Big News
Our founder-led group coaching cohort, beginning on September 10th, is almost full.

Over 10 weeks, you’ll:

• Identify and validate PMF in the field

• Build a repeatable customer acquisition motion from lead gen to close

• Gain the confidence and certainty to close deals with predictability

Only 10 founding teams will be accepted. When the cohort is full, it’s closed.

Go ahead and apply here!

Title: The Tactical Sales Guide for Founders with Non-Neurotypical Brains

Read time: 4.5 min


Today I want to talk about something that’s rarely discussed, but widely understood in the startup world.

Many founders, especially those with technical backgrounds, identify as having a non-neurotypical brain. And for them, learning the language of sales doesn’t just feel uncomfortable. It feels foreign. Their brains are wired differently, and most sales advice was never written with them in mind.

This issue is about how to build a sales system that works with your brain, not against it.

If you struggle with focus, overload, emotional regulation, rejection sensitivity, or get drained by too much interaction, this is for you.

We’ll break down ways to reduce cognitive friction, remove unnecessary decisions, and create momentum through structure, self-awareness, and small wins.

Everybody is a genius, but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid.

~ Albert Einstein

Founder-led sales is already hard. But when your brain is wired differently, you’re not just battling objections, you’re battling distraction, burnout, rejection triggers, and the fatigue of trying to fit into a process built for someone else’s brain.

Most sales advice (including mine) assumes you can follow rigid routines, stay emotionally detached from outcomes, and handle high-rejection environments without blinking. That’s not always the case when you're neurodivergent.

Here’s the thing, though, you don’t need to sell like anyone else. You need to sell like you.

If you design a system that plays to your strengths and protects your energy, you’ll be unstoppable.

Let’s take a tactical approach and build something that will work for your brain type, not against it.

1. Shrink the Sales Day Down to 1–2 Blocks

What I have found is that Neurodivergent founders don’t do well with “open-ended” time. A to-do list that says “work on sales” will almost always lead to avoidance, procrastination, or burnout.

Instead, do this:

• Block two 60–90 minute sessions per day just for sales

• Do it early, before decision fatigue kicks in

• One session = outbound and prospecting

• One session = follow-ups and active pipeline

Remove choice. Make it binary: “This is sales time.” That structure gives your brain the edge it needs to get in and get momentum.

2. Create Templated Language to Kill Overthinking

This is huge and something that worked incredibly well for me when I was an individual contributor. ADHD brains love novelty. Autistic brains often get stuck trying to get the wording perfect. Both can spend 60 minutes writing one email, which turns sales into a mental burden that we try all different, unique ways to avoid.

Here’s the fix:

• Write 3–5 core outbound templates

• Build a shared doc with quick plug-and-play snippets for intros, follow-ups, nudges, and recap emails.

• Don’t write from scratch. Ever.

• Set a 5-minute timer per email, then move on

Speed reduces emotional weight. Done is better than clever.

3. Pre-Program Your Follow-Up

Forgetfulness and inconsistency destroy pipeline. And neurodivergent founders aren’t bad at follow-up because they don’t care. I believe it’s because they don’t remember.

You can’t rely on willpower. You need systems.

Use these:

• Calendar block: 20 minutes daily = follow-up block

• Use simple tools like Superhuman, Streak, or even Gmail Snooze

• Every time you send an outbound email, set a follow-up reminder simultaneously. Make it automatic.

• Keep a rolling “follow-up queue” in a Notes app or Notion board

Don’t try to track it in your head. Externalize the memory. That’s how you stay consistent.

4. Handle Rejection Before It Hits

Rejection sensitivity is real. I still get pissed off when I get a rejection email from a founder who should’ve moved forward with us. This is especially true if you’re ADHD or autistic. It’s not weakness, it’s your wiring.

We build a buffer for this.

Here’s how:

• Use rejection scripts: pre-write your response to ghosting, nos, or lukewarm interest. This avoids spiraling in the moment. Make these emails direct.

• Set rejection goals: aim for 5 nos per day. This flips rejection into progress.

• Debrief every no: write one line, why did this not land? Doing this helps you turn emotions into signals.

Rejection is data, but you have to train your brain to see it that way.

5. Record Everything So You Don’t Have to “Perform”

Sometimes live calls can feel like theater, and guess what? They are. You’re reading cues, trying to remember your pitch, watching the time, processing responses, and staying “on.” It’s a lot of shit to remember.

Take the pressure off.

• Record every call with tools like Grain

• Tag key moments post-call or use the AI recap

• Extract phrases or objections you can reuse

• Share call clips with teammates, advisors, or customers

This allows you to focus on the conversation, rather than getting it perfect in the moment.

6. End Every Call With a Repeatable Next Step

Neurodivergent founders (including myself) often struggle with ambiguous endings. You leave the call with “next steps” but no clear path. That ambiguity creates anxiety and leads to drop-off. This is why the preamble and the beginning of your disco call is critical.

This is how you take ownership of the process!

7. Design Your Sales Environment

You can’t out-discipline your environment. If your workspace is a mess, your tabs are open, Slack is buzzing, and your phone is nearby, you’re making sales more complicated than they need to be.

Do this before every session:

• Close everything but one browser

• Use a Notion doc, sales dashboard, or deal list

• Turn off Slack and phone notifications

• Use a physical timer or browser timer to create urgency

Less noise = more output. Design a space where sales get done.

Key Takeaway

This is why Rampd works so well with technical founders, because we remove all the guesswork, and our framework is super methodical and completely systematized.

You don’t need to sell like the wannabe sales influencers on LinkedIn. You’re not them. You’re you. And you’re more than capable of selling if the system is built for your brain. Don’t try to force discipline. Build structure. The goal isn’t to become a different person. The goal is to build a sales system that runs on your fuel.

Your wiring isn’t a liability. It’s a lever, and it can become a superpower if you learn how to use it effectively. 💪




That’s it for today, folks.

See you all next week!

Darren

P.S. If you’re a venture-backed company interested in coaching, book a call here.