How to Win Your First Year as an SDR | Arely Brattin

Hey, Arlene, how you doing?

Hello, how are you?

I'm awesome. Started just, it just started raining a couple of minutes ago, so I'm really excited.

No.

How's the day treating you?

I'm just getting started. So, so far so good. All right.

I think we can get started. We have about 17 people already live. I think most, more of them would be joining in any moment.

Perfect.

I'm very excited because I've already got tons of questions. I think in the meantime, while everybody's settling in, we can then start with a couple of questions. I think one of the questions that just popped up from, from our girl here is she wants to ask, how do I become an AE if I'm an SDR?

Oh my gosh. That's a, that's a good one. Isn't that like the million dollar question? I think a lot of it comes down to doing the role before you get the job, right? So making sure that while you're in seat as an SDR, I think the first 2 quarters under your belt is like the first quarter is learning the systems. How do you navigate things? How do you get things done? Once you hit quarter 2, you really start finding your own flow and workflow. And then as you're evaluating, you're coming at your company, is it 3 quarters that you have to stay and seat as an SDR than a year? What does that look like? When you're in that final quarter, you start joining, you know, AE demos, actually like introducing, maybe doing some discovery. I had an SDR who her AE's internet, there was a huge storm, AE's internet wasn't working, and she jumped on the discovery call and ran it as an SDR. Was like, hey, I'm an SDR, my AE's internet's out, so I'm gonna be running today's call. And that made her really stand out from everybody cuz she was doing the role before she even was eligible for promotion. And it was a no-brainer for us to promote her to accounting executive on that time came and we had the headcount. Doing the work, getting better, joining AE demos, already practicing how to pitch as an account executive, but having those conversations with your manager early about where you want to go and what you need to work on as an SDR to get there and networking with whoever that AE manager is going to be to make sure that you're doing the things that they would want for their team too.

Amazing. I'm so sorry to put you on the spot in the past 5 minutes, but I think I think LinkedIn Live for me always makes more sense when we are taking live questions. We will continue to do so, but before that, let's quickly get into the topic. Early, I think I have done a bit of research, and if my research is correct, you started as an SDR, not a manager, not a director, as an SDR, just like a lot of people who have joined in today. And in your first 4 months at ZoomInfo, you averaged 147% of quota. We need to know the story for sure.

Yeah.

And you sourced 248 meetings. And I know for a fact, Because I've dealt with a lot of SDRs, account executives at ZoomInfo, I think they have the best team for sure. In fact, some, a lot of times I do not respond to, and I'm sharing this secret out live to everybody. Their follow-ups are so good. Sometimes I do not reply because I want to see what's going to come next.

Yeah.

Right? Yeah. And you did not just meet your numbers. You got promoted twice and eventually became the manager of every, the very team you started in. Today you are the SDR manager, senior SDR manager at Orem. A company, one of my favorite companies that literally helps sales teams have more like conversations. So when you talk about what works in the field, you're actually not guessing. You're seeing this data on a daily basis from your own company, from other companies whom you're selling to. And I think for everybody who's tuned in today, I would want you to pay attention to, you're also a volleyball coach. And the way you think about developing athletes, exactly, I think you think about developing SDRs, the discipline, fundamentals, coachability. The same thing that what makes a great athlete also a great SDR. So today we are talking about how to survive and win your first year in sales. And there's nobody better to have the conversation with. Thank you so much for joining in.

Yeah, no, thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here. I think this is one of my favorite topics to cover, especially like in my position as a manager, I've seen it all. Also been through it myself as well. So just happy to engage and ask any questions that anybody may have.

I always wanted to have somebody from Orem to come on my podcast. Yeah. I think while I covered some of this in your introduction, for everyone who does not know you, watching you or listening to you for the first time, please tell us a little bit about you. What do you do at Orem and how does your work actually impact the SDR teams?

Yeah, definitely. Right now I'm a senior manager here at Orem. And the way my role really impacts SDRs is I'm a frontline leader. So I actually manage a team directly, so I'm involved in in the coaching of the SDRs, developing, promoting, all that sort of stuff. But I also work directly with the account managers to make sure that we're booking quality meetings, we're having the right conversations, promoting the team to, you know, the first, our first AE team, which is the growth team. But, you know, Orem itself, we were built by salespeople for salespeople. So we actually help SDR teams with getting into more conversations when it comes to coaching, looking at scorecards and being coached from a scorecard. Also, probably managers. Understand their reps better. You know, where are they maybe falling short? Where are they really excelling? Sharing calls, all that good stuff. So that's kind of like my day-to-day and living in Orem itself. It's really cool that we get to sell a product that we use, but it is made for sales teams and SDR teams. And so it's really interesting to see when, you know, a rep joins a company and they start using Orem, maybe where they start to like a month in, their growth, you're able to see that growth within the platform itself. But it's also made for SDR teams to hit, hit their numbers, of course, um, get into more conversations. Who doesn't love that? But then listen to others' calls too, to get better, especially when it comes to account executives or somebody else on the team that's performing really well. You can listen to their calls and identify what they're saying or doing differently and look at the metrics in there. So that's what's, what is really awesome about Orem itself is you can see reps who really lean in, use it, and then grow in their careers too.

I think I downloaded one of your reports from 2025 recently. I think it was December, but I think I got the report actually just a couple of months ago. And I think it is something which every SDR should definitely take a look at. Tons of data. I think it has already given me like 6 months worth of content in case something does not change. So thank you so much for, uh, let the team know they did a fantastic job. Early, uh, could you take us to the beginning? How did you get into sales? I'd love to hear your story.

