Yess ??

Companies MUST start incentivizing SDRs for creativity. Full stop. Why? Because it's the only way to win in 2024 and beyond. But here's the problem: - Most companies reward quantity over quality - "Personalization at scale" has become a joke - Buyers are drowning in generic, AI-generated outreach - SDRs are stuck following rigid, outdated playbooks - Creativity is seen as a "bonus" rather than a core skill Creativity is a muscle. It needs recognition. It needs rewards. And like any muscle, it needs to be exercised daily. So, how do we fix this? 1. Make creativity a KPI 2. Reward innovative outreach approaches 3. Encourage experimentation and calculated risks 4. Celebrate unique wins, not just numbers 5. Provide resources and time for creative brainstorming 6. Foster a culture where "different" is valued The SDRs who stand out in 2025 won't be the ones sending 200 cookie-cutter emails a day. They'll be the ones who make prospects stop, think, and actually want to respond. It's time to stop treating creativity as an afterthought. Make creativity a KPI. Before mediocrity becomes your brand.

The more junior you are in sales... The more perfect your outreach needs to be. The problem? AI just made "perfect" emails/DMs worthless. Because now everyone's outreach: - Sounds flawless - Uses the same signals - Hits at the same time - References the same triggers - Looks oddly similar When a VP gets 50 "perfect" emails a day... Guess what matters more? WHO sent it. Not WHAT it says. This is why credibility-led outreach wins: - Mutual connections - Peer <> Peer outreach - Personal brands - Working for a well established brand - Active participation in communities The messenger matters more than ever. Because in 2024, perfect isn't enough. Trust is the new perfect.

Your AE just lost a deal. Not because of pricing. Not because of features. Not because of timing. But because they only had ONE relationship at the account. And that champion left. Here's the reality of enterprise sales in 2024: ? 7-10 stakeholders involved in every deal ? 3-4 different departments ? Multiple decision-makers ? Various priorities and concerns ? Complex approval chains Yet most AEs still run deals through a single point of contact. No wonder Gartner found that by 2026, teams using effective multithreading will outperform others by 50%. Here's what I've learned about multithreading after 100+ enterprise deals: 1. Map both sides of the table ? Who are the real decision makers? ? Who could block this deal? ? Which execs on your side match their counterparts? 2. Let your execs be executives ? Don't ask them to write emails ? Draft everything for them ? Make approval a one-click process ? Focus their time on strategic conversations 3. Build momentum through alignment ? Technical expert <> Technical buyer ? Product leader <> Product user ? Executive <> Executive 4. Start early ? Don't wait until you're stuck ? Map and engage stakeholders from day one ? Build relationships before you need them 5. Make it easy for everyone ? Prepare the context ? Draft the messages ? Coordinate the timing ? Remove the friction Deals don't close themselves. They close when the right people align at the right time. Like in football, the quarterback (AE) calls the plays. But the team wins the game. STOP playing solo.

AI SDRs promised to revolutionize sales. What AI SDRs?promised: - 24/7 prospecting without burnout - A steady stream of perfectly qualified leads - More time for sellers to focus on closing deals - Hyper-personalized outreach at scale - Free up sales teams for high-value conversations - Unique signals and triggers What AI SDRs?delivered: - Spammy, robotic outreach that buyers ignore - High bounce rates and low engagement - Unqualified, low quality leads - More noise in inboxes, not more conversations - SDRs still overwhelmed, just in different ways - Commoditized and cheap signals The truth is this: AI SDRs were supposed to?replace?SDRs. But it didn't. It made their role more strategic than ever. Because getting meetings and building a real pipeline? That’s become the hardest—and most crucial—task in the entire sales process. AI can support SDRs. But it’s the SDRs who have the context, the creativity, and the ability to build relationships that move the needle. That’s why I’m more bullish than ever on the role of the SDR.

If you knew that ALL of the attendees at an event are your ICP, would you bother with lead scanning or skip straight to booking a follow up meeting? Last week at the Pipeline Conference, the Yess ?? team challenged me to think about this. Of course a post-event, pre-booked meeting holds more value than a scanned lead, but it's also a harder ask. However, it worked and here is why: ?? Sam Nelson delivered exactly on what him and his team said they would from an attendee, content and sponsorship standpoint so the audience was 100% reliable and engaged. ?? The Yess team carried the same message throughout all interactions leading up to and during the event from the booth messaging to Jonathan Bregman ??'s presentation (which was the chef's kiss ?? of knowledge sharing and teeing up the product). ?? Jonathan's presentation was on the morning of the first day. By the time he spoke, EVERYONE knew what Yess did and how they could enhance their sales motion through opting for the right messenger. Which means, everyone who stopped by the booth was then qualified and booking a meeting was easy-peasy. So, I'd love to know your thoughts on this. I think in most event scenarios it might not be as effective but it's absolutely worth testing this. P.S. Yess ?? has an amazing use case for driving event registrations. My fellow #eventprofs should check it out!

