Sales Development Representative

also referred to as: sales development reps · sdr · sdrs

38 statements across 11 episodes · 15 bullish · 6 bearish · 11 people on the record · first statement Aug 2, 2023 by Lori Jiménez · across every show →

Everything said about Sales Development Representative, oldest first

Aug 2, 2023
Insight
Jiménez: Incentivize SDRs on sales stage progression to ensure high lead quality
“And I think the way to mitigate that is a few ways is having, you know, a qualification criteria that has to be met. So if it's a band, if it's a, you know, whatever the structure is that identifies kind of the core drivers of that call. But also I think what …”
Lori Jiménez Aug 2, 2023 ▶ 31:57 Lori Jiménez: How to Increase Sales; Hiring Tips from Google; Best Way to Grow Sales Teams | E1043 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 14, 2024 negative
Insight
Gonto: Traditional SDR outreach to developer users never works
“Like if you are doing a product for developers and you have an SDR reach out, it's never going to work out. The developer doesn't want to talk to that.”
Martin Gontovnikas (Gonto) Feb 14, 2024 ▶ 24:49 Martin Gontovnikas (Gonto): The Biggest Mistakes Startups Make When Scaling into Enterprises | E1115 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Feb 14, 2024 positive
Assertion Supported
Gonto: Fine-tuned GPT models can fully automate personalized SDR emails
“You can then use fine tuned models of GPT to fully personalize emails in the name of an SDR without a real SDR.”
Martin Gontovnikas (Gonto) Feb 14, 2024 ▶ 1:05:41 Martin Gontovnikas (Gonto): The Biggest Mistakes Startups Make When Scaling into Enterprises | E1115 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Apr 12, 2024
Insight
Blond: Startups should not hire SDRs before hiring a sales leader
“I don't like hiring SDRs prior to hiring a sales leader. Because they need a lot of hands-on management.”
Sam Blond Apr 12, 2024 ▶ 11:05 Sam Blond: Why Startups are Doing Outbound Wrong and How to Fix It | E1139 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024 positive
Insight
The best account executives and sales leaders start as SDRs
“I would say the top AEs and best leaders that I've ever worked with have started their careers as sales development reps.”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 2:03 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024
Insight
Ashley Kelly ramps SDRs over four months with progressive quotas
“It actually takes them until month four to be on full ramp, but every month leading up to that, they do have some sort of quota so that they learn that muscle that they like build their pipeline.”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 33:51 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024 positive
Prediction Not checkable as stated
AI will eliminate SDR busywork to enable human personalization
“I do think where it will help SDRs though, is eliminate a bunch of the busy tasks. And so like the hardest part about being an SDR is the little details that you have to pay attention to all day, every day. And that could be. Cleaning and scrubbing your accoun…”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 5:40 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
SDR teams are typically among the first departments cut during layoffs
“There's one of the first orgs to go typically is SDR.”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 30:18 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024 positive
Insight
SDR candidates using AI in writing tests demonstrates resourcefulness
“Maybe it doesn't matter and they're being resourceful and they're using tools that you know, that, that are gonna make them a better SDR.”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 24:34 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024
Insight
Sales leaders should rely on SDRs to discover software tools
“One thing about tools in general with my SDR is like, I usually rely very heavily on them because they are the ones that are in the weeds all day, every day. And like, they're trying to make their lives easier too. And so when they come to me with a tool that …”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 25:04 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024
Insight
Outbound SDR teams are more successful reporting into sales
“Now, if you have a big outbound org, there's more of like an art to sales development at that point, you have to be a lot more proactive in the way that you're engaging cold accounts. You need to be able to educate them on a product. They probably have no idea…”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 7:29 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024 positive
Disclosure
Rippling now hires experienced SDRs due to post-layoff talent availability
“It has changed quite a bit that now we hire more people that are coming from the SDR role because there's more talent out there that's available.”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 30:30 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024
Insight
Inbound SDR teams perform best when reporting to marketing
“If you're a heavy inbound org for SDR there's a lot more science to it. And being really tightly aligned with the team that's driving the funnel Is where you have that feedback loop that is so important. And so when you think about an inbound funnel you're thi…”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 6:48 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024 positive
Insight
SDRs should host podcasts interviewing target buyer personas to generate leads
