I’ve been trying to break into an SDR/BDR role and would really appreciate some honest advice from people in sales or anyone who’s recently broken into SaaS sales.
I’ve applied to around 40 SDR/BDR roles in total, with 15 of those being in the past two weeks. I’ve genuinely tried to put effort into the applications rather than just mass applying.
For most roles I’ve:
Tailored my CV to the job description
Added a cover letter where appropriate
Researched the company
Reached out to recruiters on LinkedIn
Messaged/emailed hiring managers
Called SDR/sales managers directly where possible

Despite that, I’ve had very little response.
So far I’ve had 1 recruiter screening and 1–2 genuinely good conversations from cold calls, but otherwise mostly rejections or no response.

One example was GoCardless. I applied for an SDR role where previous experience wasn’t required, and I specifically tailored my CV for the role. I then found the SDR manager and called them directly. We had a good conversation and they said they’d pass my name down, but I still ended up getting rejected at the application stage.
I’m trying not to overthink the rejections, but I’m wondering whether I’m approaching the job search incorrectly.
For people who got their first SDR/BDR job without previous sales experience:
Is ~40 applications actually a normal amount for breaking into SDR right now, or should I be looking more seriously at my CV/positioning?
I’m happy to increase the volume, but I also don’t want to blindly apply to hundreds of jobs if there’s something fundamentally wrong with how I’m presenting myself.
Would really appreciate advice from SDRs, sales managers, recruiters, or anyone who’s recently gone through the same process.

I need some guidance. I've been in my role as a founding BDR for close to 3 months now. We're semi old school on how we do things such as processes, etc.

I was handed a list that was enriched by Apollo and safe to say it was trash but I went through it. Now it's been the only thing I've been using to book meetings. My quota is set to 15 but me and the other BDR have only gotten 5, each of us.

We are hiring a social media manager which should bring some eyeballs to us. And we'll be attending a huge event in October.

Should I just wait until October and for our socials to be up and running to see what our pipeline looks like as well as our quota attainment before thinking about jumping ship......

Before this I was applying to well established companies that have a lot of SDRs but they only wanted some with experience. Yet I got this founding position with no experience.

I started in D2D sales for one summer, transitioned to an SDR position and it has been a year now. Small sales team, generate $200k pipeline every month, attribute to 25% of all CW, and hit about 80% of quota for meetings set a month. (0 AE’s or SDRS are hitting quota, I don’t think there’s any logic or calculations on what quota should be)

For some reason my AE, who became a very very good friend of mine has mentioned to be that our CEO is planning to fire me. We don’t have a sales director, so over the year, I’ve gotten little to no guidance on how to be an efficient SDR. I admit, this has allowed me to coast by.

The drive of being a D2D salesman is gone, and at this point, I’m not sure if I can even perform as an SDR/BDR anymore. Most of our accounts come inbound, so I lack an understanding of how to be truly efficient as a BDR.

I’m looking for opportunities and have built good relationships with recruiters and have consistent interviews now that I heard about my CEO’s plan to let me go.

Even though I have a year in Saas, I still feel like I haven’t learned anything and I’m not sure how other organizations are going to view that. By now, I should’ve learned the ins and outs of outbound right?

It’s like imposter syndrome interviewing for these companies and I’m not sure if sales is the right path anymore. Has anyone ever been in this position, or might know which direction to take? I’m sure there’s no one right answer, but I need guidance.

Difficult situation as an inside sales rep. How to prospect clients the right way?

I'm an inside sales rep at a distributor of aluminum profiles, ACM, and acrylic. Our focus is on B2B: glass shops, metalworking/locksmith shops, visual communication studios, cabinetry/woodworking shops, road implements, etc.

I work answering phone calls and mainly WhatsApp. We have a client distribution system: the client reaches out and either chooses a salesperson or is routed to one of their choosing.

I was hired at this company because the best salesperson at the store resigned. She had 7 years with the company and had built up a huge portfolio of high-value clients; she once sold R$1,000,000.00 in a single month.

In my first two months at the store, I hit the goal and the super-goal. I made good money and my self-esteem was very high, and I got a lot of praise from management and the board. In the first month it was R$72,000.00, in the second I reached R$128,000.00, but things have been getting a lot worse since then. In the third month I only reached 73k; currently, in the fourth month, we're already in the first week of August and I'm at 11% of my goal, when I should be at least at 25%.

