In today's episode, I chat with Dave Wilkins, founder of SDR Leaders of EMEA (and USA and APAC), about his mission to define what the sales development function should look like in 2030—giving leaders from first-time managers to VPs running 250-plus person SDR orgs the roadmaps they need to evolve the role into the revenue-critical function it should be. 

We explore what Dave is seeing across the market: a back-to-the-future moment where the pile-on of tools actually reduced prospecting time rather than increasing it, and the best SDR teams are now differentiating themselves by getting back on the phone to qualify and disqualify faster. He shares a real example of a US company where a GTM-engineer-led team of seven was generating more pipeline than a traditional SDR team of 47 at the same company—and the leader kept refusing to add headcount because the system was already winning. Dave also breaks down his take on the GTM engineer versus RevOps debate: it's not just a rebrand, it's an expansion of scope with a more practical, sales-practitioner lens rather than a purely data-driven one—and the C-suite pushing for it is giving the role a much bigger charter. His prediction: SDR headcounts will come down but productivity per rep will rise sharply as AI removes the 90 minutes of daily admin currently eating into selling time, tenures will get longer, pay will go up, and the role will finally become a profession rather than a stepping stone people sprint away from. And on the blunt question of whether the SDR is dead—his survey data says 55% of EMEA companies hired more SDRs in the last 12 months, and the companies cutting the function are the ones calling back six months later asking where the pipeline went. Dave shares his path from BDR in 2013 with just a phone and Salesforce, through global sales development leadership roles, to running Snowflake's EMEA sales development org, to founding SDR Leaders of EMEA after noticing the space for developing SDR leaders was almost entirely missing—now running 30-plus meetups globally in a year and scaling to 50-plus next year. 

Enjoy 🙂

(00:00) Introduction to Outbound Wizards 
(00:20) What SDR Leaders of EMEA Does: Roadmaps for Sales Development Leaders Globally 
(01:05) Back to the Future: Why the Best SDR Teams Are Getting Back on the Phone 
(02:44) GTM Engineer Adoption: 13.7% of EMEA Companies Already Employing One 
(04:22) GTM Engineer vs RevOps: Same Role or Expanded Scope? 
(06:48) Real Example: Team of 7 Outgenerating a Team of 47 with GTM Engineering Motion 
(08:09) First Mover Advantage: Why Late Adopters Will Struggle to Catch Up 
(09:04) Dave's Journey: BDR in 2013 to Snowflake EMEA Sales Development Leader 
(09:36) Founding SDR Leaders of EMEA: 30-Plus Meetups Globally in Year One 
(10:31) Future Predictions: Fewer SDRs, Longer Tenures, Higher Pay, More Pipeline Per Rep 
(11:40) Is the SDR Dead? 55% of EMEA Companies Hired More SDRs in the Last 12 Months

🔗 CONNECT WITH DAVE

👥 LinkedIn 

🔗 CONNECT WITH SAURAV

🎥 YouTube Channel

🐦 X (Twitter)

📸 Instagram

💻 Website

👥 LinkedIn
📧 Email - [email protected]

🙏 LEAVE A REVIEW If you enjoyed listening to the podcast, we'd love for you to leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts to help others discover the show :)

👋🏼 GET IN TOUCH You can also reach out with any feedback, ideas or thoughts about the lessons you've learned from the episodes.