SDR I

Overview

You're prospecting into CPG brands (think Coca-Cola, Unilever, local food brands) and grocery retailers to book meetings for Account Executives who sell Instacart's advertising and partnership products. Most of your day is spent cold calling brand managers, emailing retail buyers, and following up on inbound leads from brands who see Instacart's reach with consumers and want to learn more about advertising opportunities.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Public company (IPO 2021)

Size: 24,313 employees

Growth: Mature company post-pandemic boom, now focused on profitability and diversifying revenue beyond delivery fees into advertising and retail media

Market Position: Market leader in online grocery delivery competing with DoorDash, Uber Eats (grocery), Amazon Fresh, and traditional grocery store apps

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 40% Inbound - brands who see Instacart's consumer reach and submit inquiries about advertising, retail media network access, or promotional opportunities
• 50% Outbound - cold prospecting into target CPG brands and retailers using lists, LinkedIn Sales Navigator, and industry databases
• 10% Events/Referrals - trade shows, existing customer referrals, partner intros

SDR/AE Structure: SDR I is entry-level tier feeding meetings to Brand Partnerships AEs. You likely have 1-2 AEs you support directly.

SE Support: No SE support at SDR level - you're booking discovery calls, not doing product demos

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: Amazon Ads (dominant in CPG digital), Walmart Connect, Kroger Precision Marketing, DoorDash ads platform

How They Differentiate: Instacart has first-party purchase data from millions of grocery orders - brands can target shoppers based on actual buying behavior, not just browsing

Common Objections: "We already advertise on Amazon," "Budget is locked up for the year," "How is this different from in-store promotions?"

Win Themes: Access to high-intent grocery shoppers, closed-loop measurement (can track ad to purchase), growing share of online grocery

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Cold Calling (35%) | Emailing/LinkedIn (30%) | Lead Follow-up (20%) | Admin/CRM (15%)

Key Activities

• Cold calling brand managers and marketing directors: You're working through lists of CPG brands (food, beverage, household goods) trying to reach the person who controls trade marketing or digital advertising budgets. Expect a lot of gatekeepers and voicemails. Your goal is to book a 30-minute intro call with an AE.
• Following up on inbound leads: Brands submit contact forms or reach out after seeing Instacart's ad products. You qualify them (budget, timeline, decision-maker access) and schedule meetings. Some are tire-kickers, some are ready to buy.
• Prospecting into grocery retailers: Smaller portion of your book - you're reaching out to regional grocery chains about co-marketing partnerships or featuring their stores prominently in the app. These conversations are more strategic and take longer to develop.
• CRM hygiene and activity tracking: Logging calls, emails, and meeting outcomes in Salesforce. SDR leadership tracks activity metrics closely (calls/day, emails/day, connect rate, meeting conversion rate).

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• High activity quotas with mixed lead quality: You need to make 50-70 calls and send 80-100 emails per day to hit meeting goals. Inbound leads sound promising but many are just curious or don't have budget.
• Getting past gatekeepers at big CPG brands: Reaching a brand manager at Nestlé or PepsiCo is tough. Executive assistants screen heavily, and your emails compete with dozens of other ad platform vendors.
• Repetitive rejection: Most calls go to voicemail. Most emails get ignored. You hear "not interested" or "send me info" (which goes nowhere) constantly. It's a numbers game.

What Success Looks Like

• Booking 20-25 qualified meetings per month that show up and convert to opportunities
• Maintaining 50+ daily call activity and 80+ email touches
• 15-20% connect rate on cold calls, 3-5% meeting conversion rate on sequences

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• Brand managers and marketing directors at CPG companies (mid-level, $150K-250K budget authority)
• Trade marketing leads at food and beverage brands
• Digital marketing managers at regional grocery chains

What They Care About:

• Reaching shoppers with high purchase intent (people actively shopping for groceries)
• Measuring ROI on ad spend (can they track ad impressions to actual purchases?)
• Incremental sales lift vs. just brand awareness

Requirements

• 0-1 years sales experience (this is entry-level)
• Comfortable making 50+ cold calls per day
• Resilience to rejection and ability to stay motivated through low response rates
• Basic understanding of digital advertising or CPG industry helpful but not required
• CRM experience (Salesforce) preferred
• Bachelor's degree typically expected