How To Start Hot, Ball Up Top, Burnout Central, Think Like an AE, & Breaking Out of 9-5

Welcome to The Pipeline Press, brought to you by Pipeline Papi, Lindy Boy, Quota Cowboy, Rookie Rep, & Ant Calabrese. Every Friday, you’re getting stories, tips, job openings, and a little lifestyle drip to keep the edge sharp and the mission clear. PROMOTION, QUOTA, EARNINGS. Follow us on X if you aren’t already, we are all very active in the tech sales space if you want to continue the convo or have any questions.

Let’s get into it.

New quarter, new leaderboard, same goal: hit the ground running and DOMINATE early.

At my company, we’ve got about 30 SDRs. And in the first half of the first month, I’ve jumped right to the top of the board. Here’s how I do it.

Step 1: Scrub Your Book

Before you start banging phones and blasting emails, you need to know what you’re working with. We call this scrubbing your book. Let’s say you get 1,000 accounts per book, maybe two or tree books total, and you do a quick dive. Check the websites. Are these businesses legit? Are the links working? What verticals are they in? Figure out what’s workable and what’s not. Then organize them by segment: e-commerce, SaaS, healthcare, whatever fits your ICP.

I stayed up until 10PM each night of the first week getting my book ready before everyone else. Now I can do mass outreach while everyone else is still getting organized.

Step 2: Find the Low-Hanging Fruit

Now that you know what’s in your book, it’s time to find the easy wins. I run two key Salesforce reports:

Past Connected: Who did we talk to in the last 3, 6, or 12 months? Anyone who said “call me next quarter” is now fair game.

Closed Lost: Check the closed lost deals. Any reason we can resurrect them this quarter? That’s your comeback list.

Step 3: Customize Your Outreach

Once you’ve got your segments and low-hanging fruit identified, build your cadences. I throw a LinkedIn connection first so they see my face and know I’m a charming young man. Then I load them into SalesLoft with tailored outreach. Check old email threads, see if there’s context you can leverage, and hit them with a personalized angle.

Easy to get 5-10 quick wins here and build momentum for the rest of the quarter.

Another day, another dollar…but more importantly, another shot to win.

Lately I've been locked in on my energy: what I consume, what I think, what I say, and what I let be said to me.

I'm not a "new year's resolution" guy, but goals matter. This year? Cutting out negative noise. Period.

That means:

No trash talk with coworkers when things go sideways Biting my tongue instead of venting about life to my partner Flipping "why me?" into "why not me?"

Look: the 9-5 has been brutal lately. Layoffs. Positions axed. Revenue targets missed. It's easy to spiral. I've seen it. Hell, I still catch myself doing it.

But I keep coming back to this: nobody gives a sh*t, just work harder.

My grandfather had polio and dug ditches for the water company for 40 years. Imagine him watching his grandson whine about a cushy software gig. Nah. Despicable.

So here's the mindset I'm encouraging all of you to adopt:

Ball up top. 🏀

VP of Sales fired? Ball up top. BDR manager gone? Ball up top. New boss tearing everything apart? Ball up top.

It's like giving up a bucket 1-on-1 – you don't quit. Ball up top. Game keeps going. As long as you're in the arena, the ball's getting inbounded.

Wife nagging? Ball up top. (Love you though, babe 😘) Dishes, lawn, trash piling up? Ball up top.

And so on.

We're about to have one HELLUVA Friday. 🔥 Week ain't over. Job ain't finished.

We grind while they rest. We eat while they sleep. We never say die when the odds are stacked against us.

Ball up top, mf'er.

PS: Reviving the GTM Mafia X chat. Sales and GTM alpha ONLY. Slide in the DMs if you want in. Let's get it.

Thank the absolute LORD it is Friday, everyone. I don’t know why but this week went by unusually long, could just be me but holy cow I am tired.

So, we’ll discuss what it’s like going through burnout this week since it seems to fit my current vibe. I’ve been grinding since start of the new year, and I’m very happy I did because I am very close to my quota halfway through this month.

With that comes the draw back of being a little bit burned. It’s common in these types of roles: we face constant rejection and uncertainty and are paid to make things happen. Us BDR’s aren’t the only ones, though, AE’s are also making it happen and actually closing deals. That’s not in our job title, but most of us sure want it to be.

Which leads me to believe that the burnout sensation comes down to two factors: constant action (in the form of cold calls) and desiring to be an AE ourselves. We make damn good money for being cold callers, but we desire for more. We don’t necessarily have the skill or experience of closing a deal ourselves, but we know that we can learn to. How else did those before us learn? They got their shot.

Having patience and waiting your turn I feel like is such a tough aspect of being in Tech right now. The patience is worth it in the end, but we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t want it now!

I myself am coming to a point where I am really excited and have a huge desire to be an AE. As a sales person it’s tough not being the one to see the close through, and I really believe that’s the worst part of being in a burnout state. These feelings we feel even more so than a typical day.

Let’s use this as a reminder that when are feeling burnt out, we can’t listen to the voice in our head showing us the door. Our patience and skill-building is paying off, but we aren’t always going to get what we went when we want.

A tip to help with burnout and general boredom: ask your AE if you can be more involved in a deal by taking the grunt work. Be willing to learn the true in’s and out’s of their job so you continuously prove yourself that you are ready for the next step. That way when the opportunity presents itself, you are more than ready.

I’m gonna smack back some Pacifico’s tonight and probably watch some dope Orca documentary and really just unwind for the weekend. I’d recommend if you feel similar to do the same!

