Can I promote a startup in r/sales?
Treat direct promotion as high-risk because the fetched public rules include "No Selling or Self Promotion". A safer post should lead with a useful question, lesson, or context that fits the community.
Subreddit guides
r/sales rules, stats, and what to post
A source-backed Rankhog guide to r/sales: public rules, community context, posting fit, and startup-promotion risk before you publish.
By Anthony Riera, founder and operator of Rankhog.
Subreddit guides combine public Reddit source URLs, captured rules, visible verification dates, and Rankhog's account-safety workflow.
Current public stats
- Members
- 1,000,000
- Verified
- July 9, 2026
- Category
- Marketing and growth communities
Rules can change, so Rankhog keeps verification dates and the original public Reddit sources visible.
Rule summary
- 10 Community Karma Required to Post and Karma Farming: Our community requires users to have 10 upvotes received on comments here before you will be allowed to create a new post or lead a discussion. Karma farming is asking for upvotes in the comments section of other users posts and should be reported to the mod team for removal.
- No Selling or Self Promotion: Users are strictly not allowed to promote what they sell here and should refrain from revealing who they sell for unless directly asked. This includes offering your solution in response to recommendation request, free trials, soliciting feedback, and similar conduct. Users found breaking this rule will receive an immediate and permanent ban.
- No Recruiting Users: This is not a place to recruit sales people. This includes posts inviting users to private trials for software or other tools/services/platforms. There are other subs for that such as /r/hiring or /r/salesjobs or /r/betatests . This is a zero-tolerance policy, and will result in an instant, permanent ban. No exceptions, contesting, and absolutely no reversals of this ban will be considered!
- No Spam, Affiliation to Recommendations or Referral Links: Spam, affiliation to recommendations posted, and referral links will result in a ban. Company or solution recommendations are only allowed by customers of what is being recommended. Recommendations by users working for or related to what they are recommending are not allowed and should be reported.
- No Marketing or Blogspam: We do allow articles but we do not allow marketing blogspam. Any post that looks like blogspam will be removed and you will receive a permanent ban. If you are the writer of an article, a full text version may be posted with identifying information removed and without backlinks to the blog. Company branded user accounts and also prohibited from posting or commenting here.
- No Sales Memes: No sales memes, period! This sub is for professional sales and quality posts, and memes just don't fit in with that atmosphere. We understand the idea behind lighthearted posts, and discussions. Memes are close to zero effort, and provide less quality than we anticipate for our users. Memes are better represented in /r/saleshumor/ or r/growthmemes or /r/funny. First offense is removal of your post, and a 5-day ban. Second offense results in a permanent, indefinite ban.
- No Off-Site Communities: Any attempt to create, advertise or recruit r/Sales users to join off-site communities will result in an immediate and permanent ban. This includes Discord channels, other social media sites, masterclass groups, or networking groups and associations that require payment for membership.
- Failure To Include Details: If you are asking a question or for advice, include as much information and detail as you can without revealing company or personal information. Generic or low effort posts may be removed at our discretion.
- No Bot or AI Generated Content: R/Sales is for real users discussing their own thoughts. Posts and comments that are suspected of being bot reply accounts or AI generated content are subject to removal and may result in a ban.
- Zero Contribution: Posts or comments that do not contribute directly to a sales topic, or closely related to a sales topic, will be removed. This includes questions about marketing, HR/workplace related issues and generalized questions already answered by other threads or in the Wiki.
- Violates Sitewide Policies: Posts and comments will be removed and account could be banned from the sub for breaking sitewide policies. https://www.redditinc.com/policies/content-policy.
Works well
- Posts that match the community context: Everything you need to know about sales, selling, business development, lead generation, prospecting, closing and more! Recommended...
- Specific questions or lessons about marketing tactics, campaign work, growth experiments, and channel-specific questions, with enough context for useful replies.
- Share a campaign postmortem with audience, channel, creative, budget, and result context.
- Ask a narrow marketing question after explaining the market, channel, and constraint.
- Drafts that satisfy the visible rule "10 Community Karma Required to Post and Karma Farming" before any link, launch, or product mention appears.
Avoid
- Anything that trips "No Selling or Self Promotion": Users are strictly not allowed to promote what they sell here and should refrain from revealing who they sell for unless directly asked. This...
- Off-topic posts that do not fit the visible community context or marketing tactics, campaign work, growth experiments, and channel-specific questions.
- Low-context posts that fail "10 Community Karma Required to Post and Karma Farming": Our community requires users to have 10 upvotes received on comments here before you will be allowed to create a new post or lead a discussion....
- Posts that ignore "No Recruiting Users": This is not a place to recruit sales people. This includes posts inviting users to private trials for software or other tools/services/platforms....
- Posts that ignore "No Spam, Affiliation to Recommendations or Referral Links": Spam, affiliation to recommendations posted, and referral links will result in a ban. Company or solution recommendations are only allowed by...
What actually works in r/sales
These are the highest scoring posts Rankhog observed in r/sales over the past month, with what each one did differently. Rankhog watches this community continuously, so it sees posts when they are published and again as they climb.
Across 231 posts, the ones that did best tend to include specific numbers, ask the community a question, break the body into short paragraphs.