Yeah, so I actually got into sales because I needed to make money really quick. So I was working in, I was a property, I worked at a property management company. It was a mom-and-pop shop and I worked with investors who would acquire properties and then we would rent them out. And I created this whole analysis of price per square foot for the Portland metro area. And when COVID hit, my, my investors stopped investing. So I went from signing about 212 homes on my best year down to about 100. If that. And so that number was really scary for me because like I was paid obviously base and then commission for signing these, these, these clients. And it kind of made me think, well, I need to make a switch because this is actually affecting my dollar. We don't know how long COVID's going to be around. And the uncertainty was really scary. Um, so my now husband, he was at ZoomInfo and he was like, hey, you know, you should think about being an SDR. And I was like, What is that? I don't even know what that is. I don't even know what ZoomInfo is. Like, he's like, just learn about it, think about it. And so I was like, you know, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Um, so I decided to jump into, um, an SDR role and interview. And boy, let me tell you, like, I had no idea what, what I was doing. Um, and I just decided to go for it. Ended up being an SDR, but I kind of fell into it based out of necessity. It's not something that I was like, oh, this is what I want to go do. And even when I joined, I was like, I don't even know what I want to do with this. Like, yes, it's fun. Yes, I'm good at it, but I don't even know what my career looks like outside of Inestia land, just because I didn't know what the opportunities were. Um, and then I just developed. I mean, I went from inbound to outbound. Uh, when I was in outbound, I worked in acquisitions and emerging products, and that was really fun. And then I became a team lead for the team that I was on, and then I became a manager and managed 6 different teams during my time there. So, That was a little bit about like my story, but I started my, just like as everybody does, typically inbound to outbound and going from there. But it was a journey, but I had a really, I had a really good leadership team that believed in me and promoted me and they made all the difference for me too.

While I appreciate, you know, you're crediting the whole thing to your leadership team, I'm sure you had to do, you had a lot to do with this. And I'm pretty sure every SDR who has tuned in today, they probably have the same question in their head. I got into this role because everybody told me that's how I could start at the bottom and I eventually have to work my way up, whether it is SDR leader or account executive, how do, how do I get to the finish line? So tell us what, what went through your head. Like, how was your first year? How did you get promoted too fast?

Yeah. Um, I'm naturally competitive, so I think it's the athlete in me. So I was one of like 30 in a hiring class and immediately I said, I want to be better than everybody. Um, I was also like one of maybe 3 women in my hiring class. So I was like, I'm going to beat every single boy in my hiring class and, um, show them, you know, if they don't come in, this is what I'm going to do. do, like, I'm gonna be the next best AE. I just came in every day and did my job, but I set mini goals for myself. So every day that I came in, I said, what are 3 things that I actually wanna accomplish today? How many meetings do I wanna book? How many calls do I wanna listen to? What is one, like, learn something new, right? So some basic things on a sticky note. And I had a great relationship with my manager. I said, hey, you know, I'm not really sure what I want to do after that SDR role, but I know I wanna be good at this while I'm in seat. So like, here is how I like to be coached best. So I told my manager, this is how I like to be coached. I don't need the compliments. I just want you to tell me what I'm doing wrong and how you want me to fix it, because that's how my brain processes things. So I had a great relationship with him. Um, I was a little neurotic. I will say this because I'm on the West Coast and the majority of my team was on the East Coast. So they had the lead dump at 8:00 AM EST. So what I would do is I would wake up at like 4:55 PST and I would wait to get the inbound leads coming in. So I could basically work East Coast hours essentially and get the lead dump. So I would get the lead dump, work through my leads, go back to bed for an hour and then get back on the phones. And then one thing I had the benefit of being on the West Coast is I actually worked Australia and New Zealand in the evenings to make sure that I could target them. So the joke was like Miss Worldwide because I was literally East Coast, West Coast, we could do. So. I just kind of learned in order to be better, I had to work a lot harder at the beginning because I was a lot newer, but then also knowing that I am on the West Coast, so I don't have, you know, the lead up in the morning. So modify for that. I'm making myself a schedule. I worked long hours when I first started. Um, and that's just what I had to do to be promoted. I'm not saying that's what you need to do, but like, that's what worked for me, given that it was very competitive, especially in a hiring class of 30, as you can imagine. But that's what worked for me and just being coached and listening to my manager, um, listening to other account executives and seeing how they talked to then incorporate those into my talk track. But I sold like me. Yes, we had a script, but I think the benefit of, you know, having a little bit of confidence once you're in seat is you start selling like yourself instead of selling like a robot. Um, and I think that's one thing that helped me is people are like, oh, she's so personable. She's so friendly. Like she's asking about their family. Like you don't really hear that in sales, right? And so I think that's something that really helped me in my career is, is learning how to sell like me. And not sounding like somebody else.

Wow. Okay. I have so many follow-up questions. I'll start with the basic one. You mentioned how you work longer hours and I believe I speak to a lot of SDRs around the globe and some of them feel like they got from another job where they have to work longer hours to another job where they are expected now to work longer hours because they see everybody is doing that. I have, I've seen sales team across Rippling, ZoomInfo, and I know all of them work like insane hours. I know reps at Rippling who start working on Sundays. And so we all know the drill, right? And it is quite common. However, and I'm sure we have to agree that some of these folks come from B2C where they already used to work for 6 days a week. Some of them used to work in retail, again, 6 days a week. How do we change that mindset? Or what would you recommend to those people who are changing from one career where they're already working 6 days a week into working longer hours again? Because that's what they thought is going to be different here.

