Denis Acia

Co-Founder at SaasFluence | B2B Influencer Marketing for SaaS Brands

I’m Denis, Co-Founder of SaasFluence

We’re an influencer marketing agency helping B2B tech brands drive demand and visibility by partnering with LinkedIn influencers.

Currently — with over 200 influencers, we manage influencer marketing programs for B2B sales tech companies like Maildoso, Icypeas, Saleshandy, Fowla, and others.

Why We Started SaasFluence

Before SaasFluence, I ran an outbound agency, Applus Leads. Through that experience, we worked with some incredible B2B tech brands — companies with fantastic products and real value to offer. But despite outbound efforts (cold calls and cold emails), they weren’t getting the traction they deserved.

A big reason?

Their LinkedIn presence and engagement were minimal. Most had only a few hundred page followers and very little visibility in the market.

That lack of recognition made it hard to convert cold leads. Without social proof or brand mentions, prospects were hesitant to engage — especially in the highly competitive sales tech space.
What they really needed was a new approach — one that would:

1. Build credibility
2. Earn trust
3. And drive demand by establishing them as trusted solutions in the market.

That’s where SaasFluence comes in.

Our mission;
To help B2B tech brands leverage influencer marketing to drive demand, increase sales, and grow.

How We Can Help

☑ If you’re a B2B tech founder or business leader with an influencer marketing budget of at least $10K/month,
 ☑ And you don’t have the time to run campaigns or manage influencer partnerships,
We’ll handle it for you.

We’ve launched thousands of LinkedIn-sponsored campaigns, and our clients are seeing exceptional ROI.

If you’re curious, DM me and I’ll share a few of our client case studies so you can learn more about our systems and results.

Or, visit our website to explore further:
 👉 www.saasfluence.co

Lead Generation Partner - Outbound

If my team replies to my Slack messages in 30 seconds I get a little bit worried about our work.

In most agencies everybody feels a pressure to stay active so the boss thinks they are working hard. 

You feel like if you do not answer a DM immediately you might look like you are slacking off. 

But I think that culture is a mistake.

If you are answering me in 30 seconds it means you were not in the zone. You were just waiting to be interrupted. 

A brain cannot do its best work if it is getting interrupted every few minutes.

Tell your team to turn off notifications for a few hours and disappear. Go do hard stuff that requires deep thinking. 

I would much rather wait two hours for a brilliant strategy than get a "On it!" in three seconds.

Remember that you hired adults because you trust them to do the job. You do not need to watch their status bubble to see if they are sitting at their desk.

If your team is answering too fast they might be losing the chance to do their best work.

Fast reply or good work - what matters more to you?

Don't follow up with your prospects today. Trust me on this.

It is the first week of January. Everyone just got back to their desks. I know for a fact their inboxes are a total war zone right now. They have 300 unread emails. Maybe 500. 

They are stressed and they are just trying to survive the morning.

If you send them an email right now saying "just bubbling this up," you are not being a good salesperson. You are just annoyance number 301. 

I like to give people what I call Grace Week. Just give them some room to breathe. Let them delete all the junk and get back to normal life.

I am waiting until next Tuesday. When I reach out, I will tell them I waited because I knew their inbox was probably a mess. 

It shows you have some empathy. It shows you care about their sanity more than your quota.

People appreciate it when you don't act like a robot chasing a number.

Are you sending emails today or are you waiting?

I spent 3 months sending emails to SaaS founders who didn’t have a budget until I found this.

I used to spend a lot of my outbound efforts guessing. I would find a SaaS company through Sales Nav, find the CEO, and send them a pitch for our influencer services. 

Sometimes they replied. Most of the time they didn't. 

Then Matthew from Prospeo.io showed me what they built for their V2 update. It was crazy. 

I finally stopped searching for "companies" and started searching for "signals."

Here is how I use it now for Saasfluence:

→ I set a filter to only show me SaaS companies hiring for marketing roles.
→ I check the "Technographics" to see if they already use tools like HubSpot.
→ I also check "Intent Signals" to see companies that are researching Linkedin marketing.

This changes the whole game for me.

If a company is hiring a marketing leader (or other related roles), I know three things for sure:

1. They have a massive problem they need to solve.
2. They have the budget to pay for a solution.
3. My timing is perfect because they are already thinking about growth.

The data is refreshed every 7 days and 98% of the emails are verified. I don't even scrub the list anymore!

I’m moving almost all our internal searches over to Prospeo.io now because it saves me so much time on cleaning CSV files.

Swipe through the carousel to see how I set this up and the exact email template I use.

I’ll put a link in the comments if you want to try Prospeo.io yourself.

Signal based outreach

Is work-life balance just a lie we tell people so they don’t quit?

I have been looking at my own life lately and I see a pattern that makes me a bit angry. 

Every single time Saasfluence is winning and we are managing MORE clients, my health automatically goes into low priority mode.

I skip the gym and I eat whatever is near me because my brain is always on the next meeting.

Then I get tired of feeling slow and I focus on my fitness. I spend more effort on my health and I eat clean. 

And what happens? My to-do list piles up. I am not pushing the business as hard because my energy is somewhere else.

