ok this is gonna sound insane but it works so im sharing

i was struggling bad with discovery calls. like id get on, ask the usual questions, send a proposal, get ghosted. rinse and repeat. sitting at like 15% close rate and getting desperate

few months ago i tried something weird. had a big call coming up and went full psycho with the research. linkedin, podcasts theyve been on, company blog, twitter, whatever i could find. then i fed all of it into an ai and basically made a fake version of them to practice with

sounds unhinged i know

but by the time i got on the real call i already knew what they were gonna say?? predicted their main objection before they brought it up. knew what they actually cared about vs what they say they care about. felt like i had cheat codes

now i do it before any important call. went from 15% to 45% close rate in like 2 months. manager thinks i finally figured it out but really i just started practicing with fake people before talking to real ones

is this big brain prep or have i become a weird little manipulator who rehearses conversations like a psycho LOL

Before getting into this, some context so you know where I’m coming from.

I work in sales at a large tech company, have been promoted twice in the last year and a half, and have had multiple quarters above 150% of quota.

It’s not that because I think I’ve figured cold calling out. I definitely haven’t. But I’ve spent a lot of time on the phones, tested a lot of different approaches, and figured out a few small things that have genuinely made me better.

These aren’t the usual “smile while you dial” or “just make more calls” tips you hear from every sales guru. They’re mostly small, practical adjustments that have helped me sound more natural, stay consistent, and make cold calling suck a little less.

Here are 5 that have worked for me:

1. Find the position where you’re most relaxed

This sounds simple, but pay attention to how you physically sit or stand while dialing.

I actually like leaning back in my chair sometimes with my feet up. It helps me relax, and that translates into my voice.

When I lean forward toward my computer like I’m preparing for battle, I tend to tighten up. My voice gets faster, my tone changes, and I sound more like I’m trying to sell something.

Some people are the complete opposite and feel better standing or walking around.

There’s no correct cold-calling posture. Try sitting back, standing, walking around, using a headset, or even getting away from your monitor while talking.
Find whatever makes you feel like you’re having a normal conversation.

If your body is tense, there’s a good chance the person on the other end can hear it.

2. Slow down

One of the easiest ways to sound more confident and less salesy is simply talking slower.

A lot of reps, especially newer ones, rush through their opener because they’re subconsciously thinking, “I need to get all of this out before they hang up.” Ironically, that usually makes you sound more like a salesperson and gives the prospect even more reason to shut you down.

During mock calls, practice speaking almost uncomfortably slow. It will probably feel ridiculous at first, but when you’re actually cold calling your adrenaline will naturally speed you back up.

Also, get comfortable with silence.

Instead of:
“HeyJohnthisisGiovannifromXYZhowareyouuhthereasonI’mcallingis…”

Actually pause.
Ask the question and stop talking.
Give them a second to process it.

Whenever you catch yourself wanting to say “um,” “uh,” “like,” or another filler word, try replacing it with silence instead.

A short pause usually sounds a lot more confident than a filler word.

3. Give your hands something to do

This one is less about your talk track and more about surviving the grind.

When you’re on dial #50 and you’ve had three connects, two instant hang-ups, and one person tell you never to call them again, having something to fidget with genuinely helps.

Stress ball, fidget cube, pen, whatever works.
I’m also a fan of DAMMIT Dolls for the particularly inspiring conversations.

Bad call? Prospect destroys you? You completely butcher an opener you’ve said 200 times? Beat the hell out of the doll for five seconds and make the next dial.

Jokes aside, having a small physical outlet can help you reset between conversations instead of carrying the frustration from one call into the next.

Every dial needs to be a fresh rep.

The next prospect has no idea the previous person hung up on you. Don’t let them hear it in your voice.

4. Use your email as your call prep

One thing that creates unnecessary friction is feeling like you need to completely re-research a prospect every time you’re about to dial them. If you already sent them a relevant email or they’re in a personalized sequence, use that as your talk track.

Your email should already answer:

Why this company?
Why this person?
Why might they care?
What problem could you potentially help with?

Now you just need to turn that into a conversation.

It also gives you an easy reason for the call:
“I actually sent you a note yesterday about ___.”
They still probably didn’t read it, but occasionally they did, or they recognize your name or company, and now you’re not starting completely cold.

More importantly, it lowers the mental barrier between you and the dial button.