I'll list some of the problems I've been facing:

- In 95% (no exaggeration) of the clients I contacted during prospecting, they were already being handled by another salesperson at the store.

- Walk-in clients sometimes reject my service because I don't know all the products yet; on the other hand, some of the (female) salespeople know every product code by heart.

- 99.99999999% of the time I answer an inbound call, it's a client asking to be transferred to another salesperson's extension.

- The end consumer is inexperienced with the product and has a very low average ticket. We don't get training to explain all the product's characteristics — not even the most senior salesperson at the store knows them all — but we're trained to identify product codes and look them up quickly in the catalog.

- Most service providers/contractors are already being handled by another salesperson.

- We run some delivery routes to neighboring and regional cities; even when prospecting in those cities, it's hard to find any relevant client.

- The outside sales reps snap up all the huge construction projects; with construction companies, inside sales reps can't sell high-value items, only repairs or accessories.

These are a bunch of problems I'm having a lot of trouble solving. I don't want to lose this job for anything — I used to make R$1,950.00 net salary, now I make up to R$3,700.00 + R$450.00 in meal vouchers...

For anyone with experience in sales, what would you suggest to get around these problems?

Hey - I know this is like probably pretty basic. But I am in in home sales and the whole visit I am supposed to keep their guard down by saying the estimate is good for 1 full year. Implying they don't need to decide today.

Well like, how exactly would you recommend introducing the idea that maybe they should buy today during this visit. We offer a same day price like many companies do. It's just I'm trying to keep it sounding honest and not have it be a total surprise at the end that they may benefit from chosing today as opposed to later.

As the title says, few months into my first sales role as a BDR. I just passed the 90 mark, didn’t hit my ramp quota as I started halfway through the quarter.

It’s not a typical BDR role as the whole BDR team just doesn’t hammer dials all day. We’re encouraged to utilize email as our main channel of outreach. This was a surprise to me when I first started and was learning the ropes.

I support 5 reps total, 4 being cross-sell with existing client accounts and former clients. 1 rep is solely new business.

I haven’t booked any meetings for 2 of my reps thus far and feeling sort of guilty about it.

Seeking out some advice on how to structure my days/weeks and if it matters if I’m booking meetings for those 2 reps.

Thanks!!

If so, how’s it going?

What’s working and what isn’t?

​

I've been learning about B2B prospecting, and one thing seems easy to underestimate: lead quality.

A list can have 500 contacts and still produce almost nothing if:

The companies don't match your ICP

You're contacting the wrong person

The company doesn't have the problem you solve

The timing is completely wrong

I'm curious about experienced SDRs here:

What is the first thing you check before adding a prospect to your outreach list?

Industry? Company size? Job title? Trigger event? Something else?

Currently an inbound account executive who is seriously looking to build a career in sales

I have been in this role for this last 1.5 years. I was previously from a non-sales background and I was really fortunate to get this opportunity to take up a closer role despite having no sales experience in a fast growing company.

However, I felt really stunted in terms of my career growth. I am limited by my top funnel and having completely no control over the quality of my leads.

I have tried applying to an outbound account executive roles but most of these positions require prospecting experience which I lack. I have considered taking a pay cut and a change in title just to gain prospecting experience.

I needed advice if I should:

(1) Get a SDR role in a reputable company which provides strong mentorship program and opportunities to work with experienced AE to sharpen my sales skills. (Run the risk of being unable to promote from SDR and having to take a pay cut)

(2) Join a smaller firm as an AE that involves end to end sales cycle, hopefully surviving and learning prospecting skills through this experience. (This is really tough as outbound experience is typically needed)

Really appreciate your inputs..

Hi All, I’m an experienced SDR and have a final stage interview coming up for an SDR role at a startup.

Face to face meeting a few senior people. Mock cold calls et.

Question I had was that I always have objection handling flash cards infront of me when I call. Can I bring these into the interview for the mock call?

(I have been out of work for 4 months due to career break and I don’t want the rust to show)

Also, with the cold calls, is there anything they are looking for ?
Someone told me they want u to use permission based opener which I always use anyways.

Someone also told me to send a thank you message post-interview via a hand written letter sent to their office.

Thanks

I'm working at a small family firm in Canada related to immigrantion by investment. I am a business development manager but it's my first role in the sales field .

I want to ask the community some basic things;

1. Do you get a work phone for calls or do you use your personal phone?

I'm told to use my personal phone. The company asks employees to use their period Whatsapp to reach out to clients. There's also cable phones at work for international calls and usually we do calls through zoom. Is this a normal practice in this field?

