Automating Cold Email and CRM for SDR Teams

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.

SDRs don’t enjoy spending hours researching accounts, crafting personalized emails, or trying to connect the dots between scattered intent signals. They know their time is better spent building relationships and closing deals—but the grind of manual work slows them down. That’s why so many outreach efforts feel rushed or generic. With limited time and too many tasks, SDRs often skip the deep account research needed to craft truly engaging outreach. And who can blame them? It’s exhausting and unsustainable. This is where dynamic workflows come in. By aggregating data from multiple sources—like LinkedIn ads, G2, website activity, and CRM records— SDRs get the full picture of a prospect’s journey, without the manual effort. Instead of piecing together signals, they receive actionable insights delivered straight to their tools, complete with: ✅Why the account is showing intent. ✅Key decision-makers and how to reach them. ✅Contextualized messages tailored to the account’s journey. No more time wasted on research. No more guesswork. Just smarter, faster outreach that feels personal and meaningful. Dynamic workflows let SDRs focus on what they do best: having quality conversations that drive results. Teams using this approach have seen reply rates and lead bookings increase while cutting hours of manual work each day. What’s your take—do your SDRs enjoy manual research, or would they prefer to spend more time actually selling?

How AI SDRs actually work? AI SDRs do more than just send emails—they: - identify leads - analyze intent - personalize outreach - qualify prospects - book meetings all at scale. Here’s how they work And the tools that power them: 1️⃣ Lead Identification & Data Enrichment: AI finds and enriches leads using: RB2B → Identifies anonymous website visitors. Breakcold → Checks CRM to avoid duplicate outreach. Trigify.io & Leadspicker → Tracks job changes, funding rounds, and hiring trends. AI scans LinkedIn, job boards, and databases to find buyers Adds context like company news, and ensures outreach is fresh. 2️⃣ Understanding the Prompt & Generating Outreach: AI SDRs don’t just send generic messages. They follow structured prompts that define: - Goal (book a call, follow up, gather info). - Lead details (company, role, activity, pain points). - Tone & personalization (casual, direct, professional). AI also retrieves past conversations to maintain context. 3️⃣ Prioritization & Intent Detection: Not every lead is worth chasing! AI qualifies and ranks prospects based on engagement. How It works: - AI analyzes email opens, LinkedIn engagement, and CRM signals to score intent. - High-intent leads move to a high-touch sequence with immediate follow-ups. - Unresponsive leads are dropped or nurtured passively to avoid wasting time. 4️⃣ Handling Conversations & Lead Qualification: AI SDRs respond over email, chat, or voice and qualify leads using: Humanlinker & Amplemarket → Video and voice note-based LinkedIn outreach. BANT framework: to assess Budget, Authority, Need, and Timeline. If a lead fits, AI books a meeting or routes it to a human SDR. 5️⃣ Automated Follow-Ups & Smart Nurturing: Follow-ups are adjusted based on engagement: HeyReach → LinkedIn DMs. Drippi.ai → Twitter outreach. Cold DM → Instagram messaging. Smartlead / Instantly.ai → Cold email AI changes messaging angle and outreach channel (email → LinkedIn → Twitter) to improve response rates. 6️⃣ CRM Integration & Learning: Persana AI / Airscale / Clay → Optimize targeting and refine outreach. Tracks what’s working and adjusts messaging automatically. 7️⃣ Multichannel Outreach: If email fails, AI shifts to another channel where the lead is active. They find, engage, and qualify leads automatically, Allowing human reps to focus on closing deals. If you're not using AI for outbound, you're already behind. #ai #aisales

Everyone is talking about AI SDRs being the next hot thing in Outbound. No one’s talking about what they can actually do (and how they work). Here are the real questions: → What does an AI SDR Outbound workflow look like? → How are top sales teams using AI SDRs right now? → Can AI SDRs really replace human reps (or will they just support them?) → How do you balance AI automation with personalization in Outbound? → Which AI SDR tools are actually delivering results (and which aren’t?) → What do AI SDR's help us with? speed, accuracy, or something else? These are the typical AI SDR workflows for an Outbound motion (so far): 🔎 Find & Contact Leads → AI can build prospect lists based on your ICP. ⚡️ Enrich Data → It can verify emails, phone numbers & LinkedIn profiles. 🧑🏻💻 Scrape Websites → It can also analyze technographics, firmographics, services, and other data like hiring trends, company size etc 🚨Track Intent Signals → It can monitor funding news, job postings & social activity. ✅ Qualify Leads → It can score prospects on fit & engagement. 📧 Send Personalized Emails → It can deliver context-rich messages at scale. 💙 Categorize Responses → AI can sort replies: interested, follow-up, not now. 📅 Book Meetings → It can also schedule qualified calls. 🔂 Update CRM → And ofcourse it can ensure smooth handoff to human reps by updating everything in your CRM Just keep in mind that some AI SDRs can manage the entire workflow, while others can focus only on specific tasks (e.g RevReply). Here are some other cool 🥶 features AI SDR's have: ✅ Custom Training → AI can adapt to your ICP, messaging & CRM insights. ✅ Multi-Channel Campaigns → AI can run LinkedIn, email & Outbound at scale. ✅ Industry-Specific AI → Some AI SDRs have pre-trained models for Marketing, HR, finance, SaaS, & eCom etc ✅ Smart CRM & Slack Sync → AI can learn from interactions & adjust on the spot. And here are a few AI SDRs that the SalesCaptain team has been testing: ↪ Artisan ↪ AISDR (YC Backed) ↪ 11x ↪ Patagon AI ↪ Regie.ai ↪ RevReply ↪ Swan AI ↪ settr. ↪ Topo (YC W24) So here's my conclusion on AI SDR's: ✨ AI SDRs are not here to replace human reps (yet). ✨ They are good at automating simple, repetitive workflows. ✨ We still need reps to be on top of AI. ✨ At the end of the day, performance depends on how you are leveraging them. Have you tested any AI SDRs? What’s working (or not) for you? Drop me a comment below! 👇 #aisdr #salesautomation #outboundsales #leadgeneration

Most teams are stuck choosing: humans or AI. The winners are building Human x AI Outbound Systems. Manthan Patel and I mapped out the exact framework that's generating 3X more qualified meetings. Think about your best SDR. Now imagine they could: Run personalized outreach to 500 prospects daily (not 50). Never miss a follow-up when a prospect shows buying intent. Know exactly which accounts are warming up before competitors do. Spend 80% of their time actually talking to prospects. This isn't about replacing humans. It's about amplifying what makes them irreplaceable. Here's what changes when AI becomes your SDR's co-pilot: ✓ Follow-ups that think: AI reads reply sentiment, crafts contextual responses, catches buying signals humans miss at 2 AM. ✓ CRM that works for you: Every call logged, every email tracked, every interaction scored - without touching a keyboard. ✓ Personalization at scale: One strategic prompt creates 100 unique sequences. Each feels hand-written because AI studied the prospect's digital footprint. ✓ SDRs become strategists: No more data entry. They're analyzing patterns, building relationships, closing deals. Your SDRs can finally focus on what humans do best - building trust and closing deals. Meanwhile, AI handles everything repetitive and scalable. We've broken down the entire system in the visual above ↑ Save this. Share it with your revenue team. Over to you: How quickly can you implement this? Drop a comment with your biggest outbound challenge - we're here answering questions all day. Follow Manthan Patel for AI automation blueprints Follow Yonathan Levy for Sales excellence strategies