Overview
You manage a team of SDRs generating qualified meetings for AEs selling affiliate marketing software to Amazon and Walmart sellers. You spend your day coaching reps on cold calls, reviewing dashboards, running 1-on-1s, and making sure the team hits meeting quotas. Carlie (your hiring manager) wants someone who drives accountability and execution, not just cheerleading.
Role Snapshot
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Role Type | SDR Manager - player-coach likely |
| Sales Motion | Outbound-heavy (cold calling Amazon sellers) |
| Deal Complexity | Consultative - need to explain affiliate marketing ROI |
| Sales Cycle | N/A - measured on qualified meetings booked |
| Deal Size | N/A - SDR function |
| Quota (est.) | Team quota likely 80-120 qualified meetings/month |
Company Context
Stage: Likely Series A/B (87 employees, actively hiring, established product)
Size: 87 employees
Growth: Hiring for critical SDR leadership role suggests scaling go-to-market motion
Market Position: Niche player in Amazon/Walmart seller tools space - not a household name but solving a specific pain point
GTM Reality
Pipeline Sources:
- 80-90% Outbound - Cold calling and LinkedIn outreach to Amazon sellers (can find them through public seller lists, LinkedIn, industry groups)
- 10-20% Inbound - Some marketing leads from content/webinars about Amazon Brand Referral Bonus and affiliate strategies
- Minimal Partner flow at this stage
SDR/AE Structure: You're building/managing the SDR team that feeds AEs. Likely 3-6 SDRs reporting to you initially.
SE Support: Probably no dedicated SEs - AEs likely do their own demos given the product complexity level.
Competitive Landscape
Main Competitors: Other Amazon seller tools (Helium 10, Jungle Scout, SellerApp), generic affiliate platforms (Impact, Refersion), manual affiliate management
How They Differentiate: Amazon Brand Referral Bonus integration - helps sellers get marketplace funding for their affiliate programs, specific to Amazon/Walmart ecosystem
Common Objections: "Already have affiliates," "Too busy managing inventory/ads," "Don't understand affiliate marketing," "Margins too thin for this"
Win Themes: Amazon Brand Referral Bonus savings, automated affiliate payments, access to creator network
What You'll Actually Do
Time Breakdown
Coaching/1-on-1s (35%) | Pipeline Reviews (25%) | Hiring/Training (20%) | Strategy/Reporting (20%)
Key Activities
- Call coaching: Listen to live calls and recordings, give real-time feedback on objection handling. Most SDRs struggle explaining why sellers need affiliate marketing when they're focused on PPC and inventory.
- Pipeline accountability: Daily standups reviewing activities (calls, connects, meetings booked). You're holding people to 50-70 dials/day and 8-12 qualified meetings/month per rep.
- Hiring and onboarding: Screening candidates, building training materials, ramping new SDRs. At 87 people total, you're probably building playbooks from scratch.
- Cross-functional alignment: Weekly syncs with sales leadership on lead quality, with marketing on campaign messaging, with product on feature releases that impact positioning.
The Honest Reality
What's Hard
- Teaching a niche sale: Most SDR managers can rely on inbound interest. Here, your reps are calling sellers who've never heard of Levanta and may not understand affiliate marketing. You need to build talk tracks from scratch.
- High rejection environment: Amazon sellers get hammered by tool vendors. Your reps will hear a lot of "not interested" and need thick skin. Keeping morale up while maintaining high activity is exhausting.
- Player-coach tension: Carlie mentioned "strong operator" - you're probably carrying a small book yourself or jumping on calls when someone's out. Hard to balance managing vs doing.
- Measuring quality vs quantity: AEs will complain about meeting quality. You're stuck between hitting volume targets and making sure meetings are truly qualified.
- Limited resources: At 87 people, you won't have enterprise sales tools or a full enablement team. You're building systems yourself.
What Success Looks Like
- Team consistently hits 80-100 qualified meetings per month with 30%+ show rate
- SDRs ramp to productivity in 60 days instead of 90+
- AE feedback on lead quality improves - they're taking meetings, not complaining
- Retention is solid - reps stay 12+ months instead of churning at 6
- You promote an SDR to AE or senior SDR within your first year
Who You're Targeting (Your SDRs Will Call)
Primary Buyers:
- Brand owners selling on Amazon (doing $500K+ annual revenue)
- Heads of Marketplace or Ecommerce at consumer brands on Amazon/Walmart
What They Care About:
- Driving external traffic to Amazon listings without killing margins on PPC
- Leveraging Amazon Brand Referral Bonus (10% back on attributed sales)
- Scaling beyond what their internal team can manage
- Proof that affiliate marketing actually works for Amazon sellers
Requirements
- 2+ years managing SDR teams (preferably 3-6 reps), not just carrying an SDR title yourself
- Experience in B2B SaaS with outbound prospecting - ideally selling to ecommerce, DTC, or marketplace sellers
- Comfortable building process from semi-scratch - this isn't a plug-and-play role at a scaled company
- Strong on metrics and accountability - Carlie specifically mentioned "drives performance through accountability and execution"
- Can coach through objection handling and tough conversations - your reps will face lots of "not interested"
- Comfortable with ambiguity and fast iteration - 87 person company means things change quickly
- Player-coach mentality helpful - you may need to jump on calls or prospect yourself in pinch