Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) are the backbone of a successful sales pipeline. Businesses invest in SDRs with high expectations but frequently overlook the crucial structures needed for success. Without these foundations, SDRs struggle to generate pipeline, leading to frustration, high turnover and missed revenue opportunities. In this blog, we explore six key reasons SDRs fail and how Furza can help overcome these challenges.
Successful SDRs need resilience, adaptability and a growth mindset. Many candidates struggle because they lack the right motivations or are hired straight out of university without fully understanding the role’s demands. For businesses, the challenge lies in the fact that sales isn’t a vocational profession, making it difficult to know what to look for in early-career salespeople. As a result, companies often rely too heavily on prior experience, overlooking key traits like attitude and coachability, which are crucial for success in outbound prospecting. High-performing, experienced SDRs are rarely available on the market, and when they are, they typically progress within 12-18 months, commanding a premium with no guarantee of long-term results. On the other hand, early-career hires can be trained from day one to align with your specific sales approach, without the need to unlearn bad habits. That said, even early-career SDRs need core qualities like resilience and coachability - without them, they can quickly become discouraged and struggle to maintain the activity levels necessary for success.
How Furza helps: Furza has a proven track record of recruiting, hiring, and training early-career sales talent, particularly within technology and SaaS businesses. Our experienced team goes beyond traditional hiring processes to identify individuals with the motivations, drive and ambition needed to be successful in sales, spending up to 4 hours per candidate to understand their motivations. Through in-depth recruitment campaigns and dedicated assessment days, we uncover potential that isn’t visible on a CV. By assessing core competencies and key behaviours, we ensure candidates not only have the right attributes for a sales career but are also the right-fit for your business.
Sales isn’t a vocational profession, yet many SDRs are thrown into the role with minimal onboarding and expected to figure things out on their own. Without structured training, they lack the basic foundational skills and frameworks needed to succeed. Many companies provide generic, one-size-fits-all training that fails to address the specific demands of the individual and specific role, leaving new hires without the practical knowledge needed to engage prospects effectively. As a result, they not only struggle to craft compelling outreach but also lack a clear understanding of how to perform in their role. Without ongoing coaching, SDRs fail to refine their approach, develop bad habits, and ultimately fall short in generating pipeline. Training and on-going coaching isn’t just an advantage - it’s a necessity for building confident, capable sales professionals who understand what it takes to be successful.
How Furza Helps: Furza delivers in-depth, face-to-face sales training designed and led by industry experts. Our programmes equip SDRs with the essential skills, frameworks, and role-specific knowledge they need to succeed from day one. We work with you to create a bespoke training programme aligned to your business, solution and products. Our consultative approach to training allows for the training to be directly applicable to your employees and in-line with your wider business objectives. All our training is designed and delivered in-house, face to face by our team of experts, meaning you do not have to dedicate internal resources toward the curation and dissemination of training. To ensure your new training is implemented effectively, we provide sales enablement materials that are suited to your needs, employees and industry, including interactive playbooks and structured frameworks. By investing in structured training, businesses not only improve SDR performance but also boost morale, increase retention and build a stronger, results-driven sales team
SDRs need strong leadership to succeed, but many companies struggle to provide the necessary training and guidance. This is often due to time constraints and limited internal resources. Managing teams, developing sales training programmes, and delivering ongoing coaching require significant investment, making it challenging for sales leaders to dedicate the time needed for SDR development. Without regular feedback, goal-setting and accountability, SDRs are left to navigate challenges alone, leading to low morale and ultimately, poor performance.
How Furza Helps: As an outsourced sales training provider, Furza delivers tailored learning and development programmes designed to strengthen SDR skills while alleviating pressure on internal management. Our bespoke training covers fundamental outbound sales techniques, objection handling and selling strategies, while also introducing innovative AI tools to enhance prospecting. Beyond training, we provide hands-on coaching and management support throughout the first three months, including regular performance reviews, KPI tracking, 1:1 coaching sessions and team workshops to maximise potential. We help create structure and consistency through daily meetings, CRM support, and by setting up commission plans, progression metrics and outbound frameworks bespoke to your business. By outsourcing training and sales development to industry experts, businesses can ensure their SDRs receive high-quality, up-to-date coaching without the need for costly and time-consuming in-house initiatives. This allows sales leaders to focus on revenue-generating activities while fostering a motivated, confident and high-performing team.
Consistency is key in outbound sales, yet many companies lack clear frameworks for outreach, follow-ups and pipeline management. Without a repeatable, proven process, each SDR develops their own approach, leading to inconsistent messaging and unpredictable results. This lack of structure makes it difficult for companies to scale their sales efforts effectively.
How Furza Helps: Furza supports with a structured hire, train, and place model. We align our training programmes with each company’s sales methodology, enabling new hires to adopt best practices quickly. Our approach and training programmes are designed to create scalable sales frameworks for prospecting. We also provide data-driven coaching to refine sales techniques and ensure alignment between teams. By implementing structured sales playbooks, messaging and workflows, we help businesses create a unified sales process that drives consistent results.
Sales is a high-effort, high-reward profession, but without the right incentives, SDRs lose motivation. If compensation plans do not properly reward performance, or if there is no clear path for career progression, SDRs become disengaged. Without visible opportunities for growth, turnover increases, leading to expensive hiring and training cycles that drain resources and disrupt momentum.
How Furza Helps: Furza brings extensive experience in sales recruitment and development, working closely with businesses to align compensation structures with performance incentives. We also help companies design clear progression paths, ensuring SDRs see long-term potential within their roles. By creating a culture of growth and reward, businesses can retain top talent and maintain high-performing sales teams and individuals.
Even the best SDRs will struggle if the company hasn’t established its product-market fit. Without a well-defined ICP, clear pain points, and strong messaging, SDRs are left pitching a product that doesn’t resonate. If they don’t understand the use cases, value proposition, or competitive positioning, their outreach becomes scattered and ineffective, resulting in low conversion rates and wasted effort – making them a redundant resource.
How Furza Helps: Furza works closely with businesses to refine their messaging and sales strategies. Through a consultative approach, we help companies clearly define their ICP, identify key pain points, and craft compelling value propositions. Our training ensures SDRs fully understand the product, its use cases and its competitive positioning. Armed with this knowledge, SDRs can deliver more focused and relevant outreach, ultimately improving conversion rates and reducing wasted effort. Beyond outreach, SDRs play a crucial role in the discovery phase, helping businesses gain deeper insights into their target market. They can uncover demand, identify emerging trends and gather valuable prospect feedback that informs overall sales strategy.
At Furza, we specialise in building structured, scalable sales development functions that deliver real pipeline growth. We don’t just place SDRs - we create and develop the systems, training, and processes necessary for their long-term success in your organisation. If you’re looking to enhance your SDR function and drive sustainable revenue growth, Furza is here to help.
Get in touch with us today to learn how we can transform your sales team for lasting success.