I lead a team of rockstar BDRs at Sprout Social. But what I’m here for is to share MY story. 

Because I’ve lived the pressure. The rejection. The anxiety that hides behind “hustle culture.”

I believe high performance doesn’t have to come at the cost of your peace.

Here, I talk about:
🧠 Mental health and mindset in sales
❤️ Leadership through empathy
🔥 Sustainable success without burnout

If you’re an aspiring SDR,  brand new leader in sales and trying to keep your head (and heart) in the game then this space is for you.

👉 Follow for honest stories, mindset shifts, and reminders that you’re not alone in the grind.

🍵 Always open to a coffee chat (although I don’t drink coffee!!) … human first, title second.

Marco Santa Maria

I’m an Inside Sales Manager leading SDR teams in the UK, with a strong belief that SDRs are the true drivers of new business - not just for sales, but for the wider business.

The work SDRs do at the top of the funnel directly impacts AEs/BDMs, CSMs, AMs, RevOps, and leadership outcomes. Everything flows from one thing: quality qualification.

That’s where my passion sits.

I focus heavily on ensuring SDRs are equipped to qualify in and qualify out, bringing only sales-qualified leads into the funnel. Strong qualification protects time, builds trust across teams, improves win rates, and sets the entire revenue engine up for success.

I care deeply about creating an environment built on honesty, trust, and enjoyment - where people feel happy coming to work, safe to be themselves, and proud of the team they’re part of.

Alongside my day role, I’m Head of London for SDR Leaders of EMEA - a community I’m deeply passionate about. It’s focused on raising the standard for SDRs and SDR leaders through shared learning, honest conversations, and practical leadership, not theory.

I’m hands-on in how I lead and coach. I’ve built structured outbound motions, developed high-performing SDR pods, coached under-performers into top bookers, and partnered closely with AEs, RevOps, and Marketing to build real pipeline, not just activity.

I’m still learning every day, but I’m confident in how I lead, coach, and develop SDRs - and I share openly what’s working, what’s not, and what I wish I’d known earlier.

Here you’ll find:
• Practical SDR coaching & qualification frameworks
• Cold call and messaging breakdowns
• Honest takes on inside sales & leadership
• Real lessons from the sales floor

📍 London
People-first. High standards. Clean qualification. Have fun.

Roxy Brierley

The SDR role today requires more than volume.

SDRs need to:
•	Challenge prospects
•	Ask better questions
•	Confidently qualify in and out

What an SDR does today impacts the entire business tomorrow.

Poor qualification doesn’t just hurt SDR numbers.

It impacts:
•	AEs wasting time on weak opportunities
•	CSMs inheriting mis-sold accounts
•	AMs fighting uphill battles

Pipeline is great.
But solid pipeline is invaluable.

When SDRs are trained and trusted to qualify properly:
•	AEs spend time on better opportunities
•	Win rates improve
•	Retention rates improve
•	Energy is spent on deals that actually close

This isn’t about saying “no” more often.
It’s about saying yes to the right things.

SDR Manager @ Cision | SDR Leadership in London | Head of London @ SDR Leaders of EMEA | Strategy, Coaching & The Human Art of Sales

Question for SDRs & SDR leaders 👇

How deep do your SDRs actually know the platform they’re selling and what impact does that have?

I’m curious whether we’re sometimes seeing feature-bashing creep in when SDRs know too much about the product…

versus lighter product knowledge paired with strong curiosity and better questioning.

Does deeper platform knowledge lead to:
	•	better qualification?
	•	stronger discovery?
	•	or earlier solution-dumping?

And where’s the balance?

When SDRs are trained to truly qualify, two powerful things happen:

1️⃣ They’re prepared for the next step in their career
2️⃣ Trust is built between SDRs and AEs

That trust is everything.

2026 is about:
•	Higher win rates
•	Higher AOV
•	Spending time on money-making activities

To get there, leaders need to:
•	Trust their SDRs
•	Give them training to qualify in & out properly
•	Equip them with the tools to succeed

You’ll be amazed at what people are capable of when given:
•	Trust
•	Structure
•	The right support

Do this well and you don’t just improve pipeline quality…

You create a scalable SDR function.

Promotions cause less friction.
Junior SDRs learn from senior SDRs.
And the overall quality of SDR-generated pipeline rises across the business.

This is how high-performing teams are built.

If your SDR team doubled in size tomorrow… what would fall behind?

Yesterday at the SDR Leaders of EMEA in London the conversation was all around coaching.

•	How we coach at scale
•	How we encourage experienced SDRs to support and develop newer SDRs
•	The role AI can play in role plays and practice, reducing reliance on manager-led mock calls

What really stood out was how universal the challenge is.

We all want:
	•	Engaged SDRs
	•	Faster, healthier ramp
	•	Clear development paths into AE, AM… and even non-sales roles

But when we asked:

“If your SDR team doubled in size tomorrow… what breaks?”

Most of us landed in the same place:
	•	Coaching quality drops
	•	The personal element suffers
	•	Managers become bottlenecks

Which led to a shared realisation:
If coaching only works when teams are small - it isn’t scalable.

The teams that scale well are the ones where:
	•	SDRs help coach other SDRs
	•	Progression includes responsibility, not just promotion
	•	Coaching is a system, with tools that help and make it personal for the reps

So I’ll ask it again here to get some more feedback👇

If your SDR team doubled in size tomorrow:

	•	What would fall behind?
	•	What would need to change?
	•	And how would you actually do it?

Thank you Peter Mollins! You were so insightful  and every point you made created space for such great conversation. 🤩 

Also…can we talk about Peter’s voice?
Full sports commentator / FIFA intro vibes.
Genuinely one of the most listenable voices I’ve heard - audiobooks/podcast next please 🎧

Sales Development Leader | AI-powered pricing | BizDeva

SDR Leaders of EMEA is one of my favorite spaces for inspiration and thoughtful answers to some very complex questions.

The question raised was:
With so much change happening around us, what will define a truly good SDR leader in the future?

Here’s Peter’s, Nooks  response:

Thanks everyone for the energy and passion! 
It’s all about human relationships.

“You get a demo!
You get a demo!
EVERYONE gets a demo!”

🎉🎉🎉

SDR numbers look impressive…
until the business starts wondering why:

📉 secure pipeline for the year is low
📉 SDR contribution to revenue is sitting at <20%

Volume isn’t the flex.
Qualification is.

Happy Tuesday ☕️

No alternative text description for this image

taplio

The Battle

Marco Santa Maria

Roxy Brierley

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreRoxy Brierley's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Marco Santa Maria

Roxy Brierley

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Roxy Brierley's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreRoxy Brierley's LinkedIn Performance