The Pitch Rep Loop
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 7
- Confidence
- —
Alex argues that selling and storytelling are the same skill — if something reads as selling, it is simply bad storytelling — and that the skill is learnable rather than innate. His method has three components run together: study the fundamentals (the tried-and-true story arcs that have always captivated people), accumulate raw reps, and close the loop with structured feedback. He built this out of necessity, pitching roughly 250 advertisers on thirty-minute calls in Morning Brew's first year with no prior professional sales experience. After every pitch he spent five to ten minutes writing what went well and the single thing he would change next time, and he recorded every call. He then extended the same loop to junior hires through shadow-then-handoff, and points at call-library software as the industrialised version of the same mechanism.
Origin
Extracted from Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal
How to run it
- 1
Study the formulas before you improvise
There is a science to storytelling. Learn the classic arcs — a hero on a journey meets a challenge, goes through adversity, overcomes it and reaches the goal — by studying the best storytellers of all time and the structures they reuse.
Pro tip Reverse-engineer a story you loved: name the arc it used before you try to write your own.
- 2
Manufacture volume of reps
Skill comes from quantity of live attempts, not preparation. Alex's first year meant roughly 250 advertiser pitches on thirty-minute calls covering who the company was, what it stood for, and why spending money with them was worth the prospect's time.
Watch out Expect the first, second and twentieth attempt to be genuinely bad. That is the cost of entry, not a verdict on your ability.
- 3
Run a five-to-ten minute reflection immediately after
Right after each pitch, write down what you think you did well and — crucially — one single thing you would change for the next one. One change per rep keeps the adjustment loop tight enough to actually execute.
Pro tip One change, not five. A list of five improvements gets implemented as zero.
- 4
Record every attempt and listen back
Recording removes reliance on memory, which flatters you. Listening to yourself deliver a pitch for the first time is excruciating, and that discomfort is exactly the information you were missing.
Watch out Most people skip this step because of the cringe, which is precisely why it stays a differentiator.
- 5
Shadow, then hand off the reins
When onboarding someone new, do the pitch yourself while they listen and absorb for a few weeks. Then gradually hand over until they are running it, recording each one.
Pro tip Set the handover as a gradient, not a switch — they take one section of the call at a time.
- 6
Review the recording together and feed it forward
Listen back to their call with them, give specific feedback, and hold them to using that feedback on the very next call. The loop only compounds if the note gets applied immediately.
- 7
Build a library of what actually converts
At scale this becomes a searchable database of calls organised by seller and client type, with talk-time ratios and topic segmentation, so any new seller can study the calls that led to conversions rather than guessing.
Pro tip Even without software, keep a shared folder of your three best and three worst calls with a one-line note on why.
In the wild
Morning Brew had 30,000 subscribers, no revenue, and needed advertisers to survive. Alex had never sold anything in a professional setting, so he pitched roughly 250 advertisers in the first year on thirty-minute calls, explaining who Morning Brew was, what it stood for, and why the spend was worth it against the buyer's goals. He recorded every call and spent five to ten minutes afterwards writing what worked plus one change for next time. He was pitching large financial institutions on why a 30,000-person newsletter deserved attention over a television commercial reaching millions.
→ Advertising became the company's first revenue line, and selling became the skill Alex credits above all others as a founder.
When junior salespeople joined, Alex sat in on their early calls. For the first few weeks he ran the pitch himself while they listened and absorbed it. Then he gradually handed over the reins until they were leading, recording each call and listening back to it together afterwards. He gave feedback on the recording, and expected that specific feedback to be visible in the next call. New sellers therefore inherited a working pitch and a feedback habit at the same time.
→ A repeatable ramp for new sales hires instead of learning by unsupervised trial and error.
Common mistakes
Treating selling as separate from storytelling
If a pitch feels like being sold to, the problem is not that you sold — it is that the story was weak. Working on 'sales technique' while ignoring narrative structure fixes the wrong layer.
Skipping the recording because it is uncomfortable
Listening to yourself pitch for the first time is genuinely painful, so almost nobody does it. Without the recording, your reflection is based on a flattering memory rather than what the prospect actually heard.
Waiting to feel ready before pitching
The first twenty attempts are supposed to be bad. Delaying reps until you have studied enough simply moves the bad attempts later and shrinks the total number of loops you get.
From the transcript
“what's the difference between sales and or selling and storytelling and my view is just if something comes off as selling it's just shitty storytelling”
“my answer would be it's a combination of practice of shadowing and feedback and of understanding the fundamentals of what it means to story tell…”
“every time i would take five to ten minutes after a pitch and i'd have a reflection period where i would write down what are…”
From the episode
Lessons From Selling Morning Brew For $75 Million At 28 - Alex Lieberman
Alex Lieberman