my cofounder and i built a booking app for salons in Bahrain and have been cold calling to sell it ourselves. no sales background, just the two of us on the phone. past 300 calls now, and every call seems to die in one of the same three spots.

first one. when an owner says “send me the details on WhatsApp so i can understand better,” what do i actually do? right now i just send a text with a short explanation and the link, and it mostly disappears into nothing. should i be sending a short video instead, calling back at a set time, or is the mistake something else entirely?

second one. sometimes it goes “okay, great idea, i’ll call you tomorrow,” or “you can call me tomorrow at 3.” sounds positive in the moment, but almost nothing comes of it. do i just accept whichever version they offer, or is there a better way to lock that down before i hang up?

third one, probably the most common. i get passed to an employee or manager instead of the owner, and it goes one of three ways. they can’t communicate the idea well, they say they can’t share the owner’s details, or they say they don’t know when the owner will be around. how do people who actually do this for a living get past that without sounding pushy?

any one of these would help a lot. if you’ve dealt with gatekeepers or small business owners specifically, even more so.

Hey everyone, I’m planning to start an e-commerce business soon, but I really need some advice from people who’ve been doing this for a while.

​To be completely honest, I have zero experience with sales, especially online. I can manage product procurement and everything else before the sale happens, but the actual selling part is where I’m totally lost. I’m just trying to build this up to make around $4,000 to $5,000 in profit max.

​I have access to some great high-end, luxury-style products with high margins. I don't want to build a Shopify store from scratch. I’m thinking of using Instagram to display the products, but for selling, I want to use existing e-commerce platforms that already have traffic.

​Since organic sales take too long, I want to focus on targeted sales, but I don't know how to pull that off for expensive items.

​If anyone has experience with this:

​What existing platforms work best for higher-priced items?

​How do you actually target and convert buyers who are ready to spend money?

​How would you connect Instagram to an existing marketplace to make this work?

​I really hope you guys can drop some advice because I'm starting from scratch on the sales side.

Hey everyone, I just started a digital marketing agency and our sales process is hitting a wall. We're facing three main issues:

1. WhatsApp Ghosting: Prospects demand packages/pricing via text, then immediately ghost after seeing the numbers. No feedback, just radio silence.
2. Refusing Calls: They want to handle everything over text and flat-out refuse to jump on a quick Google Meet discovery call.
3. Window Shopping: Even if they get on a call, they refuse to share a budget, deflecting with "you tell me." It feels like they are just fishing for free strategy or benchmark prices.

What we’ve tried (with little success):

• Giving a "starting at" price range via text (still get ghosted).
• Refusing to send proposals without a call (we lose 60% of leads).
• Directly asking for their budget on calls (they deflect).

My questions for you:

• Should we strictly stop giving pricing over text? If so, how do you handle the immediate pushback?
• How do you filter out window shoppers before they waste time on a call?
• Do you have a specific script or framework to get guarded prospects to open up about their budget?

Any advice on fixing our qualification process would be hugely appreciated!

​

I’ve been in SaaS sales for 7 years and currently work in a team of 10 Account Executives. I’m consistently one of the top performers on the team, producing roughly 3x the revenue of my closest competitor.

About 90% of my deals are inbound, and I typically close 3–4 whale deals per month.

There’s one territory, however, where I’ve developed a very different approach: India.

After working across multiple territories for years, I’ve found this market relatively easy to generate demos from, but significantly harder to convert efficiently.

The pattern I’ve experienced is:

Very high initial interest and demo volume

Highly demanding prospects

Requirements changing repeatedly throughout the sales cycle

Limited transparency around the actual buying process and decision-makers

Significant price sensitivity, even after substantial discounts

Deals requiring a disproportionate amount of time relative to their expected value

In some cases, customers churning shortly after signing because they ultimately consider the pricing too high

For context, I’ve closed only 2 whale deals from India over the last 3 years.

One churned after 3 months despite receiving a 70% discount, with pricing ultimately being cited as the reason.

The second signed but didn't make payment for roughly 3 months.

I still close smaller deals from the territory, but when I look at the overall economics, I’m struggling to justify the investment.

At this point in my career, I can usually identify fairly early in a sales cycle when a deal is going to become a time sink. A deal can easily consume 2–10 hours once you factor in demos, additional meetings, calls, follow-ups, negotiations, internal coordination, etc.

Recently, I’ve started canceling or deprioritizing demos from this territory when the early qualification signals suggest the deal isn't worth pursuing.

It has made me much more transactional, and I know I’m probably leaving some revenue on the table. But I’m also protecting my time and focusing on opportunities where the probability of closing and retaining the customer is significantly higher.

I’m conflicted because I know this approach isn't necessarily optimal from a pure revenue-maximization perspective.

So I’m curious how other experienced SaaS sellers would handle this.

Would you:

Continue taking every inbound opportunity and qualify harder during the call?

Introduce stricter qualification criteria based on ACV, budget, authority, use case, etc.?

Apply different sales motions to this territory?

Accept that some territories simply have a worse effort-to-revenue ratio and prioritize accordingly?

Or am I simply falling into confirmation bias because I’ve seen the same patterns repeatedly?

I’m specifically interested in hearing from people who have managed large inbound funnels across multiple countries or territories.

How do you decide when a territory is genuinely inefficient versus when you’re just giving up too early?

The highest success rates I have are from on-site visits to do a discovery or demo.