“You choose your ICP. Start a podcast interviewing the world's biggest and best in that ICP. If I worked for you, this is what I'd do. You'd give me a segment. I'll start a podcast interviewing the biggest, I don't know, CHROs in software companies between 505,…”
Harry Stebbings Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 43:29 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024
Disclosure
Ashley Kelly puts new SDRs on the phone by week two
“One thing that's very unique, I think, to the way I've always built teams is I have my reps on the phone by week two. So you've got, yeah, working their books and on the phone by work by week two.”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 32:16 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024 negative
Opinion
Expecting SDRs to heavily qualify leads at target accounts is bad practice
“Actually, so there's one where AE's pushed back a lot saying that they, the SDR needs to go do more qualification and needs to go you know, warm the deal up more for them. And I think To me, that's BS because if I'm a good AD, I want to take any conversation t…”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 51:32 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024
Insight
SDRs far behind target on day 22 can still reach monthly quota
“I could have a rep right now at the 22nd and they do not, they're not even close to target, but we still have at least six days of selling that we can like make an impact on this month and they could get to their quota still.”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 40:46 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024 positive
Insight
New SDRs should copy top performers completely before trying to innovate
“To go find the top performer on the team and shadow them and copy every single thing that they do. And then from there, Add your own little secret sauce and figure out like what your expertise are. I think too many times people come in trying to reinvent the w…”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 50:15 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024 positive
Insight
SDRs should start in inbound roles for six months
“What I typically do though, is I do hire people into the inbound role and then we move them into outbound after about six months.”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 48:28 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024
Insight
Bad SDR hires are identified by month two via input KPIs
“Month two. And it's not even usually based off of the S two performance. It's usually based off of their ability to master the KPIs that come before that. So how many calls are they making a day? How many emails? We expect a certain amount of accounts and cont…”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 37:39 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024
Insight
SDR interviewing requires evaluating traits, not past sales performance
“When you're interviewing salespeople, you can actually ask like, what was your quota attainment? What's the biggest deal that you've ever sold? Right? Like there's like, you ask for experience and it's like the complete opposite for sales development because y…”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 16:50 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024 positive
Opinion
Kelly defines the SDR role as equal parts pipeline generation and career development
“SDR to me is just such a special Role that is, you know, both pipeline building, but also career development at the same time.”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 1:28 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024
Disclosure
Rippling uses fast-start spiffs requiring 50% quota in week one
“We've done a lot of spiffs that are what I'll call a fast start. And so we'll Want people to get, you know, halfway to their quota by week one of the month. And so then they're like already pacing and set up for the rest of the month.”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 41:06 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024
Insight
Cold calling is the hardest SDR skill
“I'd say the hardest part about SDR is the cold calling. And there tends to be a lot of resistance with that. It's much easier to hide behind sending emails. Right. And so if you find people that have already built their confidence and found their voice over th…”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 16:23 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Rippling offers lateral career transitions outside sales for high-performing SDRs
“Our promotion path is not just to AE. There's different routes where people can go across the business because My commitment to them is, you know, if you're a good contributor to the team, you're positive, at least performing the best that you can, like we wil…”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 46:15 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024 positive
Insight
Relevancy in interview email tests predicts SDR success
“Being able to be relevant with your information of why you're reaching out to a company, why you're reaching out to that persona specifically and seeing someone connect those dots in their email is, is a Good sign that they will be a good SDR.”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 23:57 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024 neutral
Disclosure
Rippling places all inbound and outbound SDR teams under one org