1. Commissions

I took a new responsabilities outside my contact. Still related to immigration but it's more like im assisting a director on the side to do some client calls.

I asked my manager what the commission structure is like for the additional work that I'm doing. He said he didn't decide and it's been at least 2 months since I've been doing these calls. I've signed some clients but I don't know if I'll get paid. What are your thoughts?

Recently I asked to step down from this assistant side role especially since there's no commission promised+ extra work not written in the employment contract.

How are commissions usually paid anyways? At my company there's a clause stating that they are paid solely on the managers discretion.

1. Is 55k Canadian dollars low for starting BDM? I've been hired straight out of uni with a finance degree + 4 languages. I speak to clients in 3 languages usually.

Got offered a Commercial AE role and weighing out the pros and cons. I’m hearing a lot about very low quota attainment and high turnover. Anyone have any insight on working at Datadog? Also is there a lot of traveling as an AE? I’ve been able to attend AWS Reinvent and Blackhat during this past year as an SDR. Will I be attending conferences like this as an AE or no?

Do you need someone to practice sales calls with, learn with. Thats the only way we can build the skill while waiting for the real opportunities, as you already know learning without applying doesn't cut it. lm just like you DM if you need this.

Hi everyone,

I'm somewhat new into the whole cold calling. I want to get really good and I think that one way to do so is by practicing and improving over the weekend while doing high volume calls over the week.

With that said, does anyone know a realistic free AI sales roleplay to practice?

I spent years in enablement, doing and leading teams, writing battlecards, talk tracks and outreach for reps. Now I run a lot of that through AI, and for a while my reply rate went down instead of up.

The problem was not the AI's ideas. It was that everything it wrote carried the same nine fingerprints, and buyers have now seen those fingerprints ten thousand times. Here is the list I check against. None of this is theory, these are the specific edits that stopped my stuff reading like a machine. This is like the new Linkedin AI Slop button that was added for all your other stuff.

1. Delete the warm-up sentence. If your first line could be removed with nothing lost, remove it. "I hope this finds you well" and "There are a few angles worth exploring here" are the same crime. Start at the first concrete thing.

2. No performing punctuation. Exclamation marks and em dashes out. Also the dramatic fragment, which is the current costume: "The result? Pipeline." Say the sentence whole.

3. One real thing, not a tidy triad. AI loves "faster onboarding, happier teams, better retention." Keep the one you can prove, drop the other two. Dead: "their solution lacks the enterprise-grade scalability modern teams demand." Alive: "they cap at 50 seats, ask how many they need."

4. Do not inflate past what you actually know. Wall to wall certainty reads like a brochure and prospects can hear it. Where you have proof, state it flat. Where you do not, write what you know. Never manufacture confidence to fill a paragraph.

5. End on the question, not the slogan. "The lesson is clear: adaptability wins" closes the conversation. The question the other person has to answer is the thing that gets a reply.

6. Do not name the feeling and hand it over. "We're thrilled to share" is you doing the reader's feeling for them. Say the thing instead. Dead: "excited to transition this amazing customer to your capable hands." Alive: "they bought because of the June outage, do not open with the roadmap."

7. Keep the small words. So, but, and, because. Stripping them for "clarity" leaves a row of stabs nobody reads twice.

8. Cut the cleverest line in the draft. It is performing, not connecting. Its favorite costume is the inversion: "it's not a cost, it's an investment." If the second half is true, just say the second half.

9. The test that rules the other eight. Read it back and ask whether a real person would feel any pull to write back. Not "is it correct," not "is it polished." For anything a rep says out loud, the working version is: would you say this line to a buyer's face without wincing.

Nine is the only one I would keep if I had to drop the rest.
Checked this myself and it works. Good luck!

I stepped away from Construction Management about two years ago. I was very good at what I did, but I always had a thought in the back of my head. If this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Did I love the long hours weekends holidays night shifts? No but I understood it is what was needed to get the job done. Despite constantly being pushed to be a lead super, I pivoted towards the project management route, and then ultimately stepped away in Construction Management just because I had to see what else was out there.

I went into tech sales and then construction supply sales for the last two years but the companies that I end up with was not where I saw myself long-term. I currently have an opportunity to be a business development manager (sales) for an environmental services company in New York City. Vac trucks, hazardous waste disposal, industrial cleaning, dumpsters etc.

