How to Write a Better Cold DM for SDRs

Got a cold call from an SDR... SDR: ''Hi Chris - it's Mike, how are you today?'' Me: ''Yh good, how are you?'' SDR: ''Good - thanks for asking, so when I speak to founders they typically tell me they spend £££ on events but get next to no leads from them. Is that similar for you? Me: ''Tbh events aren't a big focus for me''. [classic objection - read how he handles...] SDR: ''Mind sharing what is a focus for lead gen?'' Me: ''Organic via Social and Outbound''. SDR: ''Fair enough, are there plans for that to change at all, say in the next 6 months''? Me: ''It's unlikely to be honest, you're best disqualifying me for a year and coming back to the account. Btw this was a great call, don't let me saying no stop you calling like this''. This was one of the best cold calls I've had in Q3. And it didn't even end up in a meeting. Here's why? 1. Got straight to it after the ''pleasantries''. 2. Led with a ''typical'' problem statement which made me feel comfortable opening up. 3. Didn't say ''what are your priorities'' instead said ''mind sharing...''. This is a huge difference. 4. When he realised my focus wasn't something he could help with he asked about the future to see if I was more of a ''not right now'' rather than pushing me hard. Calling is about how you make the prospect 'feel'. Switch your language from ''what'' or ''why'' questions to ''mind saying'' or ''mind telling me'' It's MUCH softer and your prospects prefer it. PS. Best way I've found to learn calling isn't just doing dials. Getting the reps in and following a simple framework instead. Agreed? --- PS.📍𝗗𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗽𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗺𝘆 𝗦𝗗𝗥→𝗔𝗘 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗰𝗮𝗺𝗽 Ready to step into AE? 💪 Build the skills, claim the role, hit 6-figures 👉 𝘀𝗲𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗹𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 - https://lnkd.in/ejFQERRF

My take after averaging 138% when I was an SDR (Here is the 5 step process that helped get there) I hate the, "just do more volume" advice on here. Just pure outreach volume & outreach doesn't book meetings. Quality outreach books meetings. I used to do it wrong all the time (and still do sometimes) - Send in generic emails. - Pitch slapping too early on LinkedIn. - Making cold calls where I tend to focus more on the product. What changed for me as an SDR, I started to focus on relevance and it worked. I averaged 138% over my 11 months as an SDR working SMB, mid-market, and enterprise. So here's the 5-step process that I would use today. 1. Know your personas. Get into the weeds and really understand your buyers. What's their language? What pains do they have? What KPIs do they have? This will allow you to talk to their pains in their world instead of your product and your features. 2. Focus on the easy wins first Your job as an SDR is to book qualified meetings, so focus on the accounts which are most likely to become qualified meetings. Accounts that have downloaded resources, attended webinars etc, go after the people who are actively showing signals that they are engaging. 3. Sequence as a back bone Sequences should act as the backbone for your outreach. Create relevant sequences where you have the persona + trigger, for example, sales above the line + close lost. These will be running in the background generating you consistent meetings and work 24/7 for you. 4. Cold call Cold calling still works, and it's the highest leverage activity you can do as a rep because it's the one thing that can't be automated to a high level. So focus on automating everything else and getting as much time on the phone as possible. 5. Iterate & improve Don't wing it. Look at your actual data: Connect rate, connect to conversation, reply rate, positive reply rate. Then, based off the metrics, spot the lowest and iterate to fix it to bring it up to par. But also look at what's performing the best and double down on it. Truth is, it doesn't have to be complicated. Make it simple and just do more of the actions that get you closer to your goal. The result? - More meetings. - More people responding. - More time to focus on up-skilling to become an AE Found this useful? ♻️ Repost this for your network to check out & follow me for more

