Cons List
- i will start by saying I started with 18 ppl in my group . 14 were fired. 1 quit. and 3 are still there. 10 were fired within 6 months. they burn and churn SDR's.
– The biggest issue is what they call a “good meeting.” You spend hours prospecting with no help. You have to find the right companies, pull LinkedIns, get their contact info, and keep track of everything yourself. It’s a very self-sufficient role — basically just sales with no support.
– Getting a “good meeting” is extremely difficult. You make 80–200 cold calls a day, often to high-level finance and accounting professionals who are constantly getting pitched and genuinely don’t want to talk.
– A “good meeting” only counts if it’s with a Coach or a Champion.
– A Coach:
– Gives you inside info (like how the company works).
– Helps you understand who makes decisions.
– Wants to help, but can’t actually push the deal forward.
– Think of them as a guide.
– A Champion:
– Believes in your product.
– Has power or influence in the company.
– Advocates for you when you’re not in the room.
– Helps actually get the deal done.
– You can set a meeting with a coach, and if it goes well, you might get points for it. But the criteria are vague and change constantly.
– For example, a coach might give you everything you need and say our product would help, but because they don’t have influence, you’re expected to get a meeting with a champion too — just to get credit.
– Coaches usually don’t want to set up that next meeting, because it means they’re recommending something that costs money.
– So now you’re stuck cold calling the champion yourself and trying to follow up endlessly.
– In some cases, if there’s enough interest, you’ll still get points without a champion — but that depends on the AE actually following through, which is hit or miss.
– The biggest issue: AEs decide whether you get points.
– They aren’t incentivized to label a coach meeting as “good” if they don’t want to follow up, because it makes them look bad if they let the lead die.
– So your success depends on whether the AE wants more meetings that month, or if they’re playing it safe because they’re behind quota and don’t want leadership chasing them over weak pipeline.
– Some AEs are great — others are not.
– You can set a perfect meeting with a champion who has real pain, but if the AE doesn’t handle one objection well or forgets to set next steps, you’re screwed. No follow-up meeting = no credit. THIS IS THE BIGGEST PART.
– The only way you get points is if a follow-up meeting is booked.
– I’ve only gotten credit from a “bad” meeting once — and that was only because my manager fought for me. Most won’t. Mine literally left the company because of how SDRs were treated.
– Your quota is always changing — and the CRO is the worst part.
– I once asked him in a meeting, “Can you tell me about a time in your sales career when you were behind or things weren’t going well?”
– He looked me dead in the eye and said, “I only fail when you fail, and that’s why I’m raising your quotas.”
– I’m not joking.
-when I was there 2 sdr's got promoted to AE out of roughly 60 in my office. they were the best of the best. never missed quota. beat that.