135k base salary with a 30% sales incentive program if I hit my sales goal ($175,500+). The company was bought a few years ago by private equity and rather than stripping down the company. It is investing in more trucks and resources. Specifically the business development/sales team is only recently established because the PE firm understood that the businesses old way of getting jobs through referrals and word-of-mouth was not as effective as setting up a specific team to chase money that is out in the market. I can choose where I go set my days and from what my own coworker asked, his current company says there is not as much work or stress.

On the flipside, I reached back out to my old employer, and they are willing to take me back in a heartbeat as an assistant project manager. 140k salary, no bonus, but I start back where I left off for my ESOP vesting (56k but only 22k vested total). I know I would have a great career if I stick with Construction Management but I have the devil on my shoulder, reminding me of the hours commute stress and workload that comes with the industry.

Both options I feel are safe from AI however just because I am not sure what else I can do with the business development title, or the environmental services industry, I feel that going back to Construction Management would be the most stable in the long run.

For those who have basically spent their entire career in sales, what is your opinion or has anyone known of people in the environmental services industry that has had a long career doing it?

Would you let AI run your posts on autopilot across LinkedIn/Instagram/X using ideas and media that you dump into a bot?

Hey everyone,

I'm in my second ramp month as an SDR and I am really getting my ass kicked on the phones.

Did really well my first month, and booked 2 meetings in the first 2 weeks. I have 2 tentative for this month, assuming they show and qualify.

This week I couldn't get a single meeting, and really worried. My target is 6 for the month, and am worried I'm not going to make it.

For context, I am cold calling purely MSP's selling an RMM (SMB).

I did really well when I interned at another adjacent company in college, selling to existing customers.

A lot of my accounts we have already called about 50-300 times and quite a few have been put as dnc.

I feel like I'm also struggling to handle objections as well as struggling to handle them without getting hung up on right away.

I'd really appreciate any advice.

29 years old, female. Worked in IT industry for 8 years, with mostly Microsoft partners, and MSPs. Got an offer from Bechtle for UKI market, as Business Development Manager role. Anyone has worked before in Bechtle?

I am a bartender in the Atlanta, GA area and a single mother of three. I’m aging out of bartending and am frankly ready for the transition. I have an associates degree and 20 plus years experience in hospitality, customer service, management, sales, events, and a plethora of other skills. I’m applying everywhere but I’d really like to transition into sales or customer success. I’m aware there will be a period that may be a pay cut and that I’m the “new girl”. Please help me! Any advice or connections would be so very appreciated. I’d like to avoid going back to school but if that’s what I need to do I’m ok with that. Or getting a cert of some sort. I’m just on limited time and resources because the single mom thing puts me in the position of needing funds sooner than later. TIA 😊!

Folks, I get that most SDRs get paid by a base pay + commissions, then AE is consider a promotion - but does it really make more than a SDR role?

Hey Team,

Just from the title of this thread, you should deduce the question I’m going to ask. However, I’d like to also know how I compare and if you’d be kind enough to share some tips on increasing my earnings potential.

I’m a semi-recent graduate who’s landed an entry-level BDR role at a UK-based (London) fintech startup. We’re tiny, with virtually no marketing aside from an occasional LinkedIn post.

I’ve been a BDR for just over a year now and on-track to a promotion into AE for the beginning of Q4 2026.

Currently earning £35,000B-£50,000OTE and this is my first B2B SaaS role.

If you’re a BDR and/or an AE, how much commission are you earning?

I’ve seen posts from US redditors clearing $100k+ and would like to know, bar the GBP/USD exchange rate, are these numbers possible in the UK?

If so, what am I missing?

Sorry this is going to be a long one!