I'm starting to think you can't have every area of your life in the green at the same moment.

I see these influencers on Linkedin say "My work is my life.” If you spend 14 hours every day building a company, doesn't something else need to die?

Maybe it is your relationship with your kids or your physical health. You only have so much energy in the tank.

Does anybody here have it all figured out? Are you winning at health, money, family, and work at the same time? 

Or are we all just choosing which part of our life we are going to neglect this week?

(Please no AI comments below. I want to hear from humans.)

I used to spend 4 hours a day on LinkedIn trying to grow. Now I use these 4 tools to do it in 45 minutes:

Trigify.io → I use this to find social signals. I don't message random people anymore because that is a waste of time. 

I find people who are leaving comments on my favorite niche thought leaders. These people are already interested in what I'm interested in. Higher chances of converting them.

Extrovert → I used to spend forever thinking of what to say on 20 different posts every day. This tool helps me stay active in the comments. 

It keeps my name visible where my customers are hanging out and I don't lose my mind doing it.

MagicPost → When my brain feels like a dry sponge and I have no ideas, I open this. I don't let it write for me. That is a mistake. 

I use it to kickstart my drafts. I can get a post done in 30 minutes instead of an hour of staring at a blank screen.

Aimfox → This is the heavy lifter for the DMs. Once the other three tools have warmed up my profile and people recognize my name, I use Aimfox. 

It handles outreach at a scale I could never do by hand.

The point is not to use bots to manage my Linkedin. These tools just let me be more human faster. 

I spend less time on boring stuff and more time talking to people who can grow the business.

How much time do you spend on LinkedIn every day?

I have a confession: I am not passionate about B2B influencer marketing.

Do not get me wrong. I love my team and our clients say we do great work…

But I do not wake up every morning dreaming about creator briefs or looking at invoices for software.

I think gurus tell founders a big lie. They say you must be obsessed with your product. 

You must live and breathe your niche every second and I think that’s totally unnecessary.

What I am obsessed with is getting our clients a win. I like when a founder tells me their sales calls are finally converting because of the work we did.

I love the game of building a company. I love finding great people and making a plan and seeing it succeed. The "thing" we sell is just the car we drive to get to the goal.

It is okay to not be in love with the tool. It’s okay to just be in love with the results you get for people.

We shame founders who are not obsessed with their specific niche and it just makes people feel like they are doing it wrong. It’s fine to just love the win.

Are you in love with the product or are you in love with the game?

I found a way to stop the "Day 1" onboarding chaos with one single link.

Do you send an email asking for your client's logo? Then another email with a Google Form? Then another one asking them to book a kickoff call?

The client is already overwhelmed and you haven't even started the work yet.

We stopped doing that. We use a tool called Flowla and we create one "Onboarding Room" for everything.

Here is exactly what we put inside:

→ A 30-second welcome video:

Record it right there in the room. Say "Welcome! Everything you need to get started is right here."

→ A checklist:

They see a list of what they need to do and what we are doing. They know exactly what is happening next so you never have to send "just checking in" emails.

→ An intake form:

We embed a form in the page. No PDFs to download. They fill in their KPIs and their target audience and we get it instantly.

→ A calendar link:

Our Cal(dot)com link is sitting at the bottom. They book the kickoff call as the final step.

→ An upload section:

We ask them to drag and drop everything into the room. It keeps our inbox clean.

We send one link. 

The client feels like they hired a professional team instead of a messy freelancer. It sets the tone for the whole relationship.

Do you have a smooth onboarding process or is it a mess of emails?

fix your onboarding

Why does a lead from a creator close 3x faster than a cold lead?

It’s because of "Distance to Trust."

When you get a cold lead the distance is very long.

Path A:

It starts with a Stranger. Then you send a cold email. They feel scepticism. 

You have to do 3 demo calls to prove you can solve their problem. You earn trust and you close.

That path takes a lot of time.

The distance shrinks when you try to convert a lead from a trusted creator’s post.

Path B:

It starts with a stranger. But then they see a creator's post. The creator hands their trust over to you. 

The prospect comes to you already believing in the product. You do 1 discovery call and you close.

Influence is a shortcut.

Do you want the long path or the shortcut?

I think most of us on LinkedIn are aiming at the wrong target and here’s why…

We look at viral posts and think "I need to post about how to get 10k followers."

Or we post generic advice about "how to be a better leader."

We are fighting for attention at the very top of the pyramid.

It is crowded there and honestly, there is not much money in it.

The "money" is hidden at the bottom of the pyramid.

It is where people are looking for boring solutions to boring business problems.

A post about "How to get 100 likes" might get you a dopamine hit. But a post about "How to fix a messy CRM so your sales team stops quitting" might get you 10 likes.

But 3 of those likes are from CEOs who have that exact problem right now. And they have a budget to fix it.

If you want to be a famous creator, stay at the top. If you want to build a business, go to the bottom and solve a boring problem.

Do you post for likes or for leads?

If you are a SaaS founder, here is how you make one creator post last for months...

I see this all the time. A brand pays a lot of money for a creator to post. The post goes live, it gets some likes for a day, and then it is gone.