I analyzed 2,847 SDR messages in the last 8 months. Only 4% got a reply. Want to know what the 4% did differently? It wasn't their message. Few months ago, an SDR DMed me: "600+ LinkedIn messages this quarter. 11 replies. My AE says 'add more value' but won't show me how. I'm done." I see this every week. SDRs drowning. AEs too busy to teach. Pipeline dry. Here's what the data shows: Average SDR: - 147 connection requests/month - 23% acceptance rate - 1.4 meetings booked Top 10% SDR: - 64 requests/month (LESS volume) - 67% acceptance rate - 12.3 meetings booked Same platform. Different results. The difference? Top performers aren't prospecting. They're attracting. When I became an SDR (again) after leaving my management role, I did everything by the book. Result? ZERO Then I watched what top performers actually did: Their system: - Profile = landing page (not resume) - Post content 3x/week - Engage with prospects BEFORE messaging - Build relationships over 2-3 weeks - When they message, people know them This is what AEs aren't teaching. because most AEs came up when: - cold calling worked - email open rates were 40%+ Now? LinkedIn has replaced cold calling as the #1 B2B channel. but we're training SDRs like it's 2015. My framework: - Week 1-2: optimize profile, engage daily - Week 3-4: post 3x/week (or more - but quality), comment on 10 prospect posts (this builds your rapport and trust before you pitch) - Week 5-6: message (they recognize you now) - Week 7-8: scale what works That struggling SDR? We implemented this system. Her AE after 60 days: "What changed?" But the SDR said that AE took the whole credit that he trained him lol Nothing changed except the approach. If you're an SDR struggling: - it's not you. - it's the playbook. If you're an AE or sales Leader: - your SDRs don't need motivation. - they need a modern system. We've built the exact system that takes SDRs from ignored to in-demand. Not theory. Lived experience after working & training 200+ teams who were blind to find what to do. P.S. Drop a 🎯 if your AE said "just be more persistent" without showing you how.

Met an SDR who’s been sending out 100+ DMs/week. Annoyingly, his response rate was stuck at 16% 🙃 He did TWO things, and it shot up to 73%. Three months ago, a SaaS SDR popped up in my DMs. He’d been prospecting for 12 months, still figuring out what works and what doesn’t. His process was simple: send a connection request > send a DM > cold-call if no reply. Yet he ended up spending all his time on the phone. Because most people accepted his request but ignored his messages. I made two suggestions… 1️⃣ Stop trying to sell in the first message. 2️⃣ Start leading with curiosity instead. Here’s the exact template I told him to follow: “Hi [Name], noticed you've been dealing with [challenge]. I have a 5-minute story that might help. Worth a quick call?” In just 3 weeks, his response rate shot up from 16% to 73%. He started booking meetings without picking up the phone. And the conversations he had with prospects were COMPLETELY different. Instead of having their guard up against a random cold-caller, they actually wanted to talk. They shared their challenges. They asked questions. And a lot of them ended up asking about the product without him even mentioning it! This is a great reminder that curiosity beats cleverness every time. So let’s stop selling and start storytelling 🙂

Going from SDR to AE is messy. It's not just: - Practicing Discos - Negotiating with execs - Watching top performers - Closing deals and making $ - Getting meetings booked for ya It's much more than that. 9 ways to develop SDR to AE: 1. Deal With Rejection Focus fully on letting ''go of the no''. You'll get some painful no's as an AE. 2. Understand Prospects Problems Spend time learning your personas and what challenges they face daily. Learn how to uncover them in discovery. 3. Be Specific With Your Demos Gently guide prospects to the answers by showing them tailored demos using stories to back up why you're the right choice for them. 4. Really Listen Learn to stop talking. 5. Learn to Multithread Understand depth of relationship is your key to infiltrating every account you're working. When you meet someone new, ALWAYS keep the conversation going. 6. Give Give Give Give, Get Use the 80:20 rule for give:gets. Give 4x more than you try to get from your prospects. 7. Learn To Leverage Your Team There is no shame in bringing in your boss, CSMs and anyone else who can help you progress deals. Ditch the ego. 8. Turn Up Daily and Build Pipeline You're an SDR with a different job title. Rely on discipline and structure, not motivation. 9. Learn How To Write Ditch copy and paste business cases. Master writing a business case execs will understand quickly. 10. Ditch The BS Urgency Tactics Buyers hate scarcity and urgency tactics. Learn how to negotiate and close without frustrating your buyers. Being a great AE is a journey, not a destination. ➟ It helps you resilience. ➟ It makes you a team player. ➟ It deepens all of your relationships. ➟ It's your secret sauce to success in life. Turn up and practice daily. Your life will be better for it. Enjoy this? Repost for your network ♻️. And follow Chris Ritson for more posts like this. Thank you! --- PS. Want to be an AE going into 2026? Inside my SDR to AE Bootcamp, I’ll teach you: 🎧 Discovery & Demo’ing 🧩 Multithreading & Biz Cases 🤝 Closing Deals & Negotiation ⌛ Leverage and Territory Mgmt ⏰ We close on Friday the 24th for registration! You can check it out here 👉 https://lnkd.in/ehdZyp35