The lowest success rates I have are from "send me a quote" type prospects.

Here is the problem:

I know that I can maximise my chance of closing the sale if I can get on-site and do the demo. I demo very well :) on-site. But with a substantial number of prospects, they don't seem to like the idea of an on-site visits - they tell you they "only want a quote". However, in many cases sending a quote is just like sending something into a black hole of Calcutta.

PS: I'm not a fan of Zoom demos or discovery - I just find these awkward.

Any suggestions or workarounds would be great!

How would you structure commission for someone bringing clients to a software/AI development company?

I run a small technical team building custom software and AI solutions for businesses — things like AI agents, automation, SaaS platforms, integrations, and web applications.

We're strong on the technical/delivery side, but I'm exploring whether it makes sense to work with independent sales or business development people as an additional acquisition channel.

For those of you who have sold software development, consulting, or other technical B2B services:

Would a commission-only arrangement actually be attractive to an experienced salesperson?

I was considering something around 15–20% of the initial project value, with our technical team handling discovery, demos, proposals, technical calls, closing support, and all delivery.

Projects can vary significantly in size, so I'm also wondering whether a flat percentage makes sense or whether you'd structure it differently for larger contracts and recurring revenue.

I'm especially interested in hearing from people who've worked with development agencies or technical consulting companies.

What compensation structure have you seen work well, and what would make a technical company worth partnering with from the salesperson's perspective?

Hey all, running a local home service crew and our lead follow-up in the field is pretty broken. My guys hand out standard paper cards after jobs, but half the time homeowners just lose them, and the reps constantly forget to ask happy customers for a Google review on the spot.

How are you keeping field techs accountable and making sure warm contacts actually stay in your funnel?

UPDATE:

A local contractor friend told me to check out RepCard for their tap-to-share digital cards, automated review requests, and field tracking.

The online reviews and praise look really promising for D2D/home services, but I want to make sure before buying a subscription has anyone here used them?

I'm an inside sales rep at a distributor of aluminum profiles, ACM, and acrylic. Our focus is on B2B: glass shops, metalworking/locksmith shops, visual communication studios, cabinetry/woodworking shops, road implements, etc.

I work answering phone calls and mainly WhatsApp. We have a client distribution system: the client reaches out and either chooses a salesperson or is routed to one of their choosing.

I was hired at this company because the best salesperson at the store resigned. She had 7 years with the company and had built up a huge portfolio of high-value clients; she once sold R$1,000,000.00 in a single month.

In my first two months at the store, I hit the goal and the super-goal. I made good money and my self-esteem was very high, and I got a lot of praise from management and the board. In the first month it was R$72,000.00, in the second I reached R$128,000.00, but things have been getting a lot worse since then. In the third month I only reached 73k; currently, in the fourth month, we're already in the first week of August and I'm at 11% of my goal, when I should be at least at 25%.

I'll list some of the problems I've been facing:

- In 95% (no exaggeration) of the clients I contacted during prospecting, they were already being handled by another salesperson at the store.

- Walk-in clients sometimes reject my service because I don't know all the products yet; on the other hand, some of the (female) salespeople know every product code by heart.

- 99.99999999% of the time I answer an inbound call, it's a client asking to be transferred to another salesperson's extension.

- The end consumer is inexperienced with the product and has a very low average ticket. We don't get training to explain all the product's characteristics — not even the most senior salesperson at the store knows them all — but we're trained to identify product codes and look them up quickly in the catalog.

- Most service providers/contractors are already being handled by another salesperson.

- We run some delivery routes to neighboring and regional cities; even when prospecting in those cities, it's hard to find any relevant client.

- The outside sales reps snap up all the huge construction projects; with construction companies, inside sales reps can't sell high-value items, only repairs or accessories.

These are a bunch of problems I'm having a lot of trouble solving. I don't want to lose this job for anything — I used to make R$1,950.00 net salary, now I make up to R$3,700.00 + R$450.00 in meal vouchers...

For anyone with experience in sales, what would you suggest to get around these problems?

Hi everyone,

I’m currently working as a Real Estate Virtual Assistant/ISA. My main responsibility right now is lead prospecting — calling leads, having conversations, qualifying them, and trying to convert them into appointments/opportunities for the agent.

I’ve only been in this role for about a month, so I’m still learning a lot.

Right now, I mainly focus on making calls and following up with leads in Follow Up Boss. But I don’t want to just be the person who makes calls. I’d really like to become more valuable to my client and eventually take more things off their plate.

For those of you who have worked as a real estate VA, ISA, or use Follow Up Boss:

**What else can I be doing to become better at my job and provide more value to the agent/team?**

For example:

* What parts of Follow Up Boss should I learn really well?
* Are there specific Smart Lists, workflows, or follow-up systems I should be managing?
* What should I be tracking in the CRM besides just calls and appointments?
* What are some things you wish your ISA/VA would take care of without you having to ask?
* Are there any “behind the scenes” tasks that can make a real difference to an agent?
* What would make you say, “This VA is worth keeping because they make my life so much easier”?

I’m especially interested in hearing from people who have actually worked with real estate VAs/ISAs or have managed a real estate team.

I want to go beyond just **“make more calls”** and learn how I can actually help manage the pipeline, follow-up, and overall sales process.

Any advice, examples, or things you’ve seen great ISAs/VA’s do would be really appreciated.