Prateek Mathur

Matching matters more than tools I placed an SDR who takes initiative and learns fast When the client's GTM shifted to AI, the SDR shifted too Right match > Right resume

I thought AI would replace SDR skills But, AI is amplifying SDR skills Good at qualifying manually → Great at qualifying at scale Good at personalization → 10x faster personalization AI didn't replace fundamentals It made them more powerful!

Client shifted to AI-powered GTM I thought the SDR would fail They didn't Because the bones of SDR work stayed the same: Find people with pain and get them to meet AI just made it faster

The SDR's job isn't to build your sales process It's to execute one that already works If you expect them to do both, you're hiring two different people Architect ≠ Executor

I lost the best SDR I hired By measuring effort and not output

Founder: We just need someone who can cold call Me: Show me your infrastructure Founder: Here's a list of 500 companies Me: That's not infrastructure Cold calling is 5% of the job Build the other 95% first before you hire

Traditional staffing: Find → Place → Done Fractional: Build bench → Vet → Match → Monitor → Manage → Replace if needed It's not transactional, It's operational!

I thought fractional would be simple Find SDRs, place them part-time. Done! I was wrong, Fractional isn't staffing It's managed services You're operationally involved from Week 1 Lower commitment = higher operational intensity

Good SDRs don't make more calls. They make better calls. Bad SDR: 100 calls/day to anyone, 8 meetings/month Good SDR: 40 calls/day to qualified prospects, 16 meetings/month Quality beats quantity every time.

You know if an SDR will work out in 30 days, not 90. You're not watching for quota in Month 1. You're watching for initiative. Week 1: Are they meeting people and joining calls? Week 4: Have they booked 2-3 meetings? That tells you everything.

SDR quit after 9 months of crushing quota. Founder: Why'd they leave? SDR: Found a fractional role, 20 hrs/week instead of 40. Founder: But they worked 40 hours here. SDR: I only needed 20 to hit quota. The rest was theater.

Red flags in your first 30 days as an SDR: Week 1-2: "I'm still in onboarding" Week 3: Haven't joined a single prospecting call Week 4: "I'm almost ready to start" If this is you, you're getting fired in Month 3.

Founder: I just need someone who can cold call. Me: Show me your infrastructure. Founder: Here's a list of 500 companies and a one-pager. Me: That's not infrastructure. Cold calling is 5% of the job. Build the other 95% first.

Series A founder: We need an SDR, our pipeline is empty. Me: Do you know why your customers buy from you? Founder: We're still figuring that out. Me: Then you're not ready to hire an SDR. You need to figure this out before you hire

Your SDR ramped for 90 days. Hit 40% of quota. You fired them. Then you hired another one. 90 days later: same result. The problem isn't the SDR. It's that you can't see improvement trajectory in real-time. Contract-to-hire solves this.

Most founders hire full-time SDRs too early. $1M ARR = need 15 meetings/month $3M ARR = need 30 meetings/month $5M ARR = need 50+ meetings/month Only at $2M+ do you need full-time. Before that? Fractional. Don't pay for capacity you don't need yet.

Your new SDR is at 40% of quota in Month 2. Are they bad? Or are they learning? You can't tell from results alone. You need to see: discovery depth, objection handling, coachability. Contract-to-hire gives you that visibility. Results + trajectory = the full picture.

You're paying an SDR $60K/year. They book 15 meetings per month. That's 15-20 hours of actual work. The other 140 hours? "Research." CRM updates. "List cleaning." Busy work, not revenue work. Fractional = pay for output, not hours.

Your pipeline dropped 40%. You need meetings NOW. Full-time SDR hire takes 8 weeks. By then, your AEs have nothing to work. Fractional SDR starts Week 1. Meetings flow by Week 2. Stop making long-term commitments for short-term problems.

Your SDR hit Month 3 at 40% of quota. You're deciding: fire them or give them Month 4? Wrong question. The right question was in Month 1: "Are they improving week-over-week?" By Month 3, you've already wasted $15K and 12 weeks. Contract-to-hire catches this in Week 3.