Tips for Advancing in an SDR Career

SDRs – want to promote to AE in 2025? Here’s the harsh truth you need to hear: You’re not entitled to a promotion. Hitting quota? Great, but so what. 18 months in role? Nice, but so what. Want it badly? So does everyone else. The reality is: AE promotions are earned, not given. It’s not about tenure or expectations—it’s about readiness and value. Companies promote the best candidate for the role, not the longest-serving or loudest. Here’s how to make sure that's you: 𝟭. 𝗗𝗼𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝘁𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘀 Consistency matters more than occasional heroics. → Crush your quota quarter after quarter, not just once. → Prove you can perform under pressure and sustain high output. 𝟮. 𝗗𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽 𝗔𝗘-𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆 𝘀𝗸𝗶𝗹𝗹𝘀 It’s not just about filling the pipeline—it’s about understanding deals. → Shadow AEs to learn closing techniques and deal progression. → Practice objection handling and nurturing your own leads. 𝟯. 𝗕𝘂𝗶𝗹𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 You need people advocating for you. → Build relationships with AEs, hiring managers, and other leaders. → Show your initiative by stepping up beyond your current responsibilities. 𝟰. 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝘆 𝗳𝗼𝗰𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗱 𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗺 𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝘀 Impatience is the enemy of progress. → An extra year as an SDR is nothing in the grand scheme of your career. → The jump from SDR OTE ($85K) to AE OTE ($180K) is worth the wait. 𝟱. 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗺 Sometimes the market isn’t in your favor. → Opportunities might be limited due to market conditions. → Companies may prioritize external hires for strategic reasons. It’s frustrating but don’t let it derail you. Focus on what’s in your control. The path to promotion isn’t about entitlement—it’s about earning it. Master your craft, outwork the competition, and make yourself undeniable. I promise you, it’s worth the work and the wait. This is your year—go get it.

If you're an SDR that wants to get promoted, don't bother asking your manager what they're looking for. Asking your manager only works if they have an answer...and a lot of them don't. "Keep doing great work." "Hit your numbers consistently." "We'll know it when we see it." Meanwhile you as an SDR are supposed to guess what "it" means. Not super useful. During our XDR peer group call, one rep said they'd been asking about promotion criteria for over a year. Manager keeps saying "soon." No timeline. No clear benchmarks. Just "keep crushing it." So the rep started tracking different metrics on their own. Not just meetings booked. Also: - How many meetings converted to opportunities. - How many opportunities closed. - Average sales cycle length. - Deal sizes. They started presenting this in 1:1s. "I booked 32 meetings last quarter. 19 became opps. 7 closed. Average cycle was 51 days." Suddenly the manager had data showing this person thinks like an AE, not just performs like an SDR. Three months later they got promoted. The big lesson here is to take the initiative, stop asking for permission, and start demonstrating capability. 1. Don't schedule another check-in to ask about promotion. Schedule time to show what you can ALREADY do. "I built a territory plan for how I'd approach our top 20 accounts as an AE. Can I walk you through it?" That's 10x more valuable than "what do I need to work on?" 2. Shadow your best AEs. Not the unicorns...the consistent performers who hit 90-110% every quarter. Listen to their disco calls. Watch how they navigate objections. See how they manage follow-ups. Ask them: "What do you wish you'd known before making the jump?" Most will help. They remember what it was like. 3. Track the metrics that matter for AEs. SDRs get promoted for activity and meetings. AEs get promoted for closed revenue and account management. Completely different skill sets. 4. Start measuring yourself on AE metrics now. Pipeline conversion. Win rates. Sales cycle efficiency. When you can speak that language, promotion conversations get easier. 5. Build relationships with people who actually make promotion decisions. If there's one ball that folks drop, it's this one. Your manager matters. THEIR boss matters even more. Find reasons to interact with sales leadership. Ask smart questions in team meetings. Volunteer for projects that give you visibility. When promotion discussions happen, you want multiple people saying your name. Sometimes the answer is still "not yet." Budget's frozen. No open roles. They're not promoting anyone this quarter. That's frustrating. But it's also data. If you're doing everything right and the answer stays "not yet" for 18 months? That's a signal to get promoted somewhere else. :) Most companies don't have a clear SDR-to-AE path. They just have people who eventually get promoted and people who don't. You can wait for the roadmap, or you can build your own.

