u/ThePoobahsJester

Hi everyone,

Here's the context: I currently have next to no tools. Literally HubSpot and my cell phone. I pay for ChatGPT work out of pocket to try and work expediently. I get VERY few inbounds, and am expected to be hitting a massive quota. I explained to my manager that the quota is intense even WITH tools, and almost impossible to hit without. I have no dialer, no SDRs, no linkedin Nav/pro, no zoominfo, etc.

I sell a security software that is an enterprise sale structurally, though on the more affordable end when it comes to the usual price range of that industry. If you were me, what are a few tools you'd ask for that would actually impact my workflow, and help me book some damn meetings beyond pounding out cold calls.

I’m 6.5 months into my first senior AE role at a small AI physical security company. It’s also my first security role, so I came in without an established network, and the company had close to zero presence in my territory before my hiring.

Our average deal is around $50k, selling mainly into schools, healthcare, manufacturing, casinos, and government. These are long, multi-stakeholder sales that can involve IT, security, procurement, budgets, and changes to emergency response. Nobody is buying after one demo with a credit card.

When I joined, quota was $250k per quarter. This week, I was told the expectation is now $200k every month. That’s $2.4M annually, or roughly four average deals per month. My pipeline is nowhere near mature enough to support that. The sales team quickly went from five reps to two: my manager and me. Two tenured AEs were let go after closing nothing in over a year. Another rep quit three months into the role because of the pressure.

Meanwhile, I’m prospecting, researching, making 300+ cold calls a week, visiting prospects, building reseller relationships, attending events when possible, doing my own research, running demos, working customer training/support, and trying to revive old opportunities.

The company provides HubSpot, and that is IT. No Sales Navigator, Apollo, LinkedIn Premium, AI access, or meaningful prospecting tools. They generally won’t fund events until I close more business, even though events and integrators seem to produce the warmest opportunities.

I reviewed my inbound history because I wanted to make sure I wasn’t just making excuses. I found 7 revenue-related inquiries across my 6.5 months in the company. I’ve received zero referrals from our existing partners. Over the past two months, less than 25% of legitimate company inbounds came to me, despite the sales team being just my manager and me. I was also actively prospecting an account in my territory, but when a warm referral came in, the opportunity was reassigned to my manager.

I reviewed her pipeline and closed deals as well. From what I could trace, every current quote and every 2026 closed deal originated as an inbound opportunity or warm partner referral. I couldn’t find a single closed deal that began with cold outbound.

I still believe in the product. Prospects generally like the demo, and several legitimate opportunities died because of documented budget or timing issues. An outsourced outreach company starts soon, which may help generate meetings. I just don’t see how that creates $200k this month, or consistently in the near term, with an enterprise sales cycle.

I’m open to the possibility that my activity isn’t converting well enough or that I should be further along. But realistically:

• Is $200k per month reasonable for one AE selling $50k physical security deals?
• Is 6.5 months enough to expect consistent revenue from a mostly cold territory?
• Does this sound like normal startup pressure, or like the company may be running out of runway?
• Would you keep building, or start heavily interviewing while continuing to work the pipeline?
• Are you hiring...

I don’t want to quit just because the job is hard. I'm absolutely not allergic to work, but I need to be realistic and get a reality check here. I also don’t want to ignore obvious warning signs because I’m invested in making it work, and believe in the product.

Happy Friday team. Been an insanely stressful few months and lead up, but for the first time ever in my life, I just got a 5 figure paycheck. I know that’s small fry for many people here, but I’m really proud of that.

I’ve come a long way, and have a long way to go. I know the common advice is not to really tell anyone, so wanted to celebrate somewhere at least. Here’s hoping we’re on the road to 6!

I’m about 5 months into an AE role selling a decently expensive B2B product. Average deal size is well over $50k, buying cycles are not exactly instant due to being in the security realm, and I’m still in the phase of building pipeline, getting meetings, working deals, learning the market, etc.

Today I had a pretty brutal conversation with my manager. She basically said we need sales immediately. Our team has gone from 5 reps to 2 in 4 weeks time, quota has exploded, and the pressure from the board is very clearly on revenue now, not “pipeline progress” or “good activity.”

I straight up asked her if it was “time to stress the fuck out o’clock,” and she said yes. Then I asked if I was on the chopping block, and she said she honestly didn’t even know if her own job was safe.
So yeah. That was fun.