This makes the math very hard for your business because you paid a lot for something that only lasted 24 hours.

You need to turn that one post into a content engine. Try using this playbook:

Day 1: 

You do the obvious stuff. The creator answers every comment. You share it to your company page. You make sure everyone sees it.

Day 7: 

Take the main lesson from that post and put it in your email to your users. Tell them a story about why this creator uses your tool. It feels more human than a standard marketing email.

Day 14: 

You take the video or the image from the creator. You run it as a paid ad.

It looks like a friendly recommendation instead of a boring commercial. Usually your cost per click goes down.

Day 30: 

When someone books a demo on your site, show them that creator's video on the thank you page. Tell them "While you wait for our call, see how this person uses us." 

Day 40:

Write a simple blog post on your site. Title it "How [Creator Name] solved this big problem using our tool." You are just telling their story again.

You paid for the post once. But now you are getting value for more time, and you can repeat this playbook for all creator posts.

Are you reusing your creator content?

Creator marketing tactics

Before I started my influencer marketing agency, I did cold emails for SaaS clients.

And I found one framework that worked for pretty much any tool I was selling.

Here is the exact structure I used to book hundreds of meetings:

1. Salutation

"Hey [Name]" is fine. 

2. Relevant Personalization

This is where everyone messes up. Do not just say "I saw you went to X college." That is weird. You need to connect the observation to the problem you solve.

Example: "I noticed you run a pay-per-meeting model at your agency. That means you cannot afford to waste credits on bad data, right?"

See? I am proving I understand their business model.

3. The Offer

Connect it right back to the personalization. Tell them why you are emailing them now.

Example: "Asking because we just launched a new verification feature at [Tool Name]. It helps you find verified emails without burning your credits on the wrong people."

4. Social Proof

Give them a reason to trust you. A number or a name works best.

Example: "We are already helping 50 other lead gen agencies keep their bounce rates under 1%."

5. CTA

Do not ask for marriage. Just ask if the topic is relevant.

Example: "Would this be relevant to you right now?"

That is it. 

What is your go-to cold email framework?

I haven't used this tool yet, but I'm obsessed with the idea behind it.

When one of our creators puts out a post, we see the likes and comments. But we have to spend hours reading through hundreds of comments just to see if people like the price or if they like feature X.

I saw Trigify.io and it looks like it can fix this mess. 

One thing I want to do is sentiment analysis. I want the tool to tell me if everyone is complaining about a specific part of the dashboard. 

Instead of me guessing, I can get a clear report on what the market hates. That is pure gold for a product team.

The other part is even more crazy. They say they can connect social signals to your pipeline. 

If I can show a client that a single comment from a prospect led to a closed deal in their CRM... that is holy grail.

Right now, the link between a LinkedIn comment and a dollar is very blurry. I think this might be the tool that finally makes it clear. 

Do you track the sentiment of your comments or count the likes?

Sending a cold connection request to a stranger is just weird.

If a random person stops you on a dark street you get nervous. Most LinkedIn requests feel like that. 

You get a notification from a face you never saw before and you probably hit delete because you have zero clue who they are.

We use a method I call the Shadow Strategy. We use a tool called Extrovert for it and it has changed everything for our team.

→ I pick 50 people I want to work with.
→ I add their names into Extrovert.
→ Every time they post anything the tool sends me a notification.
→ I leave a helpful comment within the first hour of them posting.

I do this about three times in two weeks. I'm not trying to sell them anything yet. I'm just sharing my thoughts on their ideas.

When I finally send the connection request they already know who I am. 

They see my name and they think 'hey this guy has been leaving some good comments'. It is not a cold request anymore.

Our acceptance rate is about 60 percent (for prospects).

You spend 15 minutes a day doing this and your outreach stops being an intrusion.

Do you message strangers or do you let them get to know you first?

On a mission to help 100,000+ SDRs have great sales careers. 

Here's 3 ways I do that: 

1. The Cold Call OS - A self-paced digital course taking you from fearing cold calls to booking meetings every day

2. SDR-to-AE Bootcamp - 10x hour live cohort designed to teach you the foundations of building a successful career as an Account Executive

3. 8-Week Outbound Training - bespoke training programme designed for SDR  teams at SaaS B2B companies so they can book more meetings and become a profitable part of the commercial org. 

Chris Ritson

Don't try to hire the smartest SDRs.

Hire the people who:

1) Ask thoughtful questions instead of pretending to know

2) Take notes during meetings or while reading

3) Like being around people who challenge their thinking, not just those who agree with them

4) Read books, listen to podcasts and actively try to be better every day 

5) Watch online courses, push their limits and invest in themselves during downtime

6) Seek out mentors and pay for their own coaches rather than wait for their boss to pay

7) Reflect weekly on what they've learned and what they still don't know

8) Set monthly learning goals the same way they set performance goals

9) Learn from failure instead of making excuses for why it happened

10) Seek out top performers in their field and steal the best tips and tactics from them 


These SDRs are the lifelong learners.

And people who never stop learning can never be stopped. 

They'll be your future leaders, top billers and CSMs. 

Don't hire for credentials or IQ, 

Bet on those who are always trying to improve.

