The Importance of SDRs in Sales

The C-suite looks at the SDR team and sees a pipeline machine. However, if it's the only way you are looking at it my belief is that it is a big mistake. Because you're missing the most valuable thing sitting right in front of you. A talent pipeline. Think about this... Every great AE, every strong sales manager, every VP of Sales who actually knows how to build... most of them started as SDRs. The SDR role is where you learn: • How to handle rejection • Understand human nature • Think on your feet • Communicate under stress • Build something from nothing    All those skills are future leaders skills to me... Ok sure yeah you want to leverage AI in the sales org. Great... Who exactly is going to be inputting the knowledge into the AI? Who understands the buyer well enough to train the prompts? Who knows what a great cold call sounds like well enough to build a framework around it? You might want to develop people who actually understand the craft before handing them technology to scale it. This is exactly why I built Sales Team Six the way I did. 45 days developing the whole person.. not just the skill set. Because the reps who understand the craft become the leaders who scale it. Yet most companies treat the SDR team like a secondhand option. You're burning the talent pipeline AND wondering why your AI strategy doesn't work.. When I managed 13 SDRs that team never missed their number... But the thing I'm most proud of isn't the pipeline we built... Reps from that room got promoted to AEs... Some are leaders running their own teams now. If you develop SDRs as whole people... teach them how to think not just what to say... two things happen. They produce better pipeline right now. AND they become the leaders you won't have to hire from the outside later. Sales development isn't just a function. It's the farm system for your entire revenue organization. Treat it like one.

Every big deal starts with an SDR. They’re the ones – Making first contact. – Taking the rejection. – Building the list. – Testing the market’s pulse. Yet in most companies, SDRs are treated like interns with headsets. SDRs are the lifeblood of outbound. Ignore them, and you’re ignoring the only people who actually know what’s happening in your market. I landed in an SDR seat late in the game, surrounded by people younger than me, grinding cold calls and lists all day. It didn’t take long to realize two things: 1) Nobody in the building wanted my job. 2) Without the SDR team, leadership had no idea how to expand into untapped markets Disposable. Replaceable. “Entry level.” Meanwhile, everyone loves to glorify the AE. “Closers.” “Rainmakers.” If SDRs don’t put points on the board, there’s nothing to close. Pipeline doesn’t exist without them. I’ve lived this. I’ve been treated like my skillset didn’t matter because I wasn’t closing. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every VP of Sales and CRO is trying to solve outbound. The people who actually know what’s happening in the market are sitting in the SDR seat. SDRs are not pawns. They are your growth lever. They control the pace of the game. They create openings. I bet my career on that and it turned out to be a pretty good bet. I’ll keep saying it until it sticks: Respect the SDR. Celebrate the SDR. Or dont. But you shouldnt be surprised when every good rep walks from your team.

My client called me in a panic "Our sales have flatlined for 3 quarters straight. We've tried everything." I asked to see their pipeline metrics Within 60 minutes, I spotted the problem Their sales weren't dying at the closing stage → They were dying in the handoff between SDR and AE Here's what the data revealed: - SDRs were generating 40% more meetings than last year - But 60% of those meetings never progressed past call #1 - The prospect was interested, then... nothing I shadowed 5 of these handoff calls The issue became painfully obvious: - The SDRs were selling a dream - The AEs were selling reality Different messages Different promises Different expectations The prospects felt deceived, so they disappeared Over 10 years helping companies accelerate sales growth, I've seen this pattern repeatedly Sales teams think they have a closing problem What they actually have is an alignment problem We implemented a 3-Stage Pipeline Alignment Framework: - Created a unified talk track across all buyer touchpoints - Developed a structured handoff protocol with specific language - Built a feedback loop between SDRs and AEs Results after 60 days: Meetings-to-opportunity conversion: Up 70% Sales cycle: Reduced by 22 days Win rate: Increased 30% Q4 revenue: Beat target by 28% This wasn't about new leads or better closing techniques It was about fixing the invisible leak that was draining their pipeline Your sales team doesn't need more prospects It needs a seamless revenue motion What's your biggest sales pipeline concern right now? P.S. If you need help with your sales, send me a message

