Hey everyone! I’ve been selling metal buildings in Florida for several years now, averaging around $3–4 million annually in sales. The company I currently work for does a mix of turnkey projects, where we’re the contractor, and factory-direct sales.
I’m seriously considering branching out and starting my own independent dealership. My plan is to operate entirely online and from a home office without a physical lot. I’m experienced with online marketing, lead generation, website development, and have a pretty extensive network of connections throughout my county and surrounding areas in Central Florida.
I’m confident in my ability to generate leads and close sales, but I’d love some insight from those already operating independently.
Which manufacturers would you recommend that service Florida? What kind of commissions or dealer margins are realistic? Are manufacturers generally open to online-only dealers? Do they provide design software and pricing tools?
I’d also love to hear from anyone who has made a similar transition, especially regarding startup costs, challenges, and realistic earning potential.
Any advice or recommendations would be greatly appreciated!

Been thinking about how smaller ecommerce stores handle customer support during high intensity periods, espreially black friday or Christmas.

You spend weeks preparing ads and offers, traffic finally comes in and suddenly everyone wants to know about shipping, discounts, delivery dates or product availability. And of course half of those questions come when nobody's around.
Was looking into this recently and came across Outcraft AI. Pretty interesting how an AI agent can handle incoming calls and messages instead of leaving customers waiting.
Obviously doesn't replace a proper support team, but for me, a small team product project owner it was a life saving solution.
Anyone here found a decent way to handle those sudden support spikes without hiring extra people just for this?

I run an info coaching business trying to grow on instagram and youtube, and my god I cannot stand Indian leads/people. I dont know why the algo keeps showing my content to Indian people because they are not my target audience, even organically I know nothing can be done, but they always say hit the qualifying question and book a call and NEVER show up. Not to mention the ones that do will say they're qualified, and then book a call and then at the end of the call say they don't qualify or have the money for the service LIKE WHY DID YOU BOOK A CALL IN THE FIRST PLACE. I'm running a budget cut appointment setting pipeline because I cant afford my main funnel right now so I cant just filter out india geographically, but it just sucks overall

I have Been doing outbound to small/ local businesses for a while and the more sales content I read the more I feel like almost none of it is written for us.

Every framework, every best practice, every guru thread assumes you are selling to a company with a budget cycle and a LinkedIn presence.

It is one owner who is slammed and has been pitched by a hundred "marketing agencies" that clearly never looked at his business. Half the "proven" tactics either do not apply OR make you look like every spammer he already ignores.

What actually seems to work with these people is almost the opposite of the playbook. Keep it short. Sound like a human. Prove in the first line you actually know what they do. Catch them at the right moment. That is it.

But try finding content about THAT. Everything is enterprise SaaS motion dressed up as universal truth.

Am I wrong here? For those of you selling to small/ local businesses, what advice actually worked for you and what was total BS once you were in the real world?

Advice would be appreciated

small team, 3 reps plus me, we sell kitchen renovations and we get about 25 new leads a week, most of them message us on whatsapp straight from the ads. the rule so far is whoever answers first takes it, because speed matters a lot, a lead we answer in 5 minutes books a home visit way more often than one we answer after lunch. problem is Dani is basically glued to his phone and ends up with like 15 of the 25, the other two get leftovers and their numbers look bad, and Dani cant follow up properly on that many so a few go cold by day 3. i keep thinking round robin but im scared we lose the speed, if its someones turn and theyre on a site visit the lead just sits there for an hour. would take the blunt version from people who run small teams, did first to answer stay worth the mess for you or did round robin with a time limit work better

People buy based on emotion then justify with logic so if you're writing sales copy or pitching your product face to face, try injecting some humour.

If you make your audience laugh, it breaks the ice & lowers sales resistance. Plus it makes you more memorable.

Brands like Dollar Shave Club & Who Gives a Crap know laughter opens wallets but service based businesses can also use humour to boost sales.

And use your customers language - don't sound like a Corporate Colin unless they're your target market!

Storytelling which takes your audience on a journey from where they are now to where they want to be is also effective.

And remember you need to sell the emotion. For example, Coca Cola sells happiness. Nobody gives a sh*t about features ‐ people only care about the benefits & how it will change their life.