Eventually, they'll be the best. 

Agree?

---

Enjoy this? Repost for your network ♻️.
And follow Chris Ritson for more posts like this.

Thank you!

---

PS. The SDR Leader Bootcamp is open for registration for the 16th Feb cohort. Join 200+ who have already been through the programme: 

- 8x live workshops with me
- Access to me 1:1 throughout 
- 4x guest-speaker workshops 
- Lifetime access to all materials 

Want to stop feeling like your spinning plates? Check it out and see if it's a fit: https://lnkd.in/eiuV85Ev

Join my new SDR to AE School → Click visit my store 📈

CRO: ''Put them on a PIP'' 

Me: ''Not this time''. 

A few years ago, my CRO told me to put anyone not performing on a PIP.

1 month missed quota ➞ PIP. 

The CRO was 3 levels away from the SDRs. 

It looked like...

- Him 
- Me 
- SDR Manager
- SDRs

All he saw was the a Salesforce dashboard. 

But ''Salesforce was King'' [apparently]. 

Most leaders just complied and played politics. 

But for me it was about ''right over easy''. 

So I refused to ''PIP 'em''. 

Because he didn't see...

- The daily grind 
- The no show meetings
- The personal challenges
- The 7am starts / 7pm finishes
- The rejections Every. Single. Day 

Remember...

Everyone misses quota sometimes. 

Most CROs? They see the numbers. Not the humans.

Every time I've backed ''failing'' SDRs ➞ they've flown 🦅

The best leaders treat failure as an opportunity.

Am I right? 

🚀 This SDR went on to be 3rd top performer in a team of 30+ SDRs.

---

PS. 👉 Sharing the framework I use to help SDR leaders build high-performing teams: https://lnkd.in/eiuV85Ev

SDR is the most misunderstood job.

It's not:

- Smashing KPIs
- Banging out dials
- Doing power hours
- Handling objections 
- Pitching in every DM
- Sending loads of emails
- Booking tonnes of meetings

It's much more than that.

Here's 8 Ways to Develop as an SDR:

1️⃣ Deal With Rejection
Learn to “let go of the no.”
Gong Labs found that top-performing reps recover from rejection 33% faster and make follow-up attempts 50% more often than low performers.

2️⃣ Understand Prospects’ Problems
Know your personas inside-out.
According to Gartner, 83% of B2B buyers prefer sellers who help them understand their own problems, not just pitch a solution.

3️⃣ Be Specific in Your Messaging
Clarity wins. Always.
Gong data shows that emails under 150 words with a single clear CTA get 30%+ higher response rates than longer, vague messages.

4️⃣ Imagine Yourself in the Prospect’s Shoes
Empathy = trust.
LinkedIn’s State of Sales Report found that buyers are 1.8x more likely to engage with sellers who demonstrate empathy and understanding of their day-to-day reality.

5️⃣ Give, Give, Give, Give... Get.
Play the long game.
The best sellers follow the 80:20 rule, giving value four times before asking for anything in return.
Gartner found that this “value-first” approach improves response rates by up to 40%.

6️⃣ Learn From the Errors
Top reps document their mistakes.
Bridge Group data shows that SDRs who self-review calls weekly improve conversion rates by 27% within three months.

7️⃣ Really Listen
Stop talking. Start hearing.
Gong Labs discovered that top reps speak only 43% of the time on discovery calls, while average reps talk over 65%. Listening sells.

8️⃣ Turn Up Daily
Discipline beats motivation.
Gartner reports that consistent daily activity correlates with a 23% higher quota attainment... even more than experience or tenure.

The truth?
The best SDRs don’t rely on luck or leads.
They build habits, data, and discipline... one call, one email, one day at a time.

SDR is a journey, not a destination.

➟ It helps you build trust.
➟ It makes you a better colleague.
➟ It deepens all of your relationships.
➟ It's can be key to success in business [and life].

Turn up and practice daily.
Your life will be better for it.

Enjoy this? Repost for your network ♻️.
And follow me for more posts like this.

Thank you!

👉 I’m Chris, I help SDRs get promoted to AE and start making 6-fig salaries with my SDR to AE School 💰 We launch Jan 26th.

—-

PS. 📌 Sharing the framework I use to help SDRs step into, stay, and thrive in AE roles: https://lnkd.in/eyqtz4zq

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I'd rather be an SDR leader than an AE leader

flexprts

My ex-VP Sales: “Books are bu****it.”
Me: “With respect, you're wrong.”

Everyone’s chasing the next “hack.”
The next AI tool.
The next viral post.

Meanwhile, the best sales lessons were written 30+ years ago...
by people who built empires without automation, inbound leads, or ChatGPT.

Here are 13 “old” books every seller should have read and studied👇

1️⃣ How to Win Friends & Influence People — Dale Carnegie
2️⃣ SPIN Selling — Neil Rackham
3️⃣ The Challenger Sale — Matthew Dixon & Brent Adamson
4️⃣ New Sales. Simplified. — Mike Weinberg
5️⃣ Fanatical Prospecting — Jeb Blount
6️⃣ To Sell Is Human — Daniel Pink
7️⃣ Never Split The Difference — Chris Voss
8️⃣ Influence — Robert Cialdini
9️⃣ Gap Selling — Keenan
🔟 The Psychology of Selling — Brian Tracy
11️⃣ Selling to Big Companies — Jill Konrath
12️⃣ Eat Their Lunch — Anthony Iannarino
13️⃣ Secrets of Closing the Sale — Zig Ziglar

Between them, these authors have 350+ years of sales experience.
Their books are a shortcut to all that knowledge.