I mean, the question I would say is how bad do you want it? Right? How bad do you want to be an account executive? I would tell myself like, I know an extra hour is gonna get me one step closer to whatever the heck I wanna do here at ZoomInfo, cuz I do that now. And so it comes down to that, right? Like you, like when you think of sports players, cuz you know, they don't get good by just doing the work that they're required to do. They're usually the first ones in the gym, last ones outta the gym. They're practicing on the weekends. They're doing all these things. You have to think about it the same way. Like you don't get good without good practice. And I'm not saying that it's a requirement for you to work long hours because once you get Further into your career, that's gonna become your baseline. Like, you, you have the pipeline coming in, you have the accounts, you know them like the back of your hand. You have already put the work into these accounts to give you a little bit of that, that breathing room to take a step back. Um, but I always tell people, like, how bad do you want it? I had somebody that became an AE in 7 months because he hit like 200, 200+ percent of his quota the first 3 quarters, but he outworked everybody. And then the second quarter, it was very, very much so the same.

He just outworked everybody.

So if he could do it in 7 months versus a year or maybe 18 months, what is the benefit there? So you have to determine what that looks like for you and just know it's temporary. That's not always going to be the reality of things. It's, I call it your hustle era, is you're going to hustle for a little bit and it's going to look a lot differently, but you're going to thank yourself when you get to the next role and say, Oof, I can like take a step back now that I've done something else. But that's kind of my advice. But I don't like when people say it's like expected or, you know, it's up to you. You get to really decide. You're in the driver's seat. And I like that my managers always gave me that option and didn't say, I'm requiring you to work 10, 12-hour days. It was, I want to do it because I know I'm going to get things done. I think if you're on LinkedIn or You know, somebody that knows somebody is seeking external mentor is always really great because when you live in the world of your company, there might be similar thinking or people are, if you're feeling burnt out, maybe other people are also feeling burnt out. So how do you find somebody outside of your network that can really put in like a sense of renewed energy into you? So right now I'm working with a gal. She is a barista at Dutch Bros and she is trying to break into tech and she reached out to me about a job at Aurum. I'm not hiring right now, but I'm so passionate about helping her. Been doing some cold call role plays with her, talking about interviews, right? And I'm outside of her network, but she reached out to me, so we were able to have a conversation. And I think when you reach outside of your network, or if there's somebody at your company that you really admire, they're always gonna be willing to help you, hopefully. And just have conversations with them. Hey, you know, I, I work with my manager, but I also want a different perspective on things. You've been really successful. Can you help me here? 9 out of 10 times, people are going to be willing to help you. So external mentorship is really, really important too, or any account executive that was recently promoted to AE or SDR that was promoted to AE that you really want to work with, I think is really important too, because they were in your shoes at one point.

Believe it or not, I can vouch for the fact that it works. I remember when I was an SDR and I was almost on the verge of becoming an SDR leader, and I felt like the whole imposter that, hey, I'm not even a good SDR maybe, and why is my company promoting me to leader? And I remember back then there was no training program. There was absolutely nothing. There was LinkedIn was not that hype. I remember I reached out to James Buckley and he said yes every single time I would go to him. He would coach me. He would help me out. I also had a chance to meet him in one of the events back in the day. I reached out to Tito. He helped me with all the conferences I could attend. And I was visiting US at that time. So I did that. And I think you're right. I think most of the people, one, do not think outside their company and they think, oh, I have to be coached by my manager. I have to be trained by my manager. I mean, if you're not getting you know, what you really want in order to grow in your career. Ultimately, it's your career. So maybe look outside. So that makes kind of sense. Walk me through, let's say, again, since SDRs are the ones who are tuned in right now, if they are about to get into a company, are there any things, are there any particular things they can look into before they accept the offer so that they have the higher chance of maximizing their growth like the way you did?

Yeah, I think for me, it's really important for you to network with other individuals at the company. So when people really talk to me about the SDR career openings that we have, they'll reach out to my team and say, hey, like I'm actually interested in the SDR role, like tell me a little bit about the day-to-day at Orem as an SDR, or what do you really like about Orem, or talk to me about the opportunities there, right? So they create almost like this groundswell approach from other SDRs that are also in seat to understand what, how the team operates, how things work. Getting a sense of that is really important. I really don't lean on Glassdoor reviews or anything like that. And the reason I say that, some of those are really true, but some of them can also be really false because it's people that were let go for performance or You know, any sort of things. And so they're gonna leave a nasty review at the end of the day, and you might not end up working for a great company because of something that you've read. So like, it's important for you to vet that out from people that are actually in seat working for that specific company. So I really like when people reach out to other SDRs on my team just to ask 'em about the day-to-day, and they get an understanding of one, how I operate as a leader, what kind of leader I am, but then also the culture on my team. I feel very spoiled to have the team that I do. I have an incredible team of SDRs. Um, we're already talking about promotions that I like, oh my gosh, I could cry because I just feel so, so happy with the team that I have. I feel very blessed. Um, and so it's really important to understand how does the team operate? Do they like what they're doing? They're gonna be honest with you. Like, pick up the phone and call an SDR and they'll tell you if they like their job or not, or if they're just doing it to get to the next step. Um, so that would be my recommendation. And don't take the first offer that's given to you. Really do your research because You're always excited when you get an offer, but it might not be the best offer. And so just do your research like you would if you're prospecting any company too.

Amazing. I think I can see a totally different perspective. And I think I never thought about thinking about Glassdoor that way, Glassdoor reviews that way, because I think most of the SDRs who would come to me asking for advice, they would have already formed an opinion based on the Glassdoor reviews. Sometimes you're right. I think those reviews have been spiked because of recent firing and what Some of them might have the truth. Is there, is there like a, is there like a foolproof way how they can be sure that, you know, assume that, you know, the Glassdoor does not exist today, but could there be a way they know that they're getting into the right culture? And assume, you know, that there are a lot of companies who are coming up regularly, you know, new companies, they may not have Glassdoor, they may not have a lot of employees who have worked there in the past. Are there any questions they can ask during the interview? Are there any checkboxes they can, they can look at?

