Well … like many things, technology will evolve a job. Products like Salesloft have dramatically increased the efficiency and repeatability of an SDR’s role.
But, can the SDR be replaced with a bot? Or outsourced entirely?
I am skeptical. The problem I see with automated and outsourced SDR companies and products today is they assume all products are basically the same. Generic messaging, with handful of variables, and associate them with a generic process.
That may be find for getting an outbound program off the ground — a generic process is better than nothing. But products are very, very different as is the brand awareness of vendors. An effective SDR approach is highly tailored — and highly iterative.
Which I think the future will bring is better and better outreach, better communication, less spam-y cadences, better follow-up, much better personalization, and better process integration with AEs and closers.
But a great SDR that truly knows the market, the pitch, and the honed qualification questions is still worth her weight in appointments set up.
