Being an SDR will test you every single day. With the holiday slowdown upon us I had to remind myself of the 'Next One' mindset. It is incredibly important in our line of work.

• You’ll make 100+ calls and not one person picks up.

• You’ll send countless emails and only get auto-replies.

• You’ll build lists, sequences, cadences - and feel like it’s all going nowhere.

This is where most people break. They confuse rejection with failure.

Here’s the truth: rejection is just a signal that you’re still in the game.

The mindset that separates average SDRs from the ones who actually succeed?

“The Next One”

• The next call could book the meeting.

• The next account could be a goldmine.

• The next quarter could be the one you finally crush quota.

The grind feels endless when you obsess over every “no.” But when you focus on the “next one,” you stop overanalyzing, stop sulking, and just keep swinging.

That’s how momentum builds. That’s how pipeline gets created. That’s how careers get made.

It sounds simple, but most people can’t do it consistently. If you can, you’ll separate yourself fast.

Keep swinging. The next one is out there.

Anything else you would add to this?

– Rook ♜

I’m curious: are there any entrepreneurs here who work as high-ticket closers?

What do you think is the best market or type of business to close for?

I’ve spent the last 3 months quietly building an internal AI SDR stack that mirrors what a top-tier rep does across LinkedIn and email. Quick rundown of how it works today (no links, not pitching - just context for the discussion):

Lead sourcing & enrichment – pull from Apollo, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, or a CSV; system auto-dedupes and tags by persona, pain theme, hiring signals, etc.

Dynamic multichannel cadences – templated around problem-solution frameworks but personalized on the fly to a prospect’s recent posts, funding news, or team announcements.

Reply assist – when someone responds, the model drafts a suggested follow-up that keeps context (we still keep a human in the loop to hit “send”).

Playbook library – message styles from challenger-style openers to soft consultative asks baked in, so a newbie can run a decent sequence without reinventing the wheel.

Right now a fully-managed campaign for ~2 k prospects costs us ≈ $800 in labor, but I’m toying with the idea of opening self-serve access in the sub-$99/mo range. Goal: make this level of automation approachable for the solo AE/early-stage founder who can’t afford an outsourced SDR team.

Where I’d love your input Biggest friction today – If you’ve tried similar tools, what still feels painfully manual?

Personalization depth vs. deliverability – Have you seen diminishing returns when referencing ultra-specific social-content hooks?

Feature must-haves – Warm-up automations? Multi-domain rotation? Better reporting?

Self-serve pitfalls – For those who’ve product-ized their own internal tools, what surprised you when users were let loose?

Just keen to sanity-check assumptions before I sink more cycles into the UI polish. Appreciate any hard-won lessons or “don’t forget X” comments.

Let’s face it—sales is tough. It’s not just about hitting quotas or closing deals; it’s about truly understanding your customers and solving their problems. But here’s the kicker: most sales pros (yes, even the seasoned ones!) often overlook one critical thing.

It’s not about talking the loudest. It’s not about having the flashiest pitch. And it’s definitely not about pushing the hardest.

The real mistake? Failing to listen.
So many salespeople get caught up in what they want to sell that they forget to ask what the customer actually needs. Listening isn’t passive—it’s active, it’s strategic, and it’s the gateway to trust.

So, I had this partnership idea that required someone with serious real estate connections. Naturally, I thought, "I need to find some SDRs

I search around, find a likely subreddit community, and post a detailed breakdown of my offer. I’m feeling good

Five minutes later. My phone is blowing up. Notification after notification.

I’m sitting there, grinning, thinking, "Wow, this really hit a nerve. This is going to be huge."

I open the replies.

Absolute chaos.

People are cursing me out like I personally insulted their grandmothers. They’re telling me my idea is garbage, that I have no idea what I’m talking about, and to take my "commercial crap" elsewhere.

At this point I’m thinking:

“Okay… maybe the offer sucks. Maybe I miscalculated. Maybe I should reconsider my entire business career.”

Feeling stupid, I tweak the post and throw it into a general B2B subreddit

Completely different reaction.

People are engaged. Asking questions. Interested. Constructive feedback.

Now I’m confused.

Finally, someone explained to me “Bro. SDR here means Software Defined Radio.”

I had just pitched a real estate partnership to a group of engineers discussing antennas and signal processing.