I was wrong. AI is not going to "kill the SDR" anytime soon. In fact, here’s two specific use cases where AI actually makes the SDR 10x MORE valuable: 1. DATA HYGIENE Some reports say SDRs spend as much as 40% of their time updating bad data and contact information from the CRM. AI coupled with web-scraping tools can integrate databases and information sources to create a MUCH MORE accurate view of an individual and help ensure that SDRs are connecting directly to relevant contacts a higher % of time. Revenue leaders like Kyle Norton at Owner.com are adamant they want SDRs with as high a connect rate as possible and Owner is executing on that premise in an industry (restaurants) that has historically low connect rates.  And yet, the unit economics powering the Owner(.)com machine are powerful and even with an SMB sale, the business can have SDRs supporting AEs. 2. TRUE PERSONALIZATION AT SCALE Over the past 10 years, we’ve been sold the idea of “personalization at scale” from the revenue orchestration and sales engagement companies.  But we knew it wasn’t really possible.  Sending the same email to 10,000 people using a mail merge to add their name is NOT personalization at scale. It’s just spam. But today, using AI tools like Copy.ai, you can create truly personalized messages, leveraging your contact’s entire online presence to write compelling messages that go deeper than where your prospect went to college or what their favorite hobby is. In this world, SDRs are still needed to oversee and orchestrate the campaigns and, of course, to have useful and meaningful conversations with a prospect who engages.  TAKEAWAY: Contrary to what I've said the last few years, the SDR is still here and the role is still valuable.  AI doesn’t REPLACE SDRS. It make the best SDRs MORE PRODUCTIVE.  

I’ve spoken to 100+ founders and VPs of Sales so far in 2025 about their SDR teams. Here are the 7 most controversial (and surprising) things I learned they told me: 1. SDRs aren’t just lead generators, they’re nurturers. Often SDRs are the only ones nurturing the relationship before the deal hits. Shocking, right? Yet, founders are relying more on SDRs to build real connections, not just pass leads to AEs. 2. The best SDRs are the most scripted. The ‘talk tracks’ are only as good as those reading them. Great SDRs are natural conversationalists, not robotic pitch machines. But following a process works. 3. SDRs are becoming expert networkers and it’s working magic. Some founders said their SDR teams get the best results from calling, not emailing. But everyone I talked to said the SDRs leaning on networking, intros, referrals in combination with calling are doing the best. 4. You don’t need to hire top-tier talent for SDR roles. Many founders said they focus more on work ethic and attitude than experience. They’d rather train someone with grit than a polished resume. 5. The top SDRs aren’t the ones with the most calls or emails. The real winners are the ones who know how to identify, qualify, and nurture the right leads—not just hit numbers. 6. SDRs need more accountability, not less. Founders say their teams thrive when there’s clear, measurable accountability. A “trust but verify” approach works wonders here. 7. You can’t outsource the culture. Outsourcing has let a lot of people down, wow. Founders who’ve scaled SDR teams successfully know one thing: You need to build a culture of hustle, consistency, and responsibility. It can’t be outsourced. Don't just read this - take action. Start with one change this week: Give your SDRs more freedom to have real conversations. Focus on quality relationships over quantity metrics. Build that winning culture, one day at a time.

Companies don’t promote SDRs just because they’ve “done their time.” They promote people who are already operating like AEs before they get the title. Today, sales teams are tighter, quotas are sharper, and hiring mistakes are expensive. So leadership looks for proof, not potential. The real bottleneck It’s not activity. It’s not effort. It’s not even performance at the SDR level. It’s this: You haven’t demonstrated AE-level ownership yet. That means: Running discovery like you own the deal not just qualifying leads Thinking in terms of revenue, not meetings booked Understanding deal cycles, objections, and closing dynamics If you’re still optimizing for “number of meetings,” you’re playing the wrong game. Among high-performing SDRs, the ones who get promoted fastest do one thing differently: They make themselves hard to ignore. Here’s what that looks like in practice: 1. Attach yourself to deals Don’t stop at booking. Ask to sit in on demos, negotiations, and close calls. You need exposure to how money actually moves. 2. Bring insights, not just leads If you’re passing prospects, add context: Why now? What’s the real pain? Who’s the real decision-maker? This shifts you from “appointment setter” to “deal contributor.” 3. Build closing reps early You don’t wait for permission. Shadow AEs → then role-play → then ask to run low-risk deals or expansions. 4. Speak the language of revenue Your conversations internally should sound like: “This account has expansion potential” “They’re price-sensitive but high urgency” “Timeline is tied to X trigger event” That’s AE thinking. I’d treat the SDR role like a paid apprenticeship, not a waiting room. You’re getting access to: Live market feedback Real objections Decision-maker psychology If you extract all of that intentionally, you compress your timeline. If not, you can sit in that chair for years like the skeleton in the meme. The shift that changes everything Because promotion isn’t granted - it’s justified, act like the AE before you are one. That’s when the conversation flips from “Are they ready?” to “How soon can we move them up?”