Yeah, I really like to ask, you know, One, what does the day-to-day look like for this role? But also, what are your expectations as like the frontline leader for this? Based off of what I'm reading, you're requiring this, but like as a manager, what do you like to see? Second, I like to ask, how do you coach your reps? Is it on a one-on-one setting? Is it publicly? Do we have additional time to work on things together? Like walk me through what that process looks like. Like I said, talking to the SDRs, a couple of them, if you see somebody that is, has been an SDR there a little bit longer, go ask them some questions like, hey, how do you like the job? Tell me about how you actually run through your day, because maybe the manager has certain expectations with how the day should go versus that SDR who's actually living in that world every single day. And then I think opportunities, you know, if it's remote or in-person or hybrid, like, hey, do we do anything together? Do we get together as a company? You know, what does that look like? How do you celebrate wins across your team and awards? I think those things are really, really important too. So, For me, I need to understand who I'm going to work for because I could really like the product. I could really like the company, but if I don't align with the leadership team, I'm probably not going to work there. So you need to ask those questions to that leader that you're going to be reporting into and get a gauge if you're going to be able to work for this person.

Love that. Um, tell me something. Some of these SDRs actually, in fact, all the SDRs who are starting, you know, initially starting in the first year, they all have a chip on their shoulder. They have a lot of insane pressure to prove themselves. Whether they are the founding SDR or whether they are, let's say, the 5th SDR, because they do not have experience and they're trying to make their mark in the first year. And of course, some of them have high aspirations, like you said, some of them want to become account executive before they even have started as an SDR. Some of them, whatever the goals are, right? All of them have massive goals. Are there, are there, are there any things which they can do, let's say in the first year to maximize this growth path? Of course, everybody has to meet the numbers. You said having a great relation with the manager is also important, right? So there are multiple variables. What are some of the variables if they know that, hey, you know what, if I take care of XYZ, 1 to 5, I would, I know that I'm on the right path.

Yeah, I think the first thing is getting organized, right? So when you come into a new role, it's like drinking from a fire hose. So get organized quick and be efficient. Let that be your baseline and level of organization. When I started off as an outbound SDR, one thing I did is I had, I actually supported, I think it was 7 account executives at that time. So I had a Google spreadsheet that I had a tab for every single account executive. I used Salesforce Connector to import all of their accounts into that. And then from there, I went through what is like the lowest, you know, what is, what has the highest intent, what has the lowest hanging fruit, and I color coordinated everything. And so then I shared it with my AEs and said, hey, this is like our baseline. This is what I've identified as, you know, high intent, low intent, maybe, you know, some previous closed loss. Here's what I think we should do and how we should tackle your book of business. What are your thoughts here? And so I would have about 10 to 15 accounts that I would prospect a day for my account executives. Um, and then that was like my baseline of organization. From there, I had weekly syncs with my account executives on where are we at? You gave me these accounts. Here's the status. Here's what I've done. Here's what I need moving forward. This is what I need from you. Also, we need to remove some of these accounts because they're not interested. So we need 5 new accounts. I've identified 2, like you go get 3. So it was a partnership with my account executives. It wasn't me coming to meetings being like, what do you want me to work on today? What accounts do you want for me to work? Right? So basically organization. Following the process, um, to a T when you first start is important because if you start hearing people say, well, they want you to do it like this, but I do it like this, then you don't actually have a baseline that you can go back to because you're just having a scrambled approach to what other people are telling you to do versus like, The playbook that's in front of you. Once you have organization, you have your playbook, then you can start getting creative and adding your own flair, but you need to follow that recipe because there's a reason they're asking you to do it that way, because they know once you learn this, then like we can always add more layers to it. Getting a team player on the team to be kind of like your mentor or your champion through your onboarding process is really important. Listening to what kind of calls, listening to— we use Gong, so You listening to some recordings are really going to be effective in the first year. But I would say the number one thing I would say is get organized. That's always going to be the number one thing for me that I tell reps, because if you are disorganized and you don't prepare yourself every single day, you're just calling blindly. You're having bad conversations because you didn't prep the night before for the day. So always preparing the night before for today is always going to be the best way instead of coming in blind and say, okay. What am I going to do today? Right? So that would be my recommendation. And when you talk about the pressure, you're just calling people at the end of the day. You're just picking up the phone and calling people. Yes, you're going to have imposter syndrome. Are you going to have bad days? Absolutely. Everybody does. But at the end of the day, like you are just calling people. It could be worse. You could be doing worse things. That's what I tell people. So just know, um, it's just a cold call.

I like that perspective. I really like that. In fact, that's a perspective I gave to myself before I got into it in the SDR role. I used to be a collection agent. My job was to collect like $2 million from hotel owners for their franchise portfolio. And when I was getting into it, I'm like, I used to collect money, you know, real money from people while maintaining the relationship because I had to knock on the doors again for the same month, for the next month. And I said, this has got to be easy. And it was. So yeah, that perspective definitely helps. Definitely a lot of nuggets you left there. I would like to double tap on some of them. You said about the AEs-SDR relationship. I think that that's one thing which people kind of ignore. I believe I had like a massive push because of my account executive. I built the whole LinkedIn presence because of my account executive. He got me a book I remember, Not Taught, from Keenan, the one who wrote Cap Selling. And I remember I wrote an article on it, tagged Keenan on it. He kind of gave me some motivation and I was like, yeah, very young. And I'm like, oh my God, the author of the book is kind of giving motivation. I want to do more. And I started doing more. And then I remember my, one of my other account executives moved to another company. He took me there and that changed my entire trajectory of the career. So people kind of are sitting on this. They think like, ultimately my job is to book a meeting for somebody who's kind of separate, who's another person, who's another department. In some cases they are reporting to marketing, they're reporting to sales. So I think that is definitely one of the things which people are sitting on. They're just not realizing it.