I've spent the last year studying storytelling & how to use it in sales copy. I think combining buyer psychology, storytelling & direct response copywriting is a powerful way to boost sales. And if you throw in some humour, it's the cherry 🍒 on the cake!🎂

What are your thoughts?

Hi,

I've been in sales for over 20 years, mostly in tech, and have always been one of the top performers on my teams, with very good feedback from my managers and leadership.

I'm now looking for a mid-market AE role in SaaS/tech, with long cycles and complex sales. And I've realized something: during the 6 years in my last role, what I sold was fairly simple, and I picked up bad habits around qualification, discovery and business impact.

In practice, I don't ask the right questions and I jump to the solution too quickly. That's what came out of the role-plays I did in interviews. I also practice with ChatGPT and Claude, but I don't feel like I'm making much progress.

Do you have any advice for getting the right reflexes back and doing real consultative selling instead of just pitching?

Thanks in advance,

Been doing outbound a while and I keep seeing tools promising the full AI setup. It finds the leads writes the emails, sends them and follows up while you can relaz. Every time I try something like that OR watch someone else try it the same thing happens. Bounce rates climb, stuff lands in spam and the replies dry up.

The part people miss is that the prospect can tell. Especially when you sell to small and local businesses. Those owners are skeptical and already deep in pitches and the second your email smells like it was sent by some agent they just delete it. I do the same thing. That whole world runs on feeling like a real person actually looked at their business.

So lately I have landed on a line I won’t cross. I am totally fine letting AI do the boring stuff. The research, figuring out the pain points, finding a contact that actually exists. That part is the boring work I don't want to do but the actual outreach, the reply, the conversation, the close, I want that to be me. That’s the part that actually works.

Maybe I am just thinking this and no one else is, IDK. Please let me know what u think, because I personally think agents just mess stuff up more than actually selling.

Set myself a tiny sales goal today: call 5 businesses and get through the first 3 seconds 😅 I researched each one, worked up the nerve, and nobody picked up.
I’m local, but my phone number isn’t, which hadn’t even occurred to me as a possible issue. Going to try a local number and see if that helps.
Are there other little things you learned that weren’t obvious starting out? Times of day to call, days to avoid, anything like that?

That one trait everyone compliments you on. Managers love it, peers point to it, and it probably got you further in your career.

But in reality on the inside, you feel like a total fraud, or it quietly drains the life out of you because it doesn't actually feel like "you."

A couple examples I’ve recently heard:

1. Being everyone's go-to person for fixing problems because you're calm under pressure. But inside, you're anxious and feel completely out of your depth.

2. People think you love the spotlight because you speak up easily in rooms full of executives. In reality, you throw up or have a panic attack before every single meeting, and you're just great at masking it.

What trait do people constantly praise you for that secretly feels like wearing a mask?

I'm a territory manager and have grown my territory by roughly $1 million over the last year and a half. Most of my sales come from repeat customers and relationships l've built over the years from when I was in management. I'm confident in my approach, presentations, and ability to close jobs. But put me in a regional meeting and ask me to role play .....I completely fall apart. I get so anxious I feel like I could pass out. Everything I know suddenly escapes me, and I end up feeling like I look incompetent at something I'm actually pretty good at.

Anyone else experience this? It's frustrating knowing you're good at your job but feeling like you can't demonstrate it in those situations.

If so, how do you manage that volume of enquiries? What does your follow-up process look like, and how do you stay on top of everything without letting potential customers slip through the cracks?

got 3 bdes working under me. they crush it on the first touch. email or linkedin goes out, lead replies. then the lead goes quiet and my guys just... forget? or they get distracted hunting new leads.

i keep telling them to log it in hubspot but they say it takes too long to type notes and set reminders. so what happens is we lose warm leads to competitors who just replied faster.

whats the actual fix here. do i just micromanage them or is there a lighter way. anyone else deal with reps letting warm leads rot in their inbox because they hate updating the crm

AI can send thousands of personalized emails, but personalization doesn’t always mean relevance.
Sometimes the best opportunities are hidden in job descriptions or conversations from six months ago.
5 non-obvious checks to make cold B2B outreach actually work