Everyone’s reading LinkedIn posts.
But few are reading the people who wrote the principles those posts were built on.

If you can read, exercise it.
Wisdom isn’t accumulated by scrolling.

♻️ Repost for the sellers who’d rather get smarter than louder.

The SDR Leader role is one of the most misunderstood in sales.

It’s not about:

- Keeping the CRO happy
- Scheduling “power hours”
- Forcing reps to smash KPIs
- Managing underperformance
- Running morning hype sessions
- Jumping on call blocks to book meetings
- Watching your best people get promoted to AE

It’s way more than that.

9 ways to grow as an SDR Leader 👇

1. Master the art of hiring.
Everything starts here. Great results follow great people.

2. Understand your reps deeply.
Learn what makes each person tick — their challenges, motivations, and roadblocks.

3. Be specific in your guidance.
Don’t lecture. Coach. Clarity and precision always win.

4. Step into their world.
Walk a mile in their shoes. Do what they do. Feel their day-to-day reality.

5. Give more than you take.
Use the 80:20 give:get rule. Give 4x more — support, time, knowledge — before you ask for anything.

6. Own your mistakes.
Document them. Reflect on them. Growth comes from your own learning curve.

7. Listen — really listen — in 1:1s.
Put the phone down. Close the laptop. Be fully present.

8. Show up every day.
Rely on systems, not motivation. Consistency beats intensity.

9. Stand by your team.
When reps fall short, have their back. That’s when real leadership shows up.

SDR Leadership isn’t a title — it’s a journey.

➟ It builds trust.
➟ It makes you a stronger leader.
➟ It deepens your relationships.
➟ And it’s a key to success — in business and in life.

Show up. Practice. Repeat.
Your team — and your future self — will thank you.

💡 Enjoyed this? Repost to share with your network ♻️
And follow me for more SDR Leader insights like this.

PS. The SDR Leader Bootcamp is open for registration for the 16th Feb cohort. Join 200+ who have already been through the programme: 

- 8x live workshops with me
- Access to me 1:1 throughout 
- 4x guest-speaker workshops 
- Lifetime access to all materials 

Want to stop feeling like your spinning plates? Check it out and see if it's a fit: https://lnkd.in/eiuV85Ev

SDR Manager: 
 
- ''Do more calls'' 
- ''Send more emails'' 
- ''Add more prospects'' 
- ''Work on more accounts'' 
 
SDR Leader: 
 
- ''Who I can call?'' 
- ''Let's do more training'' 
- ''Let's send emails together'' 
- ''Pick me 5 accounts, I'll reach out'' 
 
Most teams miss quota because their leader is 'managing' too much. 
 
What if they started leading instead? 
 
Actions > Orders. 

Do you agree? ♻️ Repost if you do!

👉 The next SDR Leader Bootcamp starts early Feb. 20 seats max and 4x brand new guest workshops CONFIRMED! 🔥

---

PS.📍Dropping details for the Bootcamp - see SDR leaders who’ve used it to build high-performing teams: https://lnkd.in/eiuV85Ev

Met an SDR who sends 50+ emails a day 
And hits >140% of their quota each month

(they have to get 7 qualified opps)

Here's the 5 tips they gave me on emails: 

1. Don't send more than 50 a day 
- Focus on quality of writing, not quantity. 

2. Use a template for every email 
- They use my ''The One Framework'' email structure for all 1st touch emails 

3. Stop automating your emails 
- Every email counts. Make sure they all give you a chance to build trust and book a meeting. 

4. 2nd & 3rd emails are underrated 
- Most people stop writing good emails after Email 1. Treat every email as a 1st touch. 

5. Repeat great observations 
- Reuse the SAME observation in emails 1, 2, 3 etc. Don't be scared to repeat your message. Repetitions wins. 

They left me with this quote...

Cold Emailing isn't about ''out-working people'' It's about ''out-thinking people''. 

What do you think? 

♻️ Reshare for other SDRs in your network.

I met an SDR team this week and something felt “off”.

Not because the sales floor was quiet.
Not because nobody on the team was ripping dials. 
Because nobody was moaning about phone numbers. Nobody was blaming contact data. 
At all.

No:

“The data is rubbish.”
“Ops needs to clean this up.”
“I can’t find the right contacts.”
“Just called the prospect’s uncle.”

Instead, they said:

''I reckon I’ll have 6+ convos today.”
''I get 30% pick-up to mobiles most days''
“These verified phone numbers are insane''
“I'm actually excited to smash this list of direct dials.”
“If the CEO doesn’t pick up, I’ve got the CRO’s number too.”

And surprise, surprise...

Their results?

✅ 165% of meetings quota
✅ 72% convert to pipeline
✅ 84% show rates

Total revenue sourced by this 7-person SDR team last year: $3.8M ARR. 

