SDR Success Techniques

I got ghosted by 127 LinkedIn prospects in 2017. Then I discovered the pattern. So there I am... Fresh SDR me refreshing my inbox every 10 minutes hoping for responses. Little Morgan clearly getting cooked in the DMs. My messages were painful. "Hope all is well. My name is Morgan. We have mutual connections and I'd love to connect. Here's what we do..." Just terrible. I am sick even telling you all this. But when you start in sales, there aren't really guidelines. You get thrown in like "hope this works" and pray something sticks. I thought I wasn't good enough. Then I realized something huge: They weren't ignoring ME. They were ignoring my APPROACH. That changed everything. Here's the framework I developed after studying hundreds of messages: The AMP Outbound Formula: ↳ Observation (show them you know them) ↳ Context (why this observation matters) ↳ Pain point (what they're likely facing) ↳ Value prop/Power Move(how you help) ↳ Call to action (next step) You don't need all 5 every time. Sometimes just observation + context + question works. Quick example" Before: "Hope all is well..." (Almost barfed writing this) " After: "Saw you just expanded your SDR team by 5 people. Most VPs tell me onboarding at that scale leads to (insert situation). Not sure if this is relevant but how are you currently doing (x)?" (Now we are getting somewhere) But every successful message I've seen follows this pattern. As Samantha McKenna says "Show Them You KNOW Them" before you show them what you DO. When I follow this framework, response rates jump. When teams I coach use this from our LinkedIn Revenue Engine™ they book more meetings from LinkedIn. Your prospects are waiting for someone who gets them. Be that someone.

I’ve been cold calling for 9 years. Here’s everything I know about it: (this is a longer post so bear with me) 𝟭. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝟭𝟬 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴: People don’t hang up because it’s a cold call. They hang up because you sound unsure, scripted, or boring. - Be calm. - Be confident. - Be clear. 𝟮. 𝗦𝗸𝗶𝗽 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸: Don’t ask “𝘏𝘰𝘸’𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳 𝘥𝘢𝘺 𝘨𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨?” Don’t ask “𝘐𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘢 𝘣𝘢𝘥 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦?” Just try: “𝘏𝘦𝘺 (𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦), 𝘐 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘸𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯’𝘵 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴, 𝘐’𝘭𝘭 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘪𝘵 𝘴𝘶𝘱𝘦𝘳 𝘣𝘳𝘪𝘦𝘧.” That opener alone will double your talk time. 𝟯. 𝗣𝗶𝘁𝗰𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺, 𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝘁: No one cares that you’re the “𝘯𝘰.1 𝘱𝘭𝘢𝘵𝘧𝘰𝘳𝘮 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘟.” Tell them what pain you solve, fast. 𝟰. 𝗢𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗻’𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀: “I’m not interested” just means they don’t understand you yet. Use the FFF method: Feel - Felt - Found. “𝘐 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵. 𝘖𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘴 𝘧𝘦𝘭𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘮𝘦… 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘺 𝘧𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘢𝘴 (𝘣𝘦𝘯𝘦𝘧𝘪𝘵).” 𝟱. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗴𝗼𝗮𝗹 𝗶𝘀𝗻’𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝗲𝗹𝗹, 𝗶𝘁’𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: If they’re talking, you’re winning. If they’re curious, you’re in. If you book the meeting, that’s the win. 𝟲. 𝗩𝗼𝗹𝘂𝗺𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝗺𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗮𝗻𝘁: You could have the best pitch in the world… But if you don’t make the dials, you won’t get the meetings. Consistency > perfection. 𝟳. 𝗬𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗮𝗻'𝘁 𝗯𝗼𝗼𝗸 𝗺𝗲𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴𝘀 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲: Don’t waste time trying to convince people who don’t have the problem you solve. Laser focus on your ICP, the ones who feel the pain. 𝟴. 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆: Your tone > your script. People say yes to people who sound like they believe in what they’re saying. 𝟵. 𝗙𝗼𝗹𝗹𝗼𝘄-𝘂𝗽 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗹𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 𝗼𝗻 𝗶𝘁: Most meetings I book happen after the call. Send a short LinkedIn DM or a value-driven email right after. 𝟭𝟬. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝘀𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗽𝘀 𝗱𝗼𝗻’𝘁 𝘄𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘁: They have a framework. They prep. They reflect after each call. And they improve daily. Cold calling still works if you do it right. Now let's book some meetings!!!! P.S. I've created a free cold calling cheat sheet where I share all of my do's & don'ts. You can access it for free here: https://lnkd.in/g9BrrDA6

