Stephan Hamilton’s Post

Thinking about using an AI SDR? Here are a few(wwww) of the things to take into consideration before trying one: - How big is your TAM? (<5K accounts doesn't make sense) - What is your deal size? (<$10K ACVs likely doesn't make sense) - Does outbound currently work for you? - How is your team currently performing? - What is your deliverability strategy? (hugely important) - What signals will you use to choose accounts/contacts + messaging? - How will the AI use your brand's voice? - What happens when the AI hallucinates? - How will you handle replies/objections? - What are your offers? - How are you calendaring meetings? (eg: round-robin) - How will you pass-off to your sales rep/founder? (opp/deal creation) - How will you handle rescheduling? - How will you track attribution? Influence? - How are you dealing with ROE? (not stepping on your sales team's toes) - Will you do multi-channel? (calls, LI, gifting, video, etc.) - How are you going to calculate ROI? - What reports will you set up for reporting? - If successful, how will it scale? Just a few of the "jobs to be done" to book outbound meetings :) PS - I think these type of tools will be great for certain industries to generate top-of-funnel in the SMB/MM. YMMV.

AI isn't coming for SDR/BDR jobs. There's a lot of noise out there. Some say AI is the end of the Sales Development Rep and Business Development Rep roles as we know them. But that's a narrative fueled more by fear than by facts. AI isn't a job taker; it's a game changer. Imagine a world where SDRs and BDRs spend zero time on mundane, repetitive tasks. No more data entry. No more manual lead sorting. That's the world AI is creating. By automating the tedious parts of the job, AI frees up our sales warriors to do what they do best: engage, connect, and close. This shift isn't just about efficiency; it's about effectiveness. With AI handling the grunt work, SDRs and BDRs can focus on crafting personalized outreach strategies, building meaningful relationships, and driving revenue. This evolution means we need to rethink training and development. The skills that make SDRs and BDRs successful are changing. Tomorrow's top performers will be those who can leverage AI tools to enhance their human touch, not replace it. What's your take? How do you see AI transforming the SDR/BDR role in your industry? #sales #sdr #ai

🚨 Big truth bomb alert 💣 If you haven't seen 🏄♂️ Scott Leese's post about the future of the SDR function, you might want to check it out. (Link in comments) I personally agree with most of the takeaways that Scott has. We're seeing sales come back around to being a full-cycle discipline. Does that mean "SDRs are dead" ehhh, kinda sorta. Will setting a meeting with a cold outbound prospect ever be dead? No. So someone will need to do it. I think you're going to see way more hybrid AE jobs where you have a new meeting quota AND a revenue quota. This will be heavily enabled by AI. The fact of the matter is most of what SDRs do today involves repetitive tasks and asynchronous communication. AI will do that better, faster, and much much cheaper. What can't AI do? Talk on the phone. (it's pretty illegal at this point, buyer's BS filters are still very sensitive) What do AE's need to be good at? Having business conversations. What should YOU be doing to upskill/future-proof yourself for what's next in tech? Talk the talk. Get good at having real, confident, opinionated sales conversations with outbound prospects (NOT inbound leads). #SDR #FutureofSales #AI

SDRs will soon be obsolete with AI! Pretty bold claim, right?! 💪🏽 Well according to 11x.ai, the future is already here 🔮 You can hire "Alice," a virtual SDR that will prospect 24/7 for you and book meetings 👨🏽💻. Here's why I think AI appointment setting is flawed: 🛑 Being an SDR is tough. It builds grit and teaches you valuable skills in pitching, objection handling and relationship building. Skills that are ESSENTIAL for a successful AE. 🛑 Outsourcing this opportunity to up-skill your team will seriously hinder your internal talent pool. It's short sighted. 🛑 It relies on channels like email, which are increasingly ignored by prospects. 🛑 Big players like Google and Yahoo are seriously clamping down on spam emails and bulk email messaging. AI is here to stay and I am all for it enhancing my productivity, workflow and automating menial tasks in my day 📈 But to replace an entire function that is so core to your top of funnel seems like an interesting strategy. What do you think? Can SDRS be replaced, or are SDRs the Neo and Trinity of the Sales Org, that are irreplaceable by the Matrix? P.S. 11x.ai, would LOVE to hear your take! #AI #SDR #salesautomation #sdrautomation #prospecting #salesstrategies