“While I report into our CRO at Rippling, like The relationship that we have is really SDR is kind of the bridge between marketing and sales. And so all of inbound and outbound sits underneath underneath my org”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 9:16 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024
Insight
Proactive SDRs who reach out to VPs early become top performers
“And the ones that immediately put time on my calendar, I swear are the ones that end up being successful. And it's not because of anything I did like at all, it has to do with like their proactiveness and the fact that they actually give a shit about their car…”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 38:54 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 7, 2024 positive
Insight
Former recruiters make the best tech sales development representatives
“My favorite hires that I've ever made are people that actually come from recruiting that want to make the transition into tech sales. And a lot of that is because They're super organized. They're making calls all day to people who are probably not in the marke…”
Ashley Kelly Jun 7, 2024 ▶ 15:49 Ashley Kelly: The Playbook to Start and Scale Your SDR Team | E1162 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 22, 2024 negative
Insight
Fougere: Pipeline generation cannot be outsourced to SDRs
“Asking somebody else to do PG for you is like asking them to go to the gym for you. I think it creates, I don't think it creates the right culture to think that this is something that can be outsourced. And so the way I look at it is PG is everybody's job.”
Dan Fougere Nov 22, 2024 ▶ 16:04 Dan Fougere, CRO @Datadog: Why Discounting is Dangerous and Contract Sizes are Misleading | E1229 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Dec 20, 2024
Disclosure
Plank: Rippling account executives have zero outbound prospecting targets
“Outbound SDRs own the quota. Like they schedule the demos. If you're a rep at Ripley and you have zero, like actual prospecting targets.”
Matt Plank Dec 20, 2024 ▶ 44:18 Matt Plank, Rippling's CRO: How to Build an Enterprise Sales Machine | E1241 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 24, 2025 negative
Insight
Founders Should Avoid Hiring a Sales Leader in the First Years
“Don't hire a leader yet. Hire individual contributor. At first just hire SDRs and you be the rep so that you get, I think for an early stage company, the CEO really has to develop the plays, figure out the message, at least that initial message.”
Carlos Delatorre Jan 24, 2025 ▶ 5:24 Carlos Delatorre, CRO @Harness: Why Every Sales Rep Should Do Pipeline Generation | E1251 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 24, 2025 positive
Insight
Account Executives Who Prospect Convert Non-AE Leads at Higher Rates
“If sales reps are doing the work to generate their own meetings and their own pipeline, man, when they get pipeline from their SDRs or from marketing or from partners, they'll treat it like gold because they know how much work and how hard it is to get that. A…”
Carlos Delatorre Jan 24, 2025 ▶ 17:48 Carlos Delatorre, CRO @Harness: Why Every Sales Rep Should Do Pipeline Generation | E1251 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 1, 2025 bearish
Prediction Open · timeframe Sep 2026
Stebbings: AI agents will replace junior marketers and SDRs within 12 months
“Most 25, twenty-six-year-old marketing managers or SDRs, I'm sorry to say it, they're not brilliant. They do not love the craft. They are not better than a phenomenal agent will be in the next 12 months. They will be replaced.”
Harry Stebbings Sep 1, 2025 ▶ 25:53 Cohere Founder, Nick Frosst: How To Compete with OpenAI & Anthropic, and Sam Altman’s AI Disservice · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 2, 2026 positive
Assertion Supported
Monday.com replaced 100-person inbound SDR team with AI agents
“We had a team of about a hundred SDRs and we now doing, doing it with agents. A hundred percent is being done with agents. We move those SDRs to do outbound.”
Eran Zinman Mar 2, 2026 ▶ 22:09 Monday.com CEO on Is SaaS Dead: Will Everything Be Vibe Coded | Eran Zinman · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 21, 2026
Disclosure
Figma operates without traditional sales development representatives, says CRO Boscanian
“We also don't have traditional SDRs.”
Sean Boscanian Mar 21, 2026 ▶ 13:34 This is why I don't believe in sales quotas | Figma CRO · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Mar 21, 2026
Disclosure
Figma shifted its SDR team to manage small transactional renewals
“Recently we made a new shift, and we said even that we're gonna kind of take the focus away from, and we're using them now in a more pointed way on existing customers and managing small you know, transactional renewals to get those off the plates of some of th…”
Sean Boscanian Mar 21, 2026 ▶ 15:12 This is why I don't believe in sales quotas | Figma CRO · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 23, 2026 positive
Opinion
Degnan: AI will not make salespeople or SDRs obsolete
“You know, I'm thinking about, like, all these questions around, you know, people are saying the sales person will be dead, or SDRs will be dead. I just, I don't buy it”
Chris Degnan May 23, 2026 ▶ 1:09:04 Why Anthropic Are Causing a Comp Crisis & Why You’d Never Hire From Salesforce or ServiceNow · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Made with StarZero

Turn any episode into a week of clips.

This entire site, over 1,200 episodes transcribed, diarized, checked and made playable, runs on the StarZero media pipeline. Drop in your own episode and the podcast clipper finds the moments worth sharing, cuts them, captions them, and reframes them for every feed.