The hard part is that I don’t think I’m sitting here doing nothing. I’m prospecting, following up, building pipeline, trying to move deals forward, and doing the work. I have some fantastic pipeline around the corner, but you can’t just cold call someone and expect them to restructure their entire physical security stack overnight. So now the message is basically: pound your prospects, push deals to close, and find revenue now.

I get that sales is sales. I know nobody gets paid for “potential” forever. But I also feel like there’s a mismatch between the product, the deal size, the buying cycle, and the timeline leadership seems to be demanding.

I’m trying to be honest with myself here. Maybe this is just the reality of sales and I need to harden up. Maybe the company is in a bad spot and everyone is under the gun. Maybe both are true.

For people who have been through this before: how bad does this sound? Am I fucked? Would you take this as normal intense sales pressure, or a sign to start looking immediately while still trying to close what I can?

I posted yesterday, but the situation has changed pretty fast.

Long story short: I’m at a startup, and in the last 3.5 weeks our sales team went from 5 people down to 2. 2 were fired, and the last one quit. At the same time, my quota has basically exploded.

My original offer/OTE had me around ~$70k/month in sales. I just found out that me and the only other remaining sales rep are now expected to close $1M between now and the end of August.

I genuinely like the product, the people, and the day-to-day work, but there are too many red flags piling up to ignore. I’ve only been here 5 months, which looks terrible on a resume, but I think I need to start applying immediately.

Fuck. This is depressing lmao.

Well, per the title, things are pretty intense over here.

I’m in sales for a small security tech company. I actually love what I sell and genuinely believe in the product, which is the only reason I’m not fully losing my mind right now. It’s in the physical security / safety software world. Think major and minor incident prevention.

So we had two salespeople who had both been here over a year and never closed a single deal. Both were let go recently (no shit), one about 3.5 weeks ago and the other about 10 days ago. After that, quota moved up a bit, and the newest hire panicked. She basically said she didn’t think she could close anything before the one-year mark, and today she quit. I am about 4 months into the role, and actively building pipe as quickly as I can.

So now it’s me and my manager.

Average deal size is around $50k annually. Smaller deals can be around $17k/year, and we’ve had larger opportunities go north of $400k. The space is competitive as hell, but we’re price competitive and have some features that genuinely separate us from the scarier, more invasive players in the category. One of the reasons I care about this company is that we solve security problems without going full Big Brother, which almost none of our competitors can say.

On paper, I know the obvious advice is probably “dust off the resume.” But I also think there’s a real chance this company becomes something big, and I’d rather be part of the version of this industry that respects privacy and actually helps people. Not to mention, if it goes even 10% of where I think it could, the money would be fantastic.

Still, holy shit.

The pressure is very real right now. I’m trying to stay optimistic, keep my head down, and just work the problem, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t frazzled. Needed to vent somewhere and not down a full handle of vodka. May still go grab a pint tho.

I’m in B2B startup sales and could use a gut check.
I’m one of the newer reps on a really small team - 4 people. I’ve been here about 4.5 months. The newest rep has been here about 6 weeks.

Our quota/expectation was previously around $250k per quarter. Now, in a group text, management said we need a pipeline of secure closes at about $200k per rep per month, apparently based on what the main investor wants.

One coworker pointed oht that the number is going to be very tough because the pipeline just isn’t there yet. A lot of what we’re working is still early-stage, and some of our prospects are schools, which are not exactly quick-close accounts. They also pointed out that I’m only 4.5 months in and the newest rep is 6 weeks in, and that’s… 50% of our sales team.

Then the manager responded with this:

“I closed my largest deal in less than 4 months when I came on. I work 10 plus hours a day and many days more. I have yet in my career to take more than a week off. I’m not in any way saying we don’t deserve time off. We have to understand we are a startup with limited funds and have to find quick ways to close.”

I get startup pressure. I get that we need revenue. I’m not allergic to working hard, and I’m doing everything I can to build my fuckin pipeline. But this feels like a pretty huge jump, especially when half the team is new, the sales cycle is not instant, and a lot of accounts are not quoted or close-ready yet.

Is this normal startup sales pressure, or does this sound like leadership/investor expectations are disconnected from reality? There’s no way I’m hitting 200k a month as of yet, and we have zero SDRs, I’m literally making like 75-100 cold calls a day. Trying not to panic, but…

The title says it all. I’m at a conference where every single attendee here is likely a relevant buyer of mine, but absolutely no booths are buyers and I don’t have a booth myself. I’m here as an attendee. It was about 45 minutes from my house and the ticket was relatively cheap so my company figured why not, just send me. That being said I’m fighting for my fucking life here, has anybody found success in this situation before? Do I just sit in the lobby and complement people shirts until they talk to me?

