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Summary
The difference between calls and emails for SDR (Sales Development Representative) activity centers on how each method helps build relationships and create sales opportunities. Calls allow for real-time conversations and personal touches, while emails provide a convenient way to convey information but often result in fewer meaningful interactions.
Focus on quality: Build targeted prospect lists and personalize your outreach to connect with decision makers who are most likely to respond.
Track your metrics: Regularly review your call and email results so you can adjust your sales strategy and put energy into the channels that yield better engagement.
Balance approaches: Use calls for direct conversations that build trust and emails for sharing updates or logistics, reserving each channel for its strengths.
Sales and order taking may seem similar but differ fundamentally. Order taking is simply processing requests, while true sales involve understanding and meeting customer needs, building relationships, and actively guiding them toward solutions.
Calls are often more effective than emails for genuine sales conversations. Unlike emails, calls allow immediate, personal dialogue, letting salespeople handle objections, clarify misunderstandings, and pick up on customer tone—building trust faster. Emails are great for updates and logistics, but they lack the real-time interaction that turns inquiries into long-term relationships. For driving growth and engagement, calls offer more depth and impact than emails or order-taking alone.
In 2023 I spoke to over 300 SDRs from different companies. Here are some key learnings for you to take into 2024:
LinkedIn as a channel is still underutilised.
Many SDRs aren’t thinking beyond InMails and connection request messages. The best SDRs are finding different ways to stand out from the crowd.
Type in your competitors on LinkedIn and see which posts they are being mentioned in. It’s likely your prospects will be commenting on these posts, so use the posts to find a way into an account.
Go beyond LinkedIn messages and use LinkedIn voicenotes and videos. These alternative outreach methods aren’t the annoying spammy messages prospects get every day.
Cold calling is the most effective outreach channel.
Not only is cold calling more effective in generating pipeline (Orum found that over 50% of pipeline is generated from cold calling), but I believe it’s the most efficient way to get a response from your prospect.
In the time it takes you to write a personalised email, you could have called 5-10 prospects and had an outcome from at least half of those calls.
Best case scenario you book the meeting.
Worst case scenario you collect useful data that can inform and initiate your next conversation.
Quality of prospecting trumps volume.
Acting as a spray-and-pay spam cannon won’t work in 2024 (it didn’t work in 2023 either).
Prospect and selling to power should be your ultimate goal. And this can only be achieved with quality outreach.
If you don’t spend the time gathering the relevant information you need to initiate intentional outreach, don’t be surprised when you don’t get a response.
Your CRM is only as useful as the data you input into it.
Investing time in inputting data into your CRM will reward you in the future.
Having good insight and information from a prior conversation, no matter how minor it is, is the best way of personalising the next conversation.
Effective list building will make or break your prospecting results.
Most SDRs are spending their time on bad-fit prospects that aren't in market to buy.
And spending even more time manually fixing inaccurate lead lists.
Using intent data, verified contact data, and account scoring based on determined criteria (departmental headcount, competitor, tech stack, etc.) will drastically improve your response rates.
The SDR role is harder than ever.
It takes 200% more touches to create an opportunity than in 2019.
Generating pipeline has got harder so the knee-jerk reaction from many leaders has been to increase the volume of activity.
This only creates more noise and drastically minimises your chance of replies.
Go back to your cadences and reduce the number of touchpoints. Then make these touchpoints more impactful.
Sales Development Leader | Scaling global SDR orgs, building GTM systems, and driving predictable pipeline | GTM @ Workday | Co-Founder @ The SDR Leader
I recently met with a struggling SDR.
They'd hit 67% in July.
We reviewed their funnel metrics:
→ 274 emails per day @ 0.9% reply rate
→ 16 calls per day @ 8.3% connect rate
This told us all we needed to know:
❌ Heavy on their least effective channel
❌ Light on their most effective channel
We quickly put a plan in place to:
✅ Lean into high call connect rate
↳ With hyper-targeted lists & scripts
✅ Send high quality, lower quantity emails
↳ Distinguishing between seniority level
In August they hit 103%.
This month they're pacing for 126%.
(and booking >50% of meetings via phone)
Moral of the story?
Always know your funnel metrics.
They're the best guide to the right strategy.