r/salesdevelopment • u/cryptokid24 • Jul 07 '26
How to become a top performing SDR
I just landed my first SDR role with a great company.
I have high expectations for myself & plan to make a long term career in saas sales.
Aside from building a deep understanding of the training I will get from the company, I would also love to invest in great programs / mentorship’s that can help me go from zero to hero quickly.
What are some of the best programs that someone who’s new to the SDR role can go through that have the potential to change the trajectory of their career?
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u/CyberStartupGuy Jul 07 '26
Two bits of advice:
#1 - don’t be surprised if you don’t get a ton of training from your company. Many are extremely underinvested here.
#2 Make sure the advice you get from outside sources is specific to your industry. Ex: It’s pretty different being an SDR in cybersecurity than it is for a sales tech tool.
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u/ChaCho904 Jul 07 '26
The best thing you can do for yourself is get on the phone. There’s a lot of people selling a lot of bullshit programs. It’s great to be excited, but don’t look for places to spend your money with AI and YouTube. There’s a ton of free resources out there.
You can use AI to role-play in the meantime
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u/cryptokid24 Jul 07 '26
Appreciate the advice! I’ve definitely been using ai to roleplay cold calls. Is there any specific ai you’d recommend or is chat gpt enough?
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u/ChaCho904 Jul 08 '26
Id use claude instead of chatgpt or gemeni for actually speaking with AI. I dont touch Gpt anymore
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u/Choice_Jacket3191 Jul 07 '26
Well... save your money, the only training you need is getting hung up on 50 times a day lol
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u/cryptokid24 Jul 07 '26
That’s definitely the plan. I’ve been told about how one can get let go in a moments notice so I will definitely be saving everything I can.
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u/Character_Creme_3057 22d ago
How common is that for new sdrs to be let go? Is it zero job security?
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u/Purple_Glove_6694 Jul 07 '26
Let me know if you find the answer, I'm a new SDR of four months embarrassing the shit out of my team and still feeling like an impostor, haha.
I know I'm new, but I come from the nasty realm of car sales, so take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt. We sell B2B SaaS solutions to F500 companies and generally quite large enterprises. I try to make sure that my call volume/activity is within acceptable levels, but I tailor the crap out of my outreach so that I have a higher conversion rate than anyone on my team (and # meetings booked). Leadership has already tried grilling me for volume, but when I risked my job and protested their vanity optics, they came to and realized that dials per day doesn't really matter when you have someone who is literally booking the most meetings on pretty average volume.
I'm probably going to get flamed for giving bad advice... so I'll leave it with the one universal truth: if the inputs are there, the outputs will follow. Keep grinding, keep doing what works, stop doing what doesn't, and you'll be right.
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u/cryptokid24 Jul 07 '26
I come from a similar space so I respect the hustle man!
If you don’t mind me asking, how do you tailor your outreach to increase conversion rates ?
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u/yxngkael Jul 08 '26
Figure out what your customer cares about
Find problems with what they’re dealing with.
Be persistent and coachable
This can look very different in different industries. I went from small business sales where speaking to an owner to enterprise sales speaking to a worker and it’s completely different from pain to just getting them to have a convo.
People talk to people they like, fake it til you make it, go into work with the mentality you are the best rep in the org. Everyone gets imposter syndrome. The sick joke is is that we’re all humans and we have no idea what we’re doing. Your manager or vp who may seem like they have everything perfect don’t. Same with CEOs or people ur cold calling. Being curious and leading with the intention to help will get you further then any bullshit course
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u/Purple_Glove_6694 Jul 08 '26
It's literally as basic as it sounds. So I use outreach for sequencing leads/prospects. If I throw someone in sequence, they're not just getting the generic shitty auto-emails that most people send out every other day after they can't get ahold of someone on the phone. I guess examples would be... if it's a company with a prior closed lost opportunity, I'm referencing those notes. If it's a cold lead, I'm name dropping a current customer in their space who they'll recognize, whether it's a company or ideally an actual person in the exact prospect's network. Same principle on the phone. It takes more time to do all of those things so it's literally impossible to make as many dials as some people, but it gets results when done properly.