Yesterday we launched our simplest and biggest feature: The AI sales associate: Transforms a salesperson into a 10x powerhouse, akin to hiring 10 salespeople at a fraction of the cost. Unlike others, our AI deeply researches accounts, acting as a research agent than an AI SDR. Here is how it works: 1️⃣ Tell the AI who you target. Are they hiring? Are they funded? Do they use Calendly, ERPs, Hubspot and 4k more tech (both on backend and frontend) 2️⃣ Give AI an example output message [optional] you can put down an outreach message you like and AI will do its best to emulate the structure of the message ✅ Now sit back and let AI source the leads and accounts. ✅ Do account research for each one in a concise report. ✅ Based on the report, offer outreach to send to each lead All you need to is review, edit, approve or reject.

Is Doer just another AI tool? Yeah, we get it — it feels like every team is trying to add AI to their workflow. But here’s the thing: Doer isn’t just another tool to add to the stack. Think of Doer as your fellow teammate — SDR, whose results are multiplied by 10 compared to your best efforts ever. 💡 Doer does the job, start to finish. Forget about lead enrichment, or wondering how to personalize emails, or whether it’s obvious ChatGPT wrote your message. You tell Doer what and whom you want to sell to, and it takes it from there. 🔍 Doer knows how to sell. Have you ever met an SDR with extensive experience in enterprises and startups, across countries, in B2C and B2B? Rockstars exist, but how likely are you to hire one quickly? Doer is ready to start in just 15 minutes. 📈 Here’s where it gets interesting: Doer doesn’t stop at the basics. It brings its own tips and tricks to boost conversion rates, click-through rates, and all the sales metrics that matter to your team. Doer isn’t here to sit in the background. It’s like having an experienced, highly skilled SDR who works 24/7, taking your sales efforts to a whole new level — whether you’re a startup founder without a sales team or part of a large enterprise with a dedicated sales department. This isn’t just AI for AI’s sake. Doer brings results.

Two opinions about AI for sales that I totally disagree with... 1 - "AI will replace salespeople." 📌 Fact: Technology has and will continue to replace salespeople in specific models. This has been the case long before AI and will certainly carry on. It's not so much that this is wrong as is it true of much more than AI. Even if I'm wrong, it's going to be a long time before larger market adoption. (I know companies who aren't using cloud computing, so...) 2 - "AI is the Ironman suit for sales." 🦾 The suit without Jarvis was a bunch of metal. A centralized operating system/brain was essential. I've seen some of the biggest sales tech companies try to consolidate technologies into a single platform and so far it's been a pretty widespread disaster. Data companies integrating dialers. Sales SaaS buying data businesses. If you've found the unified AI platform that will give us regular humans super sales powers, let me know. I'd love to be wrong here too. -- So what IS sales going to get from AI? The value of AI for sales is everywhere, but it's deployment specific. Example 1: High velocity, low ACV sales team Prospect-personalized presentation materials would improve conversion rates, but the reps don't have time and the cost of hiring specialists isn't justifiable. Enter AI. Example 2: Outbound heavy enterprise BDR team They need to perform deep research on a small handful of accounts by analyzing 10-K reports and the investor call recordings. But every minute not spent on selling activity reduces the time they have for generating sales conversations. Enter AI. Example 3: Inbound SDR team with tons of leads Personalizing inbound lead follow up to increase reply rates would be miraculous, but these SDRs are running down dozens of leads every day. Enter AI. The Bottom Line 👇 AI has a role in sales but for now it's all about knowing what process you want to augment, not finding the coolest new tool. (Shhhh! Don't tell the AI tools I said this, but there might even be a non-AI technology that solves the same problem at a lower cost.) What’s your take? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.

