Sales Development Manager

Overview

You manage a team of 6-10 SDRs or BDRs who prospect into enterprise accounts to generate qualified meetings for AEs. Your job is to hire, train, coach, and hold reps accountable to meeting quotas. You're reviewing calls, adjusting messaging, running team meetings, and reporting pipeline metrics to leadership. You're also firefighting when reps are struggling, territories aren't working, or the team is behind on quota.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Late-stage private/potential IPO candidate

Size: 3,285 employees

Growth: Aggressive SDR expansion under new VP of Global Sales Development, building teams globally

Market Position: Established SASE/SSE leader competing with Zscaler, Palo Alto, Cisco

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 30% Inbound - marketing campaigns, events, content (quality inconsistent)
• 60% Outbound - cold calling, email/LinkedIn sequences into target accounts
• 10% Partner/referral - follow-up from channel partners

SDR/AE Structure: Your SDRs support named AEs or regional teams

SE Support: Not relevant to SDR management

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: Zscaler, Palo Alto Prisma, Cisco Umbrella, Fortinet

How They Differentiate: Cloud-native architecture, better DLP, tool consolidation story

Common Objections: "Already have Zscaler," "Too expensive," "Not ready to switch"

Win Themes: You're coaching reps on how to position consolidation, performance, and data protection

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Coaching/1-on-1s (30%) | Hiring/Interviewing (20%) | Reporting/Forecasting (20%) | Team Meetings (15%) | Firefighting (15%)

Key Activities

• Coaching reps: Listening to call recordings, reviewing email copy, doing live call coaching. You're helping reps improve their messaging, handle objections, and qualify better. Some reps need daily attention. Others are self-sufficient.
• Performance management: Running weekly pipeline reviews. Tracking activity metrics (calls, emails, meetings booked). Putting underperformers on PIPs. Celebrating wins. You're constantly monitoring who's on track and who's slipping.
• Hiring and ramping: You're interviewing candidates, making hiring decisions, and onboarding new reps. Ramp time is 60-90 days. You're responsible for getting them productive fast. Turnover is 20-30% annually, so you're always hiring.
• Territory and account planning: Adjusting territories when reps are struggling or accounts aren't responding. Working with AE managers to align coverage. Deciding which accounts to prioritize based on market signals.
• Reporting up: Weekly meetings with the VP showing pipeline metrics, conversion rates, and team performance. You're explaining misses and defending your forecast. Expect scrutiny if your team is behind.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• You inherit a mixed bag of reps. Some are great, some are underperforming, and some are brand new. You're constantly coaching up the middle and managing out the bottom.
• Hiring is relentless. If you have 10 reps and lose 2-3 per year, you're always recruiting and ramping new people. That takes time away from coaching your existing team.
• Activity vs. results tension: Your reps might be making 70 calls/day but not booking meetings. You have to figure out if it's effort, messaging, territory, or just bad luck. That's hard to diagnose.
• New VP means new expectations. You're building to his playbook, which might be different from how things ran before. That means change management and resetting team norms.
• Pressure to hit team quota every month. If your team misses, you're explaining why to leadership. Even if it's a market issue (buyers not responding), you're accountable.
• Enterprise SASE sales are complex. Your reps are selling into technical buying committees with long cycles. They get frustrated when meetings don't convert. You're managing morale through dry spells.

What Success Looks Like

• Your team hits or exceeds their collective meeting quota 10+ months per year
• 50%+ of booked meetings show up (low no-show rate)
• 40%+ of meetings convert to pipeline for AEs (good qualification)
• Low rep turnover (you're retaining and promoting top performers)
• Fast ramp time (new reps hit quota within 90 days)
• You get promoted to Senior Manager or Director within 18-24 months

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers: (Your reps are prospecting into these people)

• CISOs and VPs of Security
• Directors of IT Security and Network Security
• Network Architects and Security Architects

What They Care About:

• Consolidating security tools and reducing vendor sprawl
• Securing remote/cloud access without performance hits
• Meeting compliance requirements (GDPR, HIPAA, etc.)
• Easier management for lean security teams

Requirements

• 3-5 years of SDR/BDR experience with 1-2 years managing a team (or strong IC ready to move into management)
• Track record of hitting or exceeding team quotas
• Strong coaching ability (you can diagnose call issues and help reps improve)
• Comfortable with activity metrics and reporting (calls, emails, meetings, conversion rates)
• Experience hiring and ramping new reps
• Familiarity with enterprise B2B sales, ideally in cybersecurity or SaaS
• Located in or willing to relocate to a Netskope office hub (role likely requires in-person management)