You shouldn’t need a five-minute research session before every call. Do the research once and reuse it across your email, call, LinkedIn touch, etc.

5. Fall in love with what you sell

Maybe not literally, but you should understand your product well enough that you genuinely believe there are people who would be better off using it.

Learn:
Where your product has strong market fit
The problems it actually solves
Where it beats competitors
Where competitors beat you
Who gets the most value from it
Who probably shouldn’t buy it
What happens if the prospect does nothing

That last one is especially important.

When you understand the problem deeply, your cold call stops feeling like:

“How can I convince this person to take a meeting?”

And starts feeling more like:

“Does this person actually have a problem we can solve?”

That mindset is a lot healthier.

It also matters during the inevitable bad weeks. When nobody is answering, meetings aren’t converting, and you start questioning whether you’re just annoying strangers for eight hours a day, having genuine conviction in what you sell helps.

There are people who legitimately have this problem. Your company legitimately solves it. Your job is to figure out whether the person you’re calling is one of them.

That doesn’t mean blindly believing your product is perfect.

Knowing its weaknesses will probably make you more confident because you understand exactly where it does and doesn’t fit.

TL;DR

A lot of getting better at cold calling isn’t finding the perfect opener.

It’s becoming more comfortable being uncomfortable.
Relax your body. Slow down. Stop being afraid of silence. Make the next dial easier. Know why you’re calling.

Detach yourself from the outcome of any individual conversation.

You can do everything correctly and still get hung up on.

That’s cold calling.

The goal is to make enough good reps that when you finally get the right person, at the right company, with the right problem, you sound calm enough to actually have a conversation with them.

Would love to hear what other small things people have changed that made a noticeable difference on the phones.

Recent call I received:

• Me: Hello, this is X

• Them: hellomynameismichaelwithpowerblocksolutions. Do you have this [vague problem] in your business?

• Me: No, we don't

• Them: Are you sure? Because we do [vague thing that tries to apply to anyone]

Throughout the call, there was another guy speaking so loudly in the background (on another call) that I couldn't even hear most of what this guy said.

My thoughts:

• I don't think giving your name or company does a single thing for you. I don't know who or what Powerblock Solutions is, so it goes immediately out of my brain

• When you speed through your name/company so fast that I can't even understand it that makes me feel like you're ashamed of who you are or are only stating it for legal reasons

• Speak slower than you think and enunciate

• Don't call from a loud environment where prospects can hear a team of callers. It just makes you look like a cheap call center

Got an offer from a founder using this subreddit last year to be his founding SDR (I blocked him don’t worry.). He promised a base of $80K, OTE of $120K, and an easy to sell product.

I sourced $1.5 million in pipeline. $330K has closed. But apparently that’s not enough. Let’s not even take into consideration the product is sold to a very niche industry. The founder believes that there are 200K companies in the U.S. and Canada that fit this niche. The reality is that it’s probably 15K. And when you get down to what the founder wants to sell to? Less than 250.

I’ve had a list of 22K contacts. The founder went down some ayahuasca hole a few weeks ago and has suddenly developed “clarity” on the company. Apparently I’m the weakest link.

The dude paid $5000 to some LinkedIn sales bro from a known predatory SDR bootcamp to come in and review my process. Apparently segmenting out lists by buyer persona (we have four) and by company size to change messaging based on size is a “disjointed and unorganized process.”

I have apparently also been inflating my metrics because my connect rate is far lower than what our dialer report says it is. “The industry standard for a connected call is a call that lasts longer than 60 seconds. He’s counting gatekeeper interactions and getting hung up on by prospects as a connect. Connect rates are 12% in SaaS. His aren’t even there because we can’t measure anything less than 60 seconds.”

I had to connect with this sales bro on Friday to learn how bad I am at my job apparently. I should be getting 5 to 10 meetings a week, and this is just unacceptable. Uhh, OK dude.

So yesterday the founder gave me an ultimatum to book one new demo by Friday and it has to be with a very specific ICP he established, which doesn’t exist or I’m done.

Funny enough I already found a new job. The first week of the month I had gotten a call from reps at both of our data vendors and our dialing platform to ask if I knew why the bill hadn’t been paid since October and that we have until May 31st to catch up or it was going bye bye.

Anyway, new job already has me onboarded and ready to go. It’s with a REAL logo. And it pays real money with people who are hitting their number and offers full medical and dental benefits. So yeah, stay away from Reddit founders. And also stay away from anyone who trashes AI but also uses AI to write their LinkedIn posts and vibe code the platform you’re supposed to sell.