The answer to your outbound problems isn't: ⛔️ AI ⛔️ More volume ⛔️ SDR agents ⛔️ More relevance ⛔️ Dialers It's your OFFER. Let me explain... Most reps reach out with something like: “Just want to introduce myself and our company…” “Let’s do a quick call so you know your options when budgeting season comes around...” The problem? You have NOTHING to offer. If there’s no immediate need, there's zero reason to take a meeting with you. So you need a way to entice buyers to meet when they have a problem, but are not actively shopping. Here are three types of offers you can use to entice buyers to meet with you: ✅ Offer #1: Good - Pitch The Blind Date Position who the buyer will be meeting with. Hype up the AE, sales engineer, or yourself. Show them that meeting with you will be worth their while. Example: A client of ours sells an automated welding solution. The manufacturing industry is facing a massive shortage of welding talent. Their SDRs pitched it like this: “I’d love to introduce you to Eric. He’s worked with a dozen manufacturers like Caterpillar, Karavan, and more, who are all facing similar challenges. He’ll walk you through how they’re automating the most difficult welds and dealing with the labor shortage. Even if nothing comes of it, you’ll walk away with a better understanding of how the industry is solving this.” Even if the buyer isn’t shopping, they gain value from the conversation itself. ✅ Offer #2: Better - 1:Many Offers These are high-quality, reusable insights that still feel tailored. Think: competitive benchmarks, industry research, or best practice guides. Example: We have a client that sells to ecomm brands. They conducted a mystery shop of 400 competitors to analyze response times, customer service channels, etc. Their reps used those insights to open cold calls with: “Hey Katie, I submitted a ticket on your site, and it took about 48 hours to get a response. It was about 3x longer than folks like Patagonia and the North Face. Again, it’s Jason. Mind if I share more about why I’m calling?” That’s an offer that feels immediately relevant and valuable. It gets a conversation started immediately. ✅ Offer #3: Best - 1:1 Offers These are custom-tailored experiences or resources created specifically for the prospect. It’s you and your organization putting in serious effort to customize the offer. This works best at the enterprise & strategic levels. Examples: - A cyber risk analysis - A benchmarking analysis - A workshop - A personalized audit of a website checkout flow. - Visiting and experiencing the brand firsthand, then sharing insights. - Offering free data, licenses, or pilots. These take more work, but they convert like crazy. ~~~ Which one's most applicable for you?

99% of AEs and SDRs believe the secret to cold email is to sharpen the message and desired outcome. They're wrong. Here's what the top 1% of cold emails do differently (3 examples in the video): 1. They agitate pain. Step 1 in a successful cold email is to describe the PAIN better than the prospect can say it. That's not the same thing as promising an outcome. Cold buyers aren't thinking about outcomes (yet). They're thinking about the thorn in their side. Capture that thorn, and you'll earn the right to have them read the next sentence. 2. They create a compelling "chain" of sentences. Write this one down - EVERY sentence your write in a cold email has one purpose: To get them to read the NEXT sentence. The only exception to this rule is the last sentence. If a sentence doesn't accomplish this, strike it. Pretend you get $100 for every word you remove. Get ruthless. 3. They read like a page in your buyer's journal. As the buy scans your email, the way you capture the pain should FEEL like a conversation they already have going on in their head. The "best of the best" cold emails get this response: "Damn, that puts words to something I've been struggling to articulate." If it could pass as a journal entry, you're bound to win. 4. They have an "easy to say YES to" call to action. The best cold emails are easy to say yes to. They don't ask for 30 minutes. That's hard to say yes to for any busy exec. They don't ask for time (explicitly). They simply reference the problem, and ask if it's worth having a conversation to explore fixing it. TAKEAWAY: Almost everyone gets cold email wrong. They either think it's ALL about outcomes and benefits. Or they think it's all about WHAT and HOW you do it (positioning). Cold email is about neither of those. It's about a describing your buyer's problem so well, it feels like you're peering into their soul. Tag an AE or SDR that would like these tips. P.S. Once you book the meeting, here's 39 questions that sell that generate urgency, uncover pain, and create momentum: https://go.pclub.io/list

