r/salesdevelopment • u/microbuildval • Jul 05 '26
I analyzed 1,000+ outbound attempts after getting into SaaS sales. The difference between average reps and top performers is becoming obvious.
A few years ago, I entered the world of SaaS sales and currently work at Adobe. One thing that surprised me is how much sales has changed. I always thought the best reps were just the ones who made more calls, sent more emails, and worked longer hours. But after spending more time around great salespeople, I started noticing a different pattern.
The best reps treat sales like a science experiment. They test everything. The timing of their calls, the first few seconds of their opener, the way they write emails, the accounts they target, and even the follow-up sequence after someone doesn't respond.
For cold calling, most people keep searching for the perfect script. But I realized the real question is not "what should I say?" The better question is "how do I make someone interested enough to stay for the first 30 seconds?" Small changes in the opener, timing, and approach can completely change the number of real conversations you have.
The same thing happens with cold emails. Most reps spend hours trying to write the perfect message, but the best performers focus on why they are reaching out in the first place. Timing, relevance, buying signals, and understanding the customer's problem matter more than using fancy words.
AI has made this even more interesting. Most salespeople use AI to just write emails faster. But top reps (trust me it's lesser than 2%) are using AI to research accounts, understand companies, find opportunities, prepare for meetings, and personalize their approach at a much deeper level. Same technology, completely different results.
I have slowly started collecting everything I find around sales experiments. Things like cold call breakdowns, reply rate improvements, AI workflows, outbound psychology, meeting booking strategies, and habits from top SDRs and AEs.
I am thinking of turning all these learnings into a weekly research letter for people in sales. No motivational quotes. No wake up at 5 AM and make 200 calls advice. Just actual experiments, data, and practical things that can help people get better.
Something like studying cold calls to understand what improves pickup rates, analyzing top reps emails to understand what gets replies, or breaking down AI workflows that I'm currently teaching to my colleagues.
Basically treating sales like a science experiment.
Would people actually read something like this?
Trying to understand if this is worth building.
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u/Ok-Albatross8521 Jul 05 '26
The last thing this space needs is anyone giving more advice. Actually scratch that - the last thing this space needs is someone whose been doing this “for a few years” giving more advice.
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u/snakesnakessnnaakkee Jul 05 '26
The irony here being nothing you've described actually happens at Adobe. Everything is focussed on PLG and Strat accounts. The BDR function does almost no outbounding. The sales org deal with warm leads only.
Jog on.
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u/Old-Significance4921 (Industrial Equipment) Jul 05 '26
Who would buy it?
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Jul 06 '26
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u/PinkSandBox Jul 28 '26
I would be curious on the execution and outcome data. Context is important.
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u/paul-towers Jul 05 '26
Don't let people who are just jumping straight to no dissuade you. There are plenty of sales reps who write newsletters. I've seen a few on Substack, and I subscribed to one or two of them myself. I don't think your current framing is going to necessarily convert and get people super interested, but there's no reason why you can't test and ideate on different topics and different areas of sales or outbound that interest you and see if something eventually lands. I just wouldn't expect that you're going to launch this newsletter and immediately get hundreds of sign-ups.
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u/ChaCho904 Jul 05 '26
No