- Upvotes
- 386
- Comments
- 132
- Posted
- Aug 8, 2026
Why it worked
- Told in the first person
- Upvotes
- 322
- Comments
- 147
- Posted
- Aug 7, 2026
Why it worked
- Told in the first person
- Kept short enough to read in one pass
- Upvotes
- 249
- Comments
- 170
- Posted
- Aug 19, 2026
Why it worked
- Broken into a scannable list
- Short paragraphs rather than one block of text
- Upvotes
- 226
- Comments
- 97
- Posted
- Aug 13, 2026
Why it worked
- Short paragraphs rather than one block of text
- Upvotes
- 225
- Comments
- 66
- Posted
- Aug 13, 2026
Why it worked
- Kept short enough to read in one pass
- Upvotes
- 192
- Comments
- 38
- Posted
- Aug 16, 2026
Why it worked
- Short paragraphs rather than one block of text
- Upvotes
- 190
- Comments
- 95
- Posted
- Aug 6, 2026
Why it worked
- Told in the first person
- Kept short enough to read in one pass
- Upvotes
- 162
- Comments
- 52
- Posted
- Aug 17, 2026
Why it worked
- Short paragraphs rather than one block of text
- Upvotes
- 154
- Comments
- 387
- Posted
- Aug 7, 2026
Why it worked
- Asks the community a question instead of announcing something
- Short paragraphs rather than one block of text
- Upvotes
- 146
- Comments
- 190
- Posted
- Aug 5, 2026
Why it worked
- Asks the community a question instead of announcing something
- Kept short enough to read in one pass
What r/sales Is For
Reddit describes r/sales this way: Everything you need to know about sales, selling, business development, lead generation, prospecting, closing and more! Recommended books are...
For Rankhog planning, treat it as a place for marketing tactics, campaign work, growth experiments, and channel-specific questions. Use the source description and the visible rule list before deciding whether a startup post belongs there.
Rules That Matter Before Posting
The fetched old Reddit rules include "10 Community Karma Required to Post and Karma Farming", "No Selling or Self Promotion", "No Recruiting Users", "No Spam, Affiliation to Recommendations or Referral Links". The rule to read twice is "No Selling or Self Promotion". It is the clearest source-backed warning against turning the subreddit into a launch, link, or sales channel.
What To Post
A strong post gives the community something to answer, inspect, or learn from before it asks for attention. Bring the audience, stage, constraint, what you tried, and the exact question.
Good fits include:
- Posts that match the community context: Everything you need to know about sales, selling, business development, lead generation, prospecting, closing and more! Recommended...
- Specific questions or lessons about marketing tactics, campaign work, growth experiments, and channel-specific questions, with enough context for useful replies.
- Share a campaign postmortem with audience, channel, creative, budget, and result context.
What To Avoid
Do not use r/sales as a cold launch channel. The safest draft should still make sense if the company name, product URL, and call to action are removed.
Watch for:
- Anything that trips "No Selling or Self Promotion": Users are strictly not allowed to promote what they sell here and should refrain from revealing who they sell for unless directly asked. This...
- Off-topic posts that do not fit the visible community context or marketing tactics, campaign work, growth experiments, and channel-specific questions.
- Low-context posts that fail "10 Community Karma Required to Post and Karma Farming": Our community requires users to have 10 upvotes received on comments here before you will be allowed to create a new post or lead a discussion....
Rankhog Notes
Use this page as a pre-flight check. If the rule note and the community description do not support the post, choose another subreddit or turn the idea into a comment, lesson, or question first.
Use Rankhog before posting in r/sales
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Common questions about r/sales
What should I post in r/sales?
Use it for marketing tactics, campaign work, growth experiments, and channel-specific questions. The source context says: Everything you need to know about sales, selling, business development, lead generation, prospecting, closing and more! Recommended books are...
What rule should I read first for r/sales?
Start with "10 Community Karma Required to Post and Karma Farming": Our community requires users to have 10 upvotes received on comments here before you will be allowed to create a new post or lead a discussion. Karma farming is asking for...
What gets removed fastest in r/sales?
Posts that ignore "10 Community Karma Required to Post and Karma Farming" are risky. Our community requires users to have 10 upvotes received on comments here before you will be allowed to create a new post or lead a discussion. Karma farming...
Lists featuring r/sales
Use these audience lists to decide whether r/sales is the best fit for your Reddit SEO plan or just one supporting community.
Best Subreddits For SaaS Sales
A focused list of subreddits for SaaS founders and operators improving sales conversations, outbound strategy, demos, and B2B go-to-market.
- Audience
- SaaS sales teams
- Subreddits
- 5
Best Subreddits For B2B Lead Generation
A Rankhog list of subreddits for B2B lead generation: where SaaS teams can study buyer problems, answer useful threads, and avoid spammy outreach.
- Audience
- B2B SaaS growth and sales teams
- Subreddits
- 6
Best Subreddits For Agency Founders
A practical list of subreddits for agency founders learning sales, delivery, positioning, B2B marketing, and small business operations without pitching services.
- Audience
- Agency founders
- Subreddits
- 6
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