Sales Development Manager

Overview

You run HockeyStack's SDR team, managing a group of reps responsible for booking demos for the AE team. Your job is coaching SDRs to hit their meeting quotas, building outbound prospecting strategies, and scaling the team as the company grows. You're measured on team quota attainment and pipeline quality.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Series A/B stage (YC S23, ~2 years old)

Size: 98 employees

Growth: Hiring 17+ roles including Senior SDR - signal you'll be building the team

Market Position: Challenger in competitive martech space - SDRs need strong positioning to break through

GTM Reality

Team Structure:

• You're likely managing 4-8 SDRs (growing as you hire)
• Mix of inbound and outbound focus depending on rep assignment
• SDRs book meetings for SF and NYC AE teams

Lead Flow:

• Inbound: Website demos, content downloads, free trial/PLG signups (quality varies widely)
• Outbound: Cold calling, email sequences, LinkedIn outreach to target accounts
• You're responsible for balancing workload and territory assignments

Support:

• Marketing provides some inbound leads but likely inconsistent quality
• No mention of sales ops or enablement - you're probably building processes yourself
• RevOps/data analyst on the hiring list - signal that reporting infrastructure needs work

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: 6sense, Dreamdata, Bizible/Adobe, Segment, homegrown solutions

SDR Challenge: Getting past "we already have analytics" and "not interested" responses. Hard to differentiate in cold outreach.

Messaging Needed: Clear, concise value prop that breaks through noise in crowded martech market

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

1:1s & Coaching (30%) | Team Meetings & Training (20%) | Pipeline Review & Forecasting (20%) | Hiring & Onboarding (15%) | Strategy & Process (15%)

Key Activities

• Daily Standup/Pipeline Review: You run quick team huddles to review activity from yesterday, meetings booked, and priorities for today. You're tracking toward weekly and monthly quotas.
• 1:1 Coaching: You listen to call recordings, review email templates, and give feedback on messaging and objection handling. You're diagnosing why some reps are hitting quota and others aren't.
• Hiring: You're constantly interviewing SDR candidates, assessing for coachability and grit. You're building the team while maintaining quality bar.
• Playbook Development: You're testing outbound sequences, refining cold call scripts, identifying which channels work best. You're analyzing what messaging gets responses.
• Performance Management: You're managing underperformers, creating PIPs, and making tough calls about who stays and who goes. Turnover is high in SDR roles.
• Cross-functional Collaboration: You're meeting with AEs to ensure meeting quality is good (not just quantity). You're working with marketing on lead quality and routing. You're asking product for competitive intel.
• Forecasting: You're reporting up to CRO on team performance, pipeline coverage, and hiring progress. You're expected to have answers on metrics.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• SDR turnover is brutal: Reps burn out, get promoted, or leave for closing roles. You're constantly hiring and onboarding while trying to hit team number.
• Balancing quality vs quantity: AEs complain when meetings are unqualified. You're pressured to hit meeting numbers. Finding the balance is constant tension.
• Early-stage chaos: Processes aren't built. Tech stack has gaps. You're figuring out what good looks like while trying to scale.
• Motivation is exhausting: SDRs face constant rejection. Keeping morale up when people are grinding through cold calls is draining.
• You're still figuring out the market: Messaging isn't perfected. ICP isn't crystal clear. You're learning what works through trial and error.
• Player-coach tension: You might need to carry a small book of accounts yourself while managing the team, especially early on.

What Success Looks Like

• Team hits 90%+ of qualified meeting quota month over month
• SDR-to-AE conversion rates improve (fewer "this wasn't qualified" complaints)
• Reps are getting promoted to AE roles (shows you're developing talent)
• Low regrettable attrition (keeping your best performers)
• Clear, repeatable playbooks that new hires can follow

Who Your Team is Reaching

Target Prospects:

• VP/Director of Marketing at B2B companies (HockeyStack's buyer)
• VP/Director of Revenue Operations
• Marketing Operations leaders

What Makes Outbound Hard:

• These people get hit up constantly by martech vendors
• "Not interested" is the default response
• Need to break through with specific, relevant value prop
• Often need multiple touches across channels to get a response

Requirements

• 3-5 years in sales development, with 1-2+ years managing SDR teams
• Track record of building and scaling SDR teams (0 to 5+, or 5 to 15+)
• Experience in B2B SaaS, preferably martech or technical products
• Strong coaching skills - ability to diagnose issues and improve performance
• Data-driven approach to managing activity, conversion rates, and quality metrics
• Comfortable with ambiguity and building processes from scratch
• Onsite in San Francisco required (company pushing back to in-person)
• Player-coach mentality - willing to roll up sleeves when needed