Woof, just feeling really frustrated. My wife has had an issue with lying for the past few years, about things both really big and *really* small. We've had a lot of conversations about trust, and how it starts to erode our relationship. After a lot of talking, we agreed that she was scared of some confrontation because of how she grew up - I have asked if I can handle things any better, if I am "scary" to her, if there's anything I can do to open up the roads of communication. It's always basically "keep being kind, we will work as a team, we got this."

But recently she has just been lying so much, and it's clear to me I only catch some of it. Well, per the title - she has been coming home from dance smelling like cigarettes. We've been together for 10 years now, and originally she quit 10 years ago, knowing how I feel about them (not only really gross, I know multiple people who were important to me that died of lung cancer from smoking).

I kept asking her if she was smoking, and she kept insisting she wasn't. I made it clear that I wouldn't be mad, but to please be honest with me, as that's what's most important, and she swore up and down that she was not smoking cigs. Lastnight I went to go pick up dinner, and when I got home I used the restroom. It smelled like mint in there, the mouthwash was moved, and the sink was wet, which frankly I don't really care about? I offhandedly asked her why she brushed her teeth right before eating, and she said "I didn't brush my teeth."

I was like...what the fuck are you talking about? I smell it, I see it, your toothbrush is wet, why lie about this? We had a long conversation, and yeah, she admitted she started smoking 2 years ago, right around when we started planning our wedding. She's been hiding it from me this entire time. I was really hurt by this - the smoking is one thing, but to be lied to that long and consistently, after so many conversations about how important trust is to me, is a whole other thing.

I basically said look, we can go to couples therapy, I want to work on this, but for right now, I cannot trust a single thing that comes out of your mouth. This isn't a "choice" I'm making, I wish I could trust you, but I am mentally incapable of believing most any single thing you say at this point. I explained that it's completely destroying my faith in our relationship, and that serious talks about our future had to start happening since the constant lying just won't stop. She swore she would stop lying, but... she's said the exact same thing 15-20 times now. Like I said, between absolutely huge things like smoking, or how much she's had to drink, to the tiniest things like whether she picked up a cake pop at Starbucks or brushed her teeth.

I am worried that I am part of the problem, or that I make it hard to talk to me or something like that? At the same time, I feel like even if that's the case, being in a marriage is about being there for the harder moments as well, and putting in the work to be vulnerable with each other. So yeah - I said if this doesn't change soon, like really soon, there's a chance we have to talk about what our future actually looks like. AIO?

Mainly the title. Last year (and previous years) I was auditioning in LA for shows, movies, activated events, etc. It’s not like it was booming, but there was still some work to be had, and I booked some fun streamer shows.

Now it’s just…awful. I’ve had ONE audition from agent/manager in 2 whole months, and it was for a vertical. Damn near ready to ask for a submit report. I know it’s slow for everyone, and obviously there are other ways to engage with my practice…but shit. It’s just so depressing these days, and I can’t afford class right now either. Hard to “feel” like an actor right now - going out of town for several weddings this year so what little theatre there is in LA is also out for me.

Just venting I suppose. Hope you’re all well, gotta keep the chin up.

Very pleasantly surprised by how much I'm enjoying Mario & Luigi Brothership. I had heard overwhelmingly mediocre to bad things about the game, and put it off for awhile. Recently I was craving a more lighthearted JRPG experience, so I picked it up, and I'm obviously really glad I did.

The combat is just such a blast, and it's a masterclass in animation. Just watching the moves is fun alone lmao, and then adding in the classic real-time button reactions keeps it engaging. I guess everyone dislike the pacing, but...it's about what I'd expect? I've never really played these games for their mind-blowing writing, and this is about right on par with where I usually anticipate Nintendo games being. Yes, it takes a second to get the hammer, and things definitely pick up as you go, but I personally found the opening hours enjoyable as well.

Mainly just...caught off guard by how negative the feedback seemed compared to the quality of the game I've been playing. I'm happy I finally gave it a chance, personally speaking I was missing out on a really fun time. Curious if I just hada bad memory of what the reviews were like, or if it still has a bad rep?

Title, baby.

Far Far West recently released into early access. It's a PvE shooter, very similar to Deep Rock Galactic X Helldivers 2. Runs extremely well on the deck (other than aiming being alittle bit tricky, I do wish the aim assist were slightly stickier), and it's an absolute blast to play. Gets crazy chaotic, and is great with friends. Really recommend scoping it out, I'm having too much fuckin fun with it.