Founder | Helping You Build High-Performing Sales Teams | Creator Of Healthy Team = Healthy Results Playbook For Sales Leaders | Follow me for daily doses on leadership, personal development & mindset

Extensive experience in leading, building and scaling sales teams within the multiple industries and verticals. 

My most recent contributions include roles at Octopus Electric Vehicles, WINT Water Intelligence, Matterport (a leader in the digital twin space), and Rightmove (the UK's No. 1 property portal). I have built and scaled teams across EMEA, as well as larger teams of 70+, contributing £60m in ARR and consistently over achieving yearly team targets.

Passionate about creating healthy, high-performing sales team environments and coaching, developing, and training sales reps and managers to help them reach their full potential and become the best version of themselves.

I help with:

📌Building Team Foundations for Scalable Growth
📌Driving High Performance Without Compromising Culture 
📌Creating a Coaching and Development Culture 
📌Leadership Frameworks And Coaching Models. 
📌Team Mindset Management. (Fixed to Growth) 
📌Aligning Growth with Execution
📌Pipeline & Forecasting Management
📌GTM Strategy & Implementation.
📌Building and Optimising Processes

Key Achievements: 

✅ Led sales teams of 25+ consistently over-achieving annual quota and contributing £60m ARR.
✅ Avg yearly quota attainment of 112% while leading sales teams across 3 companies.
✅ Successful implementation of ‘team foundations’ has led to a 67% increase in productivity and an increase in pipeline across multiple companies.

Scott Kingsbury

Founder @ SDR Leaders of EMEA | I help early-stage technical founders grow their revenue

I build communities and products that help go-to-market teams thrive.

As founder of SDR Leaders of USA, APAC & EMEA, I’ve grown a global community of 13,000+ SDR Leaders, RevOps leaders, and GTM operators across EMEA and North America. We host masterclasses, playbook sessions and in-person meetups.  All focused on elevating the role of the SDR leader from pipeline manager to GTM talent architect.

Prior to this, I worked across high-growth SaaS environments (Snowflake, Infoblox and Solace), helping build scalable sales development engines from the ground up.

💬 If you're growing a sales team, rethinking your GTM motion, or exploring the future of SDRs in an AI world, I’d love to connect!

📆 Schedule a chat: https://calendly.com/daveewilkins/saleswise-introduction
📲 Text me: +31619785357
📧 Email:david@sdr-leader.com

David Wilkins

Who should you follow on LinkedIn as an SDR Leader?

Who do you learn from? 

These are the people I learn from daily, and you should too:

How to be an amazing SDR Leader
Catherine Olivier
Andrea Onuigbo 
Mafalda Johannsen
Nirvanna Lildharrie
Florin Tatulea
Anna Bella 🇭🇺
Dale Thorn
Tito Bohrt 🧪🧫 - Sales Mad Scientist
Dan Raj
Vandana Agarwal Nik
Luciana Juarez

How to optimise the Tech Stack you have in place
Jordan Crawford 
Remington Rawlings
brendan short 
Marina Ghilchik 🥾
James Donaldson

Revenue Operations 
Ashleigh Early
Ivan Heneghan
💡Dave Breshears

Content creation for you and your reps 
Matthew Putnam 🔵
Dariia Gerasymova 🧚🏻‍♀️ 
Andy Laws
Elric Legloire 
Chris Ritson
•Stuart Moss•
Maryna Nikitchuk
Morgan J Ingram
Melissa Gaglione ⭐️  

Hiring SDRs
Sophie Allen
Michael Colonnese
Aaron Hawthorne
Elaine Tyler 
Will Koning

The SDR consulting and fractional leadership life
Sara Storm
Ranjit Mudher

Funnel 26’ Austin 3/5! go to thefunnelconference.com

Booking the first meeting is the hardest job in sales.

Why?

Before I continue, the sales team should get 99.9% of the roses for digging into the pain, finding a compelling event, identifying the budget centre with the client for the deal and then navigating to the close. 

But..

Sales is a team sport. Each function plays a critical part in how we progress deals through the funnel.

You need your Jamie Vardy to bang in the goals, but the build-up play always starts at the back. (Leicester City 2015/16 season reference never hurts anybody)

Something I saw that was really effective at Infoblox, sales leadership understood explicitly the impact that the SDR team was making in finding those first meetings. (massive shout out to Frank Ruge and Cherif Sleiman for setting the tone)

What can we do in the meantime? It's the little things that make an impact. When a win wire comes through, credit the SDR who books the meeting. 

Let's be a true team when we win together!

What do you think?

Funnel 26’ Austin 3/5! Keynote with Morgan Ingram. SDR Directors: go to thefunnelconference.com

Who is hiring for SDR/ BDRs?

Let’s help some people find a new role!

leaders, add your roles in the comments 👇

London: Thank you 🙏 

Its always great to come home and be with such a passionate and knowledgeble group of SDR Leaders.

Coaching was the topic last night and the insights the group provided was just first class.

A huge thank you to Laurence Ashton and Perkbox for hosting our meet up last night.  