I went from SDR to VP of Sales in 7 years. Here are the 10 biggest lessons I learned about SaaS sales along the way: 1. Numbers Don’t Lie Success isn’t subjective. Use your numbers to build a case to get more responsibility. There’s no convincing needed if your numbers talk. 2. Work with Other Hungry People Experience rarely beats ambition. If you’re going to spend most of your waking time working on your career, might as well go all in with a group with the same mindset. 3. Do What Others Won’t Doing the job gets you average performance. You have to do more than others consistently to get ahead. 4. Limit Time Selling A Clear Market Leader There are things you can only learn by being the underdog and growing into the market leader. Starting there limits your impact on a deal, so you’ll improve slower. 5. Join an Early Startup I learn more every week at a startup than I did in all of undergrad/MBA. I was a founding AE for 3 seed-stage companies and was able to slingshot my career much faster than at a larger company. You get all the calls and are forced to build the sales process from scratch — no better learning experience than doing. If it doesn’t work out, try again. 6. Focus on Long-Term Relationships For all communications: prospects, customers, closed lost deals, colleagues. The SDR you worked with will eventually be a prospect, referral, founder, or your boss. Your closed lost deals might go to a company that is your future biggest deal. 7. Keep Momentum Performance has compound interest. The biggest sign of success is seeing someone consistently moving up and taking more responsibility. It’s much faster to get a promotion if you’ve moved up consistently. A chill year can stall you more than you think. 8. Take Risks The worst outcome of a big risk is that you learn something and increase your chances of succeeding the next time. I moved across the country 3x, started a rental property business, and took founding AE roles, and all got me further to my goals. 9. Have Intention Sales can be 90%+ lows. There are plenty of other jobs that don’t require constant stress/chasing a number, so if you’re going to choose this job, you might as well go all in. Booked 0 meetings as an SDR 2/3 through the quarter, and remember the specific moment I decided to go all in. Was an AE 7 months later and haven't let off the gas. 10. Be Seen as a Leader Most often: SDRs care about booking meetings. AEs care about closed won. Managers care about their number. But Leaders are thinking strategically about the long-term path and vision. It’s much easier to promote an SDR who cares about whether their sourced deals are closing, how they contribute to the team's number, and are bringing up big strategic ideas to leadership and in meetings. TAKEAWAY Put yourself in environments that give you the fastest rate of growth/learning. Do the work. Start doing the job/contributing like you are already there. And create an undeniable case using your numbers.

Reps you need to start preparing for the next role far earlier than you realize. If you want to go from SDR to AE. You should be shadowing disco calls, demo calls, pricing calls 6-8 months before you are “ready” Practicing WEEKLY to get ready. AEs if you want to make the move to ENT. Same idea. This might even be a year of work, review, shadowing, to start to get a grip on what it will look like. Same idea here too. Practice creating business cases, POVs. Ask to help and ENT rep with their proposals. SDR Managers - if you really want to cross the aisle like I posed about last week. Same. Idea. Build a relationship with the closing managers. Shadow their 1x1s, their coaching calls, hop on calls with AEs. Practice pipeline reviews and deal management. Managers wanting to be Directors and VPs. Same ideas!!! The key idea here y’all is to get ready early! Who do you think gets prioritized for an internal promo? Someone doing the above or someone who says “I’ve been here long enough, I should have that promo” I get asked all the time “how do I get the next role?” And when I ask questions about if they have been doing the things above, the answer is almost always no. Is the above extra work? Yep. Deal with it. That’s part of the journey. If you think about the fact that each one of these promo levels could be $100ks in you pocket each year. I think that’s pretty worth it. Stay ready so you don’t have to “get ready” Let’s go.

I say the same thing to every SDR trying to get promoted to AE. It's what got me promoted in sub 10 months, fastest in my SDR class. You have to treat it like the 1st deal, you will ever close. It will never just be given to you. 1. Obvious Business Case First and foremost - you need to exceed your current numbers. Nothing else matters here if you aren't a top, consistent performer. Get it done. 2. Build Champions You should have very close relationships with your manager and other teammates that would vouch for you. The type that would fight back if they were told "you aren't ready." 3. Uncover the decision process Understand clearly what has to take place for you to get promoted. If there are certain targets you have to hit or time thresholds in place. 4. Identify Decision Makers + Get to Power Learn who the real decision is ultimately up to. Ask to meet with them and others apart of the decision. Make your intentions known that you want to get promoted. Learn what reservations they have about you and what gaps lie. 5. Seek out the risk and build an action plan After you hear what reservations they have or gaps standing in the way of your promotion, build an action plan. Document everything you do. Heck, even build a mutual success plan with them. Wouldn't that be impressive? Instead of just continuing to tell them you want the role of AE. Make sure you SHOW them you are ready for that role. Take the process by the horns. 🦙 P.S. Join 1,000+ sellers that have downloaded my (free) account planning template: https://lnkd.in/gYwCjD2Y

I've promoted 30+ SDRs to AEs 🥳 (how to do it and hit the ground running) 𝗚𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲: 1. Learn how to do discovery calls and demos. Study calls. Make this the focus in your 1:1s with you AE buddy. Do mock calls with your peers. Prepare ahead of time so you're not scrambling. 2. Focus on performance. Do whatever it takes to get great results in your current role. Easiest way to stand out and get the opportunity to interview. 3. Know your numbers and strategy. Be able to speak in detail about your results to date, where you stack up, why that is and what you're working on to improve. 𝗢𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲: 1. Commit to working as hard as possible. SDR to AE is the biggest jump in sales in my opinion. Especially if you're selling a complex product with 1, 2 and 3 year commitments. 2. Be super proactive. Ask your manager/team a ton of questions. Loop your manager into calls. Ask them to review calls and give you their harshest feedback. Use every single resource at your disposal. 3. Be ruthless with your calendar. Only go to meetings that are absolutely necessary. This means saying no to things that are great and really blocking time to study, drive revenue and outbound. What tips would you give SDRs looking ot make the jump to AE? - Mike G 👉 Join 5,000+ sellers getting my (free) sales newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/gwQVvVBK