Every SDR leader knows the pain. You finally get your top performer humming, and next quarter you’re backfilling them with someone brand new. That new SDR is learning everything: product, personas, competitors, tools. All before they even get to the hard part…figuring out what to say. Smart leaders bake this ramp into their pipeline models. Some even add “phantom” headcount to cover the gap between fully-ramped reps and the reality that 30% of the team is still learning the basics. The new SDRs heads are spinning as they bounce between six different systems of truth. So it’s no wonder new reps move at a glacial pace. That’s where Roomie AI Spark changes everything. Common Room already brings all your GTM signals into one place. Spark takes it further by turning those signals into natural-language insights that tell reps exactly what’s been happening at an account. Picture this: A champion joins a target account. In the old world, your SDR digs through Salesforce, hunting for context from their last company and stitching together context about the target account. Then they try to Hemingway it into a relevant messsage. It takes 20-30 min per message. In the new world, they hover over the contact in Common Room and Spark instantly surfaces everything — who they are, what’s happened, even Gong call insights from their previous employer. If I’d had this when I led SDR teams, I wouldn’t have needed to model ramp time because ramp time would be cut in half.

Lead Generation Tip: Always verify your leads. A smaller list of high-quality, verified leads will always outperform a large, random one. #LeadGeneration #SalesTips #BusinessGrowth #RemoteWork

Cold calls and emails are like first dates , you’ve got 10 seconds to not be weird. In B2B SaaS, the real challenge isn’t “getting replies.” It’s earning attention in a world where every inbox looks like a marketing warzone Here’s what I’ve learned as an SDR: A “cold” email isn’t about being robotic. It’s about being relevant. A “cold” call isn’t about pitching fast. It’s about listening first. You don’t melt the ice by shouting. You melt it by connecting. Next time you hit “send” or “dial,” ask yourself Would I reply to this? Would I stay on this call? Because in B2B SaaS, it’s not about closing fast It’s about warming up smart. So tell me, what’s harder for you: cold calls or cold emails? #ColdEmail #ColdCalling #SalesHumor #B2BMarketing #SalesLeaders #SalesMindset #OutboundSales #LeadGeneration #SalesTips #hireforskillz #B2BSaaS #SaaSSales #SalesStrategy #B2BTech #RevenueGrowth

Outbound SDR teams: Why they matter for your business Most companies rely heavily on inbound leads—but waiting for prospects to come to you slows growth. An outbound SDR team can: • Proactively reach decision-makers • Qualify leads before they reach sales • Keep your pipeline consistently full • Increase overall sales efficiency In short, they turn cold outreach into predictable growth. Want to see how this works in practice? Check out this guide:https://lnkd.in/du69zUFE

Developing Online Lead Generation Skills 🌐 Sharing a quick thought based on my experience that might be helpful. When it comes to Online Lead Generation, being smart and understanding the demand is key. Here are some tips to develop this skill: Understand the Demand: Dive deep step by step to capture quality leads effectively. Persistence is Key: Don't lose hope. Try different strategies to reach your desired targets. Keep refining your approach and watch your leads grow! 💡 #OnlineMarketing #LeadGeneration #DigitalSkills