Succeeding as an SDR in Competitive Sales Teams

If you're an SDR that wants to get promoted, don't bother asking your manager what they're looking for. Asking your manager only works if they have an answer...and a lot of them don't. "Keep doing great work." "Hit your numbers consistently." "We'll know it when we see it." Meanwhile you as an SDR are supposed to guess what "it" means. Not super useful. During our XDR peer group call, one rep said they'd been asking about promotion criteria for over a year. Manager keeps saying "soon." No timeline. No clear benchmarks. Just "keep crushing it." So the rep started tracking different metrics on their own. Not just meetings booked. Also: - How many meetings converted to opportunities. - How many opportunities closed. - Average sales cycle length. - Deal sizes. They started presenting this in 1:1s. "I booked 32 meetings last quarter. 19 became opps. 7 closed. Average cycle was 51 days." Suddenly the manager had data showing this person thinks like an AE, not just performs like an SDR. Three months later they got promoted. The big lesson here is to take the initiative, stop asking for permission, and start demonstrating capability. 1. Don't schedule another check-in to ask about promotion. Schedule time to show what you can ALREADY do. "I built a territory plan for how I'd approach our top 20 accounts as an AE. Can I walk you through it?" That's 10x more valuable than "what do I need to work on?" 2. Shadow your best AEs. Not the unicorns...the consistent performers who hit 90-110% every quarter. Listen to their disco calls. Watch how they navigate objections. See how they manage follow-ups. Ask them: "What do you wish you'd known before making the jump?" Most will help. They remember what it was like. 3. Track the metrics that matter for AEs. SDRs get promoted for activity and meetings. AEs get promoted for closed revenue and account management. Completely different skill sets. 4. Start measuring yourself on AE metrics now. Pipeline conversion. Win rates. Sales cycle efficiency. When you can speak that language, promotion conversations get easier. 5. Build relationships with people who actually make promotion decisions. If there's one ball that folks drop, it's this one. Your manager matters. THEIR boss matters even more. Find reasons to interact with sales leadership. Ask smart questions in team meetings. Volunteer for projects that give you visibility. When promotion discussions happen, you want multiple people saying your name. Sometimes the answer is still "not yet." Budget's frozen. No open roles. They're not promoting anyone this quarter. That's frustrating. But it's also data. If you're doing everything right and the answer stays "not yet" for 18 months? That's a signal to get promoted somewhere else. :) Most companies don't have a clear SDR-to-AE path. They just have people who eventually get promoted and people who don't. You can wait for the roadmap, or you can build your own.

I almost fired our best SDR last year. It wasn’t personal. He was a good guy, worked hard, and always showed up on time. But month after month, his numbers weren’t improving. Emails went unanswered. Calls never connected. Demos? Non-existent. We were both frustrated. I started to wonder if he was the problem. Maybe sales wasn’t his thing? Then one afternoon, we grabbed coffee. Instead of talking numbers, we talked openly. I asked him straight-up: “Why isn’t it working?” He took a deep breath and replied: “I’m following our playbook. I send hundreds of emails, but honestly, I’m just guessing. I don’t really know who’s ready to talk, so I try everyone.” It hit me like a ton of bricks. We’d built a system based on volume and hope, not precision. It wasn’t him. it was us. We’d given him the wrong tools, the wrong strategy. So instead of letting him go, we completely changed how we did outbound. We stopped guessing. We started paying attention to signals: Who’s visiting our LinkedIn profiles? (Tracked via Teamfluence™) Who’s engaging silently with our posts? (Tracked via Clay) Who’s spending serious time on our website? (Tracked via RB2B) Suddenly, our SDR wasn’t sending cold messages. He was following signals that said, “Hey, I’m interested. Talk to me.” Within a month, his reply rate doubled. In two months, he became our top performer. Today, he leads our outbound team. It wasn’t about effort. It was about timing and having a system that showed him exactly when to reach out and who to reach out to. Outbound isn’t about sending more messages. It’s about knowing exactly when and how to engage. If your SDRs are struggling, ask yourself: Are they failing you or are you failing them? It might change your perspective. It certainly changed ours. #Outbound #SalesLeadership #SDRlife #RevOps #LinkedInSales #SalesLessons #GTMStrategy #B2BSaaS #SmartSelling #GTMEngineering #AIOutbound #Teamfluence #Clay