Yeah. And I think too, like talking about the account executive, a question I have with SDRs is like, when's the last time you asked your AE what their pipeline number is? They know how many meetings you need to get in a quarter or a month or whatever you're based off of, but have you asked them what their number is and how you're actually going to work together to hit their number? How many opportunities do you two need to source together in order to hit that revenue target? Just curious, have you asked them that? Do you know what that looks like? Do you know their number? Because once you start working backwards from that number, you can start saying, okay, I know that we need to sell this many seats to get to this number if this is our baseline without discounting. Therefore, I need to go source this many opportunities. My SQL to SEO conversion is this percentage. So based off of that, I know that this many will actually move into second steps. Like you have to start thinking about it that way because once you start doing that as an SDR, that becomes second nature as an account executive because you know what your pipeline number looks like. And so that's something I always tell my SDRs to do is like, go ask them what their number is for them. Go ask them what that looks like. What do they have currently in pipeline? What do you two need to go work on? Together to get it in order to help them hit their number too. It's not just about your number. It's about their number and the business's number for the quarter, for the year, whatever you have.

You mentioned earlier, you know, how frightening it could be ultimately just a cold call. For a lot of SDRs I talk to, they're not afraid of cold calling. They're, I think, afraid of a lot of mundane tasks. For example, there's a company I am about to consult. They are, they're running like 5% connect rate where the rep has to dial 250 dials manually, believe it or not. And they could be a great prospect for I'll let you know. They have to dial 250 dials to get 5 connects. And then of course, the SDR has never been trained. That's another challenge. So they are not able to convert irrespective of making 250 calls. And now they're on the verge of, all of them are on the verge of burnout. This is the first year and the rep is dialing 250 dials a day, every single day, maybe working 9, 10 hours. Sure. Everybody grinds. How would you, what would you tell the SDR? What kind of mindset should they have? How should they even approach it?

I would break it up in the day. Your, if your requirement is to, uh, make 250 dials, are you waiting till the end of the day to make your dials or are you actually breaking that up during the day? Like when you think about 250, I'm like, without Aura, I'd be like, oh gosh, I remember those days. But I would break it up. It's like, okay, in the morning I'm gonna come in, I'm gonna check my emails, I'm gonna hit UK first and I'm gonna call the East Coast cuz I know they're probably up. I'm gonna call 50, like I'm gonna make 50 dials and then I'm gonna take a policy Coffee reset, like just break it up during the day. Like look at how long you want to work and then break that up into the day because when you're actually taking the pauses and doing it in short sprints, it feels less daunting. Get a peer to make dials with you because it's always more fun when you're calling with somebody instead of feeling really isolated. But take your breaks, like go on a walk, leave your desk, do the little things so that, that you don't get burned out because it's going to happen. We're all, we're, we're all human. We've all felt burnt out. It would be silly of me to say that that has never happened to me or to any other Yeah, right. But when you break things up during the day and you have a schedule, it just becomes natural. It becomes your, your nature that you're like, yep, I know exactly what I'm gonna do every day. And it helps you with that burnout. But I used to color code my, my calendar and I would say prospecting block, calling block, air leak, go take a walk, little things like that. And on my phone, I set a 30-minute timer for some of the activities that I would do because to me, once that alarm went off, it's like, okay, I gotta get up. I got to go get some food and go do those things. So that, that's what I would do to help yourself too. But also look at maybe some of the activities that are taking you a little bit longer and identify why they're taking you a little bit longer. Is it maybe a process issue? Is it something else that you, that you need? And then go from there.

Brilliant. I love that. Let's take a couple of questions from the audience in the meantime, before we dive into the topic again. We have somebody who is seeking an SDR role and he wants to know the perspective as a sales manager on what non-negotiable traits Would you seek from this SDR?

Ooh, for me, I think of my team as a puzzle. So when I'm looking to hire, what puzzle piece am I missing from my team that I'm looking to hire? Are you going to be a good culture fit for me? I think you could be an amazing SDR, but if you have an ego or you come across as, you know, ingenuine, I'm probably not going to hire you because I have a really good team and it just takes hiring one bad person to ruin my culture that I have. So I care about you as a person. And then also what drives you? I, I think it's silly when people say, oh, I'll never hire somebody that just wants money. It's like, well, why wouldn't you? Because if they want to make money, they're going to make you money as a manager. Um, so being very clear about what your expectations are, I think for me is really important when you come in. I want an SDR that kind of knows where they want to go. Like, hey, I might want to be an AM, I might want to be an AE. Um, and knowing kind of what that next step looks like. So I know that in the back of my mind, but overall just doing, doing the job. Um, I like when people pick up the phone and call me and say, hey, Early, like I noticed that you have an SDR opening. My name's so-and-so. Do you mind if I tell you a little bit about me so like we can see, you know, if we'd be interested in continuing the conversation? So that's kind of for me what's really important.

How do you check for ego? I know most of the managers would say that, hey, I don't want anybody with the ego. I don't want, I want everybody who's a culture fit. I think sometimes these are broader terms and I'm being super honest with you. At times I don't even understand what a culture fit might mean. Of course, it might be clear in my head, but if I were to put that on paper, I think it'll be super hard. And if I were to explain this to somebody, even harder. I'm probably putting you on the spot by asking you this. How would you check for somebody who has an ego? Like, are there any signs? Are there any questions you ask?

