Sales Development Representative (SDR)

Overview

You're an outbound SDR at a 15-person startup selling market intelligence software to cannabis businesses. Your day is spent cold calling dispensaries, cultivators, brands, and retailers to book product demos. The cannabis industry is still building out its tech stack, so you're often educating prospects on why they need data intelligence in the first place.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Early stage (15 employees, likely bootstrapped or seed funded)

Size: 15 employees

Growth: Hiring first SDR or expanding small sales team - signals early GTM motion

Market Position: Niche player in cannabis market intelligence - competing against generic BI tools and manual spreadsheet processes

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 80%+ Outbound - cold calls, LinkedIn outreach, email sequences to cannabis business lists
• 10-20% Referrals/Network - cannabis is a tight-knit industry, word of mouth matters
• Minimal inbound - 15-person company likely doesn't have robust content engine yet

SDR/AE Structure: You're likely one of the first or only SDRs, reporting directly to Taylor (CRO). Small team means you'll get direct coaching but also have to figure things out yourself.

SE Support: Unlikely at 15 people - AEs probably run their own demos.

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors:

• Generic BI tools (Tableau, Looker adapted for cannabis)
• Industry-specific platforms (Headset, BDSA for analytics)
• Excel/manual tracking (biggest competitor - "we've always done it this way")

How They Differentiate: Market intelligence specifically built for cannabis industry nuances (regulatory compliance, strain tracking, market trends specific to legal cannabis)

Common Objections:

• "We already track this in spreadsheets"
• "Data intelligence is a nice-to-have, not need-to-have"
• "Budget is tight" (cannabis businesses often cash-flow constrained)
• Regulatory uncertainty making buyers hesitant on new software investments

Win Themes: Industry-specific data, regulatory compliance features, understanding cannabis market dynamics that generic tools miss

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Prospecting (60%) | Follow-up/Qualification (25%) | Internal (15%)

Key Activities

• Cold Calling: 50-80 calls per day to dispensary managers, cultivation directors, brand marketers. Most don't answer. Cannabis businesses are often busy managing physical operations and may not prioritize vendor calls. You're fighting for attention with a product category they may not know they need.

• List Building: Researching cannabis license databases, LinkedIn, industry directories to build prospect lists. Cannabis market is fragmented across state regulations - you need to understand who can legally operate where and what data they'd care about.

• Email Sequences: Writing and sending personalized email campaigns. Open rates will be lower than typical SaaS because many cannabis operators are less digitally engaged than traditional tech buyers.

• Qualification Calls: When you get someone interested, you're asking discovery questions about their current data processes, pain points with market visibility, and budget authority. Passing qualified meetings to the AE team (or potentially Taylor himself at this size).

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Niche Market Grind: Your total addressable market is smaller than typical SaaS. You're calling the same universe of cannabis businesses repeatedly. Lists get burned through quickly.

• Education Heavy: Many prospects don't wake up thinking "I need market intelligence software." You're creating demand, not capturing it. Lots of "what is this?" conversations before you even get to "is this valuable?"

• Regulatory Complexity: Cannabis regulations vary wildly by state. A feature relevant to California dispensaries might be useless in Illinois. You need to learn these nuances to have credible conversations.

• Stigma & Banking Issues: Cannabis businesses face unique operational challenges (cash-heavy, banking restrictions). They may be skeptical of new vendors or have procurement processes that don't fit typical B2B sales motions.

• Early-Stage Chaos: At 15 people, expect scrappiness. You might not have a polished CRM, refined pitch deck, or extensive training. You're figuring out messaging and ICP alongside leadership.

What Success Looks Like

• Consistently booking 15-25 qualified demos per month that AEs can advance
• Building domain expertise in cannabis industry operations and data needs
• Developing repeatable messaging that resonates with different cannabis business types (retail vs cultivation vs brands)
• Getting promoted to AE as team scales (explicit growth opportunity mentioned)

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• Dispensary owners/managers (single or multi-location retail)
• Cultivation/grow operation directors
• Cannabis brand marketing/ops leaders
• Multi-state operators (MSOs) - bigger fish, harder to reach

What They Care About:

• Regulatory compliance and staying legal
• Understanding market trends to optimize product mix and pricing
• Competitive intelligence in their local markets
• ROI - cannabis margins can be good but businesses are often capital-constrained
• Ease of use - many are operators-first, not tech-savvy executives

Requirements

• High tolerance for rejection and cold outreach (most calls go nowhere)
• Curiosity about cannabis industry and willingness to learn regulatory landscape
• Comfortable working in early-stage startup chaos - limited structure, you'll build processes as you go
• Grit to work through small TAM - you'll call the same prospects multiple times with different angles
• No prior sales experience required, but you need to be coachable and self-motivated
• Comfortable representing a company in an industry that still carries stigma in some circles