Fact: Outbound sales is broken. Incentives and strategies are misaligned. Tools like Salesloft and Outreach didn’t cause it. They amplified it. Now marketing and sales need to work together to fix it. The real issue is that sales managers push SDRs to prioritize volume over quality, leading to generic outreach that no one wants to read. Fixing this starts with focus. Give SDRs a small set of accounts, 30 per quarter, and tier them into A, B, and C priorities (using tools like Clay, Tofu, Unify). This makes it clear who they’re targeting and allows them to spend their time understanding the industries, companies, and people they’re reaching out to. Instead of chasing volume, they can dive deep into the problems their prospects are trying to solve. With the right tools, resources and 𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴, SDRs can educate themselves on the pain points, motivations, and challenges of their target audience. They can craft outreach that adds value and speaks directly to what matters most. Take me as an example. If you’re reaching out to someone like me at MoEngage, don’t send lazy, cookie-cutter emails like: “Does getting more pipeline keep you up at night” “Would you be interested in getting more qualified meetings” “Do you want customer lists of your competitors?” “Are you still interested?” “I haven’t heard back. I’ll assume this isn’t a priority.” These don’t work. They’re noise. If you want my attention, show me you’ve done your homework. Understand that I’m focused on growing in North America. Recognize the challenges of expanding into a crowded market. Tell me something valuable about how companies like mine are navigating those problems and how you can help. This approach may lead to fewer meetings overall, but the meetings you get will be better. SDRs and AEs will know their audience. They’ll understand the pain points. They’ll deliver messaging that lands because it’s relevant and thoughtful. And this isn’t just a sales problem. Marketing has to help. Marketing should train SDRs and AEs with insights about the market, the ICP, and the problems worth solving. Outbound sales works best when sales and marketing are aligned, working together to get the right message in front of the right people. Stop trying to get more meetings. Focus on getting better ones.

SDRs are one of the most misunderstood teams in sales. For years, they say more means better: more calls, more emails, more meetings. "Back in my day, we dialed over 100 numbers a day to book one meeting." Sound familiar? But here’s the catch: none of that grows a strategic SDR team. Top-performing SDR orgs today? They’re doing things differently: - They focus on accounts aligned with ABM campaigns - Use intent data to create tailored outreach - Leverage AI to cut down admin work - Work hand-in-hand with other teams to drive pipeline growth No non-stop calling. No chasing meeting quotas. No repetitive busywork. Instead, SDRs now: - Play a strategic role in outreach - Act as trusted advisors within their company - Align with the organisation's GTM blueprint - Accelerate their own career paths - Drive measurable ROI for their business Success isn’t about how many touches it takes. It’s about the impact on revenue and building a talent powerhouse.

The SDR role your manager trained you for doesn't exist anymore. And honestly? That's not a bad thing. The job used to be about volume. Dial more. Send more. Book more. The reps who won were the ones who could grind the hardest and stomach the most rejection. That playbook is dead (although volume still matters too). Buyers are more informed, more protected by filters and gatekeepers, and less patient than ever. The margin between a forgettable outreach and one that actually lands has never been thinner. This is where AI changes everything. The SDRs I'm seeing win right now aren't the ones working harder. They're the ones using tools like Claude to: Research a prospect's business in 2 minutes instead of 20 Reframe the same core message for 5 different buyer personas without starting from scratch Identify patterns in what's working and adjust faster than any manager's weekly review could AI doesn't replace the human part of the job. It compresses the time between insight and action. The reps who figure this out early are going to be the AEs, team leads, and revenue leaders of the next generation. The ones who don't? They're going to wonder why their pipeline dried up. As an SDR leader, my job isn't just to coach outreach anymore. It's to make sure my team knows how to think alongside AI, not compete with it. Something top of mind for me right now is getting sharp with all the AI tools and finding new ways to leverage it that is scalable. The role is evolving. The question is whether you're evolving with it.

There are only 3 types of SDR teams left. Two are dying. Every sales team falls into one category. And 67% of you are in the wrong one. Here's the truth about where modern SDR teams stand and why most won't survive: Type 1: Spray-and-Pray Teams (Dying) Still tracking dials. Still celebrating activity. Still believing "more effort = more results." Their metrics: 100+ calls per day, mass email blasts, generic sequences. Their reality: Only 1 in 6 sellers say cold calling drives results anymore. Response rates keep dropping. They're working harder while results get worse. Death spiral: 12-18 months. Type 2: Data-Overwhelmed Teams (Dying) Bought every tool. Track every signal. Paralyze themselves with analysis. They have intent data, technographics, firmographics, engagement scores. Their SDRs spend 4 hours analyzing, 1 hour calling. They know everything but act on nothing. Too much information, too little execution. Death by dashboard: 24 months. Type 3: Signal-Disciplined Teams (Winning) Track only what matters. Act fast on clear signals. Ignore everything else. They watch 3 things: Research surges (3-week spikes against 12-week baselines), job changes (70% of budget spent in first 100 days), and multi-stakeholder activity (often 5+ people = active project). They make 10 calls to the right accounts instead of 100 to the wrong ones. HOW SIGNAL-DISCIPLINED TEAMS OPERATE: They score every account: Intent surge (3 points), Job change (3 points), Multiple stakeholders (2 points), Competitor research (2 points). Only pursue accounts scoring 6+. They track Delta Trends to see if interest is accelerating or declining week-over-week. Rising delta + high score = strike immediately. They use Min Match Strength (if on Seamless) to require 3+ correlated topics before acting. One topic = noise. Three topics = need. They respond to job changes within 24 hours with relevant proof. This alone drives 5x higher response than cold outreach. They ignore 90% of "signals" to focus on the 10% that convert. UNDERSTAND THIS: Spray-and-pray teams: Your model is already obsolete. Data-overwhelmed teams: Your complexity is killing you. Signal-disciplined teams: You're taking everyone else's market share. The future isn't about more data or more activity. It's about discipline to ignore the noise and strike when it matters.

