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Last week I spoke to 4 CEOs of Series A/B startups about their SDR and outbound sales teams and they're ALL having the same problems: 1. “We’ve seen response rates plummet the last twelve months, and we’re sitting here scratching our heads” 2. “We just let go of our entire outbound team, we’re going to start over with a new leader” 3. “Results from our spray-and-pray declined so much by Q1 that we tried heavy personalization in Q2 and Q3, that hasn’t worked, and now we don’t know what we should do” 4. “Our team is profitable-ish, but we’re terrified to downsize because we have no idea what will happen to our pipeline” It feels like every B2B company is in the same boat. Why? Because 2023 completely broke the Predictable Revenue Playbook we've ALL been depending on for years. Building the same sales assembly line, with the same tools as 100,000 other SaaS companies isn’t going to work anymore. And we’re seeing the consequences play out in real-time. We need an entirely different go-to-market playbook, which recognizes that demand is created differently than in the days of Salesforce. We need incentives to change - from investors down to execs down to sales leaders - that stop reinforcing this behavior and leads to over-hiring and under-growing. We need to understand that revenues will be less “predictable”, but we get to trade predictability for profitability, job stability, and happy salespeople. It’s time to do things in a new way.
False. I appreciate you continuing to bang this drum Adam - but you need to set some context for these posts. This take only applies to low ASP "Me Too Products" - which i belive (know) is where you've spent your entire tech career (email marketing and ecommerce tools). Candidly, I dont know that those types of companies should have ever invested heavily in the BDR function to begin with. Investors and the C level got used to a free money market and low barrier to entry to closing deals because of lack of buyer scrutiny so every company that sold any type of software to any type of buyer at any type of price ASSUMED that the BDR model that companies like Hubspot and SFDC used (Big ASP/Executive buyer) should work for them. For 5-7 years it did (they could have put zoo animals on the phone in that market and it would have worked). Folks like you that did that, are now learning that you never should have. That doesnt mean that other companies with larger ASPs ($50K+) and complex sales cycles shouldnt. Thats horrible advice. Just because it failed for you, doesnt mean it doesnt work for others. Also - this is one of those things where execution (training/talent) matters just as much as the system.
Solid insight Adam - That said, I would say that “spray and pray” never really worked to begin with. Outbound is still mission critical for scaling… specifically to the Shopify ecosystem of SaaS. There is not one single player north of $40m in sustainable ARR (net of churn) that achieved that level without over 50% of their pipeline coming from outbound. Outbound allows you to choose your ICP instead of letting anyone and everyone come to you inbound (and may not be an ideal fit) that are likely to churn. For us, outbound still as predictable as it ever was. It just a function of understanding that there is no fixed playbook (never was). Because that playbook evolves year after year, and the only way to adapt is fluidity in the approach, acceptance that change is constant, and a commitment to true personalization in outreach. Appreciate your take as always!
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I agree with the message, things need to change. But using only outbound as a data point is missing other elements of what’s happening. People don’t respond to outbound when they have no budget and they have to fight to keep even the essentials. It’s basic behaviour - now internal decision making groups (or v senior members of the team relying on experience) identify needs and then go to market to buy what they need. Outbound is not the right net for that dynamic- content, personal brand, thought leadership is a big part of that and that’s why LinkedIn is about to annoy the f*** out of everyone by facilitating this new wave of GTM. But I prefer it - you learn more this way
I would put forth that the data was there to show the trend 12 + months ago. It was too way to easy to blame it on the teams. Once you cycle through… the people in the org, change comp plans, change metrics you still have the reality that the way you were doing things isn’t the way you should continue to do them.
Adam Robinson SDR outbound strategy working is highly dependent on target industry. If your ICP is restaurants or smaller/fragmented B2C then I would say that is a good use of SDRs. an outbound strategy should have a big impact there. If you are a small company targeting B2B tech buyers my personal experience is that outbound success is really low now. The effectiveness has declined over the years. Email has almost a zero response rate if you are at an early stage tech company with no brand recognition. Even with platforms that ensure deliverability. Cold calling almost zero response. I get spammed called all day by robo dialers, even weekends by robo dialers. It’s just annoying. Targeted LinkedIn works when the message is semi-tailored and short, coupled with a few polite follow up messages. Content led strategies that deliver educational materials (not ChatGPT surface level nonsense, real authentic content) to the buyer and support self learning about your product/service have been producing results. Consistently give people the tools and time to learn about your product/service and they will come to you. I get 75%+ of my meetings from people reaching out to me after they saw a video or read something.
“We just let go of our entire outbound team, we’re going to start over with a new leader” Common mistake. It’s the tactics that aren’t working - not necessarily the talent. You can have the most talented SDR, but if they are executing ineffective tactics, there’s no way they can be successful.
People are lazier than ever at their sales jobs and they don’t use their phones. It’s true that cold outreach by email doesn’t work anymore as it worked before but at SDFC we were calling more than emailing.
Adam Robinson - What’s your incentive for hammering this message? Your ICP isn’t sales leaders is it? Feels odd that you’re continuously preaching this message (which, btw, I 100% agree with) - just curious about your goals.
Founder | B2B GTM | Scale without headcount by mapping your playbooks into an AI revenue engine
9mo1. SDR teams don't know their buyer's problems 2. SDR teams don't know how to write relevant messaging 3. SDR teams don't know how to write readable messaging 4. Most companies lack the marketing collateral to make outbound work well (case studies) 5. Most companies lack the discovery process to make outbound work well (basics like setting next steps or asking questions) 6. SDR teams usually have 30-50% inaccurate lists OR it's manual 7. SDR teams jumping to volume email end up in spam 8. Phone connect rates are at an all time low (and their numbers are getting marked as spam) 9. SDR teams are going for the kill asking for 15 minutes when they should be offering good content I can go on but these are the big reasons we're pivoting