Ten questions to ask any SDR vendor

Most SDR vendors sound identical for the first twenty minutes. The decks share a vocabulary, the case studies share a shape, and the differences that will actually determine your next two quarters live in details nobody volunteers. Ten questions surface them. Ask all ten on the first call, in order, and write the answers down.

The ten

• "Who exactly works my account?" A name, or a pod. A dedicated rep learns one business; a pooled team splits attention across several. Which shelf of the market you are buying from is decided by this answer.
• "Is that person full-time on my account?" "Dedicated" sometimes means "assigned." Full-time means their whole working day is your market.
• "What counts as a qualified meeting, and where is that written?" The definition belongs in the contract, with the bar spelled out. A vendor who keeps it verbal is keeping it flexible.
• "Who judges whether a meeting counts?" The right answer is your AE, not their ops team. The team being scored cannot keep the score.
• "Do you report meetings set and meetings held separately?" The gap between them is where programs leak, the case we made in booked is not held. A vendor who reports one number has chosen which one.
• "Can I see a real weekly report?" Not a template. A live example with numbers and narrative, including a bad week.
• "How is my list built, and who owns the data if we part ways?" Signals and verified numbers on the way in, portability on the way out. Your list, your recordings, and your objection history should leave with you.
• "What do the first sixty days look like?" The honest answer is a slope. A vendor promising full output in month one is describing a switch that does not exist.
• "What is the price, and what does it become at renewal?" If the number requires a second call to obtain, note that, and note what tends to happen to unpublished numbers at renewal time.
• "How long am I committed for?" Long contracts protect vendors from their own performance. Month-to-month terms mean the vendor has to re-earn the account every thirty days.

Reading the answers

No single answer disqualifies a vendor. The pattern does. Specific, documented, slightly boring answers usually mean infrastructure. Fluent, warm, unfalsifiable answers usually mean sales. And a vendor who hesitates on the judge question or the data-ownership question is telling you exactly where the engagement will hurt later, which is a favor if you are listening for it.

Ask us the same ten. Our answers, on the record: one named full-time rep, the definition and per-meeting fee printed in the agreement, your AE judges, set and held side by side every Friday, your data is yours, the first sixty to ninety days are a slope, $3,499 a month published, month to month with thirty days notice. If you are mid-evaluation, or mid-divorce with a current provider, we built for that situation. Book a strategy call and bring the other vendors' answers. We will help you read them, including any that beat ours.