AI SDRs promised to revolutionize sales. What AI SDRs promised: - 24/7 prospecting without burnout - A steady stream of perfectly qualified leads - More time for sellers to focus on closing deals - Hyper-personalized outreach at scale - Free up sales teams for high-value conversations - Unique signals and triggers What AI SDRs delivered: - Spammy, robotic outreach that buyers ignore - High bounce rates and low engagement - Unqualified, low quality leads - More noise in inboxes, not more conversations - SDRs still overwhelmed, just in different ways - Commoditized and cheap signals The truth is this: AI SDRs were supposed to replace SDRs. But it didn't. It made their role more strategic than ever. Because getting meetings and building a real pipeline? That’s become the hardest—and most crucial—task in the entire sales process. AI can support SDRs. But it’s the SDRs who have the context, the creativity, and the ability to build relationships that move the needle. That’s why I’m more bullish than ever on the role of the SDR.

I don’t track dials. Not because they’re evil—because they’re easy to fake. Anyone can burn through 100 calls in a day. But how many real conversations did they have? How many notes did they leave behind? How many trails did they create for themselves to follow? That’s where the value lives. Telemarketers make calls. SDRs build context. And the difference is in the hunt. Every conversation is a breadcrumb. Every note is a blood trail. And the best SDRs? They know how to track it. They go back to old accounts. Pick up dropped threads. Reconnect with people who went dark. And they use what they already know to drive the next step. That’s not busy work. That’s strategy. That’s what separates a high-performing SDR from someone just “checking the box.” When you fixate on dials, you reward noise. When you track conversations, you reward momentum. So if you’re leading an SDR team—ask yourself: Are you building hunters? Or are you building button pushers? Your metrics will tell the truth.

Enterprise sellers love to complain about their SDR’s giving them bad leads. They shouldn't. An SDR should be your secret weapon. Here’s my 4-step process for working with SDRs as an enterprise seller: 1. Kill your generic copy and paste email sequences Executives are key to the enterprise sale and hate sequences. Especially bad sequences. Any sequence that is intended to be sent to more than one account is by definition not personalized, and therefore bad. So what do you do? Prepare to craft a short series of value-based emails that have no call to action in the first few. 2. Do deep research with your SDR In enterprise accounts you can’t start a conversation without credibility. Credibility comes from knowing something valuable beyond surface level account knowledge. You simply can’t get that with 30 minutes of manual Google searching. So team up with your SDR to go into serious intel-gathering mode. First, explain to them why research is important. Deep research will be a new thing for them. Then have them watch you do research on an account the right way - go to the investor relations website of your biggest public account, download the 10-K and investor day presentation. Get the transcripts of the latest earnings call. Then review those documents and highlight the gold nuggets. Your SDR will immediately see the value of this extra work. For the next account, split up the work. You download the 10-K for the next account, have your SDR search and scan for relevant news articles that help identify pains your solution can solve and people in the account who own them.. 3. Support your SDR in giving more and asking less One reason decision-makers in ENT accounts hate being put on email sequences is the sequences do not deliver value, only requests for engagement. Show your SDR how to be different by delivering great insights with no requests of any kind - not a reply, not a call, nor a meeting or demo. I call this the “Warm Up phase.” Work with your SDR to take the product of your research efforts and craft that into 3 - 5 value emails that inform, intrigue or inspire the reader. It’s all about delivering insights about their business and approaches to make it better. 4. Warm introductions When done correctly, investing in relationships across the ecosystem can yield a warm introduction machine. An investment overlooked by most companies when aspiring to the enterprise segment. The three best sources of warm introductions are - Your executives - Your board of advisors/directors - Key players in your ecosystem TAKEAWAY If you're an ENT frustrated with your SDR, you need to look in the mirror. The reason you’re not getting the results you want is you’re not investing in their success. You can’t leave your SDR on an island and hope they pass you valuable leads. Enterprise Sellers do more, know more, and give more than any other seller. You need to be that for you SDR Not just your clients. They’ll pay it back 10 fold.

Let's reframe the SDR role. Too often, it's seen merely as a path to AE. I see it as 'business residency' - the optimal way to break into any GTM function. SDRs are on the front lines, and have the unique advantage of access to insights into the mechanics of company growth. It's a POV many other roles don't offer. Think of it as perpetual immersion learning - the coachability, persistence, and adaptability developed in-seat aren't just sales skills; they really can be leveraged as universal career accelerators. Early in career I was an SDR. Later on, I helped build, then led an SDR team (s/o TICA, iykyk). Most recently, I've hired SDR leaders. Throughout, individuals who approached their early career roles with this broader learning mindset were often the ones who achieved diverse and impactful long-term success - whether they remained in a direct revenue generating capacity or shifted into adjacent functions. If you're an SDR, maximize this unique learning ground. If you manage SDRs, empower them to see beyond the immediate next step. The potential is vast! ⚡