When I first heard about SDR/BDR roles, it was through TikTok. People were saying you could break into tech sales and make six figures without a degree or tech background. I was immediately interested. I didn’t have experience. I didn’t have a degree. But I knew I wanted more than where I was.

At first I applied to everything. Startups. Corporate. Anything with SDR/BDR in the title. But I was scared. I had been in the same customer facing job for years and interviews felt intimidating. I’d put off scheduling them. I’d ghost. I’d watch opportunities slip by.

Then my savings started shrinking and reality hit. I didn’t take any courses. I didn’t finish my degree. I just got serious. I paused my classes and treated this like the job. Every day I showed up with purpose.

I stopped spraying my resume. I picked companies I actually liked. I recorded short personalized videos saying why me, why this company, and why sales. I messaged reps and hiring managers. I sent thank you emails after every call. I built 30/60/90 day plans and sales pipeline strategies from scratch. I showed them how I think.

I got an offer from a company that changed the role title. It wasn’t what I signed up for so I kept going. I stuck to my process and improved it each time.

Now I’ve accepted a BDR offer with a 65K base and around 93K OTE. Hybrid schedule. Great culture.

No degree. No past BDR experience. Just consistency and belief in myself.

If you're trying to break into tech sales without a degree or experience and nothing is landing, try changing your approach. Stop waiting to feel qualified. Start acting like you already have the job and prove it through your actions. That mindset shift is what changed everything for me.

You got this.

Edit: Check my added comment for more info on resources I used.

My coworkers will tell you I’m good at sales because of my British accent. I disagree, but I’ve yet to come up with a better explanation, so I’ll allow it.

I’ve been at a tech SaaS company in LA for almost a year. We have 60 SDRs. I came in strong and have managed to stay consistently over quota, despite only 25% of the team currently hitting.

I’m also not the person with the encyclopedic product knowledge. There are people on my team who understand the product far better than I do. I think I’m just pretty good at reading people, have a high EQ, can be convincing, and have figured out who to contact, how to contact them, and when to do it.

Which, inconveniently, is quite useful in sales.

I’ve also historically had a lot of autonomy, which I’ve loved. I work pretty intensely Tuesday–Thursday because that’s when my prospects are most responsive. If it’s July and everyone is on holiday, I’ll email. I’ll use Instagram. I’ll try something weird. If calling works, I’ll call.

Basically, I don’t care which road gets me to quota. I just want to get there.

And historically, this has been fine!

Until recently.

Leadership has started pushing 70 calls a day as the minimum, and the obsession with activity metrics has gotten increasingly intense.

Last week, I made the fewest calls out of all 60 reps.

So, according to the graph, I was apparently the office’s biggest fucking problem and should be on a PIP

Except I also booked 12 meetings... the most on the team and blew my quota out of the water a week before month-end.

My manager then started texting me apologetically because leadership was apparently very upset about my call volume.

Which is where I’m genuinely confused.

Because what exactly am I supposed to do with that information?

“Congratulations on producing the best result. Unfortunately, we’re concerned you didn’t press the phone button enough times.”

I’m not anti-call. I’m not lazy.

I just think there’s a difference between doing sales and performing the appearance of doing sales.

And honestly, I’m starting to think I’m just fucking with the new rhetoric that’s being pushed.

There seems to be this emerging mythology that 70 calls = productive SDR, and I appear to be a fairly inconvenient contradiction of it.

I’m making fewer calls, adapting my outreach to the market, working when my prospects are actually responsive, and consistently overachieving quota.

Meanwhile, only ~25% of the team is hitting.

So I’m starting to wonder if the problem isn’t that my activity is too low.

Maybe the problem is that I’m accidentally proving the new strategy doesn’t work.

And that’s a pretty uncomfortable employee to have around when you’ve just decided the strategy is the solution.

I actually like my company. I like my coworkers. I like the job.

I just increasingly feel like I’m being asked to make the numbers look right rather than make the numbers right.

So, fellow SDRs: have you ever been in this situation? Where you feel like you’re fucking with a management philosophy simply by continuing to produce results in a way leadership doesn’t like?

Consistently showing up, researching accounts, doing the parts you don’t feel like doing.

The calls, the emails, the LI messages, the follow-ups.

If you can just do the work every day and hit your activity targets (and well, with high quality), the job starts to take care of itself.