And it wasn’t because they had a better script than everyone else. 
Or smashed out 1000 dials a day until they burned out. 

It was because...
They were actually having conversations on the phone. 

Because when SDRs stop fighting their data, they can fight harder for results.

Here’s what stood out:

They had insanely strong direct phone number data.

Not generic switchboards.
Not “maybe this number works.”
Not “hopefully I'll get 2% pick-up today.”

Actual direct dials.
And prospects who answer. 

And once you give SDRs real numbers…

📞 pick-up rates go up
💬 conversations go up
📅 meetings go up
💰 revenue goes up

Then confidence soars and momentum goes wild. 

That’s why for direct phone number data + higher pick-up rates, I recommend Prospeo.

Their database of contacts is huge at 300 million and it refreshes every 7 days. 

Plus Prospeo verifies contact data so you always dial REAL numbers and email REAL emails.

Every SDR says they want better results.

Very few realise it’s not about the perfect script…

It’s about talking to the right people, at the right time.

You can have the best words in the world…
If you can’t ever speak to the decision-maker?

Nothing happens.

Good Data > Good Scripts.

If you want to check out Prospeo.io, it’s worth a look: prospeo.io/cr

♻️ And thanks if you repost this story!

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SDR success isn't about talent.

It's about discipline.

While your colleagues chase: 

- The latest trend.
- The hottest tool.
- The newest hack.

Successful SDRs do the basics [everyday]

They dial.
They email.
They DM.
They train.

Day after day.
Week after week.
Month after month.

No fancy hacks. 
Or magic tricks. 
Just relentless execution.

And that's the secret:

''Boring is profitable''. 

Because...

Boring leads to mastery. 
Mastery leads to success.

♻️ Repost if you agree, consistency is the real sales superpower.

👉 I’m Chris, I help SDRs get into AE roles with the skills they need to make 6-figs! Check out my SDR to AE School here; https://lnkd.in/eyqtz4zq

Prospecting C-Suite is brutal.

But it doesn't have to be that tough.

Here's 8 C-Suite roles that control your fate.

Understanding them can transform your results today.

Why does this matter to YOU?

If you're an SDR? 
→ Speak their language
→ Position yourself like a pro
→ Know who cares about what 
→ Avoid looking like an amateur

Here's what each really cares about:

CEO - Vision Keeper
↳ Obsesses over: Long-term survival
↳ Show them: How you impact the big picture

COO - Execution Machine
↳ Lives for: Turning chaos into clockwork
↳ Get promoted: Bring solutions, not problems

CFO - Reality Check
↳ Thinks in: ROI, runway, and risk
↳ Impress them: Talk numbers, not feelings

CMO - Story Architect
↳ Mission: Make people care before they buy
↳ Stand out: Connect insights to revenue

CTO - Future Builder
↳ Balances: Innovation vs. stability
↳ Win them over: Show how tech enables business

CHRO - Culture Guardian
↳ Real job: Prevent talent from leaving
↳ Get noticed: Build others up

CIO - Data Whisperer
↳ Goal: Information at decision speed
↳ Career hack: Show how data drives decisions

CPO - Customer Champion
↳ Success metric: Retention over acquisition
↳ Advancement tip: Bring real customer voices

The truth nobody tells you:

Each C-level speaks a different language.
Learn their language. Understand their pressure.
That's how you become indispensable in SDR. 

🎯 Save this for your next C-Suite convo! 

Today you're learning their language.
Tomorrow? You'll be booking big meetings with big execs. 

P.S. What would you add? Did I miss any roles? 

♻️ Repost to help someone in your network.
And follow @chrisritson for more SDR content.

👉 My SDR to AE School (the bootcamp has evolved) is now LIVE! We kick off January 26th 🚀

—-

P.P.S. 📌 Sharing the framework I use to help SDRs step into and stay in AE roles: https://lnkd.in/eyqtz4zq

SDRs at the start of January: 

Confidence is high.
Target feels lighter.
Calendar looks packed. 

You think: 
“Fresh start.”
“This is my year.”
“Everything’s lining up.”

Then... January actually starts.

Prospects ghost.
Replies slow down.
Dials go unanswered.
Sequences that “should work” don’t.

Pipeline looks thin fast.
Pressure ramps faster.

By the end of January you're questioning everything: 
“What if I’m not good at this?”
''Am I even cut out for a sales job?''
“Does everyone else have it figured out?”

Here’s the truth most SDRs don’t hear:

January is hard by design.

Budgets aren’t approved.
Prospects are overwhelmed.
Everyone’s “circling back next month.”

The job doesn’t get easier because the calendar reset.

This is the part where:

Motivation turns into discipline
Confidence turns into consistency
“I’m excited” turns into “I’ll do the work anyway”

Great SDRs aren’t made in the hype of new year, new me:

They’re made in:

Quiet inboxes
Rejection-heavy days
Weeks where effort doesn’t equal results
And dark cold Januarys where they grind it out

If this month was harder than expected, that doesn’t mean you’ve failed.

It means you’ve reached the real work of being an SDR. 

