How The Tech Sales Guy Made a 6-Figure Side Income

Good Morning. It's National Email Day. Today, we celebrate the tool that’s been allowing us to send "just following up" messages that nobody reads for years. Fun fact: the first cold email ever sent went out in 1978 by a marketing manager at Digital Equipment Corp., who blasted 400 people about a new line of computers. Somewhere today, a sales rep is writing their 14th "just bumping this" email to the same prospect who stopped responding 2 months ago. Some things never change. Now, let's get into today's Follow Up. (:

Park the objection for later 🗣
New apps that every sales team needs 👀
My interview with an anonymous sales influencer 🤑
Blue collar vs tech sales 🛠
Sales jobs & a meme 😂

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Sales Tip of The Day 💡

When a prospect throws out a big objection early in the call, park it before you answer.

❌ "Great question, let me walk you through how we handle that."
✅ "That's an important one. Can I come back to it in a few minutes once you've seen a bit more? I want to make sure my answer makes sense."

Setting it aside for later in the conversation tells the prospect you take the concern seriously enough to answer it properly, and it buys you the runway to build the context that makes your answer hit better.

13 Essential Apps for HubSpot

There’s no magic wand in sales, but the right tools come close.

The Essential Apps for Sales collection features 13 easy to use apps that, paired with HubSpot, make selling easier, decisions smarter, and wins more repeatable.

Explore the list in the HubSpot Marketplace.

Browse the apps 👉

How @TechSalesGuy Made a 6-Figure Side Income Without Showing His Face

There's an anonymous account on X called @TechSalesGuy with over 18,500 followers.

Nobody knows his real name. Nobody knows where he works. But if you spend any time in sales Twitter, you've definintly seen his content.

He covers cold email templates, pipeline frameworks, coaching tips, and of course, the occasional meme about the absurdity of a sales career.

He also happens to have made $120K from the account, entirely outside of his day job.

I sat down with him to talk about how he built it, where the money actually comes from, and what he'd tell reps thinking about doing the same thing.

So… outside of running this anonymous X account, what do you actually do for a living?

❝

I lead partnerships for early-stage tech companies, which basically means I identify other businesses, resellers, and integrators that can help sell or distribute our product and work with them to generate revenue. On the side, I run Tech Sales Guy on X, where I share sales tips, stories, and help companies.

How did all of this start?

❝

I started it in 2022 because I wanted the freedom to write without looking over my shoulder. My goal was to post something every day, and I knew over time my writing would improve. It did.

Eventually, I started taking some of the stuff that performed well on X and posting it on LinkedIn, but people accused me of plagiarizing my own content they saw on X. So I shut that down pretty quick.

It’s working now… so why stay anonymous?

❝

Being anonymous lets me say things without looking over my shoulder at my W2.

When your name is attached, you start writing for your boss, your clients, or the prospect you're mid-deal with. You soften everything. Anonymous means the content has to stand on its own, and nobody's reading it because of who I am.

Obviously, your content is good, but were there any hacks to grow your following?

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@TechSalesGuy: The thing nobody talks about is how much early growth comes from the comments, not your own posts. I was spending as much time engaging with other people in the sales niche as I was creating.

Some of those comments turned into posts, and some of those people started reciprocating. That's how you build before the algorithm gives you anything.

The likes and views are great… But let's talk about the $120K you’ve made from this account. Where does that money actually come from?

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@TechSalesGuy: About 60% came from consulting with startup founders. It started with people DMing me on Twitter wanting to see if I could help them grow their outbound sales or partner channel. I converted a few of these into monthly retainers and hourly projects.

Over the last couple of years, I've worked with ten or more startups on everything from cold email templates to hiring and training reps to building partner channels to coaching managers.

Then, once I got to around 10,000 followers, brands started reaching out asking about content partnerships. I've done some featured posts for companies I use and like, but most of them I direct to my newsletter and give them an ad placement there. About 30% of the revenue comes from that.

The last 10% is affiliate deals. Companies give me a custom link, and when someone purchases using it, I get a kickback.

What was the first dollar you ever made from the account?

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The first dollar I made "consulting" was actually from Upwork, helping a founder with a cold email sequence. I wrote about it on Twitter and had two people DM me asking if I could do the same for them. I charged $1,000 and it took me five hours to finish.

$200 an hour to write cold emails. Not a bad side gig, ehh?

Has the account helped your actual sales career?

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For sure. Writing on Twitter has given me access to people I would have otherwise never been able to get in front of.

I've connected with founders of Fortune 500 companies, received job offers, closed deals, and been invited to some incredible golf courses.

That last one is a personal favorite.

What's the hardest part that nobody talks about?

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Most people underestimate how much time this actually takes, especially when you're starting. A couple hours a week minimum on Twitter content, another hour or two on the newsletter, an hour on ideas and systems.

All on top of a full-time job.

If you had to start over tomorrow with 0 followers, what would you do differently?

❝

Build community before you build content.

Find accounts bigger than yours and leave thoughtful comments. You'll get more traction living in someone else's comments than posting from a zero-follower account. Eventually those comments become posts of your own and those people start reciprocating.

The other thing is stories. Tactical content works, but tactical content wrapped around a real moment, something funny, something honest, is much more enjoyable to read or watch.

What would you tell a sales rep thinking about building a brand on the side?

❝

Don't expect to make a dollar in year one.

The first year is about building the habit and learning what types of content to produce. Pick your platform depending on where your audience is present. That could be LinkedIn, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, or even Pinterest.