Thank you to Nooks for supporting SDR Leaders of EMEA and seeing upfront the talent, expertise and passion SDR leaders have for their craft.

Next stop: Dublin! See you tomorrow! You can grab a ticket here: https://luma.com/k2yr6ln5

Peter, Aurora, Matthew, Mike, Joe, Will, Marlon, Laurence, Anna, Sam, Will, Candice, David, Philipp, Giovanni, Baptiste, Brandon, Sameer, Nathalie, Matthew, Tom, Daryl, Oxana, Maryna (ill keep tagging in the replies!)

New Profile who dis?

2026 is going to be a year of transformation and growth for SDR Leaders of EMEA, SDR Leaders of USA, SDR Leaders of APAC and myself. 

So whatbetter way to signal that then getting a little profile refresh!

Thank you so much to Ada Beltrán González for helping create such an amazing look! Reach out to her if you want to get something similar, shes been brilliant to work with!

What a way to end the week in Dublin!

SDR Leaders of EMEA returned to the Emerald Isle last night and it was a great evening.
 
We really got into depth around coaching and coaching especially at scale, how they are using technology to help augment that.

And another great wrinkle; how directors help coach their first line leaders.

Huge shoutout to James Greene who hosted us in his office last night! 

Massive thank you to Peter Mollins, Colin Danaher‎ and Nooks for supporting our meet ups this week!

Where should we go for our next meet up?

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If I was starting out as a first time SDR manager tomorrow in 2026, this is what I’d do:

1. I’d get a mentor outside my company who has built SDR teams in this market. Someone who has been an SDR, then a leader, and now thinks about GTM as a whole. I want someone who can help me manage up, not just manage my team.

2. I’d run a listening tour, but I’d focus it. I’d sit with:
▪️ 3 top SDRs
▪️ 3 AEs
▪️ 1 RevOps leader
▪️ 1 Marketing leader
I’d ask what “a good meeting” means to them, how they measure SDR value, and where the process is broken. I’d write everything down and not change a single thing for 30 days.

3. I’d plug into a community of SDR leaders so I never feel like I’m doing this alone. SDR Leaders of EMEA, SDR Leaders of USA, SDR Leaders of APAC… these groups exist to answer the questions your company cannot. I’d use them to sense-check targets, tech stack, and hiring plans.

4. I’d accept that imposter syndrome comes with the job and I’d be open about it. With my VP. With my team. With other leaders. I’d ask for feedback every week and treat it like coaching, not criticism. The anxiety never fully goes, but you can use it as fuel.

5. I’d build a culture where SDRs feel respected. Celebrate wins in public. Share credit on every deal. Make sure the whole business knows the cost of a meeting and the impact of a great SDR team. That’s how you keep talent and build trust.

What would you add for new SDR managers stepping into the role now?

SDR Tech Vendors: THIS IS A WARNING 

SDR teams are starting to decomission tech stack

The consolidation era has begun

At a recent SDR Leaders of EMEA meet up, we asked the question 'How many of you have decommissioned a peice of tech in the last 6 months?'

About 33% of the room put their hands up.

The main driver? 

SDR teams are overwhelmed with technology, its not making them more efficient, just the opposite.

We, as leaders, are failing our teams by making the job more complicated than it is. Theres a sense that the more stuff we provide for SDRs, productivity will increase.

But what we have is SDRs, opening multiple applications, on multiple tabs, trying to piece together the information they need to do the core role: Have human to human interactions.

How will SDR tech vendors react to this?

Well, we are seeing it already with vendors that are adding new features to their existing platform, there's an increasing race for vendors to 'do everything' in one place.

My advice?

Invest in onboarding and continuous customer success, irregardless of the ACV the company spent with you.

What do you think?

I once sat in a QBR where an AE got visibly pissed off.

Completely blindsided me.

He was angry he “wasn’t getting enough meetings”.

The implication was clear.
The SDR team wasn’t doing their job.

The problem?
No one had ever explained why we were going after those accounts.

No context.
No buying signals.
No reason those accounts mattered now.

Just a list.

And then frustration when nothing moved.

That QBR stuck with me because it wasn’t an SDR execution issue.
It was a leadership failure.

More meetings were never the goal.
Better meetings were.

Meetings with a reason behind them.
Meetings that moved faster once they hit pipeline.

If your SDRs don’t understand the “why”, volume becomes noise.
And noise always turns into blame.

This is why SDR teams get called out in QBRs.
And why deals stall before they ever have a chance.

That’s on leadership.

Do you have your capacity planning ready for 2026?

How do you calculate true rep productivity?

How do you communicate your plan to your execs?

These were some of the discussion points we had at our SDR Leaders of USA meet up in Austin this week. Theres nothing better than bringing super smart, super open people who were sharing how they are building their teams for this year!

AND we were excited to share Funnel 26 in Austin in March! We cannot wait for our conference and to see you all there (Check it out and register here: https://luma.com/funnel26 )

Thank you to Blake for kicking off our discussion and for Michael and SV Academy for supporting SDR Leaders of USA for our meet up!

