King of the Cool Conversation: The Human Touch Behind Duncan’s Sales Approach

A Muck Rack Story

As Duncan celebrates one year at Muck Rack, it feels fitting to also recognize the strategy and instinct he brings to sales, which continue to make him a top performer. His approach blends curiosity, consistency, and a strong sense for what actually resonates, turning thoughtful outreach into real momentum.

Duncan’s introduction to PR began much like Muck Rack itself, rooted in the world of journalism. While working an event with Newton Street for the 50th anniversary of the Watergate scandal, he found himself in the same room as Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, an exciting entry point into the industry and a formative moment early in his career. Duncan soon-after moved on to roles across agencies specializing in cybersecurity and B2B tech, where he continued to sharpen his perspective and build a foundation in the space.

Eventually, PR lost some of the initial glow that those Watergate-era legends had created for him, and sales started calling Duncan’s name. His natural aptitude for it was a big motivator, something that ran in the family, with his grandfather having dominated the sales space years before. He quickly saw how he could leverage his PR experience into landing a role at Muck Rack.

“I was using Muck Rack every day, and I thought wow, I love this product, I could sell Muck Rack easily to someone,” Duncan said. “I could just talk about it honestly, so it seemed like a great way to get my foot in the door.”

Duncan, a natural people person and seller, transitioned seamlessly into the SDR role. After spending years in PR prospecting journalists, he knew how to fight for inbox attention. Duncan’s specific approach was rooted in the advice his PR mentors had shared with him in approaching prospecting with a human touch. Rather than continuing to flood reporters with an excess of information, he’d keep his messages short and sweet, and clearly human. The same mindset carried into his sales approach.

“When I started [at Muck Rack], I thought that if that kind of outreach cuts through for a reporter whose inbox is flooded, that's also got to work for somebody who is maybe not as slammed, but is still digging through a bunch of outreach,” Duncan explained. “That type of outreach has been allowing me to cut through to comms pros for some of these big accounts that we historically have not gotten any attention from at all.”

And the proof is in the pudding — Duncan has sourced multiple layered enterprise deals using this approach. While at the Mexico offsite, he sent an email to a prospect at Cloudflare and only realized afterward that the sun glare had masked a handful of typos in his message. As soon as he noticed, he followed up with a quick apology and a brief explanation, and the honesty worked. She leaned into the human moment and ended up booking.

Duncan’s email approach carries over to the phone as well, where he’s known as the Nooks king of casual conversation. Talking with Duncan feels easy, like you’ve known him for years. “I think people can tell when you’re earnest on the phone, because they can hear when you're interested in what they have to say,” Duncan said. “And I think that matters.”

Like any SDR can understand, some months are better than others. But when Duncan hits a meeting rut, he keeps his head up by increasing volume and trusting that targeted outreach will come back around.  “I feel like all that energy you put in, it comes back to you,” Duncan said, explaining how strong, thoughtful enrollments give him confidence that those personalized sequences will pay off over time.

Beyond the energy he draws from his own hard work, Duncan also finds a lot of enjoyment in the energy of his SDR team. He shared that a big part of why he loves Muck Rack is the community he’s found in the “amazing software” that is Nooks. As a remote worker, he was surprised by how the SDR hub became a place where he built genuine friendships with peers, as well as great relationships with his manager and AEs.

Outside of work, Duncan spends his time walking and hiking around Seattle, and has recently taken up salsa dancing. He also enjoys exploring the food scene, whether that’s restaurants, international grocery stores, or his own kitchen. Inspired by the cooking show Chopped, Duncan has a knack for turning the last bits of a grocery haul into a full meal, never letting food go to waste.

At its core, Duncan’s approach comes back to the same principle he leans on outside of work: resourcefulness. The same instinct that helps him turn a nearly empty fridge into a full meal shows up in sales, trusting his instincts, keeping things simple, and leading with a human touch.