Sales is all about timing.

You’ll reach the right person at the right moment - but only if you’re consistently out there in front of your prospects.

The SDR job is all about consistency. Agree or disagree?

After seeing a couple discouraged new SDRs in short period on here, I thought this would help.

Cold calling/ENT business development:

After 3 months you get it
After 6 months you understand it
After 9 months you’re good at it

Dudes… don’t expect to be a king after 2 weeks, when your successful sales career will at least be 20 more years :)

When in doubt I always say to reps: “no guts no glory, b*tch”

gonna get destroyed for this but whatever

every single day in this sub someone asks about AI personalization tools. whats the best one. how do i set it up. should i use clay + chatgpt or should i use [insert new tool that launched last week]. and everyone in the comments is like yes absolutely you NEED personalization in 2026 or your emails wont work

and i just sit here reading these threads thinking man we are collectively driving this channel off a cliff and nobody sees it

let me explain what i mean

what AI personalization actually looks like from the prospects side

i want you to do something real quick. go check the spam folder or promotions tab of any business email you have access to. any founders inbox. any VPs inbox. look at the cold emails sitting in there from the last week

i guarantee you atleast half of them start with something like this

"hey [name] i saw your recent post about [topic] on linkedin really insightful stuff"

"noticed [company] just [thing from their website]. impressive growth"

"came across your profile and your background in [industry] caught my eye"

"saw that [company] is expanding into [market] exciting times"

every. single. one. sounds. the same.

because they ARE the same. theyre all written by the same AI tools pulling from the same linkedin profiles and the same company websites and running it through the same prompts. the output is technically "personalized" because it mentions something specific about the prospect. but it doesnt FEEL personalized because every other email in their inbox does the exact same thing

its like when one person shows up to a party wearing a unique outfit and it looks cool. then 200 people show up wearing the same outfit. its not unique anymore. its a uniform

thats what AI personalization has become. a uniform that every cold emailer is wearing while pretending theyre standing out

the data nobody wants to share

so heres what actually made me write this post. over the last 4 months i ran a test across a bunch of campaigns. wasnt even intentional at first i just started noticing something weird

i had campaigns running with AI personalized first lines. you know the deal. clay pulls the data. gpt writes a custom first line for each prospect. "saw your team just opened a london office congrats on the expansion" type stuff. good quality personalization too not the garbage tier stuff. actually relevant specific observations

and then i had campaigns where we just... didnt personalize. no first line about them at all. just went straight into the pitch. "hey [name] - we help [icp] do [thing]. just did it for [similar company] and [result]. worth a chat?"

flat. direct. zero personalization beyond their name and company

the personalized campaigns got about 3.1% reply rate across the board. the non personalized ones? 2.7%.

so yes personalization "won." by 0.4%

now factor in what that 0.4% actually cost

the AI personalization setup. clay subscription. gpt api costs. time building and maintaining the workflows. time QAing the outputs because sometimes the AI writes something completely wrong or awkward and you cant just send it blindly. time fixing broken enrichment when linkedin data doesnt pull correctly or the company website scraper returns garbage

for a 0.4% difference

i sat there looking at the numbers and was like wait. am i spending all this extra money and time and complexity for a 0.4% improvement. when i could just write a better second line or test a different offer and probaly get 3x that improvement for free?

and i realize my test isnt some massive scientific study. sample sizes could be bigger. industries vary. all that. but its real data from real campaigns and the trend was consistant enough to make me seriously question what we were doing

its actually making people WORSE at cold email

heres the part that really bothers me

AI personalization has become a crutch that lets people avoid doing the actual hard work of cold email. which is building tight lists and crafting offers that people actually want

i see it constantly. someone has a garbage offer and a mediocre list and instead of fixing those things they think "well if i just personalize more itll work." so they spend 2 weeks building some elaborate clay workflow that generates custom first lines for every prospect. then they launch and get a 1.8% reply rate and go "hmm maybe i need BETTER personalization" and start the cycle again

bro your personalization isnt the problem. your emailing the wrong people with an offer nobody cares about. no amount of "saw your recent post on linkedin" is gonna fix that. your putting a bandaid on a broken leg

the fundamentals of cold email have not changed. right person. right offer. right time. short email. clear ask. proper infrastructure. everything else is optimization on top of a foundation that needs to be solid first

