Zayd Ali
Jul 3, 2024
Why AI SDRs Are Fundamentally Flawed
and why I don't think they'll take over
Companies spend millions of dollars to figure out what works for their outbound strategy. This is because we know it isn’t a replicable science. You can’t copy/paste what another company’s doing and expect to see the same results.
Yet AI SDRs treat it that way. They promise to do the same thing for each company – a fundamental flaw.
Here’s what I think we’ll see a lot more of instead once the hype wears off (things Valley is already built to do):
Tools with Custom Instructions
Your top performers know that works at your company. That’s one reason they’re so successful.
They know that certain subject lines hit harder at Rippling than they would at Miro. They know the message that wins over a marketing manager could be wildly different than the one sent to a C-level exec.
Equipping them with a one-size-fits-all, out-of-the-box AI SDR stunts their performance. It spits out the virtually the same message - regardless of context.
I think we’ll see more customizable tools once people start to realize this. Tools that allow AEs to plug in information about how they:
think about the company
write call-to-actions
write subject lines
Each message gets artfully crafted from scratch - not a slightly reworked version of what was just sent to another prospect.
Smarter Sequences
A lot of AI SDRs give a couple options, like “one message and two follow-ups” or “two messages and three follow-ups.” It limits AEs from doing what they know works best for their company and standardizes the process to a fault.
Valley has custom sequence builders so AEs can select their preferred cadence and medium for follow-up messages.
Stronger Reengagement Messages
There’s usually a certain way AEs like to reengage a prospect that’s dropped off. It could be 5 days after no response with a message mentioning their latest post.
But most AI SDRs aren’t smart enough to know when to reengage a prospect or how to craft a message that’s relevant. (Valley is.)
You can tell Valley what your reengagement preference is. When a prospect drops off, Valley crafts a contextually relevant message to pull them back into the funnel.
No cookie-cutter messages pushed out to every prospect in the funnel. It’s customized for every single prospect based on the context of the drop off, their activity, their company, etc.
Things like:
they just viewed our company website, let’s mention that
their latest post about XYZ was interesting, let’s use that
they looked at our pricing page but dipped. let’s figure out why
How Valley can Help
Let us book sales calls for you while you’re grocery shopping. Seriously.
We built Valley to be your automated SDR and empower AEs. Get started today and watch your calendar fill up with qualified leads.