Overview
You're an SDR prospecting into the food and beverage supply chain vertical, targeting procurement directors, supply chain managers, and operations leaders at grower-shippers, distributors, manufacturers, and retail grocery companies. You're booking demos for AEs who sell order management, traceability, and supply chain analytics software. This is a niche B2B vertical where you'll become an expert in food supply chain pain points like compliance (FSMA 204), order accuracy, and margin visibility.
Role Snapshot
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Role Type | Outbound SDR |
| Sales Motion | Outbound-heavy (likely 70-80% cold outreach) |
| Deal Complexity | Consultative (selling to ops teams, not simple click-to-buy) |
| Sales Cycle | N/A (your job is top-of-funnel) |
| Deal Size | N/A (AEs close deals) |
| Quota (est.) | 12-20 qualified meetings/month |
Company Context
Stage: Mature/established (242 employees, been around for years based on web presence)
Size: 242 employees
Growth: Limited info, but stable presence in food & bev supply chain space
Market Position: Established player in a specific vertical - not a fast-growing startup, not a household name. They have existing customer networks which could help with referrals but you're likely doing substantial cold outreach.
GTM Reality
Pipeline Sources:
- 70-80% Outbound - cold calling, LinkedIn outreach, email sequences to target accounts in food & beverage
- 15-20% Inbound - some leads from website, industry events, existing customer referrals
- 5-10% Partner/referrals - occasional warm intros from existing customers or industry connections
SDR/AE Structure: Dedicated SDR team (you're working under a Sales Development Team Lead per the poster)
SE Support: N/A for your role, though AEs likely have SE support for technical demos
Competitive Landscape
Main Competitors: Likely competing against legacy ERP systems, homegrown solutions, and other food & bev supply chain platforms (exact competitors unknown without research data)
How They Differentiate: "Most connected supply chain network in food and beverage" - they emphasize their existing network and vertical specialization
Common Objections: "We already have a system," "Not a priority right now," "Too expensive," "We're happy with our current process"
Win Themes: Deep food & bev expertise, network effects from existing customers, compliance features (FSMA 204)
What You'll Actually Do
Time Breakdown
Cold Calling/Outreach (50%) | List Building/Research (25%) | Follow-ups/Nurture (15%) | Internal Meetings (10%)
Key Activities
- Cold calling: 50-70 dials per day to procurement directors, supply chain VPs, and operations managers at food companies. Most calls go to voicemail. You're trying to get someone curious enough about supply chain visibility or compliance to take a 15-minute intro call.
- Email sequences: Sending personalized outreach about order accuracy issues, traceability challenges, or margin leakage. Low response rates (2-5%) are normal in B2B cold outreach.
- Account research: Building target lists of food & beverage companies (grower-shippers, distributors, manufacturers), finding the right contacts, understanding their supply chain setup enough to personalize your pitch.
- Qualification calls: When you get someone on the phone, you're asking questions about their current systems, pain points with order management or traceability, and whether they have budget/authority to evaluate new software. Then booking them for an AE demo.
The Honest Reality
What's Hard
- Most cold calls don't get answered. When they do, you're interrupting someone's day to talk about supply chain software they weren't thinking about.
- Food & beverage is a traditional industry - some companies are still using manual processes or legacy systems and aren't actively looking to change.
- Long nurture cycles - even if someone's interested, procurement decisions take time. You'll have prospects who stay in your pipeline for months before they're ready to talk seriously.
- Repetitive work - you're making similar calls and sending similar emails every day, targeting similar personas with similar pain points.
What Success Looks Like
- Booking 12-20 qualified meetings per month that show up and meet AE acceptance criteria
- Building a consistent pipeline of prospects in different stages (cold, warming up, ready to meet)
- Learning the food & beverage supply chain space well enough to have credible conversations with ops professionals
Who You're Selling To
Primary Buyers:
- Supply Chain Directors/VPs at food manufacturers, distributors, growers
- Procurement Managers at retail grocery chains
- Operations Directors at food & beverage companies
What They Care About:
- Order accuracy and reducing manual data entry errors
- Supply chain visibility and traceability (especially for compliance like FSMA 204)
- Margin management and understanding true costs
- Integration with existing systems (ERP, accounting, logistics)
- ROI and efficiency gains that justify switching from current process
Requirements
- Comfort with high-volume cold calling (50+ dials/day)
- Willingness to learn a niche vertical (food & beverage supply chain)
- Resilience with rejection and low response rates
- Ability to have business conversations with operations/procurement professionals
- CRM hygiene and process discipline (logging calls, tracking sequences, updating lead status)
- 0-2 years sales experience typical for SDR roles