How AI Influences the Sdr Role

The problem with AI SDRs isn't the AI. It's the outsourcing mindset. Building sales dev is not easy. The AI SDR companies are promising a silver bullet. Put in a dollar, get qualified meetings out. Skip the work. But it rarely works to *fully* outsource to human SDR shops. So why would it work with AI? AI is absolutely transforming sales development. Already happening: -- AI makes your ICP models and targeting way better (via Keyplay). -- Delivers instant account insights without the manual work. -- Powers copilots for better calls and emails. -- Automates quality touches at scale. -- Much more coming. But I'm skeptical of this black box AI SDR promise. Sales development isn't just a pipeline node you can extract and outsource. It impacts brand. Creates culture. Drives feedback loops. Shapes how your market sees you. Great outbound delivers strategic value. Bad outbound creates painful second-order problems. The problems with outsourcing don't dissappear with AI. I think AI SDRs will have a place. But the winners won't be the ones treating AI SDR as a magic replacement. They'll be the GTM leaders who: — Build a distinct strategy based on fundamentals. — Use AI systems thoughtfully, for specific jobs. — Keep the function core. AI SDR buyers are chasing quick fixes. I get the appeal. They might get some meetings in the short-term. But will it be a long-term solution? #B2B #Sales #Marketing

AI agents just replaced an entire SDR team and most sales leaders are still debating whether to hire more reps The math isn't even close anymore. I'm watching companies deploy AI agents that research prospects, write personalized outreach, handle initial responses, and book qualified meetings. All day. Every day. Without coffee breaks or commission negotiations. Meanwhile, sales leaders are posting job openings for 20-person SDR teams. Here's what's happening right now AI agents cost $2K monthly and generate 200+ personalized touchpoints daily Traditional SDR costs $80K+ annually and manages 15-20 conversations weekly AI agents book 40-60 qualified meetings per month Average SDR books 2-4 meetings monthly Your competition isn't hiring more SDRs. They're automating volume prospecting and repositioning their humans for high-value activities. The new SDR role looks completely different → AI strategy manager → Complex conversation specialist → Key account relationship builder → Quality control for automated outreach These aren't basic chatbots sending LinkedIn spam. AI agents understand context, industry nuances, and buyer psychology better than most junior reps. The companies waiting for perfect AI solutions will find themselves competing against teams that automated 70% of sales development six months ago. This isn't coming next year. It's happening now while you're interviewing candidates. Ready to future-proof your sales development approach? Check out The Innovative Seller for the framework on evolving your team before the market forces the change — ♻️ Repost this if you're seeing the shift Follow for more AI and sales insights

AI SDR - the Hot Topic! I've spoken to 30 GTM leaders in the past 30 days: 70% of them were mandated by the CEO: “Go investigate AI SDR / AI lead-gen.” Of those, 50% of them are still early in their experiment of testing out solutions, The other 50% are either in late stage of their eval or have completed it and in either case have come to a conclusion. The 50% that are starting out have a perspective - its negative 👎 ; they're doing it to fulfill the AI itch for the leadership. The other 50% that have tried and tested it also have a perspective - it's mostly negative 👎 (not because they don't see the long term promise, but because their current workflows cannot be taken over holistically by an AI-SDR). Why the let-down? 1. Workflow gaps – AI can’t yet handle complex prospect routes, multi-threading, or the “why now?” nuance. 2. Data debt – Garbage in ≈ garbage out. AI-SDRs still are operating on "dirty" data. 3. Human context – Exec buyers still respond to curiosity and convo skills, not robo-cadence. Trust building is still important for non transactional sales. What the winners are doing instead: ➕ Pairing AI copilots (enrichment, draft personalization, next-step hints) with seasoned BDRs. Driving AI-assisted Demand Gen ➕ Offshoring the BDR muscle—trained on those same AI tools—to drive 3× touch-volume at ~70 % less cost. ➕ Focusing on AI solutions that drive cleaner data, not headcount cuts. ➕ Creating coaching budgets for their BD teams. At Exordiom Talent, we are embedding AI-trained offshore BDR pods in <3 weeks for our Customers, so they get the best of both worlds: human hustle plus AI efficiency. DM me if interested to learn how we can be part of your AI GTM initiatives. #AI #AIGTM #AISDR #AIBDR #ExordiomTalent #demandgen

We sent 4,495 AI SDR emails in 2 weeks and achieved the #1 response rate on our platform. But here's what nobody tells you about making AI SDRs actually work... The Metrics: ✅ 4,495 personalized messages sent in 14 days ✅ Highest response rate on our entire platform ✅ $700,000 of pipeline opportunities opened ✅ Meetings booked daily (literally got one this morning) ✅ Outperformed all our historical human SDR averages — mostly ✅ Better results than some of our human AEs The Reality Check First We had unfair advantages. SaaStr has been around since 2012, we've sold $100,000,000 in sponsorships, and people know our brand. We targeted our existing database—website visitors, past attendees, lapsed accounts—not cold lists. We spent 2 weeks doing basically nothing else: 90 minutes every morning, 1 hour every evening training our AI, plus real-time responses throughout the day. 👉What Actually Works: 1️⃣ Your AI has to add real value, not just volume There's no way we could send 4,495 good emails ourselves manually in two weeks. The key is each one has to be at the level we would write ourselves. Bad: "Hey [NAME], saw you visited our website" Good: "Congrats on your new VP role at Oracle. Since you attended SaaStr London last year, thought you'd want to know about our 2025 VC track with speakers from a16z and Sequoia..." 2️⃣ Your data is messier than you think We trained our AI on 20+ million words of SaaStr content, but still found: - Opportunities never logged in Salesforce - Missing context from AEs who never used the system - Customer relationships that existed nowhere in our CRM We literally spend time every day finding things that were missing and manually adding them to AI's knowledge base. 3️⃣ Human-in-the-loop isn't optional When prospects respond to your AI, YOU have to respond instantly at the same quality level. We have it hooked up to Slack—our phones go off at all hours because SaaStr is global. The AI creates an expectation of responsiveness. You better match it or they'll know it was "just an AI email." 5️⃣ This is additive, not replacement We still do personal emails, marketing campaigns, and have human SDRs. Results by campaign type: - Website visitors: Hit or miss - Cold outbound: Ranked 4th out of 4 campaigns - Lapsed renewal accounts: Really good results 🏋🏽♀️ The Uncomfortable Truth: It's MORE work, not less. You get 10x better output, but it requires S-tier human orchestration. E.g., we're running 30+ personas across different campaigns. 🔮 Bottom line: AI SDRs work incredibly well, but only with proper training and orchestration. After 60 days of daily improvements, you'll have something you're proud of. But you can't skip the daily 30-45 minute audit process. Full breakdown with all our tools and processes at link in comments.