Stay in it.
Keep swinging.
Momentum always comes after persistence.

Your year isn’t decided in January. 

It’s decided by who’s still standing when it gets uncomfortable.

If you’re an SDR reading this feeling behind already...
you're not a failure or a flop. 

You’re just early in the grind 💪 Keep going, February will be better! 

♻️ Repost if this hits home today!

👇 SDRs think being an AE is...

✅ Closing big deals
✅ Respect + big status
✅ Freedom and flexibility
✅ Running exciting demos
✅ Bigger commission cheques
✅ Being “the face” of the business

👇 Reality of being an AE is...

❌ Rejection — constantly — even when you did everything right
❌ Chasing procurement for weeks (sometimes months)
❌ Deals slipping for reasons outside your control
❌ 10+ stakeholders who all want different things
❌ Hearing “budget got frozen” at the finish line
❌ Getting ghosted after the demo went well
❌ Forecast pressure every single week
❌ Living in the grey area of uncertainty

SDRs see the highlight reel.
AEs live the behind-the-scenes.

It’s not just “closing”.

It’s:

- managing risk
- building trust fast
- handling rejection (ALOT)
- navigating internal politics
- staying optimistic while your pipeline collapses
- and doing it alllll again tomorrow

If you’re an SDR aiming for AE... keep pushing.
But remember: 

AE isn’t the easier job.
It’s a different kind of hard.

And the people who succeed aren’t the flashiest.

They’re the ones who can take the hits, keep showing up, and stay consistent when it’s not sexy. 

♻️ AEs - this one is for you! Thanks if you repost! 

💥 Did you underestimate the AE role before you started? I did! 

—-

PS.📍My SDR to AE School launches Monday. Only a few January spots left now. DM for details, or check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eyqtz4zq

SDR is the hardest job in sales.

You’re expected to:

- Build relationships with people who have no desire to talk to you. 

- Bring the same enthusiasm to every outreach knowing you'll get rejected in 90% of conversations. 

- Keep dailling, emailing and DM'ing when your chances of a response are maybe 3-4% [if you're good]. 

- Show-up to meetings you've booked to ''take notes'' for your AE and say nothing. 

And somehow....

Keep hitting your quota when it increases every quarter. 

Yes, the hard skills in AE are more technical and advanced blah blah blah. 

But the mindset skills you get in SDR are unrivalled. 

And sure, it's not for the faint of heart. 

But if you can stick with it, you'll be handsomely rewarded. 

Not just with money but with something much more valuable.

An unbeatable mindset that stays with you forever. 

If you used to be an SDR, I bet you'd agree its hard but 100% worth it. 

If you're an SDR today - keep grinding. You won't regret it. 

Do you agree? SDR is the hardest? 

Thanks if you repost ♻️ this! Appreciate ya!

👉 I’m Chris, I help SDRs get promoted to AE and start making 6-fig salaries with my SDR to AE School 💰 We launch Jan 26th.

—-

PS. 📌 Sharing the framework I use to help SDRs step into and stay in AE roles: https://lnkd.in/eyqtz4zq

Didn’t hit 260% of my quota in January

Did go to Hobbiton with my kids because I'm a MASSIVE Lord of the Rings nerd...

Hitting quota feels great. 
Making commission feels great. 

Dressing up like an Hobbit and pretending you're 3-foot tall for two hours...priceless! 

Am I right?

PS. Aragorn is my BOY, please fight me in the comments if you disagree 🥊

Head of Sales: ''We're letting John go today''. 

Me: ''Why''?

Head of Sales: ''Great guy but he's not performing in AE''. 
 
Here's the story:
 
✅ Top performer for 11 months straight 
✅ Went to Presidents club 
✅ Broke every record. 
 
John BADLY wanted to be an AE. 
 
So, I promoted him. 
 
3 months in - £0 and 0 deals. 
6 months in - £8k and 1 deal closed. 
8 months in - Fired. 
 
It sucked. And it wasn't Johns fault...

1. Had I trained him to be an AE before I promoted him? No! 
2. Had the head of sales trained him when he was an AE? Not really! 
 
From then on, I promised myself I'd never promote an SDR again unless they had AE skills. 
 
7 years later I'm running an SDR to AE School to give SDRs a fair shot at getting promoted and then smashing their AE role. 
 
So far I've helped >320 SDRs build skills in: 
 
→ Sales Process 
→ Deeper Discovery 
→ Running Demos 
→ Multithreading 
→ Business Cases 
→ Negotiation 
→ Closing Deals 
 
My mission for this programme → help as many SDRs build the skills they need to make it to AE and ramp-up fast without getting fired! 
 
After all, getting to AE is the easy bit. 

Closing deals and hitting quota when you get there? That's hard! 
 
♻️ Thanks if you repost! 

👉 My SDR to AE School launches next week (26th). 🔥

PS. You can check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eyqtz4zq

My ''overnight success'' story: 
 
In 2008, I cleaned toilets 
In 2009, I served behind a bar 
In 2011, my first business failed 
In 2013, I made 200+ calls per day 
In 2016, I took my first leadership role 
In 2018, I struggled with c-level politics 
In 2021, I was an SDR Director, paid 180k 
In 2022, I quit to pursue my own business 
In 2023, Started my SDR to AE Bootcamp 
In 2024, Launched my SDR Leader Bootcamp 
In 2026, Only got 9 spots left for Feb 16th cohort
 
Overnight success isn't a thing. 
 