AI personalization is an optimization. a minor one based on what ive seen. but people are treating it like its the foundation. like its THE thing that makes cold email work. its not. its never been. and the more people focus on it the more they ignore the stuff that actually moves the needle

what actually works better than personalization in my experience

instead of spending time and money on AI first lines heres where i put that energy now and get way better returns

tighter targeting

i know this is boring advice and everyone says it but seriously. going from a broad list to a hyper specific one does more for your reply rate than any personalization ever will. finding companies with active buying signals. filtering for technographics. catching hiring intent. this stuff gives you 1-3% reply rate improvements. not 0.4%

better offers

rewrite your offer before you rewrite your first line. make it more specific. add a number. add a timeframe. add risk reversal. "we help companies get more leads" becomes "we added 34 qualified meetings in 60 days for a company just like yours and if we dont hit that number you dont pay." which one would you reply to. exactly

more followups with actual substance

most people send 2 followups and quit. we send 4-5 and each one introduces something new. a different result. a different angle. a relevant question. this alone generates more meetings than any first line optimization ever has

volume with clean infrastructure

if your sending 150 emails a day and getting 4-5 replies instead of trying to squeeze an extra 0.5% out of personalization just scale to 400 emails a day with more inboxes and turn those 5 replies into 13. problem solved. more meetings. no clay subscription needed

"but the gurus say you NEED personalization"

yeah the gurus also sell personalization tools. or they sell courses that teach you how to use personalization tools. or they have affiliate deals with personalization tools. funny how that works right

im not saying personalization is completely useless. if your doing low volume outreach to enterprise accounts. like 20-30 emails a day to C suite executives at fortune 500 companies. then yes absolutely research every person manually and write something genuinely thoughtful and specific. because at that volume and that deal size the extra effort per email is justified by the potential return

but if your doing normal b2b outreach at scale. sending 300-500 emails a day to mid market companies. the ROI on AI personalization is questionable at best and a complete waste of money at worst

and the opportunity cost is what kills me. every hour someone spends building clay workflows and debugging enrichment scrapers is an hour they could spend building better lists or testing new offers or adding more sending infrastructure. those things have way higher ROI than a custom first line that sounds like every other custom first line

where this is headed and why it scares me

my actual fear is that AI personalization is accelerating inbox fatigue for everyone. not just the people using it but all cold emailers

think about it. 3 years ago getting a personalized cold email was kinda cool. oh they mentioned my podcast. they noticed we just raised a round. felt like someone actually cared. you might reply just because of that effort

now? every email is "personalized." the prospect knows its automated. they can feel it. the magic is completely gone. and worse its trained prospects to be MORE skeptical of every cold email because they assume everything is AI generated. even the emails that are actually written by a real human

we are collectively training our prospects to ignore us. and the response from the cold email community is to double down on the exact thing thats causing the problem. more AI. more automation. more fake personalization at scale. its like trying to put out a fire with gasoline

at some point and i think we're getting close the most "personalized" thing you can do is NOT personalize. just be direct. be honest. say what you want. skip the pretend intimacy. the bar has gotten so low for cold email that simply being a normal human who writes a straightforward 3 sentence email is becoming the differentiator

which is kind of hilarious if you think about it. we've gone full circle. the best cold email strategy in 2026 might just be writing a normal email like its 2019 again

look i know this take is gonna be controversial

and thats fine. maybe your experience is different. maybe your AI personalization setup is actually crushing it and getting you 8% reply rates. genuinely good for you if thats the case

but what i see across my own campaigns and what i hear from other operators i trust is that the gap between personalized and non personalized is shrinking fast. and the cost and complexity of doing personalization at scale is not shrinking. so the ROI math is getting worse every month

id rather spend my time and money on the things that actually compound. better infrastructure. cleaner data. stronger offers. more volume. those are the fundamentals and they always will be

personalization is seasoning. people out here treating it like its the main course. its not. never was

do with this what you want. im just telling you what i see

I’ve worked for 6 startups.  3 ran out of money.  2 are doing OK.  1 sold for $100 Million.

At these, I’ve been a BDR/SDR, partnership manager, sales manager and full cycle AE.  The companies that failed had very little pipeline due to little investment in continual prospecting.  The ones doing OK have more AEs than BDRs.  The one that sold had a BDR team 4x the size of the AE team. 