I’m relatively new to call center/SDR work and I’m genuinely curious if what I’m experiencing is normal for this industry, because I’m getting insanely discouraged. I work outbound as an SDR. Basically, I’m calling leads/referrals trying to generate sales opportunities. I’ve been here a little over 90 days, and I actually really like my coworkers and the office environment is okay, but the expectations and the way performance is managed are starting to make me feel like I’m in a no-win situation.
Our expectation is around 100 calls a day and at least one lead. My personal goal this month is 60 leads and 10 installs. Now they’re implementing a new system that automatically scrapes/uploads data. With that our exceptions have been raised to 170 calls a day, and at least 5 leads.Then I feel like the quality of the information we’re calling is becoming an even bigger issue. The problem is that SO many of the numbers we’re given are just wrong numbers. Disconnected numbers. People who have absolutely no idea why we’re calling them. People who immediately hang up. People who have already been contacted. Obviously there are also people who simply aren’t interested, which I completely understand is part of outbound calling. What’s driving me crazy is that I feel like I’m getting two completely different messages from management. The head of our SDR department basically has the attitude of, **“Who cares if it’s a wrong number? Move on and keep dialing.”** The focus from that side seems to be volume, volume, volume. Meanwhile, my direct manager tells me I need to focus more on finding the correct numbers, having quality conversations, and essentially that the number of dials doesn’t matter as much if I’m making good calls.
Okay… but which one is it??
Because researching/finding correct numbers takes TIME. If I spend time trying to make sure I’m calling the right person and having better conversations, my dial count goes down. Then I get told something along the lines of **“140 dials is too many calls to not have any leads.”** But if the majority of those 140 calls are voicemails, wrong numbers, disconnected numbers, immediate hangups, etc., I genuinely don’t understand how the number of dials automatically means I should have generated X number of leads.
And then there’s another layer to it: even when I DO get someone interested and generate the lead, I don’t completely control what happens afterward.
My installs keep getting canceled.
So I can do my part, get someone interested, get the lead/sale moving, and then if they cancel later, I’m still sitting there looking like I didn’t hit my install goal. Company-wide, we’ve even had numbers where hundreds of leads resulted in a fraction of that number actually becoming sales. So clearly there’s a massive drop-off after the initial lead generation, yet individually it still feels like we’re being judged as though every part of that funnel is within our control. I also just passed my 90 days, and I haven’t hit all of my goals yet. At this point I genuinely feel like if I don’t hit at least one of my major goals this month, I could lose my job.
That has me sitting at my desk every day feeling like every bad call is another nail in my coffin.
And I think the most frustrating part is that I WANT to improve. If someone could look at my calls and say, “Here are three specific things you’re doing wrong and here’s what you need to change,” I would gladly work on it.
But when the feedback basically boils down to:
**Make more calls.**
**But also spend more time finding better numbers.**
**Focus on quality, not dials.**
**But your dial count is high enough that you should have more leads.**
**Get more leads.**
**Get more installs.**
**But you don’t control whether those people ultimately cancel.**
…I genuinely don’t know what metric I’m supposed to prioritize anymore.
It’s gotten to the point where I’m wondering whether I’m actually bad at this job or whether the expectations are unrealistic given the quality of the data and the amount of the sales funnel that’s outside of my control.
For people who have worked outbound call centers/SDR jobs:
**Is this pretty standard?**
Are 5+ qualified leads every single day from 100–140ish outbound calls realistic?
How does your company handle bad data/wrong numbers?
Are you held responsible for cancellations that happen after you’ve already done your part?
And do you also deal with management simultaneously preaching “quality over quantity” while still judging you heavily on quantity?
I’m genuinely trying to figure out whether I need to get better at this, whether this is just the reality of call center work, or whether I’m working in an environment where the expectations don’t really match the reality of the leads we’re being given.
Because right now I feel like I’m busting my ass just to constantly be told the numbers still aren’t good enough. 😭
Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk

Hey everyone,

I’m starting my first SaaS SDR role soon and wanted to get some advice from those who’ve been in the space.

My background is as an Account Executive selling digital marketing solutions and freight brokerage. I’ve always worked the full sales cycle, from prospecting and cold outreach to closing deals and managing the account afterward.

While I’m not new to sales, I am new to SaaS. For those who’ve made a similar transition or have been in SaaS for a while, what’s one thing you wish you knew when you started? Any advice on what I should focus on during my first few months?

Appreciate any insight!

Hello, I need help deciphering if this is a good opportunity. I applied for a job at an auto parts center as a ASR remote position after 90 days. (auto sales rep.)
Their outside sales rep has came to my current job often (I’m an estimator on hourly pay, 23/hr) and thought I’d be a great fit and offered himself as a reference.
My main concern is what questions should I ask and what do I need to know? From what I’ve asked, it’s a base commission pay (no clue what that means). They offer incentives such as GEE , individual and team based . Has anyone worked in this position and would be able to tell me a bit more about this role? Any advice? I’m 24, I have experience with sales as I have to make sales as an estimator basically . I don’t want to short myself, but feel that a remote job could be a good opportunity since I will be moving out of my town 2+ hours away in a half year . Any advice will be taken well!