Welcome to the GTM Launchpad newsletter! Each week I will share a sales play to help you grow your business, level up your sales game and succeed in the trenches

Be real with me for a second…

How often do you mean to coach your SDRs but the day gets hijacked by pipeline reviews, Slack pings or putting out AE fires?

Or maybe you do sit down for a call review… and the feedback ends up being “yeah good job just keep dialing”

I’ve been there myself trying to coach reps while Slack is blowing up, a deal’s on fire and the CRO is pinging me for pipeline numbers. Every sales leader has

The truth is great SDR teams aren’t built on scripts. They’re built on coaching right? But most frontline managers? They’re either brand new to leadership or juggling their own quota on top of leading a team

and that’s why coaching usually feels like a “nice to have” instead of the core play it really is

Here’s the good news though you don’t need 20 years of war stories to coach effectively. You just need a framework that’s easy to run and repeat

That’s exactly what this issue is about 👇

Sponsor of the Week - Smartlead

Most teams still obsess over open rates
But let’s be real that % at the top of your dashboard doesn’t mean squat if nobody’s hitting reply

I’ve been running a Smartlead campaign for the past 2 months to invite SDRs, BDRs, and AEs into my Outbound Underground community. Here’s what the dashboard shows

📩 4,294 emails sent
📈 1.35% reply rate overall (tough ICP 😅)
✅ 27.5% of replies = positive (real convos not “unsubscribe”)

That’s the point
Cold email isn’t about vanity metrics anymore

It’s about

• Deliverability → Are you actually hitting the inbox?

• Copy → Are you writing emails that get replies?

Smartlead makes it stupid simple to get both right

• Run multiple domains safely (no torched main domain)

• Get global analytics across inboxes (see what’s working vs. burning fuel)

• Tap into Lavender AI built-in for copy that stays inbox-friendly

⚡ Mini copy tips from my campaigns

• Subject line → Boring wins. “Quick q about your SDR team” > “Idea to scale pipeline fast”

• First line → Context > fluff. “Saw you’re building out 4 new reps this quarter” beats “Hope you’re well”

• CTA → Keep it light. “Worth a chat?” outperforms “Can you do 30 minutes next week?”

If I were leading a squad today I’d spin up a pod of reps on Smartlead and test it
head-to-head against whatever you’re using now

👉 Worst case? You validate your current stack
👉 Best case? You stop chasing opens and start booking more meetings

Check out Smartlead here → https://refer.instantly.ai/fj960pmd3lej

This Week’s Big Idea: Coaching SDRs Like a Pro

Let’s be real most managers think “coaching” means sitting in on a call, giving a thumbs up and maybe tossing out a tip. That ain’t coaching at all.. that’s commentary

Coaching is where you actually shape how your reps think, move and respond in the trenches

Here’s what I’ve seen actually work (and I’ve run these reps myself)

1. Call coaching → Keep it tight
Don’t shotgun feedback. Pick ONE strength and ONE growth area

Example
👉 “Your opener was confident. Now let’s tighten the pause after you ask a question. 2 seconds longer will get prospects talking”

That’s it! One thing they can actually remember and apply on the next dial

2. Process coaching → Build their day, not just their pitch
SDRs don’t lose because they can’t talk. They lose because their day is chaos. Show them how to stack blocks of time, run their sequences and use follow ups like a system, not a scramble. The how matters more than the what

3. Skills coaching → Role play like it’s game day
The reps who win are the ones who’ve already heard the objection 10 times in practice. Don’t skip this. Fifteen minutes of role play a week beats an hour of theory every time

Now let’s talk traps I see managers fall into

❌ Over critiquing → Nitpicking every line turns into white noise. Reps tune out
❌ One-size-fits-all → Johnny might be great at tonality but awful at discovery. Sarah might be the opposite. Coach the person, not the script
❌ No follow up → If you don’t circle back on last week’s coaching point it’s gone. Reps need proof you’re tracking their growth

The formula is simple

small, consistent reps > big, occasional sessions

Coaching once a quarter in a “performance review” does nothing. Coaching 10 minutes a week compounds into real behavior change

👉 Think of it like the gym. It’s not one monster workout that changes your body. It’s the daily reps stacked over months. Same with SDRs

🔥 Tom’s SDR Coaching Framework

This framework keeps coaching simple, repeatable and tactical
Use it in your weekly 1:1s or team sessions to build confidence and consistency

Keep it Simple

One strength. One improvement. Role play it. Track it. Repeat
That’s how you turn average SDRs into assassins

Explore. Engage. Evolve.