Yeah, one of the exercises I run through is I have them do a mock role play with me. Sometimes they expect it, sometimes they don't. And then I give them feedback and then I see how they receive that feedback. Do they make excuses for doing something or are they, well, like, this is the way I was always taught, so this is how I'm gonna do it, or I disagree. Like, are they pushing back? What does that look like? So like, that's one thing that I do. Another question I like to ask is like, if I were to ask, um, one of your colleagues what they would say about you, what would they say? So like, there's certain key things that I think about when they mention things, you know, if they're like, well, I'm just really blunt, or I'm just really direct. It's like, okay, well, is that coachable? Or is this actually a personality trait that you have where you just don't have maybe some of that regulation to say, hey, like, that's not the right thing to say, or I shouldn't have said it that way. But with ego, um, I can usually tell when I'm a, I'm on a call, like within the first 5 to 10 minutes, I can tell if somebody is going to work out or not, or enjoy working for me. Um, and I ask how they, um, like to be coached. That's another one for me that's really important. I like to understand, um, what works for them and what doesn't work. But you can kind of tell when somebody has an ego and they walk in the room. It's, it's pretty black and white, I think, uh, after doing so many interviews.

We have another question. This is from somebody who, uh, I'm going to put this on the screen. This person is in founding AE, really struggling to manage both the ends together, like a full-cycle AE, and he's asking if it's only him or does it happen to everybody?

No, I think that this is a really good question, especially with being a founding AE. I think your expectations are a little bit different because you're doing full cycle. One thing that I would say is I would jot down what's taking you the most time. So when you're like prospecting or calling or any actions of your role, time yourself. And then see where you're spending the majority of your time. If you feel comfortable talking to your, your higher-ups, I would say, hey, I'm really spending a lot of time doing these specific tasks. It would be really helpful if I had maybe an additional resource or a tool. You know, do you have any advice for me? Coming from a place of seeking to understand instead of seeking to demand, I think will really help you.

Mm-hmm.

Because once you have the data in front of you of actually showing, hey, I time myself and this is what's taking me the most time, maybe getting you some resources there can be really effective. And then also understanding what are their expectations of you? How many dials are they requiring you to make? How many meetings would they like you to have in a day? So you have a baseline of this is the standard. And then from there, you can work backwards to identify what is actually taking the most time. Do I need an additional resource here? That would be my recommendation. I do hear that a lot, especially as a founding AE or a full cycle rep. I do hear that feedback quite often too.

Awesome. I love that breakdown. The next question is exactly the same question I wanted to ask you. We've been hearing different stories around how AI is going to take over and the first job to be axed will be SDR roles. I mean, we all know how that happened when AI SDR teams, AI SDR tools came in. We don't see them anymore. Of course, we have seen the transition. We have seen the involvement, but I'd love to understand from you, like, what are you seeing given that you also sell to other sales teams? What is the general motion right now? What is your opinion on, you know, where this role might go in the next 1 year or so?

Yeah, I mean, I laugh. I think you and I kind of talked about this. Sales started with 2 people agreeing that they mutually needed something from one another. They shook hands and said, great, like, you're gonna help me, I'm gonna help you. That's kind of the beauty of sales, right? And so when I think about sales, I wish I had a dollar for every time somebody told me this, um, but I don't think that's going to happen. AI, I mean, we use AI, Orem has AI in it. So we use AI to help with the mundane tasks of the SDR role. Is it finding new prospects? Is it looking at accounts? Is it looking at signals, surfacing all of that up? It's still on the SDR to work that account and to go pick up the phone and call, to create a really nice email, to do the LinkedIn. You're not going to replace that human component. I actually saw an SDR, a BDR leader that posted that they got a call from like an AI SDR and they were like, Ew, that was so weird. Also, like, pretty sure some of that stuff is illegal from my understanding. And they're like, this was the weirdest thing ever. Why would, why would I answer this call? And so they hung up. And so the thing there is people want to talk to humans. When you need customer support or something goes wrong, you order something, you buy something, it makes you angry when you have to fight with a chatbot or on the phone to get to like a real human. So imagine how buyers also feel like they don't want to go through that process of a robot or You know, having to fight through a chatbot to get to something. They wanna talk to a real human at the end of the day. And so you are irreplaceable. It's my thought process, but also like your value as an SDR, you get to prove your value because is an AI SDR gonna bring in as much money or revenue as you do? Probably not. So you get to really tie your worth to like who you are as a person and not this AI. Like use AI for the things that take the longest. part of your job for sure, but it's not really going to take your job. That's my hot take on it. I've seen companies try this AI thing, it hasn't worked, and then they hire SDRs again. So yeah, there might be cuts to the size of the team, but not, you know, the human component of selling.

Good point. I think I'd like to add on to this fact because recently I've been consulting a lot of companies and some of these companies have understood that for each stage of the company, we may need a different skillset of an SDR and About 3 of the companies who I spoke to, let's say in the last 10 days or so, they have mentioned that they do not want to hire as much SDRs as they would. For example, earlier back in the day, because all these mundane tasks had to be done by human beings, so they would have to hire, let's say, 10 SDRs. Today they are thinking about, okay, can we hire 6 or can we hire 5 or whatever that number is? But automating a lot of tasks, like you said, I think the real value which an SDR brings to the table is they can pick up the phone, actually talk to Erli or Rahul. And have a conversation, which AI will not be able to do right now. At least for the foreseeable future until that happens, where somebody can clone my voice and speak to you without you realizing it. Until that doesn't happen, that means a human would have to do the work. However, in order for me to get to that, I want to make sure that I'm not doing any of the other tasks which AI can take over. Now, as an SDR, somebody who is in the first year, what can, how can they leverage AI really, really well, which can propel their career into a different direction altogether? I believe it has done, it has done Amazing things for me ever since I started using AI. I manage my entire company with like one full-time employee and there's everything is kind of automated. So I can see the value, but I'd love to hear from you for Eddie's.