-QC

Good to be back this week. I had a great holiday break, but was itching to get back.

One of the main goals this year is to get promoted to Account Executive (AE). The past year was a great year. SDR role has been going really well, crushed quota every quarter, and really starting to think about career progression.

With that said, as an SDR you need to be able to position yourself in the right spot to be able to make that jump. There are a lot of overlapping skills between SDRs & AEs, but AEs need to have other skills as well.

So if you are like me, and wanting to own the full sales cycle you need to start thinking like an AE way before you ever are one.

Why? Because you need to be able to showcase that you can do the job of AE, think like an AE, and operate like an AE.

How you do that:

These meetings have genuine curiosity from the prospect, there are some buying signals, and there is some level of pain (the more urgent the better).

If you are not sure if your meeting hits that criteria, then do more of the discovery yourself as an SDR. That is the quickest way to finetune your skills to become an AE. Learn how to disqualify as well.

The better meetings you bring to your AE the more likely they are to vouch for you also. Think quality over quantity. You don’t want to be filling up your AEs calendar with shitty meetings that don’t ever go anywhere, no clear reason on why you are meeting, and waste everyone’s time.

Learn how to vet opportunities, do more discovery, and bring high quality opportunities to your team. That is the quickest way to showcase that you can do the job of an AE.

Until next week.

Rook ♜
X: @rooktorep

A few months ago, I was just doing my thing in sales. Showing up, running calls, thinking about quota, clocking out mentally the second the day ended.

Fast forward to now, and I’m in a completely different headspace.

We started Chainbreaker Consulting not that long ago, and watching it grow has been one of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had professionally. Not just because of the results—but because it’s mine. Something I’m actually building.

And that changes how you show up every single day.

What’s wild is how fast things can move when you put yourself out there. Building a personal brand, sharing what you’re learning, talking openly about your process—it compounds way quicker than people think. One conversation turns into another. One post turns into a DM. One opportunity opens five more doors.

All of a sudden, something that started as an idea starts to feel real.

The biggest shift for me hasn’t even been financial—it’s been mental.

I used to wake up stressed about quota. Even on “good” days, it was always in the back of my mind. Hit the number, reset, do it all over again next month. It’s not that sales is bad—it’s just transactional. You sell something, pass it off, and move on.

Now? I wake up genuinely excited.

I’m not thinking about quota at all. I’m thinking about how to improve our systems, how to deliver better results for clients, how to sharpen my skills, how to build something sustainable. I’m obsessed—in the best way.

And when we help a client win, it feels different. It’s not “I sold this.” It’s “we built this, and it worked.” You actually feel the impact you’re having on someone else’s business. That sense of ownership hits way harder than any commission check ever did.

It’s also pushed me in ways I didn’t expect.

I want to work harder. I want to learn faster. I want to stay up later, wake up earlier, and figure things out that I never had to think about before. Sales, delivery, operations, client experience—there’s no hiding. Everything is your responsibility.

And honestly, that’s what makes it fun.

Providing excellent service becomes non-negotiable. Your name is attached to everything. If someone wins, it’s on you. If something breaks, it’s on you. There’s pressure—but it’s the good kind. The kind that sharpens you instead of draining you.

What’s funny is how your priorities shift when you’re building something you actually care about.

The gym has always been a huge part of my life, and it still matters—but right now, this is just consuming me. I’m working longer hours than I ever have. Most days, I’m in front of my computer or thinking about the business in some capacity from morning to night.

I have way less “free time.” I’m doing way less mindless stuff. And somehow… I’m having way more fun.

It doesn’t feel like sacrifice. It feels like momentum.

I’m not even thinking about money, honestly. That part almost feels secondary. The real drive is growth—seeing something improve, watching skills compound, and knowing you’re laying bricks for something bigger.

That’s the part people don’t talk about enough.

When you build something of your own—whether it’s a business, a brand, a product, whatever—it gives you purpose. Real purpose. You stop needing motivation. You stop needing external pressure. You just want to show up.

So if you’ve ever thought about building something—anything—I can’t recommend it enough. You don’t need to have it all figured out. You just need to start and be willing to learn in public, make mistakes, and keep going.

It’s challenging. It’s demanding. It’s consuming.

And it’s been one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done.

I’m excited for what’s coming over the next few months, and I’m going to keep pouring everything I’ve got into this. Brick by brick.

If nothing else, let this be a reminder: when you build something you believe in, work stops feeling like work—and starts feeling like progress.

Currently Hiring For

SDRs:

NYC - new grad top 150 school 60 base 90 ote uncapped and commission
NYC - 1 YOE strong preference in fintech - 110 base 130 k ote uncapped

SF - new grad top 50 school 80 base 100 ote
SF - new grad top 25 school or athlete or somewhere in the middle 80 base 135 ote

Main Companies: Office Hours, Meow, Solidroad, Simple AI, Vapi

AEs:

Sf/nyc - comm-midmarket-enterprise aes min 2 yoe as a direct seller at snowflake / figma / vercel type companies (technical product sales)

100-200 base 200-400 ote depending on segment being worked and Yoe.

Main companies: dust.tt, factory.ai, decagon, sequence, unify

Reach out to him HERE on X if you fit any of these descriptions

P.S. The Pipeline Papi SDR Bot is live. Your SDR copilot for custom cold call scripts, objection handlers, discovery questions and more, for EVERY Prospect. Built to make booking meets 10x easier.