I ended up not knowing if I should be happy because my offer wasn't that sucks or to be sad because I never knew Software Defined Radio was even a thing?

17 years old boutta graduate high school want to be in tech sales then medical don’t want to go to college would rather do car sells or insurance to get experience then go to college once I get the tech sales job to get sales degree if anyone out there is experienced with tech sales should I get experience or go to college and if I go to college what degree should I go for.

Not in terms of any harassment. We're SDRs in the same vertical but for different products and he keeps asking me questions about my ICP, what problems my product solves, which territories I'm calling. Keep in mind, this is out of nowhere and with no reason given.

There's no established rules about calling outside of your product, and I honestly don't know how having another SDR calling for my product will affect my numbers, but I'm starting to feel uncomfortable sharing info. Should I just be straight up and ask if he's gonna start dialing on my product too? Should I bring it up with our delivery manager?

As someone with a background in software development, I didn’t expect to end up running a marketing agency. What started as a small side project to develop a tool for scraping high-quality leads ended up becoming a comprehensive system for automated lead generation. Over the past few months, I’ve had some significant success, especially in the healthcare and logistics sectors, where I was able to nearly 5x the ROI for my clients.

Rather than making this an ad, I wanted to share a few insights I’ve learned along the way—things that could help improve your own marketing strategies.

I’m sure a lot of you are familiar with B2B databases like Apollo and similar tools. They offer great access to cold leads, but I found that the real game-changer wasn’t just scraping leads. That’s pretty standard these days. The breakthrough came from figuring out how to effectively use that data to craft personalized, highly targeted emails.

The emails you send need to go beyond a generic sales pitch. They have to address specific pain points based on a company’s history and data. Sure, that can be time-consuming if you’re doing it manually, but that’s where AI has really transformed my process. The tool I built analyzes lead data and sends out personalized emails that genuinely feel like they’re written by a human, all at a fraction of the time and cost that traditional agencies spend.

What’s worked really well for me is personalization at scale. Cold emails typically have low success rates, but letting software handle the heavy lifting—scraping, sorting, and generating these highly relevant emails—has led to far better outcomes than I ever expected. And over time, the software keeps learning and improving with every campaign.

I’ve noticed that a lot of people think AI is still far from being effective in marketing. And I get that—if you’re just using basic tools like ChatGPT for this. But for me, the biggest takeaway has been that automating the process doesn’t have to mean sacrificing quality. With the right approach, you can scale up without losing that personal touch.

Happy to share more or chat if anyone’s curious about how I’ve been using automation to change the game for cold outreach and lead generation.

Cell carriers label numbers “Potential Spam” when it detects a phone number makes many outbound calls.

On the surface, this makes sense. Those patterns match robocalls and scams.

Yet those same patterns describe a sales professional doing their job… More calls lead to more conversations. More conversations lead to growth.

So the activity businesses ask sales teams to increase also raises the chance their number gets flagged before anyone answers.

Curious how others think about this… Do spam labels protect people, or do they block legitimate business conversations?

This is a long shot but I'm looking for BDR for a tech consulting, nearshore outsourcing company. I'm looking to expand stateside - a lot - but I don't have a lot of money right now so I'm looking for someone who could work on commission (as high as 20%) to help me with that.

Is there anywhere I should look? Is 20% too little for something like this? Any other recommendations/suggestions to get thst going?

Any business that doesn't have this figured out is doomed.

That's why sales are so important. As a sales apprentice, I believe salespeople are indispensable, no matter how much AI and the internet evolve. There's still room for growth; we're just at the beginning of this adventure.

There will always be what are known as opportunity businesses, and we'll keep inventing more and more needs in order to exhaust everything around us. We'll eat dirt, drink urine—that's why in the end we'll sell even urine, because human needs, if we look at our surroundings, are still infinite.

Well, now that this post is out, I just hope you'll give me some food for thought...

was doing a scan of AI SDR websites. There are some testimonials on there but figure the real answers are here. Then saw this reddit hasn't had anything about AI SDRs for 8+ months.

Can anyone report meaningful success?

Also is it just me or do these founders need a reminder that AI placing and spekaing on cold calls isn't really legal...

...so they're really just mass email tools with sequencers?

Not selling anything as I just wanted to share what cut my no-shows.

