# Do SDRs even make sense?

By [Doug Lane](https://paragraph.com/@axalane) · 2022-03-30

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The short-term answer is yes. When the SDR model is implemented effectively, it works.

So what’s the problem?

Two of your most important jobs as a leader are:

*   Do right by your employees.
    
*   Do right by your customers.
    

The SDR model doesn’t do either.

It’s a very unpleasant job. For every successful connect, you’re ignored or curtly dismissed many, many times. Nobody likes it. It’s a foot in the door and a stepping stone to something better.

Meanwhile, security buyers are obsoletely inundated with calls, emails, and LinkedIn requests. And even if one of them is from a company that’s a perfect fit:

*   Worst case: it’s lost in the noise.
    
*   Best case: the buyer’s path from first SDR connect to substantive conversation is a convoluted, multi-step journey.
    

Further rounding out the absurdity is the fact that many of us folks who are unleashing SDRs on people are ourselves inundated and annoyed by other people’s SDRs.

So while the short-term answer to SDRs is yes, the long-term answer is no.

I don’t know what the better alternative is yet, but I have some ideas I’d like to explore.

\-Doug

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*Originally published on [Doug Lane](https://paragraph.com/@axalane/do-sdrs-even-make-sense)*