“Make a customer, not a sale” - Katherine Barchetti
I'm only a year into running deals, so take this with a grain of salt.
But I've run hundreds of disco calls, closed hundreds of thousands of dollars, sat next to Eric while he closed huge logos, been coached by Chris Caldwell, and talked with lots of killer AEs/leaders through Modern GTM + Origami (it’s a sales product).
Here's a few things that separates the best from everyone else:
1. Ruthless prioritization
You can't give equal energy to every deal. The best AEs ruthlessly tier their pipeline: hot deals that are close to a decision get the resources, warm deals get check-ins, cold deals get put on ice with a positive note to revisit later.
The name of the game is working the best deals available.
2. Compliments don’t pay rent
People don't buy because they like you. They buy because they trust you understand their problem and believe you can solve it.
Great AEs ask the hard questions:
- Is this really the right time for you?
- Do you actually have the resources to implement it?
- Why are you so sure your past attempts to solve won’t work?
They're willing to walk away if it doesn't make sense. Because if it's a bad fit, it'll either fall through later or blow up post-sale and cause churn. The truth is the truth. Great AEs optimize for truth.
3. Disco calls are for qualification
The best AEs aren't optimizing for a fun, friendly first call. They're optimizing for:
- Understanding where you’re at + what your problems are
- Understanding where you want to go
- Understanding your ability to take action
- Seeing how the product fits
- The best AEs are not optimizing for the most fun, friendly, first in short call.
- Understanding where you are at, and what your problems are
- Understanding where you want to go
- Seeing how the product fits in
- Understanding your ability to take action to solve that problem.
They are optimizing for:
4. Play the long game
If you don't have a good reason to drive urgency, don't drive urgency.
You come across as salesy when you try to sell a solution to a problem you don't know exists. Instead, if somebody doesn't have a problem right now, just build a relationship by being helpful. When they do have a problem, trust they'll come to you. And have systems to stay top of mind without being bothersome.
Now of course, if there's real urgency or a clear problem, they are not afraid to call it out + explain why. But the point isL they don’t force a round peg in a square hole. Quota breath doesn't close deals. Being genuinely useful, honest, and truth-based is what drives trust and (subsequently) closes deals.
5. A pleasant experience
Not everything is robotic process. There's a reason people want to buy from people—part of it is having an enjoyable buying process.
You do the heavy lifting to help them make a smart decision. You figure out what they need, how you fit in, and present easy materials they can share with their team.
Another part is just making it fun. When someone hops on a call and knows they'll leave energized and clear without doing work between meetings, they want to continue the process.
One thing I've seen Eric do incredibly well: throwing in timely, skillful jokes. You're going to have uncomfortable moments—money questions, hard truths. A well-timed joke calls out the elephant while addressing it without making it a bigger deal than it is. At the end of the day, people are people. These purchasing decisions are big relative to someone's career. Making them feel safe to share the truth and have difficult conversations lets you drive for information and help them make a smart decision.
Not everything is just this robotic process. There's a reason people want to buy from people, and
6. Handle the dirty work
Great reps do the dirty work. People aren't spending any time thinking about your solution outside of calls with you. But there's a ton of work needed between meetings to move deals forward:
- Sharing collateral their team can use
- Custom ROI or implementation plans
- Chatting with your product team about what's possible
- Thinking through how this applies to their specific business
- Follow-up emails, prep emails, quick 0.5 check-ins
Nobody is thinking about your stuff. Expecting them to do work is setting yourself up for failure. The best reps make the buying process incredibly easy. Easy to understand what they're getting, what the problem is, and what the trade-offs are. And they drive toward commitment - make a decision or decide it's not the right time.
7. Run 0.5 meetings
These are quick 10-15 minute calls between the big meetings. You check in with your champion after their internal meeting to see how it went. This keeps you aligned to the truth of where the organization is at so you don't come into the next call with a POV or timeline that's way off base.
8. Text-first relationships
Being text-first makes it orders of magnitude easier to build trust and get information quickly. Great sellers seamlessly get someone's phone number without it feeling forced and build stronger relationships via text. It just doesn't compare to email.
9. Religious about the basics.
- Book specific next steps after every call
- Send timely, no-BS follow-up emails
- Get all qualification info on discovery calls
- Prep before every call with a relevant POV, agenda, and ideal next steps
- Etc, etc
Your deal's success depends on how well you hit the basics leading up to the final decision. The last thing you want is to learn new information after they decide. Great reps prevent that by being religious about fundamentals.
10. Sniff for landmines early
Lots of things blow up deals: lack of time, lack of resources, no aligned business priorities, leadership changes. Great AEs hunt for these early. Nothing worse than learning about a deal-killer after three calls.
Again, it's about working the best deals available.
11. Tight feedback loops
Each deal is different, so it's hard to stay consistent. But fundamentals are what win deals and build pipeline.
We use Claude to review our calls and give feedback on our process. Huge for iterating and building intuition for what great calls look like.
12. They make you feel safe
Great AEs help their prospects feel safe to share the truth - their real situation, fears, and constraints.
They do this by being vulnerable first. They share their own motivations and set expectations upfront.
For example, a friend walked into a $500k decision meeting and opened with: "Look, you guys know closing this deal would be huge for me - potentially a promotion on top of commission. I want you to know that matters to me, but what matters more is making sure you make the right decision."
When you lead with honest vulnerability, your prospects feel safe to be honest back. They share their full situation knowing they won't get screwed over for it. The truth emerges.
And when all the information is on the table, you can actually help them make the right buying decision with the correct information.
- L
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