🎥 Video of the Week: How to coach every SDR to become a top performer

Look most “coaching” videos out there are fluff. This one isn’t. It breaks down exactly how to set expectations, deliver feedback that actually sticks and build SDR confidence without drowning in theory. If you’ve got 10 minutes between calls throw this on. You’ll walk away with 2–3 tweaks you can run in your next 1:1

📚 Book of the Week: The Coaching Habit by Michael Bungay Stanier
If you’ve never read this book do yourself a favor. It’s not another 300 page leadership bible. It’s short, punchy and built around asking better questions. The magic? You’ll stop feeling like you need to “have all the answers” as a manager. Instead you’ll unlock your reps to think for themselves. That’s real leverage 😎 

Bonus Sales Tactics 🤑

Try one (or all three) with your team this week 👇

1. Flip the Script
Before you coach ask the rep “What do you think went well? What would you change?”
When we rolled this out at Kustomer, self awareness went through the roof. Reps started spotting their own blind spots before managers even spoke up

2. One Strength + One Growth Area
Keep feedback tight. Don’t shotgun advice
👉 “Your opener was confident. Let’s work on pausing 2 seconds longer after questions.” At ServiceChannel this cut down coaching fatigue. Managers stopped nitpicking, reps stopped tuning out and actual improvements started showing up in call metrics

3. Micro-Goals > Macro-Theory
Always end coaching with a small, specific goal
👉 “This week focus on handling ‘not interested’ with curiosity.” When I built this into 1:1s with a team of 15 SDRs we saw connect-to-convo rates jump 20% in six weeks because every rep knew exactly what to practice not just “get better.”

Total time investment? 15 minutes
Clarity, confidence and next steps without dragging coaching into an all day workshop

🌐 Outbound Underground

These coaching plays aren’t theory. They’re the exact frameworks and role-plays we’re running live inside Outbound Underground

Managers are dropping call recordings. SDRs are practicing objections. Leaders are sharpening their top-of-funnel motion every single week

If you’ve got SDRs who need more live reps or you want to level up your own coaching game this is where it happens

👉 Come join us here https://www.thesdlab.com/outboundunderground

Final Thought
Coaching isn’t about being the smartest voice in the room
It’s about pulling the best thinking out of your reps

The leaders who win aren’t the ones giving 10 minutes of advice

They’re the ones asking one powerful question that changes the way a rep approaches the next call

That’s how you turn “managers” into true coaches and SDRs into consistent performers

Thanks for reading. See you again next week at 8 am MST!

- Tom Slocum ✌️

How can The SD Lab help you?

If your outbound pipeline is stuck we fix that

The SD Lab works with founders, sales leaders and enablement pros to install outbound systems that actually generate pipeline

Here’s how we help teams level up fast 👇

🚀 The Revenue Accelerator

2 to 12 week outbound consulting sprints for B2B orgs with 10–20+ reps

✅ Lift SQLs by 20–30%
✅ Coach reps with real call reviews + AI scorecards
✅ Rebuild outbound messaging + targeting
✅ Deliver a scalable system your team can own

👉 Best for: Series A-B SaaS orgs, new SDR teams, stalled pipeline

📓 Custom Sales Playbooks

4 to 8 week builds of cold call flows, email copy, objection handling and targeting strategy

You bring the ICP, we build the message and motion
Final asset = plug-and-play playbook your team can use or scale

👉 Best for: founders, enablement leaders, agencies building outbound

🎯 Targeted Workshops + Power Hours

Live tactical sessions for your team. No fluff, just results

💥 Cold call clinics
💥 Email teardown sessions
💥 Social selling & DM strategy
💥 SDR workflow optimization

👉 Best for: fast enablement, rep upskilling, team offsites or new hire ramp

🧠 Outbound Underground

Our private Slack community for reps & rising sellers

🔓 Weekly office hours
🔓 Tech tool perks
🔓 Peer feedback, templates and real talk

🎟️ Join here » — free & paid options available

Curious what this could look like for your org?
Book a 20 min strategy chat no pitch just clarity 👇

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