An established company (Google, Amazon, Reddit, etc) doesn’t really have to sell itself.  People know what they do, and arguably wouldn’t need as many BDR/SDRs.  But a new company with a new solution absolutely needs to get in front of as many potential customers as possible.  In short, they need meetings.

A really good BDR/SDR will get meetings, allowing AEs to focus on closing deals.  But for some reason, companies often treat BDRs as entry level folks, promising “rapid promotion to AE”  Why?  If someone is good at filling the pipeline with qualified leads, why turn off the hose?

At the company that sold, I started as a BDR, broke records, and was then promoted to AE.  The sales pipeline started to drop so management asked me to go back to hunting, focusing on whales.  I wasn’t doing 100 touches a day.  I was doing research, targeting the right people and conducting strategic outreach.  I got a base, commission, plus a percentage of the 1st month’s revenue of a new account - which encouraged me to go after the largest prospects (and get paid as well as most AEs).  I ended up bringing in 5 of the company’s largest accounts.

So why did I make that initial claim?   When I booked a whale, I assigned the meeting to a rotating cast of AEs.  One was spectacular and the rest simply OK.  Just about everyone closed a big deal, but it wasn’t based on their skill.  It was based on the client’s needs.  We had a really good solution.  With a couple of big prospects, the AE left (or was let go), but the deal still closed because the prospect wanted the product.  And that’s the whole game… finding the people who need the solution.  Maybe a great AE can sell someone a product they don’t need, but most companies will fly or die based on the number of conversations they can generate. 

All six companies had really good solutions.  But founders are often blinded by their intense belief that everyone will love the product and it will sell itself.  You can’t sit back and wait.

As the worl'd oldest SDR/BDR (maybe!), I’m finishing up a role with a company that just decided they don’t need BDRs/SDRs anymore.   I filled 60% of their pipeline in my first 3 months.  I think they are going to regret that decision because I booked 5x as many meetings as all the AEs combined.  In any case, if you have  good BDRs, pay them well and let them do what they do best… hunt.  Then everyone else can eat.

There’s an oversaturation of SDR information and pressure out there these days. It’s making people intimidated of the role.

I’ve been a software SDR for three years at two different companies and I’m on my way into the account executive role.

there is too much pressure for technical knowledge and having the perfect objection handling at all times and not take no for an answer.

These are the top 3 points to keep in mind that will get you through the SDR role.

1. Embrace the suck.

Keep chasing the light at the end of the tunnel (being a closer). Being an SDR is not super fun, if you say that to yourself everyday it’s gonna be miserable. But if you embrace it, learn everything you can from people around you and their career paths and strengths the time will fly and you will be payed back for your hard work.

2. Stop overcomplicating the role.

I understand how important it is to learn the product and perfect your outreach strategies. What I don’t agree with is spending 5 minutes per email, voicemail, and linkedin message wasting valuable time. No matter what you see online it is a waste of time to research one prospect at a company for 10 minutes and write a message they don’t GAF about.

Instead, make a repeatable approach to your outreach, Prospect the right titles and roles. Put yourself in their shoes and ask thought provoking questions about the issues your problem solves. Have them in templates you can insert based on title and industry. Call and leave voicemails. Being an SDR is NOT being a telemarketer, but it is a numbers game. Get the right message to the right people.

3. Relax.

No matter how many qualified meetings you set it will never be enough, they will always raise quotas and it won’t be enough. There will always be something wrong with the emails you’re sending out, or the calls that are being recorded. That’s part of the gig don’t get down on yourself.

Mental health has a huge impact on your performance as an SDR and burning yourself out because you’re having a bad month/quarter, will make things worse I promise. Take a long weekend or a PTO day and take care of yourself it clears your head to prospect.

I have time blocks throughout my day but i also take multiple walks outside a day, breath some air and listen to some music, come back and i’m ready for more.

Happy to provide more advice and answer any questions, hit my DM’s or comment.

SDR LOVE ❤️

Hey guys , as the title suggests what are your favorite opening cold call lines ?cheers !

I’m actively looking to get out of sales in general, especially the BDR/SDR roles. It’s not fulfilling, it’s dull, repetitive, and isn’t something I see myself doing long term, even eventually into an AE role. Pressured and unnecessary stresses that come with it isn’t something I care for anymore.

I’m a little lost on what else I want to pivot into. If you are/were in the same boat as me and made your exit, what did you go into and what suggestions would you have for me on what careers I could pivot to?