SDRs, stop obsessing over the perfect email. Your buyers are getting 100+ AI-generated messages daily. All perfectly crafted. All highly personalized. All carefully researched. And most get ignored. Why? Because buyers aren't asking: "How personalized is this message?" They're asking: "Who is this person?" "Why should I trust them?" "Do they actually get my challenges?" "Are they worth my time?" No amount of personalization will overcome a credibility gap. Before you craft that next message, ask yourself: - Have I engaged with their content? - Am I visible in their circles? - Is there someone more credible to deliver the email? - Is there a mutual connection I can leverage? - Do I have relevant experience to share? - Do we have mutual connections? - Have I built any social proof? Perfect emails don't win meetings anymore. Credible voices do. Start by focusing on the messenger. Then worry about the message.

We did not initially expect Pipeline Conference to more than double this year. Demand caught us off-guard. Over 400 registered! We declined and refunded EVERY non-SDR leader who applied and stretched our venue space to the absolute max to accommodate as many leaders as we could.. And we still sold out weeks ahead of the event. In a year when nearly every SaaS conference declined, the SDRLeader.com community showed up! --- The passion and energy of this group is unreal and something you can only really get if you experience it. SDR Leaders are fiercely loyal to their teams and are obsessed with improving their craft. They are also surprisingly low-ego, ready to learn, and eager to share learnings and ideas to help each other. Getting a group of hundreds of people just like this together for a conference makes for an unbelievable experience. I can't express enough how grateful I am to every member of the community who pulled together to make this event happen. Also to every sponsor who broke with tradition to go straight to implementors of pipeline innovation: The SDR Leader. It's grow time! Outreach Yess ?? Nooks Regie.ai Orum ?? Supercadence Agoge Consulting Shift Group Common Room SalesIntel.io Boomerang Actively AI Qualified Koala Warmly, Bearworks Pocus Assa Eldar ?? Bluebirds Alta | AI Revenue Workforce

Every once in a while, everything just?clicks. The stars align. The pieces fall into place. And you’re left with one of those rare moments that feels?perfect. That’s exactly how last week at the Pipeline Conference felt. For months, we worked tirelessly around the clock. Sleepless nights. Stretch targets that felt impossible. All leading up to our first-ever sponsorship since we started Yess ??. And it was worth every ounce of effort. ? Speaking in front of 300+ brilliant SDR leaders about the future of SDRs in the AI era. ? Smashing our "unrealistic" goals—hitting +150% of our stretch targets. ? Receiving incredible feedback from attendees who genuinely found value in what we shared. ? Meeting some of the smartest, most inspiring people in the industry. A massive shoutout to our incredible team who poured their hearts into this. You made the impossible possible. To the Pipeline Conference team, Sam Nelson and the crew —what a flawlessly executed event. To the TACK team, Steph Pennell, Mark Kilens - for supporting us in making this happen. The guys with Q6 Media, LLC for capturing the fun we've all had. Moments like this remind us why we do what we do. Here’s to many more moments like these.

You can give SDRs all the signals in the world... but without credibility their work becomes 1,000X harder. The “random SDR email” strategy rarely lands with senior decision-makers. At Yess ??, we believe and run "credibility-led outreach". Here’s how it works: 1. Sales & Marketing alignment It starts with collaboration. Sales partners tightly with marketing to lock in top-tier accounts. Though leadership ads, high-value webinars…anything that builds trust before the first email even hits. 2. Building a founder brand My content drives a +60% meeting conversion rate when prospects have engaged twice or more. The takeaway? Leadership needs to stay visible and relevant online. When SDRs reach out, it’s no longer a cold message. 3. Getting the whole team involved Pipeline isn’t an “SDR only” game here. Whether it’s intros, multi-threading complex deals, or reaching out through mutual connections, we rally cross-departmentally. Sales, Marketing, Execs—all hands on deck. 4. Collaborating with creators We now team up with influencers who already have the attention of our audience. It’s an extra dimension of trust that resonates when our brand name comes up. SDRs need credibility as much as they need tools. Otherwise, they’re just another name in a crowded inbox. Make their job easier. Give them the backing and the buy-in they need to succeed.

The age of the "Lone Wolf" in sales is over. We’re stepping into a new era of?Team Selling. Gone are the days of expecting an SDR or AE to handle every part of the process solo. This isn’t a solo sport anymore—it’s a team effort, and the game has changed. But what does "Team Selling" actually mean? And why is collaboration the next frontier in sales? That’s exactly what we’re exploring on the "Team Selling Podcast." In each episode, we’re going deep with some of the brightest minds in the field: - Chris Degnan - Glen Carroll - Godard Abel - Isaiah Crossman - Brandon Jackson - …and many more. We’ll unpack how the smartest teams are shifting away from solo-seller pipelines and towards something bigger, something?better: - Aligning sales teams with the full strength of the org - Knowing when to pass the ball to the right player - Leveraging credibility and familiarity in outbound - Creating a collaborative sales approach Because today’s buyers are smarter, inboxes are more fortified, and the single-player game just doesn’t work anymore. This is more than a podcast—it’s a manifesto for a new way of thinking. The first episode drops soon. Can’t wait to share it with you all.