Yeah. Um, this is a good question. So I think for me, it's what is the tool and resource that's going to be able to identify my accounts, like show me intent signals, maybe show me additional prospects that I didn't look into. That sort of stuff is what I love for AI. ChatGPT is really great too because you can ask it, when I'm looking at a company, it's like, give me snippets from like the last earning calls from like 2025 from this company. Like, is there any earnings calls? Is there, were any of the people in on a podcast? Summarize this podcast for me. Little things like that that you can use to then personalize an email or like have a conversation with that individual. I think it's great. I know Claude is a huge thing. It's all over LinkedIn. I don't know too much about it. I feel like every day a new tool is surfacing up, but that's kind of how I use AI is really when I think about like the small, small things that lead to a lot during the day that are small tasks that can be time consuming and leverage it that way. Don't be afraid of it. Definitely learn how to use it and use it to leverage kind of your account list. But other than that, like I wouldn't use it to create an email. Like you can say, You can have it show you how to, like, what email it would send with your own messaging and wording, but I wouldn't just copy and paste either. So that would be my recommendation. And then using AI also for, just, we use it with call coaching and all that stuff too, but just leverage it to help you in like the small tasks and then go from there.

Awesome. Tell us a little bit about Mike Warren, if I'm pronouncing and, you know, saying his name right. I think one of your STR, I recently saw your post, how he killed it. Tell us a little bit about him. And what did he do differently? I know I have tons of questions, follow-up questions for you.

Oh gosh, Mike. This is really fun. So last week, him and I got together and he was kind of struggling and was like, Airalee, like, I just, I don't know what I'm doing. Like, he is a workhorse. I will tell you, Mike is a workhorse and he is so coachable. And just as a manager, like, you could just not ask for anything better. But we listened to some calls and I said, Mike, what if you were really successful at your last job? Where, where do you feel like you're struggling? And he's like, well, I feel like, you know, I, what I did differently is the, the people I was selling to, the personas were a little bit different. There was that aspect. Um, and we identified that he wasn't really telling his story of using Aurum, right? We sell our product that we, that we use. And so that was the key component. And I said, are you having fun? And he's like, not really, cuz I'm not winning. And I said, okay. And I said, What do you have to lose by having fun, like picking up the phones and calling? And he like started playing music and like was dancing in the background and just being so fun. And it almost like this mindset shift changed in him of like, I'm just calling at the end of the day. I'm setting myself up for success going from there. But him and I did a lot of coaching sessions, so we actually listened to some calls. I gave him direct feedback, but the difference between him and a lot of people is he came to me. Asking for feedback. I gave it to him and he implemented it immediately in his next call. So I got to listen to the calls and the conversations that he was having, the questions he was asking, how he was approaching these calls. And that was the difference maker there is because when I added the component of you don't have anything to lose, when you're losing all day and you've heard nos all day, it sucks. So what are we going to do to like make this more engaging and fun for you? And for him, it's like playing music in the background when he's dialing and Getting into his own mojo, but then also asking for coaching and feedback. And I gave him very direct feedback. I said, this is what's wrong with your calls. This is what I think you do really well, and this is what I would like to see. And he went and, and got after it and has been doing well ever since. But I think it started with him wanting the help and, and needing it, but then also just implementing that feedback too. But he is an absolute workhorse and he's a delight to work with and he's amazing to his account executives. He's so coachable, so personable. I think that's what makes him different is that he wants his AEs to win and they want him to win too. Like when he books a meeting, they get just as excited that he booked a meeting for them.

Oh, that's a great story. And yeah, I always love hearing stories of SDRs who are doing really well. Tell us a little bit about, you said, you know, he seeked feedback and implemented it. Why do you think some, not everybody is able to do that?

I think because we get stuck in our own ways with what's comfortable. Like we're like, well, This is my talk track and I'm so tied to it and I've spent so much time building it. What worked yesterday might not work today. What worked last week might not work today. And when you get in, you're your own biggest roadblocker because when you are not coachable and you don't listen to what your manager is telling you, it's just not going to work, right? There's a reason why they're telling you this because they've seen this pattern time and time again and they've seen it happen and they know what happened. So I think it's just like you getting in your own way. And it's just what's comfortable. Growth is uncomfortable is what I tell people. So, I think that's the biggest challenge for SDRs is like, they feel so tied to this idea of like, this is how it's always been and this is how I do it, but that's your biggest roadblocker is yourself.

I love that. Speaking of things not to do, could you name maybe like, let's say, 5 things which you believe SDRs should not do in the first year in order to jeopardize any chances of their success?

This is a good one. I think that the first thing that comes to mind is not being a team player. Because when you are not a team player, it's very, it's very apparent to everybody. And it's really hard for people to change their perspective of who you are as a person because maybe they had some negative interactions with you at first. You're not buying into the team. Kind of going into that lone wolf mentality of like, I'm gonna be better than everybody and I'm just staying in my own lane and not, you know, actually interacting with the team. I think that's the That's one of the things that I've always seen is those people never last because nobody likes them. They are only there for themselves. They only care about them and they don't care about the outcome of anything else but them. So that would be number one. The second thing is not asking questions because they're scared that they're gonna sound like they don't know what they're doing. We don't learn if we don't ask questions. There's no bad question, um, in my opinion. But I do think that if you ask the same question multiple times, you're doing something wrong. Because you've already asked this. So whatever you learn, you never applied in the first place, or you didn't put it down somewhere, or use Ctrl+F and Slack to find the answer. So that would be my other thing. And then the third I would say is, this one's tough. It's, I think people are always looking for the next thing as an SDR. I'm gonna be the next AE. I'm gonna be this. And they're just not enjoying the time in SDR because they're looking already of like, I need to do this and like putting this AE on a pedestal. to work there, but they're not enjoying the moment of being an SDR and what that, what that looks like because they're already thinking about the next thing. And it's not bad to think about the next thing and it's not, it's not bad to have aspirations. But I think sometimes it can be really limiting because you already want to get to the next thing without actually enjoying where you're at and the journey that it's going to take you to get there.