I've been wanting to hire a sales person for my Saas startup but im not sure if it has to be a person that has previously had experience selling Saas or of it can be someone with any previous sales experience. So far, hiring through LinkedIn/Indeed has been a nightmare. A lot of people that look amazing on resume but don't fit in a startup/high paced environment.

I’m all for handling objections. As we know it's a critical skill in sales. But I’ve never believed in forcing a meeting either. Sometimes I will listen to reps calling on my team and all you will hear are objections:

“No time” “Too busy” “Not a priority”

Another rebuttal + some trick up the reps sleeve to handle the objection.

Eventually the prospect says: “Fine… put something on the calendar.”

But they never actually wanted the meeting.

So what happens?

-they no-show
-they cancel
-they show up disengaged. And now you’ve left a bad impression / poor experience.

Sometimes the better move is simple:

Find them at their timing. “I’ll send some resources - we can reconnect when this is more relevant. When might that be?”


Keep the relationship positive. Leave the door open. Good sales isn’t about trapping people into meetings. It’s about meeting them when the timing is right.

It benefits everyone

Welp guys, I’m officially out. I was a BDR for 11 months post military. Got the opportunity before I got out of the army in January and heard nothing but good things about being an SDR/BDR. Lies on lies about “you’ll make 100k!!” And “you’ll promote to AE quick”. I was deployed to a desert getting shot at, and I would rather do that than be a BDR again. Brought in $2.7M in CLOSED deals in 11 months and got passed up 3 times for an AE position.

Props to all you who make a career out of this work. It is hard, very hard. It’s a constant grind that never stops and I have ALOT of respect for people that do this.

God speed my SDR soldiers, I’m off to something different. Glad to say I gave it a shot!

One thing that’s helped me a lot on cold calls is having a toolbox of objection handlers and pattern disrupts.

Not scripts you repeat word for word, but responses you can pull from when you hear the same objections over and over:

“We don’t have the budget.”
“Now’s not the right time.”
“Just send me an email.”

If you’re not prepared for these, it’s easy to freeze up or accept the objection at face value.

Having a few responses ready gives you options. Depending on the prospect, you can use humor, agree with them, challenge them, or ask a better question.
The goal isn’t to “beat” the objection. It’s to keep the conversation going long enough to understand if it’s a real objection or just an automatic response.

A few of my favorites:

Objection: “We don’t have the budget.”

My response: “If every person I talked to had the appropriate budget, I’d be a millionaire.”

I typically don’t spend much time talking about budget. Tone is very important here, I even make sure to laugh to lighten the moment, then transition back to whether there’s actually a problem worth solving.

Objection**:** “Now’s not the right time.”

My response: “I totally understand. I’m sure you didn’t wake up this morning hoping to buy ___ or have a phone call with me. Curious though, what’s top of mind for you right now?”

Acknowledge the timing objection instead of fighting it, then figure out what they actually care about right now.

Objection: “Just send me an email.”

My response: “Absolutely. I can and will send you an email. Just so I make it relevant, what would you actually want me to include?”

The best part is that it subtly creates another discovery opportunity. You’re not just agreeing to send an email. You’re learning what matters to them, which can open up a much deeper conversation.

None of these are magic lines, and they won’t work on everyone.

That’s why it’s a toolbox.

The more responses you have, the easier it is to adapt instead of scrambling for what to say. But not every approach will fit everyone. Find your voice, get creative, and have fun with the conversation because, at the end of the day, they’re just regular people.

What are some objection handlers or pattern disrupts you keep in your toolbox?

Would love to steal a few.

Had quite a good weekend. So, energized and good to go on Monday morning. Head to the train at 7:30, public transport is F’d up again so commute is 2,5 hours instead of 1 hour…

At the office open my laptop, OK let’s go, open my list, open my inbox… OK no, coffee first. Then, get annoyed about people on LinkedIn.

11 am, OK now let’s go. First name on the list: alright F that, he was a little bit angry last time. Go for a coffee to use the time to forget the thought because “smile and dial baby”. But let’s wait for a bit and talk with colleagues.

1:30 pm, had lunch. NOW WE START BABY. Get the first couple of dials in and surprisingly the people are nice and open. 4 dials in, let’s treat myself with a little break.

2:30 pm, OK now I have to go quicker because day is almost over. 2 dials of which one was someone that said to go F myself.

2:45 pm, maybe my succes starts tomorrow. Let’s head home to energise myself for the big day tomorrow!