Not everyone runs the math on this, but I do! When I had 5 SDRs I looked at how they spent their time… I wanted to know my costs. Their 8 hour days were on average: - 30 min: internal meetings (1:1’s, all hands) - 30 min: trainings - 150 min: prospecting data gathering - 150 min: calling - 90 min: custom emails / LinkedIn My cost of running my SDRs team was about $750K (includes tools, management, benefits, etc) That meant each fully supported SDR is $150K That meant $75/hr With that I looked at the SDR day again… WTF! $37 worth of training per day $187 worth of “Data gathering!?!” I wanted to flip it. Didn’t like the ratio I let go my least productive SDR, and hired 2 Data researchers who OBSESS with Clay, and other data tools. Hired offshore (no agency, direct hire!) Cost-wise we stayed the same. But time spent per day on my 4 SDRs flipped to: - 60 min meetings (more time w/ AEs & data team) - 60 min training (more w/ peers!) - 15 min checking / validating data in Outreach - 195 min calling - 120 min emails / LinkedIn Something crazy happened. SDRs became A LOT more strategic. SDRs enjoyed their work more SDRs collaborated with AEs more SDRs didn’t burn out as quickly SQLs (Held meetings) went from 22 per month for the team to 38 per month… SALs (AE takes ownership / flip it) went from 8 per month to 27 per month! Mid-funnel meetings to move opps down the funnel went from ZERO! To 7 per month. SDR tenure went from 14 to 31 months. All for a total cost of $0. Not an extra penny spent. Just re-organized the team, became more data driven, split responsibilities, gamified the calls, added SDR Revenue commissions and maximized SDR/AE collaboration. As you plan your 2025, consider this… there are ways to improve your team that take $0 budget. Especially if you don’t have a data team Especially if you use Orum/Nooks Especially if you’re not turning meetings into revenue Especially if you don’t have SDR-Rev-Ops Tag someone that needs to see this / think about this / consider this for the future. Heck! DM me if you want me to explain how to do it right. Happy to share some visuals and process documents via Zoom. Now get back to your 2025 planning and knock it out of the freaking park next year #SDRsMatter

I'll say it once...and I'll say it forever...if you're leading an SDR team / department and you're NOT paying attention to what happens with your team's work after they hand it off to AEs... You're relegating your team / department to a support function rather than a strategic one... SDRs can't keep being appointment setters while prospective buyers are more discerning and more risk averse than ever And just tossing meetings and opps over the fence that meet "qualification criteria" isn't going to cut it unless your company is signing contracts like there's no tomorrow ➡️ Take into consideration what sales deems as "quality pipeline" (*cough* it's likely more than just persona + need *cough*) ➡️ Identify how your team can support sales in getting 1 step closer to "quality pipeline" (within reason) ➡️ Set benchmarks for conversion rates towards "quality pipeline" standard ➡️ Partner with sales and sales enablement to come up with a playbook for SDRs and AEs on best practices to hit "quality pipeline" standard ➡️ Make sure everyone -- AEs, SDRs, AE managers, SDR managers, etc -- knows what quality is and isn't, and coaches/reinforces to that standards; consider discovery scorecards, next step sequences, plays for objections during discovery, etc ➡️ Leverage data to identify what needs the most work and what must be true to improve, i.e. further coaching, enablement, disposition training, tactic, campaigns, etc

I’ve built and led sales teams from scratch. And there’s ONE channel I see revenue leak over and over again... (and it’s not that £50k event you spent scanning badges at a stand…) It's here.. Yep.. surprise surprise it's LinkedIn. Every team I look at, it’s the same pattern. Strong outbound. Decent process. But then you open the team on LinkedIn… and there’s no surface area. The problem is your outbound is a single touchpoint. Your LinkedIn presence is the environment that touchpoint lands in. And most teams optimise the first and ignore the second. If you want this to actually move pipeline, it needs to be treated like part of sales execution: 1. Stop thinking “posting”. Start thinking “account exposure” Your reps shouldn’t just post into the void, they should be visible around the accounts they’re targeting. That means: • commenting on ICP posts consistently • engaging before outreach (not after) • showing up in the same feed as their prospects You’re building recognition before you ever send a message. 2. Tie content directly to live deals Most content is generic because it’s disconnected from reality. Your best content is already in your pipeline: • objections that keep coming up • questions prospects ask on calls • where deals get stuck f it’s happening 5+ times in conversations, it should exist on LinkedIn. 3. Build “minimum viable profiles” across the team You don’t need creators, you need profiles that answer, fast: • what do you understand? • who do you help? • how do you think? Recent activity matters more than old experience. If someone lands on the profile and sees nothing recent, you’re back to zero. 4. Align posting with outbound waves Most teams treat these separately. Better approach: • rep warms up a segment (engagement + content) • then outreach starts • then content reinforces during follow-ups You’re not relying on a single moment anymore. 5. Don’t isolate this to SDRs Here is the BIG mistake. Your AE gets checked before the call, your manager gets checked mid-deal, if visibility drops at any stage, trust drops with it. This needs to be across the WHOLE sales chain. 6. Measure leading indicators differently You won’t see this purely in “likes”. Look at: • connection acceptance rates • reply rates by rep • speed to first response • profile views from target accounts • conversion rate • and of course inbounds (yes DO add UTM links on each sales rep profile) 7. Prioritise comments over posts early on Everyone focuses on posting. But comments: • get you in front of the right people faster • attach you to existing conversations • build recognition without needing distribution Most teams are still trying to win inside the sequence. The edge right now sits outside of it. If your team has no presence on LinkedIn, every outbound starts from zero. If they’re visible in the right places, outbound becomes a conversion layer, not just an entry point. That’s where the difference is 👌🏼