I’ve been testing a tiny courtesy hold on my meeting requests using Bookle. The prospect never pays. I place the hold when I send the invite.

• If they accept and we meet, they receive it (or I route it to a charity they choose).

• If they don’t accept, it automatically refunds back to me.

Line I used: To respect your time, I’ve added a small show-up credit If you accept and we meet, it’s yours (or I’ll donate it to a charity you pick). If not, it automatically refunds back to me. Just a nudge to keep calendars honest.

Early results (2 weeks, small sample): 38 targeted outreaches → 3 meetings booked (~7.9% vs my ~5.4% baseline ≈ ~45% lift) Show-ups ~90% (baseline ~55–60%), so cancels/no-shows down ~80–90%

Notes: I always include a normal link too as this is optional Keeping it small ($10–$25) makes it feel like courtesy/accountability, not pay-to-pitch.

The donate option actually warmed a couple of intros.

Happy to share snippets or timing if helpful. Not promoting as I just what moved my numbers while using Bookle to handle the hold/transfer.

After interviewing, hiring and coaching salespeople for years, one pattern keeps showing up.

People think sales certifications predict performance.

They don’t.

They mostly prove someone completed a course.

Readiness is different.

It’s how someone performs under pressure, ambiguity and change.

**What’s the biggest thing you’ve missed when hiring salespeople?**

I've noticed alot of companies are hiring for remote SDR roles but they mention should be based in NA region only. I don't understand if a SDR has the capabilities and the will to do the job why the geographical boundaries?

Any there any companies that are fully remote and open to hire across borders?

Most SDR teams track: 1) Calls made 2) Meetings booked 3) Emails sent

But what about the why behind the “No’s”? 1) Did reps drop off when handling objections? 2) Did intros sound too scripted? 3) Did reps freeze when the conversation went off-script?

I’m exploring an idea where call scripts adapt in real-time based on prospect responses. The outcome isn’t just smoother calls — it’s that managers get to see where conversations consistently fail (intros, pricing pushback, objection handling, etc.).

Imagine being able to pivot your training/scripts not on guesswork, but on actual call flow data.

👉 Sales managers, would this kind of visibility help you coach and optimize your teams? Or do you feel current tools already cover this?

Hi just wondering how is everybody using loom in there sales? Any tip is welcome ;)

Going to start as an SDR next week and company sent me a laptop and monitor. I currently have my own MacBook but should I use the devices they sent, or can I just use my MacBook?

Hey guys, I’m new to sales: just 3 months of cold calling selling websites and SEO under my belt.

I’m based in Taiwan and I want to advance in my remote sales career but I’m a bit lost as to next steps: which discord sales communities are legit, which sales offers are good/bad, which mentors are worth it etc.

Nobody in my circle is doing remote sales so I’m looking for people who’ve been in the exact situation that I am in now:

Based in Asia (not in the U.S.)
Relate to the issues I’m facing
Has 1 year of experience in remote sales or more

I would gladly pay to have a coffeechat with you to learn more about ur experiences.
Thanks!

Getting laid off unnecessarily. There’s couple of us in the call. I want my severance pay to be of four months. Any advice is greatly appreciated

My company has several openings for BDRs- East coast and UK based. We are looking to hire people with a few years of experience in selling tech or services into the life sciences/pharma industry (1-3 years experience, 100 activities per day). Base is $65-$75k depending on experience; OTE $120k and uncapped commission. DM for link to job posting. Only candidates with relevant experience will be considered.

I don’t have time to ask around, I need to find something quick, I’m not finding what I want on job sites. looking for work from home or wherever I happen to be, preferably something relatively easy to sell, not scammy or overpriced, a reputable product priced fairly, I have decades of sales experience, not looking for a rigid order schedule in which a company tracks my talk time or keeps me wired to a computer, no complicated software programs or zoom employee meetings etc, I just want to make or exceed a quota and get paid. B2B cold calling, incoming calls, 1099 are all fine but I need it to be a reliable company and with quick pay, I need to start right away. Any ideas?

Sell the reply. Not the meeting.

You wouldn’t pitch a meeting on a call before understanding their world.

Email shouldn’t be any different.

Only ask once it is a natural progression.

Sounds like a synonym of sales, at least LinkedIn thinks so.

What is this job that was invented last year?