Outbound sales is entering a new era, and I am not sure that sales teams are ready for it. On the B2B Playbook podcast, Collin Stewart (Co-Founder, Predictable Revenue - which I had already filed under “outdated outbound content”) talked about what outbound needs to look like in 2026, and his point was very sharp: Outbound can’t just book meetings anymore. It must grow up. It needs to collect learnings, things like contract expirations, tech stack, satisfaction levels, so you can reach out at exactly the RIGHT moment when the buying window opens again. And beyond that, SDRs should be listening for industry-wide signals 📡 and passing those directly to marketing. The idea is that one insight from one conversation can turn into campaigns, radars, and dozens of new leads if your system is set up right. This part deeply resonated with me because it’s exactly what I’ve seen work. Earlier this year, a single customer conversation surfaced an upcoming EU regulation our tool was perfect for. We turned that one insight into landing pages, webinars, content, and it now drives 20+ website visitors per day. One trigger became an exponential lead driver. But here’s where I disagree with Collin: It’s unrealistic to fully switch SDRs into a full “learning generation” role. Most CROs and SDR leaders won’t accept, “I didn’t hit quota, but good news, I gathered five learnings. 👍?” And most SDRs simply don’t have the business acumen yet. Recognizing meaningful triggers requires pattern recognition and context that juniors don’t naturally have. So instead of relying on SDRs to magically develop this sensitivity, build a system that extracts insights around them. 🥕 First, tweak compensation. Still reward meetings, but also reward market coverage, understanding contract cycles, identifying tools in use, capturing sentiment, surfacing white space in the ICP. 👩🏫 Second, upskill SDRs. Show examples of what meaningful insights look like. Teach them which questions reveal the gold. 🛜 Third, don’t put the burden on SDRs alone. Let marketing, enablement, and SDR leadership extract insights from call recordings, AI analysis, and biweekly learning reviews. Build structured feedback loops that automatically produce campaign ideas and early product signals. This becomes even more critical in internationalization. Most companies put the wrong people in new markets: senior AEs who can sell but can’t build playbooks, and junior SDRs who are great at opening doors but can’t read market dynamics. In a new market, you need people with the sensitivity to detect signals, iterate messaging, and feed insights back into the entire GTM system. Because product-market fit is a multiplier for outbound, and every signal you capture sharpens that multiplier. So I’m curious: Are you planning to adjust SDR compensation to focus on meaningful learnings, and less on being just another generic voice fighting for a buyer’s attention? #sdr #signal #internationalization

In 2017, Joe Delamere wanted to quit sales. But two years later at our SKO, he grabbed me, looked me dead in the eye, and said "Next year, I'm going to make President's Club." Here's how Joe went from SDR to Enterprise AE in 5 years: The Beginning – SDR Before Joe joined Demandbase in 2017, he had been an SDR at two companies and was considering giving up on a Sales all together. But then two key things changed. And they launched his sales career. First, he worked with top Enterprise salespeople who were willing to invest time in him, and as a team they delivered great results. Second, it was the first time he’d experienced an account-based approach to Enterprise prospecting, and he BOUGHT IN. This allowed him to focus his energy on the accounts that would be the biggest customers and get hyper personalized. The Middle – Mid-Market Selling & Calling His Shot After a year and a half, with consistent results and a ton of enthusiasm, Joe asked me out to coffee. He wanted to know what makes a great salesperson and how he could get there. He had skills and he had intention, so I told him I had no doubt he would get there if he kept trying to win every day, having a growth mindset, and working collaboratively. Within six months he was promoted to Mid-Market Sales. Shortly after the promotion, at the 2019 Sales Kickoff, the day after awarding President’s Club winners, he sought me out and told me, “I will make President’s Club next year.”  He spent that year immersing himself in best practices, listening to Gong calls, utilizing internal resources – and he made President’s Club after closing a record $3.2M mid-market deal. The Next Chapter – Enterprise Sales In 2022, Joe was promoted to our Enterprise team. Since then, he’s applied the same strategies that made him successful as an SDR to become a top performer on the Enterprise team.  He dove into the best practices and spent a lot of time with sellers with more experience than him, he prioritized his territory, and aligned with his team – SDRs, Marketing, Sales leadership, and CX to ensure his accounts had the best possible experience and were set up for success. And of course, his manager invested heavily in his development, and he learned to use a consultative approach with his customers. It’s truly been an inspiration to see Joe’s growth. I’ll always remember him asking what it took to be great and having the confidence to call his shot.