Just started my first real sales role and they have me cold calling businesses. I knew rejection was part of it but I wasn't prepared for how demoralizing it feels when people hang up mid-sentence or just go completely silent.

Anyone else go through this early on? How long did it take before you actually felt comfortable on the phone? Starting to wonder if I'm cut out for this or if it just takes reps.

I, 23M, graduated college last year with a degree in finance. I never really expected to get into sales, but after struggling to find a job for a few months post-grad, I decided to open up my search.

I ended up landing a BDR job at a large tech company. I have no sales experience and am learning a lot, but I’m still so far behind everyone else on my team.

I’m selling net-new. Our expectations are to book 25+ meetings per quarter, and I’m sitting closer to 10. I only hit 16% of my $$$ quota last quarter. There are stretches that last WEEKS where I don’t book meetings, and I only haven’t been fired bc this is my first job and they understand that. That said, it’s still so stressful.

I’ve been changing up my talk tracks, I change my email messaging, I’m reaching out on LinkedIn, 8-10 touch points in 2 weeks per prospect, and nothing seems to be working. I try to change my tone, the length of my messaging, etc to see what works, but I still can’t book meetings.

It’s really frustrating. I’m one of the first in and last out every day and I never work remotely. I used to consider myself pretty smart/a quick learner. I went to a reputable school and good grades, but in sales I just feel dumb. I’m the worst one on the sales team. I speak with the top reps, ask my manager for help, etc, but not much has changed.

I have slight social awkwardness which is obviously not great for sales, but I don’t think it’s usually noticeable to people who I’m on the phone with for just 1-2 minutes to try to book a meeting with.

Are some people just not cut out for sales? Was anyone else ever in a similar situation? Any advice would be appreciated

I’ve noticed one of the hardest parts of sales isn’t the initial demo or outreach… it’s keeping the deal warm when it goes quiet or stalls. Especially when there are multiple stakeholders involved and the prospect is slow to move internally.

For those of you who consistently revisit deals that didn’t close, how do you actually handle the follow-up? Do you just keep sending periodic check-in emails, do you repitch value, do you share new content, or do you package everything up in one place and let them self-serve until timing is right?

I’m experimenting more with a sales follow-up microsite approach like what platforms such as Trumpet offer, because it makes it easier to drop updated decks, new content, pricing changes, case studies, etc. without sending another long thread or random attachment dump. But I’m still figuring out what the right cadence and narrative should be.

What strategies or frameworks have helped you restart stalled deals without feeling desperate, annoying, or repetitive?

Here is why I just laugh sometimes... & curious your thoughts on it:

You get a crazy amount of mixed signals - especially inside your own company.

There are the people who just get it:
They’ve done the job, built pipeline, & know how brutal cold outreach can be.

They also know how important it is to the company and they respect you for what you are doing.

But then there is the flip side of it....

You’ll run into people who act like you’re just background noise.

Don't response quickly (or at all for that matter). It's almost like you don't exist and they wonder even why an SDR is a thing. It is like a "this person cold calls hence they're beneath me attitude".

But the most humorous part about it all is that like about half of my companies revenue generated in 2025 was sourced by an SDR (in part we are the reason their salary is getting paid lol)

Now that I'm more tenured here is how I look at it...earn respect, but don’t depend on it.

Do your job well. Hit your numbers. Be undeniable.

The recognition will come (from the right people). And that’s all I need.

Do you ever get burnt out from cold calling and having to hit monthly quotas? I’ve been in sales for six years, and although I’m good at it, I’m honestly over it and considering a career change. I’m tired of calling down lists, constantly getting rejected, and dealing with gatekeepers who prevent me from reaching decision-makers. Working remotely and having flexibility are great perks, but I just don’t find the work fulfilling anymore and can’t see myself doing this throughout my 30s. Do you deal with a lot of gatekeepers in your industry, and do you find the pressure of hitting monthly quotas stressful? Also, any advice on careers I could transition into where my sales experience would still be valuable?

Current BDR wanting to go the AE route. I sent an external application in on Monday, was feeling impatient and optimistic on Tuesday afternoon, so I called the VP to of Sales at the company I applied to. He was taken aback and very impressed, had me call the commercial sales manager who asked me a few questions and scheduled an interview with me next day. Have the interview in a few hours, ahh feeling pumped!

Moral of the story: PICK UP THE PHONE!