No, SDR Leaders are not the fun Aunts and Uncles.

FUNNEL
We are having a conference!

Some of you might have seen on our social media pages over the last few weeks that we are going to be hosting a conference!

Why? There are some great events and conferences for SDR managers and team leads, and for those who really want to get into the nitty-gritty tactical aspects of the role.

Those things are so important for frontline SDR managers to be a part of, but there isn't a dedicated space where heads of sales development, directors, and VPs of sales development can come together and really figure out the big strategic and visionary aspects of their job to set up those frontline leaders to be as successful as possible.

That's why we're really happy and privileged to announce Funnel 26. This will be a conference where the best global VPs of sales development are going to be talking to the best heads of sales development, directors, third-line leaders sharing their strategy and their vision for how the function will look like, giving access to those that come to the best sales development leaders in the globe with workshops, with networking, with everything that is kept true to what SDR leaders of USA and EMEA does but on a far grander scale.

Starting in the new year, we'll announce our speakers and who else is supporting this incredible conference for you all.

We've been really humbled by the feedback so far, with many directors and VPs already telling us that this is a space truly for them, dedicated to them, where they can learn from their peers and talk about the big strategic topics that are really affecting them in their business.

So that's been really great to hear so far!

We're really excited to be partnering up with Anastasia Chihai from ATX SDR Leaders to deliver this conference for everyone and because you're part of our newsletter, you can also get access to our early bird tickets which are on sale before general release comes out on the 1st of January.

So we really look forward to seeing you all there!

2026
What should leaders focus on next year?

I've been thinking a lot over the last month or two about what the core areas that an SDR leader really needs to become excellent in. It's not just the data, it's not just about hitting your number. It's a multi-level approach that will set you up for both creating a world-class sales development team and for future career growth moving into other roles within the executive team.

Over the next 12 months, I'm going to be writing more about the following areas, and I'd love to get your insights into this as well.

• Who owns your professional development

• How to deal with onboarding SDRs

• How to deal with onboarding SDR Leaders

• Scale outbounding

• How to exit SDRs

• How to Exit SDR Leaders

• How to manage up

• How to deal cross-functionally with other departments

• How to build your compensation plan

• How to build the comp plan for your teams

• When should you look to scale and how

• AI technology within your SDR strategy

• How to ask for a raise

• How to lead with data

• How do you go about asking for more budget for out of budget cycle requests

• What happens when you are under pressure by your execs and how to deal with this?

• How to deal with a PE/VC acquisition

• How to develop your personal brand

• How to rise fast in your career

• How to develop talent to become managers in your org

Am I missing anything? Are there things here that should be more prioritised than the others? Please let me know

AGENDA
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