hit 105%. I’m looking at who’s already doing the next job
3. don’t let the number be the whole thing
last quarter I closed the biggest deal of my year at 10:19pm. 6+ months on it. relief for one minute. joy for ten. then nothing. next morning the number was back to zero. I love this game. but the quarter resets every 90 days, and if that’s where all your self-worth lives, it resets too
Tech Sales Guy retweeted
“happy to intro you”
→ “amazing. I’ll send a quick blurb you can forward"
“let me think about who’d be a fit”
→ “I pulled 3 people from your network who look like a good fit. any of them worth a note?”
“I’ll mention you next time we talk”
→ “would you be against a quick email intro instead? I’ll draft it”
“loop me in”
→ “perfect. I’ll cc you and keep it to 3 lines so it doesn’t rot in your inbox”
“they’re slammed right now”
→ “thanks for the response. mind if I check back after their quarter closes?”
“just use my name”
→ send it today. subject line: “[their name] said I should reach out”
“happy to intro you”
→ “amazing. I’ll send a quick blurb you can forward"
“let me think about who’d be a fit”
→ “I pulled 3 people from your network who look like a good fit. any of them worth a note?”
“I’ll mention you next time we talk”
→ “would you be against a quick email intro instead? I’ll draft it”
“loop me in”
→ “perfect. I’ll cc you and keep it to 3 lines so it doesn’t rot in your inbox”
“they’re slammed right now”
→ “thanks for the response. mind if I check back after their quarter closes?”
“just use my name”
→ send it today. subject line: “[their name] said I should reach out”
Tech Sales Guy retweeted
the questions founders ask me most about pipeline - in order of how often i get them
1. “should i hire a VP of sales?”
only if you can hand them a motion that’s already working. VPs scale things. they rarely invent them
2. “why isn’t outbound working?”
usually the list. you’re emailing people who don’t have the problem this quarter, and no subject line fixes that
3. “how do I get partners to send deals?”
send them one first. then ask what it’d take to get two a quarter back
4. “my AEs say there are no leads”
they’re probably right. give each one 50 named accounts and see who builds pipeline. keep those people
5. “do AI SDRs work?”
depends who’s running them. @jasonlk runs 20+ agents at saastr and they crush because he knew what good outbound looked like before he automated it. Joe Schmo who’s already struggling to book meetings? good luck
6. “how long until partners pay off?”
longer than outbound. outbound runs on your volume. partners run on their trust.... you gotta kiss some frogs to find your prince
Tech Sales Guy retweeted
Looking to spin up a TikTok and Insta account
Want to build it with someone who already makes short-form content and knows ball
Reply if you’re interested
the questions founders ask me most about pipeline - in order of how often i get them
1. “should i hire a VP of sales?”
only if you can hand them a motion that’s already working. VPs scale things. they rarely invent them
2. “why isn’t outbound working?”
usually the list. you’re emailing people who don’t have the problem this quarter, and no subject line fixes that
3. “how do I get partners to send deals?”
send them one first. then ask what it’d take to get two a quarter back
4. “my AEs say there are no leads”
they’re probably right. give each one 50 named accounts and see who builds pipeline. keep those people
5. “do AI SDRs work?”
depends who’s running them. @jasonlk runs 20+ agents at saastr and they crush because he knew what good outbound looked like before he automated it. Joe Schmo who’s already struggling to book meetings? good luck
6. “how long until partners pay off?”
longer than outbound. outbound runs on your volume. partners run on their trust.... you gotta kiss some frogs to find your prince