I interviewed an SDR hitting 140%+ for 3 straight quarters. Here’s what they’re doing differently: 𝟭. 𝗦𝗲𝗾𝘂𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 ↳ 6–8 steps, not 15+ ↳ No filler. Every touch delivers value ↳ Call + email always paired ↳ Last step = custom video or voice note 𝟮. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗰𝗮𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿 𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗴𝗴𝗲𝗿𝘀 ↳ New fiscal year = budget convos ↳ Earnings calls = warm hooks ↳ Major events = better outreach windows ↳ They don’t just work the lead list—they work the calendar 𝟯. 𝗢𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝘀 𝗿𝗲𝗵𝗲𝗮𝗿𝘀𝗲𝗱 ↳ Weekly call roleplays ↳ Objection flashcards ↳ Builds 1–line rebuttals for each major persona ↳ “I don’t fight objections—I prepare for them” 𝟰. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗳𝗹𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗙𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗸 ↳ What worked? ↳ What didn’t? ↳ Which touches landed? ↳ Which CTAs converted? Success is repeatable—if you study it.

Stop treating outbound like a timing lottery. It's 2025 and although the LinkedIn echo chamber makes you believe that most SDR teams are hyper-targeted, the reality is different. Reps are still largely sending the same generic message across 100 accounts and hope they get lucky. Just wrote a full piece in the 30 Minutes to President's Club newsletter going over this in detail: https://lnkd.in/gsD3bjZy Here are my 3 favorite signals you can use even if you don’t have a fancy tech stack: 1. Job Listing Signals Job postings have an insane amount of information about a company and its strategic direction. You get to see first hand from the job titles and descriptions: -What initiatives they are investing in -What locations they are hiring -What tech stack they use -How they talk about the problems -What the org / reporting structure looks like 2. Social Engagement Signals Our team has been seeing 20%+ reply rates across sequences when we get to prospects within 24 hours of them leaving social signals. A social signal is when a prospect engages with something on social media related to problems that your company solves – which means they’re aware of the problem you solve. When I’m reaching out to people that display social signals, I send an email using this simple 5-sentence framework: -Observation based on LinkedIn post -Company wide signal/observation (tied to context from post) -Ideal state w/ social proof -Light Call-to-Action -P.S. any extra personalization 3. Job Change Signals Past champions/customers convert at 3x the rate of normal leads. These are people that have already used your platform in the past and know you. Execs also spend 70%+ of their budget within the first 100 days, so it’s crucial that you hit them up within that first 30-60 day period. They’ll probably be already thinking about bringing in technologies and processes that will help them have impact quickly, you just need to be the solution they choose to implement. The job change in itself just gives you the right time, you still need to think about the account holistically and provide a good reason as to why your solution is the right one for the org.

This cold email hits all the right notes. Yes, you can steal the template, but it's the underlying psychology that will help you apply it to your prospects. ___ "Hi Lisa – Looks like your team has 12 SDRs cold emailing Benefits Directors at companies with 3,000+ employees. With ACME, your reps can see which Benefits Directors searched for ALEX-related keywords in the last 24 hours—along with their names and emails—so they can reach out while interest is high. Want me to send over a few examples?" ____ Why This Works: The Psychology Behind It 1. Personalization & Relevance – By mentioning Lisa’s SDR team and their current outreach strategy, the email signals that this isn’t a generic blast. People are more likely to engage when they feel like the message is tailored to them. 2. Curiosity & Information Gap – The line “your reps can see which Benefits Directors searched for ALEX-related keywords in the last 24 hours” creates intrigue. Lisa now wonders, “Who’s searching? How can we use this?” This open loop makes her more likely to respond. 3. Timing & Urgency – The phrase “while interest is high” suggests that taking action sooner leads to better results. It plays on loss aversion—the fear of missing out on a warm lead. 4. Low-Friction Call to Action – Instead of asking for a meeting (which requires effort), the email simply offers to send examples: “Want me to send over a few?” This feels easy to say yes to, reducing resistance. 5. Conversational Tone – The email avoids formal, sales-y language. It reads like a natural, quick note, making it feel less intrusive and more approachable.