Will technology and AI replace SDRs? Nope...but here are 3 workflows to empower them. 👇 The debate if all these sales tech tools can replace humans. Seen a lot of posts about this recently. I think it's not going to replace them... ...but that there is a huge opportunity to... ✅ Help them focus on the right things. ✅ Make sales team more productive. ✅ Close more deals in less time. There are so many tasks that can be outsourced to AI. But many sales leaders aren't aware of the options. They are still doing it the "old way" which is... ...well...old 😂 Here are 3 Clay workflows that we use and built for clients. Saving us and them 10s of hours every week. So their reps can focus on what matters. ⚙ Intent Waterfall Pull potential intent signals within minutes. And without manually browsing the web. ⚙ Persona Qualification Map your prospects to specific personas. Without manually browsing their profiles. ⚙ Inbound Lead Qualification Research your inbound leads and create a summary in Slack. Without manually researching their profiles and website. All of them are built to save time on manual tasks. That's where I think is one of the highest leverage. Especially for companies that have a 5+ sales team. Automating the outreach is just the cherry on top. I think the SDR role won't be replaced completely. But teams that use sales systems and technology. Need less people to do produce more output. And will outperform the ones that doesn't. Darwin's law at it's finest. Eat or get eaten. Do with that what you want. But if you want to find out how this could help you... ...send me a DM and we'll take a look at your processes. Happy Friday! 🙌

Would you hire me for $0.06 per hour? If yes, then consider hiring an AI agent I've been building for the last 6 months - an in-bound AI SDR that works 24/7 on your website & generates revenue while you sleep. Running a business is hard. Training a sales rep is hard. Hiring is hard. Hachly AI makes it easy. We focus only on inbound leads that browse your website and send them context-aware, hyper-personalised messages while they are on the website. This leads to an extreme amount of conversations -> up to 10x the number of leads. Sounds too good to be true, right? That's what I think. This is one of the reasons why I made it free to try. (completely free, no credit card, no installation fee, in 5 minutes you have your own AI Sales Agent). P.S. pricing varies based on the number of visitors, check website.

### AI is Revolutionizing Sales: How SDRs (Sales Development Reps) are Becoming the Secret Weapon for Explosive Growth and Unmatched Efficiency 🚀 The SDR role is a key part of the global sales industry, growing rapidly. Its widespread adoption across various sectors, numerous job listings, and salary investments highlight its importance. Significant investments in SDRs cover salaries, training, and advanced sales technologies to boost productivity and impact. Sales teams are focusing on efficiency, using AI to streamline processes. AI tools save sales reps about two hours daily, leading to notable cost savings and productivity gains. Companies are also optimizing tech stacks to better support SDRs. Generative AI helps SDRs by: 1. **Automating prospecting and lead qualification**: Analyzes data to find high-quality leads. 2. **Personalizing communication**: Creates tailored emails and sales pitches. 3. **Saving time on administrative tasks**: Automates data entry and lead scoring. 4. **Enhancing research capabilities**: Summarizes sales calls and competitor research. 5. **Improving sales training**: Customizes training programs. 6. **Enabling real-time sales**: Recommends actions during sales calls. 7. **Optimizing sales strategies**: Analyzes sales campaigns and provides close plans. 8. **Enhancing CRM functionality**: Improves email drafting and customer insights. 9. **Improving forecasting**: Identifies pipeline gaps and suggests corrections. 10. **Providing conversation intelligence**: Transcribes and summarizes calls, offering insights. Generative AI enhances efficiency but should complement human interaction, maintaining the personal touch crucial to sales. #Sales #Digitalmarketing #B2BTechsales #ITSales