SpendLab

BDR Leader (Interim)

SDR Leaders of USA

Co-Founder

SDR Leaders of EMEA

SDR Leaders of EMEA is an invite only community whose goal is to make SDR Leaders in EMEA the best in the world.

Founder

SDR Leaders of APAC

Noble

Advisor

Yess 🏈

Skaled Consulting

Senior Sales Consultant

Saleswise: Top of Funnel Consultancy

GTMfund

GTMfund Member

Clay

Cooking up some trigger firing, AI and automation content.

Claymaker

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 & EMEA, I’ve grown a global community of 8,000+ 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

SDR is the hardest job in sales 


Most people have no idea how much noise SDRs push through just to get a single “yes.”

📞 First contact? Total strangers.
📩 Inbox? Buried in junk.
🙅‍♂️ Rejection? 99% of the time.

But SDRs…

Build trust in seconds

Read intent between the lines

Stay sharp after 20 “no’s” before lunch

You’re not order takers.
You are the first impression.
You open the first door to the deal.
And you show up: every. single. day.

What’s your #1 tip for cutting through the noise?

David Wilkins

The SDR Leader Guy | Building the #1 Community for SDR Leaders | Founder, Events + Playbooks + AI

The 2025 State of EMEA Sales Development Survey by SDR Leaders of EMEA is out NOW!

The key takeaways from the survey:

 1️⃣ 55.9% of respondents increased SDR headcount, disproving the “SDR is dead” narrative. Organisations are doubling down on SDRs as critical revenue drivers.

 2️⃣ Full in-office work (4+ days/week) correlates with lower quota attainment. Hybrid setups (2–3 days/week) show the strongest performance balance.

 3️⃣ AI adoption among SDR teams has surged:  13.7% now use AI SDRs, and nearly 30% are exploring implementation. Yet, there’s no clear link between AI use and higher quota attainment, highlighting the need for better enablement rather than just tool adoption.

 4️⃣ 13.7% of companies now employ GTM Engineers; technical enablers who integrate AI and automation into sales workflows, improving SDR efficiency and data insight.

Get more insights here 👇 
https://lnkd.in/eyXjGVq8

Thank you so much to Commsor 🦕 for supporting our community and giving us the opportunity to produce such an important survey!

A special special thank you Marina Ghilchik has done an incredible job in taking survey and creating a great package, thank you so much for everything you do for SDR Leaders of EMEA

Is San Francisco the most electric city for Sales Development?

We had our SDR Leaders of USA meet up last week in the Bay Area, and it was an inspirational evening.

We discussed how:
+ Teams are removing manual tasks almost completely from their teams, so SDRs can focus on the execution of their role
+ How leaders are developing their skill sets 
+ What is the kind of talent leaders are looking to bring in with the AI playing a massive factor.

Thank you to everyone who came and shared their ideas, the tools they are using and also their horror stories!

A HUGE thank you to Nooks for hosting SDR Leaders of USA at their sweet office in SF last week and for all their support in growing our community over the last 12 months.

London <> SDR Leaders of EMEA holds a special place for me

Each time we connect, new SDR leaders join us and share their experience, expertise, and amazing vibes.

This time was extra special, with members from Barcelona and San Francisco making their way to be a part of this evening.

We changed it up this time, joined by Christian Kletzl, who shared his executive insights on how the C-level views building out SDR motions, what's needed, and how to build business cases to achieve this. 

Appriciate Osama Zaghloul for hosting us once again in London!

Thank you to UserGems 💎 for supporting our meet up!

The new age of SDRs are here

You can either continue with the 2020 playbook or look for a new role in 18 months.

Check this oout 👇

The SDR Role isnt dying

Woke up to be the #1 sales influencer in the Netherlands!

When I started posting on LinkedIn, it was a simple idea:

Remove the fluff and BS about sales development, share what actually works and what it takes for SDR leaders to elevate their teams and themselves.

With this simple concept, it's now developed into creating SDR Leadership communities globally to help each other and to raise all boats.

The mission isn't over yet, but we are starting to create something really special.

The connections, friends and good times we have all had personally give me so much energy and joy.

I wouldn't change it for a second!

Thanks to Favikon for sharing this with me 🩷

What happens when SDRs focus on pipeline creation rather than booking meetings? We found out..
   

We shifted the comp plan.

No more rewards for meetings completed.

Pipeline impact became the true north star.

I architected the new incentive plan.

Tracked every quota, every outcome.

Results?

Revenue contribution from our SDR team went from 8% to 24% in 2 years.

SDRs started thinking strategically, not just grinding dials.

The culture transformed.

Leaders who measure and celebrate pipeline see real change.

What’s stopping you from making the switch?

Never believe the following...

''Outbound is dead'' or ''SDR is dead'' 

Take a step back and look for data

SDR Leaders of EMEA, supported by Commsor 🦕, have released their State of EMEA Sales Development Survey for 2025.

Actual people leading in the role day by day.

The data?

🚀 55.9% have hired more SDRs over the last 12 months 

🤖 13% have purchased AI SDRs for their organisations, but have they seen an increase in output? Not yet.

I'll take data over vibes any day.

Check out the whole survey here: https://lnkd.in/eyXjGVq8

Don't buy any AI tools until you do this ONE thing.

Check it out 👇

What's worse:

a) calling your prospect 'mum' on a cold call

or

b) Forgetting to take out [name] at the start of your email and sending it out

#saturdaythoughts

Not sure what i signed up for here..

Tom Boston or Ollie Whitfield didnt tell me if im going to eat kangaroo bum or anything like that..

But, doesnt that want to make you come and revel in my misfortune?

Oh, i also think there is going to be some sales stuff involved in it too.

Come and join us next week for MySalesCoach Im in Sales, Get me Out of Here!: https://lnkd.in/ed7NpVbf

The most brilliant SDR Leadership hack is very simple:

Decide what the main executive priority of the business is and ignore everything else.

Then, double down every activity around that for the next 2 quarters until you have created an SDR organisation that's undeniable to your execs, which puts you in a position to be promoted.

One of the easiest ways to get promoted from SDR to AE is to shadow those who've made that move  recently, to study the skills they developed and work on those first.

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