Matt, Amy, Parveen, 💡Dave, Tim, Dawn, Moses, Enjay, Dallas, Alexis, Roger, Alberto, Anastasia, Tony, Corey, Meghan, Jessica

$3000, the cost of SDR's booking a meeting

YET STILL, SDRs are told to follow up on all event leads?

We need to focus our SDRs on booking high-quality meetings, right?

Here's the solution.

You know the drill, marketing wants every lead to be followed up from an event. But why? 

Each meeting an SDR creates costs around $3000; that's the total cost, including salaries, tech stack, etc.

So why waste that $3000 on calling a prospect that will never buy?

It's because businesses don't think about revenue enough; they think about the individual aspects that make up the funnel.

This siloed process makes siloed thinking, where kingdoms are protected and not thinking about outcomes.

We need to change this thinking.

The solution: All teams will be measured on pipeline generated and revenue closed. Nothing else should matter to the Executive teams.

Each department can have KPIs around leads, meetings, etc, but those are internal department metrics, nothing to do with the bottom line

As you build your GTM motion, stop thinking about individual metrics that don't matter outside of your team.

Focus on revenue-generating metrics, that you're all aligned to

What do you think?

Speaker alert at Funnel 26!

This isnt like every other conference.

We are bringing together the best experts and operators to really define the strategic nature of the SDR organisation.

So in that vein, we are really excited to announce our first speakers and workshops for Funnel 26!

Morgan J Ingram is kicking off our Funnel 26 the right way with his keynote.

Angela Frackowiak will be moderating one of our panel discussions titled Beyond Management: Being the leader your leader needs. She is going to be joined by Illango Dhandayudham (Ingo) and Jonathan Mayer.

And Jay Glenn will be delivering one of our workshops on how to track your teams P&L and CAC.

...and thats not all!

We will be announcing more of our speakers and workshop topics over the coming week!

Get your tickets here now: https://luma.com/funnel26

Funnel Speaker Announcements

The most successful SDR Leaders are rarely born with those world-class leadership skills.

They grow into them by getting closer to the business, not hiding in the pipeline tab.

The best SDR leaders I see in our communities are the ones who sit at the executive table and still act like students:
1. They ask for real feedback when their QBR slot gets cut short
2. They push to understand how their team impacts revenue, not just meetings
3. They listen when RevOps and Sales say the handover is broken, and they fix it

They see their role not as “managing junior reps” but as building the GTM talent engine for the whole company.

Meanwhile, others stay stuck:
1. Defending vanity metrics
2. Avoiding hard chats with their SDRs
3. Waiting to be invited into strategic conversations

In 2026, SDR leaders who win are the ones who treat leadership as a skill they practise every day, not a title they got once.

Huge Announcement!

Funnel 26 is ready to announce the sponsors for our FIRST EVER conference!

We are so excited to welcome:

✨ UserGems 💎: As our Headline sponsor!!
✨ Nooks
✨ Caddy
✨ Clodo (YC S25)
✨ Dokai
✨ SV Academy
✨ OneView
✨ Upcell

We are excited to work with all of these vendors that believe in the same thing as ourselves: The SDR leadership role is one of the most important, strategic functions in the business. 

We are excited to partner with them as we deliver a massively impactful conference at Funnel 26!

Thank you!

Havent grabbed your ticket yet? Get it here: https://luma.com/funnel26

You might not know this, but I really suffer from anxiety and imposter syndrome

I explained to someone last week during one of our meet-ups in London, I feel like a swan (bear with me); gracefully swimming, but my feet are racing around underneath the water.

So I'm always worrying about stuff, wanting to make sure that I don't screw up.

But even with this, nothing gives me more energy and joy than trying to do things differently. 

❌ Could have stayed in full time employement..nah 
❌ Could have focused on consulting for companies full-time..no 
✔️ Dive full on into building a community for SDR leaders to elevate our role and have a true seat at the executive table.... HELL YES
 
Creating a platform for SDR leaders globally to grow and develop has enriched my life beyond recognition, through meeting people, developing friendships, and really driving change. These leaders have given me greater confidence on what we have started to build. 

And now, we are going to do something even bigger.
 
We are going to run a conference!

Funnel 26 is taking over Austin, Texas on March 5th, with the FIRST EVER conference for 2nd line and above SDR Leaders. We are going to take what we are building at SDR Leaders of USA & SDR Leaders of EMEA and take it up a gear or two!

Get your tickets here: https://luma.com/funnel26

Am I nervous, of course! But this community has given me the confidence to really go out and create something special for them all. I cant wait to share this with them in March!

I once worked at a company that paid SDRs purely on meetings booked.

On paper, it looked fine.
The calendar stayed full.

In reality, those meetings were worthless.

No urgency.
No next steps.
No deals moving forward.

We didn’t reward impact.
We rewarded calendar invites.

So SDRs did exactly what the comp plan told them to do.

Book anything.
With anyone.
As fast as possible.

And then leadership got frustrated when pipeline didn’t convert.

That wasn’t an SDR problem.
It was an incentive problem.

Comp plans don’t just measure performance.
They design behaviour.

If you pay for meetings, you’ll get meetings.
If you want pipeline, pay for pipeline.

Anything else is self-inflicted.

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