👉 Life is weird. Back yourself. Take that leap of faith. Trust the process.

—-

📌PS. Check out and see if my SDR Leader Bootcamp is a fit: https://lnkd.in/eiuV85Ev

SDR is the #1 career choice. 

But here's the reality: 

⏰ You'll spend more time getting rejected than accepted. 

 📞 You'll spend lots of time talking to an answerphone than a real human. 

😡 The people you do speak to mostly don't want to speak to you. 

📈 You'll get your KPIs and targets raised most quarters to accounts for a ''bad market''

💻 The meetings you do book will often not show up and ghost you forever more after that. 

✏️ The meetings that do show up you won't be able to run because that's not part of your job. 

❌ And you'll go back to getting rejected whilst the AE has all the fun running the deal cycle. 

📆 When you ask for training to be an AE you're told you need to do SDR for another year even though you've hit quota for 18 months.

🖥️ Technology [automation, AI, whatever] is permanently coming for your job. Adapt or die. 

If you can get through that, you'll have a great career and could be earning £100k+ OTE inside 24 months. 

No pain, no gain. 

Am I right?

♻️ Repost if you agree. 

---- 

📌 PS. Want to be an AE in 2026? My SDR to AE School launches Jan 26th! Check it out here if you like; https://lnkd.in/eyqtz4zq

37 months as a Solo-Founder.
And I’m close to crossing $2million in revenue (with no employees).

- It hasn’t been linear.
- It hasn’t been calm.
- But it’s been worth it.

Here are 12 lessons I’ve learned the hard way:

1. Two hours of outbound a day keeps the anxiety away.

2. No one knows who the f*ck you are... promote yourself unapologetically.

3. Network like a maniac. Posting alone isn’t enough.

4. Your diary is your operating system. Ignore it and chaos wins.

5. Play the long game. The mission is never “done.”

6. Careers are rollercoasters...don’t beat yourself up on the dips.

7. It’s about the feeling you leave behind that people remember most.

8. Don’t get precious about your product. It’s always a work in progress.

9. You should always think like an SDR. Always.

10. Your job title means nothing... you gave it to yourself.

11. It’s emotional. Commit for at least 12 months or don’t start.

12. You’re usually closer to a breakthrough than you think. Keep going.

Bonus truth:

I'm so glad I started as an SDR. Without those skills this business wouldn't exist! 

That’s all for now.

PS: On to month 38 🚀 

PPS: Picture is from Riga (lovely spot for a weekend)!

Getting rid of outbound SDR teams is the new trend.

It happened in 2020 (Covid).
It happened again in 2023 (market crash).
And now it’s happening again - this time because founders think AI can replace them.

Every time... they come back.

On a spreadsheet, cutting SDRs looks smart.
In reality, when revenue’s on the line - not so much.

Yes, outbound teams are hard to build.
Hard to scale.
Hard to lead.

But name one unicorn SaaS company that’s “inbound only.”

You can’t.

Because you don’t build a top business without outbound.
And you don’t build outbound without top SDRs.

💬 Who agrees? ♻️ Repost if you do! 
🔈 Follow me for more SDR insights and content.

---

👉 My next SDR Leader Bootcamp starts Feb 17th.

''The camp helped me level my team up and finally hit quota after 6 months'' - Joe, SDR Leader.

—-

PS.📍If you want to learn more about it you can here: https://lnkd.in/eiuV85Ev

SDR: ''Are you free next week for a call''? 
Prospect: ''No, let's do next month instead''.

SDR: ''Okay, Tuesday 14th at 3pm? 
Prospect: ''Sounds good, speak then''. 

- Phone goes down
- SDR sends the invite 
- Doesn't get accepted 
- Meeting is a no-show

99% of SDRs get annoyed that prospects no-show. 

But the problem isn't the prospect, it's what you said on the call...

Here's how to close 10x better and make sure no-shows stop happening: 

𝗨𝘀𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸-𝘁𝗿𝗮𝗰𝗸: 

''Okay, based on what you said around [insert problem], I recommend we have a follow-up call to work out if we can help you with that. I'm free [insert 3 times for tomorrow]. Which one works best? 

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝘂𝘀𝗲 𝗶𝘁...

1. Recommendations based on things your prospect actually said are highly logical and VERY powerful in convincing your prospect to take the next step. 

2. Outlining what they'll do on the next step is shows your prospect they need to show up or they won't figure it out. 

3. ''Time kills all deals [and meetings]''. By offering 3 times but controlling the timeframe gives your prospect options and control but not over the day you're guiding them towards. This helps the call happen fast whilst they still remember you.

Try this approach, let me know how you get on. 

How do you ''close the call''? 

♻️ Reshare for other SDRs if this is useful! 

---

PS. 📌 My SDR to AE School launches Monday. Only a few January spots left now. DM for details, or check it out here: https://lnkd.in/eyqtz4zq

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