"Approach each prospect with the idea of helping them solve a problem or achieve a goal, not of selling a product or service." - Brian Tracy
The SDR role is simple: uncover new value in new markets and move people down the awareness funnel:
I’ve met with tons of killer reps (Origami serves them), SDR leaders (Modern GTM features them), and booked 100s of meetings myself through every channel.
Here's a few tendencies of the successful ones:
1. Double down on your natural channel
Great SDRs know their strength and lean into it. If you love chatting, hit the phones. If you write well, dominate DMs and email. If you shine in person, go in person.
Obviously, go where your buyer is. If you're selling to developers, LinkedIn might not be your best bet. And email is brutal because nobody opens it (but it pairs well with other channels and certain industries can still get meetings).
But the pattern holds: great SDRs double down on their natural strengths.
2. Build systems (or automate them)
Much of the SDR role is rinse and repeat. Great SDRs systematize everything - or better yet, automate it with tools like Claude Code.
Find tasks you do repeatedly (account research, message sequencing, LinkedIn outreach) and automate them. Great SDRs know which tools to use and how to leverage them.
Ex: HeyReach, Instantly, Origami, Clay, Claude Code, Wispr Flow, Kondo, Superhuman, Easy Scraper, Apify
Also important: knowing what NOT to automate. It’s easy to burn a future connection with one badly worded automated LinkedIn message. Only automate what’s repeatable and proven to be valuable. Service → product. Manual → automation.
3. Pay for tools out of pocket
I've noticed great people want to do great work, so when they find a tool that helps, they throw down their personal credit card to get it immediately. Then maybe recoup it later.
4. Consistent inputs
This is obvious but critical: most SDRs don't do the work necessary for the math to work out. You need consistent volume for the funnel to fill.
5. Steal like an artist
The best SDRs at large orgs compile call transcripts from top historical performers (or interview them), find the patterns, and copy them.
We're not reinventing the wheel here. There's usually a tried-and-true playbook that works. Your job is to figure out what that playbook is and steal it.
Note: founding sales hires can do something similar by hitting up AEs who sold similar products.
6. Find the golden segment and double down
Look at your closed deals and find the pattern. What segment converts best?
When you find one of these golden segments, take them all - every single company in that niche. They're much more likely to be problem-aware than any other segment.
Great SDRs know there are hot zones and cold zones within a market. And they're really good at finding the hot zones.
7. Do the little things
Your list matters more than anything else. But the little things add up:
- Make it easy to book - share your calendar, confirm the invite on the phone
- Send pre-meeting follow-ups to make sure prospects show
- Set reminders for "not right now" prospects (use tools like Kondo and Superhuman)
These small things make your funnel airtight.
8. Cold calls are not discovery calls
Great SDRs understand the difference between a cold call and a discovery call.
There is a major difference between someone voluntarily showing up to talk for 30 minutes (discovery call), and someone who accidentally picked up your call that interrupted their day. In most cold calls, you will not get 30 seconds!
The fundamental goal of a cold call is to get a prospect to agree to a meeting before they hang up and these are often only 2 minutes long. So you need to approach them differently.
9. Deep product and persona knowledge
Booking meetings is hard. You need to align what a person cares about with your product; there's a lot of nuance.
Great SDRs deeply understand their product and how it specifically helps people. They’ve internalized it. This intuitive understanding lets them speak in a flow state. They’re not following a script; they’re talking to a human. Without that, it’s easy to be too focused on the script and it comes across as robotic.
The best athletes religiously practice fundamentals so in the game they can play by instinct. Same thing applies to cold calls.
10. Test and invalidate markets quickly
The SDR role is evolving toward someone who can rapidly test markets. To do that at scale, you need relevant messaging for everyone you reach out to.
Claude Code, Clay, Instantly, etc are incredibly good at this - getting you the information you need for personalized, relevant messaging at scale. Sometimes even doing it!
I think great SDRs will be a combination of GTM Engineer and SDR. Those who can be dangerous with tools will build massive leverage.
11. Play the long game
Quota breath kills deals.
Not everybody is in a buying cycle. Meet people where they're at and help them grow in their understanding. That’s how you become viewed as a trusted advisor, not a seller.
Because at the end of the day, that's what the best sellers are - trusted advisors.
- L
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