Sales Development Representative

Overview

You're an SDR at Argano, a 1,845-person global consultancy specializing in AI-driven business transformation and enterprise technology implementations. Your job is to prospect into Fortune 1000 and large mid-market companies, reaching C-suite and VP-level buyers to book discovery meetings for Account Executives. You're not selling software licenses - you're opening conversations about 6-7 figure consulting engagements involving Oracle, SAP, Salesforce, and AI implementation projects.

Role Snapshot

Company Context

Stage: Established/Mature (1,845 employees, PE-backed consolidation platform)

Size: 1,845 employees

Growth: Built through acquisitions of specialized consulting firms - stable platform with enterprise client base

Market Position: Niche player in enterprise transformation consulting, competing against Big 4 and boutique Oracle/SAP integrators

GTM Reality

Pipeline Sources:

• 10-15% Inbound - existing client referrals, partner ecosystem (Oracle/SAP/Salesforce), website inquiries (mostly low-intent)
• 75-80% Outbound - cold calling, email sequences, LinkedIn outreach, personalized videos to target accounts
• 10% Events/Partnerships - conferences, vendor referrals from Oracle/SAP/Salesforce

SDR/AE Structure: SDRs book meetings, hand off to AEs who run full sales cycle with solution architects and delivery leads

SE Support: Solution architects and practice leads join later in AE's cycle - not involved in initial SDR outreach

Competitive Landscape

Main Competitors: Big 4 consulting (Deloitte, Accenture, PwC), boutique Oracle/SAP integrators (Cognizant, Capgemini), niche AI consultancies

How They Differentiate: "First and largest Global Specialist Consultancy exclusively focused on High-Performance Business Operations" - narrower focus than Big 4, deeper specialization than generalists, AI-forward positioning

Common Objections: "We already work with [Big 4 firm]", "Not looking to change systems right now", "What makes you different from our current Oracle partner?", gatekeepers blocking access to C-suite

Win Themes: Specialized expertise in Oracle/SAP/Salesforce ecosystems, AI integration capabilities, track record with similar transformations

What You'll Actually Do

Time Breakdown

Outbound Prospecting (50%) | Research/Prep (25%) | Internal Meetings (15%) | Follow-up (10%)

Key Activities

• Cold Calling C-Suite/VP Targets: You make 40-60 calls per day to CFOs, CIOs, COOs, and VPs of IT/Operations at companies with 1,000+ employees. Most go to voicemail. You're trying to get past EAs and find the person evaluating Oracle Cloud, SAP S/4HANA migrations, or AI/automation initiatives. You leave personalized voicemails referencing their recent earnings call, tech stack changes, or industry trends.
• Personalized Video/Email Outreach: You record short Loom/Vidyard videos (60-90 seconds) or write custom emails showing you researched their company - mentioning their legacy systems, recent acquisitions, or transformation announcements. This is what the VP hiring manager is explicitly testing for. Templates don't work here because buyers at this level ignore generic outreach.
• Multi-Threading Target Accounts: You work named account lists (50-100 enterprise targets) and try to reach multiple stakeholders - the CFO sponsoring the project, the CIO evaluating vendors, the VP of IT Operations managing implementation. You coordinate sequences across contacts and track who responds. Most accounts take 3-6 months of touches before anyone engages.
• Qualification/Discovery: When someone responds, you run a 15-20 minute call to understand their current state (what systems they're running, pain points, timeline for change) and determine if there's a real project. You're qualifying for budget authority, active initiative, and timeline - then booking a 60-minute discovery call with an AE. About 30% of people who take your call end up being qualified meetings.

The Honest Reality

What's Hard

• Executive gatekeeping is brutal: You spend hours trying to get past EAs, voicemail systems, and LinkedIn connection requests that never get accepted. Most C-suite buyers don't answer cold calls or respond to emails from SDRs. You'll make 300+ dials to book 3-4 meetings some weeks.
• Long nurture cycles with no immediate payoff: Enterprise buyers aren't ready to talk when YOU want them to. You'll touch accounts for 4-6 months before someone engages, and by then they might not remember your first 10 outreach attempts. Your pipeline is mostly "not now" conversations.
• High bar for what counts as qualified: You can't just book any meeting - AEs will kick back leads if the prospect doesn't have budget authority, an active initiative, or real pain. You'll have calls where someone is interested but "just exploring" or "not until next year," and those don't count toward quota. Probably 40% of meetings you think are solid get disqualified.

What Success Looks Like

• 12-20 qualified meetings per month that AEs accept and show up to (no-show rate is 15-20% at this level)
• Strong discovery notes: AEs actually use your call notes to prep because you uncovered real pain, budget, and timeline - not just "they want to learn more"
• Multi-quarter persistence pays off: You stay on target accounts long enough that when they DO start a project, you're the first call because you've been consistently valuable

Who You're Selling To

Primary Buyers:

• CFOs and VPs of Finance (sponsoring ERP transformations, cost optimization)
• CIOs and VPs of IT (evaluating cloud migrations, system consolidations)
• COOs and VPs of Operations (driving process automation, supply chain optimization)

What They Care About:

• Track record with similar transformations: "Have you done this exact Oracle to Oracle Cloud migration in manufacturing before?"
• Risk mitigation: These projects can blow up budgets and timelines - they want proof you won't derail their business
• ROI and business case: They need to justify 7-figure spend to the board - looking for cost savings, efficiency gains, revenue impact
• Speed to value: How long until they see results vs. how long they're disrupted by implementation

Requirements

• 3-5 years of SDR or inside sales experience in technology or consulting environments (not entry-level)
• Comfortable prospecting into enterprise accounts and navigating to C-suite/VP-level buyers
• Track record of hitting meeting quotas in complex, consultative sales environments
• Strong business acumen - ability to research companies, understand their challenges, and speak credibly about transformation initiatives
• Self-directed - this is remote, outbound-heavy work with long feedback loops between activity and results
• Willingness to do creative outreach (personalized videos, thoughtful voicemails, custom research) - the hiring manager is explicitly filtering for this in the application process