The most successful SDRs/BDRs I've hired have all had one particular trait. Most hiring managers focus on sales experience. Some look for industry knowledge. A few prioritize product familiarity. That's all well and good, but it's not what distinguishes a winner from a quota hitter. 🔥Curiosity🔥 Relentless curiosity. Insatiable hunger to be better. Fire in the belly. That's a secret weapon. The rep who needs to understand 𝘸𝘩𝘺. The rep who watches call recordings like they are an athlete watching film. The rep who digs three levels deeper during discovery, not because they were told to, but because they genuinely want to understand the buyer. Sales scripts can be taught. Industry trends can be learned. But curiosity? That’s a mindset. 𝗜𝗳 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗵𝗶𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝗷𝘂𝘀𝘁 𝗮𝘀𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗾𝘂𝗼𝘁𝗮 𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁. Ask questions like: 1. Give me an example of something you learned in your last role that surprised you. How did you discover that? What do you do now to continue learning? (𝘓𝘦𝘢𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘥𝘴𝘦𝘵) 2. Imagine you’re assigned a new industry to sell into that you know nothing about. How would you go about learning it quickly? (𝘊𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘨𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨) 3. Tell me about a time when you changed your mind on something you were absolutely certain about. How did you realize you were wrong? How has that experience impacted you? (𝘊𝘶𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘵𝘺 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘤𝘰𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘣𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘵𝘺) The best SDRs don’t just hit their metrics. They find opportunities others miss. They constantly seek knowledge. And that's why the end up becoming the best Sales Managers, Directors, and VPs. They're out there. Trust me.

I went from SDR to VP of Sales in 7 years. Here are the 10 biggest lessons I learned about SaaS sales along the way: 1. Numbers Don’t Lie Success isn’t subjective. Use your numbers to build a case to get more responsibility. There’s no convincing needed if your numbers talk. 2. Work with Other Hungry People Experience rarely beats ambition. If you’re going to spend most of your waking time working on your career, might as well go all in with a group with the same mindset. 3. Do What Others Won’t Doing the job gets you average performance. You have to do more than others consistently to get ahead. 4. Limit Time Selling A Clear Market Leader There are things you can only learn by being the underdog and growing into the market leader. Starting there limits your impact on a deal, so you’ll improve slower. 5. Join an Early Startup I learn more every week at a startup than I did in all of undergrad/MBA. I was a founding AE for 3 seed-stage companies and was able to slingshot my career much faster than at a larger company. You get all the calls and are forced to build the sales process from scratch — no better learning experience than doing. If it doesn’t work out, try again. 6. Focus on Long-Term Relationships For all communications: prospects, customers, closed lost deals, colleagues. The SDR you worked with will eventually be a prospect, referral, founder, or your boss. Your closed lost deals might go to a company that is your future biggest deal. 7. Keep Momentum Performance has compound interest. The biggest sign of success is seeing someone consistently moving up and taking more responsibility. It’s much faster to get a promotion if you’ve moved up consistently. A chill year can stall you more than you think. 8. Take Risks The worst outcome of a big risk is that you learn something and increase your chances of succeeding the next time. I moved across the country 3x, started a rental property business, and took founding AE roles, and all got me further to my goals. 9. Have Intention Sales can be 90%+ lows. There are plenty of other jobs that don’t require constant stress/chasing a number, so if you’re going to choose this job, you might as well go all in. Booked 0 meetings as an SDR 2/3 through the quarter, and remember the specific moment I decided to go all in. Was an AE 7 months later and haven't let off the gas. 10. Be Seen as a Leader Most often: SDRs care about booking meetings. AEs care about closed won. Managers care about their number. But Leaders are thinking strategically about the long-term path and vision. It’s much easier to promote an SDR who cares about whether their sourced deals are closing, how they contribute to the team's number, and are bringing up big strategic ideas to leadership and in meetings. TAKEAWAY Put yourself in environments that give you the fastest rate of growth/learning. Do the work. Start doing the job/contributing like you are already there. And create an undeniable case using your numbers.