"If I don't get promoted soon I'm going to quit" 😡 Whoah Whoah slow down there partner. Ever heard someone say this before? Maybe you've said it to yourself at one point (I know I have) One of the hardest pills to swallow as an SDR or BDR is that getting promoted is not as easy as it used to be. Whether it's transitioning into an AE, AM, Ops, or even dare I say marketing role... It will be f*cking hard to get there BUT... it's not impossible! 🎉 Here are 7 tips I've used to get promoted quickly as an SDR: 1️⃣ Get noticed by leadership 👉 This may be a no-brainer, but you need to actually be doing well as an SDR to even get noticed internally. So before you jump to conclusions put your ego to the side and evaluate if you are doing the best you possibly can right now. Audit yourself and find areas to improve in your current role. 2️⃣ Decide what role is right for you 👉 Decide where you want to go. Depending on your strengths and interests you may not take a traditional path from SDR to AE. You might want a different role. After you do a self-reflection try to align your strengths, interests, and goals with a role. I highly encourage you to do your research here and talk to a couple of people who work in those roles at your org to see what their day-to-day is like. 3️⃣ Build a criteria/milestone checklist 👉 Now that you know where you want to go you need to build a path to get there. This is where you'll need buy-in from your manager and the manager of the department you want to get promoted into. Schedule a call with them individually and discuss building out a criteria for getting promoted. Work together to make it achievable and plan weekly check-in calls to track how you are progressing through the criteria. 4️⃣ Identify areas to improve 👉 Spend time with the department you want to be promoted into and learn about their current challenges. If you want to bring something new to the table you'll need to know where the team is seeing gaps and how you can help to fill those gaps. 5️⃣ Multithread baby! 👉 Getting promoted is still sales - you'll need to multithread. Get face time with any other stakeholders in this scenario. It might be your manager's boss, a VP, or other leaders in your org that have influence. 6️⃣ Present your case 👉 You're selling yourself so don't be surprised when I tell you that you'll need to present a "business case." It may not be formal but you'll need to put together all of the past steps to show both managers how you've tracked through the criteria, what gaps there are on the team, and how you can fill them. 7️⃣ Patience 👉 It's not going to happen overnight, you'll need patience. But if you take the extra steps to stand out and make an effort you'll be on track to a promotion in no time Anything else you would add to help get promoted? #sales

SDR → AE → Manager → Director → VP I climbed the SaaS sales ladder and along the way, I supported hundreds of reps and managers working toward their next promotion. Here’s what consistently separates the people who get promoted from the ones who stay stuck: 1️⃣ Perform (this is table stakes) Strong results earn credibility but results alone aren’t enough. 2️⃣ Communicate with your manager Promotions aren’t a surprise. Your goals shouldn’t be either. 3️⃣ Build relationships with hiring managers early Let them know you’re interested. Learn what “great” looks like before the role opens. 4️⃣ Invest in development and shadow the role Learn the job while someone else still has it. 5️⃣ Take on stretch projects Do the work of the next level before you’re given the title. By the time the role opens, you’re not “applying.” You’re already the obvious choice. What made the biggest difference in your last promotion? I’d love to hear from you, post a comment 👇 #SalesCareer #CareerGrowth

"I'm going to be an SDR for the next 4-5 years, then see where it goes from there." said no SDR I've ever met. The SDR role is not like most entry-level jobs. Not even close. In sports terms, it's more like college-level. It's not like high school where it doesn't pay and some people don't really care to excel, and it's not like the professional level where you're proven and set on a contract. I personally hate to even call SDR entry-level! Like in sports - high school can be competitive, but making it to college ball is TOUGH. Yet, stepping in freshman year of college those athletes are some of the toughest in the world and its just "entry level" Trial and error. Can be wildly successful or never score a point. It's all TBD. My encouragement to SDRs: 1. Relentlessly find early success patterns and trends (ie. stand out as one of the hardest workers at finding ways to work smarter). Smart + hard work required over results in the very early days. 2. Consistency. Trust your processes and methods that you find work. Results will come and remain. 3. Always be A/B testing, never quite satisfied with last months wins. 4. Document the heck out of your results and achievements. If it isn't documented, it didn't happen. 5. Be willing to put yourself back into the relentless pursuit of new heights as you did in the early days; never get complacent. You do this well, it opens a lot of doors. I've personally seen 25+ promotions through from SDR to AE or management and I don't see exceptions to this list. Anything missing?