Your first 90 days as a remote SDR

1Week 1: setup, product and buyer

Use week 1 to remove every excuse for not calling in week 2. Test your internet, headset, dialer and CRM login on day 1. Have a backup connection ready before your first live call.

Then learn the buyer before the product. Ask your manager for 3 recorded calls that booked a meeting and 3 that didn’t. Compare the first 30 seconds of each: the opener, the reason and the buyer’s first reaction.

By Friday, write 1 page that answers 5 questions:

• Who buys, by title and company size?
• Which problems make them take a meeting?
• What do they use today instead of your product?
• Which objections come up most, and how do top reps answer?
• What counts as a qualified meeting on your team?

Learn the product only as deep as the buyer cares. You need to explain what it does, who it helps and 1 short story of a buyer it helped. Then write a 30 second pitch from your page, say it to your manager and ask for 2 pieces of feedback.

Fix it the same day and say it again.

2Working across time zones

Companies hiring in Latin America value time zone overlap, English fluency and US buyer experience. Treat your overlap hours as part of the job.

Set your calendar to show 2 time zones: yours and your team’s. Put your working hours in your chat profile and your email signature. Check the difference again whenever clocks change in your country or the United States.

Build your day around the buyer’s clock. Do research and admin before buyers reach their desks, and call while they’re at work.

Timing data conflicts. In ZoomInfo’s dataset of 1.4 million outbound calls, Tuesday and Wednesday held 44% of demos booked. Other datasets point to different days, so protect midweek calling blocks in your buyer’s time zone and test your own results.

Use overlap hours for live work: calls, coaching and quick questions. Write questions in 1 message with full context, so a teammate in another time zone can answer without a meeting.

Today: add your team’s time zone to your calendar.

3Calls first: your daily routine

New SDRs on Reddit describe the same trap: the reps who struggle spend the day polishing LinkedIn messages instead of calling. Put the calls first, and let email and LinkedIn support your calls.

In Gong’s analysis of 300 million cold calls, the average rep connected on 5.4% of dials and the top quartile on 13.3%. Gong found top reps prioritize direct dials and mark bad numbers. Clean data is part of the routine.

A day that works:

• Start: research and build your call list, direct dials first.
• Call block 1: dials only, with chat and email closed.
• Break, then log every outcome in the CRM.
• Call block 2, at a different hour of the buyer’s day.
• Afternoon: email, LinkedIn and follow ups on the day’s calls.
• Last 15 minutes: plan tomorrow’s list.

When nobody answers, leave a short voicemail and send an email the same day. In Gong’s voicemail data, email reply rates rose from 2.73% without a voicemail to 5.87% after one.

Keep your call blocks on slow days too. That’s when habits break.

4Learning from top performers

Ask your manager who books the most qualified meetings. Then ask that rep for 30 minutes a week, and go with a plan. Also ask your manager to review 1 recorded call a week, chosen by you.

Listen to 3 of their calls and write down their opener, their first question and how they handle the first objection. Write the exact words, because a paraphrase loses what made the line work.

Then ask them:

• How do you spend the first hour of your day?
• Which opener works best for this buyer right now?
• What do you say when they ask for an email?
• Which accounts or titles do you skip, and why?

Copy 1 thing at a time, and use the change for a full week. Then compare your connect and meeting numbers with the week before. Give something back too: share a good call or a clean list you built.

Today: ask your manager who to shadow.

5Reporting your numbers

Your manager can’t watch you work, so your numbers do the talking. Pull every number from the CRM and report the full funnel in this order:

• Dials and connects
• Conversations, where the prospect stayed past the opener
• Meetings booked
• Meetings held and qualified opportunities

Lead with meetings held and qualified opportunities, because those are the results your team needs. Activity explains how you got those results. If a number looks wrong, flag it before anyone asks. Use the same CRM report every week, so the numbers compare.

Close each week with a 4 line update:

• What I did, with the numbers above
• What worked, with 1 example call
• What didn’t work, and my best guess why
• What I’ll change next week, and 1 question for you

Send it every Friday.

6Your ramp and the habits that hold

A typical SDR ramp takes 3.2 months, according to 80Twenty. Judge month 1 on leading numbers, in this order:

• Are dials on target? If not, fix the routine first.
• Are connects low? Check list quality and direct dials.
• Are conversations short? Work on your opener and reason.
• Do conversations stall before the ask? Practice your close.

Work on the first weak step for 2 weeks, then check the number again. Share the diagnosis in your Friday update before your manager has to ask. A slow month with a clear diagnosis and a plan gives your manager something to coach.

The role is demanding: 80Twenty puts annual SDR turnover near 40%. These habits are worth keeping after month 3:

• Call blocks stay on the calendar, even in a good week.
• 1 recorded call reviewed every week.
• Your list cleaned every Friday, bad numbers marked.
• 1 new opener or question tested each month.
• Your Friday update sent in the same format.

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