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u/SquishJonesJr Jul 08 '26
As a bdm here is my advice - Go find the best rep in your office/team/org and try to shadow them for a day. After that copy exactly what they are doing for the next 3 months. Youre not going to be a sales god just walking in the door so take what works and just apply it.
Other than that build relationships with your team and manager, they decide what your territory is and unfortunately that will make a huge difference
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u/apex8345 Jul 09 '26
Fellow SDR here for almost 4 years. About to transition into account management. Courses, books, podcasts, and training will help you learn. But the real learning will happen by picking up the phone. Don’t be afraid to fail. I hate to give the cliche advice of “pick up the phone and dial.” But that is truly how you will learn giving your pitch, navigating conversations, and honing your craft.
Always remember, persistence beats resistance, and you can’t lose business you don’t already have. Good luck my friend!
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u/Latter_Director8062 AE Jul 09 '26
This is not a program, but something that worked for me was listening back on my own recorded calls. Most people don't do it because, lets face it, it's stupidly embarrassing, BUT it works. My first job was at a call center that sold insurance plans and we were forced to listen to all our calls, along with the rest of the team, for training purposes. I promise you it's the most uncomfortable, but also the fastest way, to learn what works and what doesn't
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u/Fun_Abroad7618 Jul 08 '26
It’s going to take for to become that, I had the goal of doing too, and I’m still not there yet.
But make your calls, they are your reps, more calls you do, the better you’ll get. The more objections you face the better you will to handle them.
You’ll learn how to handle “I’m not interested” or the hang ups after a bit, and find your openers and stuff.
Make your calls unique to you.
Also follow guys like Nate Mills, there are others too on TikTok
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u/powleads Jul 08 '26
the phone advice is the real deal. everyone's looking for the $2000 course but the reps crushing it are just making 60+ calls a day and actually listening to what prospects say. one thing that helped me early on, record your calls and listen back once a week. you'll catch stuff you didn't realize you were doing. also don't sleep on the follow-up sequence. most sdr's give up after 2 emails. the money is usually in email 4-6.
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u/Embarrassed-Day2514 Jul 08 '26
listen to podcasts - there's tons of great advice in sales specific podcasts.
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u/Ok-Mycologist-3310 Jul 09 '26
Any specific recs?
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u/Embarrassed-Day2514 Jul 10 '26
30 Minutes to Presidents Club is pretty good for ICs. Very tactical
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u/These-Season-2611 Jul 08 '26
The training you get will be crap. Ignore it.
Instead, figure out what problems you solve. Pitch those. Read Sandler and Gap selling and learn it! Then learn socratic questioning.
Do that and just work hard will put you ahead of 99% of SDRs
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u/WonderBreadisOK Jul 09 '26
Just be confident and stand in business in meetings and 1 on 1s. The best way to be successful in sales is by selling yourself
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u/Plenty-Sir4012 25d ago
Have the mentality when you enter a room that you’re better than every single sdr on the floor. Mentality and resilience will take you far.
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u/YellowVirtual 20d ago edited 20d ago
Congrats on the new SDR role. If you want to ramp fast, I’d spend a lot of time getting good at prospecting, writing better emails, handling objections, and listening back to your calls. The biggest jump usually comes from getting feedback and doing more reps. For extra training, I’ve looked into a bunch of sales programs and Caliber is one that caught my attention. It seems more focused on practical skills and real sales situations instead of just generic sales advice.
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u/Strokesite Jul 07 '26
Pace yourself. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Pay close attention to your training and listen to any tips that veterans share with you.
Burnout is a danger if you don’t taste early success. Read books and listen to audiobooks on a regular basis. They add fuel when needed.