No, I think I love that part. Believe it or not, I think, I think more than 80% of people might be doing that. At least more, most, most, more than 80% of the SDRs might be doing that. They are constantly cribbing about, you know, how bad the company is, constantly cribbing about how bad, you know, they want to get out of this. And some of these people also have done cold calling maybe for another, let's say geography or another sort of segment like B2C. And now they're like, oh man, you know, I have to do this again all over again. So there is a stigma that, hey, all my other peers may have already become, let's say, managers, leaders, account executives. And I'm like stuck there. So there is, I think, a comparison trap, but I think you said it beautifully. It's like Like, if you're not enjoying this, but what is the guarantee you're going to enjoy the next thing? Maybe you're again running in that loop. Hey, I want to become the manager now or whatever that next goal is. So I think, I think like that.

Yeah. And I think too, when you're in that thought process, like you start saying, well, when I'm an AE, I'm going to do this. Or when I'm this, I'm going to do this. It's like, why not do that now? Why wait till you're an account executive to learn that talk track? Why wait till you're an account executive to run discovery? Start doing that stuff now. You don't have to wait. I mean, there's certain things you will have to wait for, obviously customer calls, but don't live in the, when I'm there, I'm going to do this. Like start doing that now. So it becomes kind of part of your behavior and process.

I love that. We are going to take one more question. It's a broader question and it is around managing the follow-ups effectively. The person said, I find it difficult to track and would love to know if you have a specific methodology or process. Which they should adhere to? Yeah.

Um, for me, I, I kind of mentioned that Google spreadsheet that I have. So I would color coordinate things like green meant that we like, it was closed won. Yellow could have meant that we were waiting on something. So for me, it could have been like they wanted a follow-up. What does that look like? Um, and then I would put in notes of what that follow-up was and just for me to take a look at things. And then red was like not interested. So I knew not to touch the red bucket. So I always had this color and purple meant booked. And then from there with the follow-ups, is it a question around like the emails or is it calls? Because when somebody would tell me, hey, follow up with me next quarter, what I would do is I would put it in my spreadsheet. I would also make a note on my calendar of like, so-and-so told me to reach out to them, um, in the, in the new quarter, here's the call recording link and put it in my Google, like as an event. And then I would also create a task in Outreach with the same information. So it's like I have a loop. For myself, and then one thing if it was a response via email, I had a folder that was called my follow-up folder, and I would put in all my follow-ups in there. So I knew exactly who I needed to reach back out to. So I kind of created a system for myself, and then I also made a note on the account, on the account specifically, and the prospect within Salesforce, just to keep myself organized. So that's kind of the follow-up. I tell people as well, you know, you're going through the day and you talk to somebody, and they're like, oh, just follow up with. with me via email or follow up with me tomorrow, whatever the case may be. Pause your dialer and then go do that action step because you're going to thank yourself because if you're making 250 dials in a day, imagine if you talk to so many people and 5 of them ask you for follow-ups. Do you remember the conversation? Do you remember what the follow-up was? So just take a pause, go do it really quick, and then jump back in so you're, you stay organized with what you're doing.

I love that. I think, um, I mean, I can echo some of that. Because I maintain my entire CRM on an Excel sheet right now. And I think it just works beautifully. I do the same calendar thing as well, where I would set up a time, like a block, that I know that this follow-up is coming. And I think that works really well. I'm forgetful. So I also do like a calendar, you know, iPhone reminder as well, just in case I miss the Google Calendar. That kind of works out beautifully. We have one last question. And the rep says in the previous company, he targeted the LATAM region. Now, the company he is in talks with expects him to target some other region in which he has no experience with. Do we think that that'll make a difference in his performance, or the first principles are enough to crack the new region?

Yeah, good question. I think for that, is there somebody else that's in seat right now that's targeting that new TAM? That would be my, like, the first conversation I would have. And then also laying out the expectations from the hiring manager of like, hey, given that you're trying to, you know, address this new TAM. What has been your win rate there? What are you expecting from me when I come in and do this job realistically? What's the historical numbers and what are your expectations of me? That way you have some context. Right now we're tapping into EMEA, which is really exciting. We have an account executive in EMEA. So this is a new TAM for us. So I've been talking to a lot of people in EMEA of how to sell into EMEA. So if you're targeting a new geo or anything else, it's go talk to some of the people that are actively targeting that that specific TAM and see maybe what the difficulties are, what are the benefits, what has been working there and what hasn't. So you actually have an idea of what is realistic here, because that's always a challenge is targeting a new TAM. So talk to the people that are doing it and see and go from there, but also understand the historicals, why we're actually moving to this and what the expectations are. So you don't go in blind— blindsided either.

I think I like that approach. Find somebody who has already sold. And I think the person says, thank you. That's helpful. So we answer the questions.

Good.

Awesome. I do not have any question, Narali. I think this has been phenomenal. I think we, I probably asked you like 20 questions and we answered like 5 from the, from the live audience. So we've already taken so much time. At the same time, I think you have been immensely helpful in answering all the questions truthfully. I don't think so I could have gotten this from elsewhere. So thank you so much for being here.

Yeah, you're so welcome. And for all of you that are doing the work, just know it's really hard. You're doing something that a lot of people can't do and just have fun while you're doing it. Seek coaching and advice from your mentors. Find an external mentor. If you need a resource or anything, feel free to message me on LinkedIn. But I enjoyed this conversation. This is something I'm passionate about and AI is not going to replace you. It's going to enhance you. Don't worry about losing your job to AI. So thank you for the conversation today. This was, this was so delightful.

This was fantastic. Thank you, Early.

Alrighty.

Alrighty.