Overview
You're an SDR at Xelix booking qualified meetings for Account Executives. You'll spend most of your day cold calling, sending emails, and doing LinkedIn outreach to prospects in the software development space. The company is 167 people and just hired multiple sales roles, which means they're scaling and your targets will probably increase over time.
Role Snapshot
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Role Type | Outbound SDR (meeting setter) |
| Sales Motion | Outbound-heavy |
| Deal Complexity | N/A (pre-sales qualifying) |
| Sales Cycle | N/A (you hand off to AE) |
| Deal Size | N/A |
| Quota (est.) | 12-20 qualified meetings per month |
Company Context
Stage: Unknown funding stage
Size: 167 employees
Growth: Multiple sales roles opening after strong 2025 - company is scaling
Market Position: Software development space - you'll be competing for attention in a noisy category
GTM Reality
Your Role in Pipeline:
- You're generating net-new outbound pipeline for AEs
- May get some inbound leads to follow up on, but primary focus is cold outbound
- Success depends heavily on list quality and whether leadership has figured out ICP
Support Structure:
- Reporting to VP of Sales Sam Dhingra (based on LinkedIn post)
- Likely working with small SDR team if they're hiring multiple roles
- May or may not have dedicated sales ops/enablement support at this size
Competitive Landscape
Main Competitors: Unknown specific competitors in software development tooling space
Your Challenge: Limited brand recognition means cold outreach is harder - prospects haven't heard of Xelix
Common Objections: "Not interested", "Already have a solution", "Send me info" (brush-offs)
Win Themes: Unknown without more product detail
What You'll Actually Do
Time Breakdown
Calling/Emailing (60%) | Research/List Building (20%) | Meetings & Admin (20%)
Key Activities
- Cold Calling: 50-80 dials per day to software development managers, engineering directors, or IT leaders. Most don't answer. Of those who do, most say no. You're trying to get 2-3 conversations per day that might turn into meetings.
- Email Sequences: Loading prospects into Outreach/SalesLoft/HubSpot sequences. Writing personalized first lines. Following up on non-responders. Open rates are low (15-20%), reply rates lower (2-3%).
- LinkedIn Outreach: Connection requests, InMails, engagement. Takes time but less intrusive than calling. Conversion rates are typically worse than calling.
- Meeting Handoffs: Documenting what you learned in discovery, briefing the AE, sometimes joining the first call. You'll be judged on meeting show rate and whether AEs accept them as "qualified."
- List Building: Researching companies, finding contacts, enriching data. This is tedious but critical - bad lists = wasted dials.
The Honest Reality
What's Hard
- Rejection Volume: You'll get hung up on, ignored, and told "no" 50+ times per day. This is the job. Most people can't handle it.
- Low Brand Awareness: Xelix isn't a household name. You'll constantly hear "Who?" and have to earn credibility from scratch. No one is waiting for your call.
- Activity Grind: The quota is relentless. Miss your meeting number one month and the pressure doubles. You're always starting from zero.
- No Control Over Conversions: You can book great meetings but if AEs don't close them, you don't see the win. Your comp is based on meetings set, not revenue.
- Process Immaturity: At 167 people, sales process is probably still evolving. Messaging might change, ICP might shift, tools might be limited. You're figuring it out as you go.
What Success Looks Like
- Booking 12-20 qualified meetings per month consistently
- 60%+ meeting show rate (prospects actually attend)
- 70%+ AE acceptance rate (meetings are truly qualified)
- Eventually promoting to AE role if you hit quota for 12-18 months
Who You're Calling
Primary Prospects:
- Software development managers
- Engineering directors
- IT/DevOps leaders
- Potentially CTOs at smaller companies
What They Care About:
- You're interrupting their day - they don't care about your product yet
- Need to quickly understand if you're relevant to their current priorities
- Skeptical of sales calls in general
Your Job: Get them curious enough to give you 30 minutes. That's it.
Requirements
- Thick skin and high rejection tolerance (this is 80% of the job)
- Coachable - willing to test different messaging and tactics
- Consistent work ethic - you need to make the dials even when it's soul-crushing
- 0-2 years experience (this is typically an entry-level role)
- Comfortable with phone as primary tool (not just hiding behind email)