AI SDRs, AI sourcing and the 2,000-email problem

Two clicks.

That's all it takes today for anybody to blast 2,000 emails. To prospects, to candidates, to whoever.

The short answer: no. In my view, AI SDRs are slowly dying. They were a fugazi from the start. The market agrees with its wallet: human Business Development Representatives cost more this year, with base salaries up from 50 to 60K to 70 to 80K. And the same volume tools that promised to replace them now flood every inbox with noise. Prospecting and sourcing both reward relevance. Twelve right people beat 2,000 random ones.

The AI SDR was a fugazi

Look at the trend. AI SDRs are slowly dying. They never really existed.

The promise was a robot that books your meetings while your team sleeps. What showed up was more email nobody asked for.

Meanwhile, our clients kept hiring human Business Development Representatives, and paying them more. A BDR base used to be 50 to 60K. This year it's closer to 70 to 80K, for 100 to 120K OTE. More on that in what changed in sales pay this year.

Companies pay more for what they can't replace.

Everybody and their uncle has a cannon now

The same thing happened in recruiting.

AI shortlists. AI sourcing tools. Everybody and their uncle is two clicks away from emailing 2,000 candidates. The result is noise. A lot of it.

These tools make money when you use them as much as possible. That's their goal. It works against yours.

Sourcing is a relevancy game

Volume is what the tools sell you. Relevance is what gets you a hire.

You could reach out to twelve highly relevant candidates and make one hire. Or you could reach out to 2,000 bozos and make zero progress.

Here's what relevance looks like in our numbers:

• About 80% of the people we placed replied to our first message within 24 hours.
• About 50% replied within 12 hours.
• 75% wrote a personal reply instead of clicking LinkedIn's suggested one.

A message written for one person gets you those numbers.

Where AI does help

I'm the first guy to vouch for how AI can solve a bunch of our issues. We use it, and so do our clients.

Use it to do the work faster. Keep a human choosing who to talk to, and what to say to them.

People buy from people. They also join companies because of people.

Twelve right conversations will beat 2,000 emails, every quarter, for as long as humans sign the contracts.

Talk soon!✌️

FAQ

Are AI SDRs replacing human BDRs?

Not in what we see. In Victor Vatus's view AI SDRs are slowly dying, and companies are paying human Business Development Representatives more: base pay moved from 50 to 60K to about 70 to 80K this year.

Do AI sourcing tools help recruiters hire salespeople?

They make it easy to email thousands of candidates, which mostly creates noise. Sourcing rewards relevance: twelve highly relevant candidates can produce a hire where 2,000 random ones produce nothing.