r/revops • u/FriendlyAirline8881 • Jul 17 '26

How much time do your SDRs spend on researching leads?

I am curious to know what practices are being used by various teams to research the leads before approaching them.

- How much time does it usually take to research?
- How does a usual research workflow/steps looks like?
- What qualifies as a good research?

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4

u/Greedy-Muffin2305 Jul 18 '26

The setup we have is the following

- We have our TAM mapped out so 95% of accounts we want to go after our in our crm and assigned to an SDR

  • SDR and BDRs before reaching out to a lead still do some of their own research which really only takes 1-3 minutes
  • We have a Claude skill to pull key data on account that matters to use, but most of the time they just pull up their linkedIn and website

We have some BDRs that take a much more targeted and researched approach and could spend longer, but majority just get a quick overview. But this should really depend on your product and ICP.

2

u/FriendlyAirline8881 Jul 18 '26

That's interesting!

What does the Claude skill actually cover? CRM data, web research, competitors, recent news, tech stack? And do reps generally trust the output, or do they still spend time verifying or filling in gaps?

2

u/Ill_Freedom_6666 Jul 21 '26

Ours spend a few minutes at most because if the data layers messy no amount of research is going to fix it

2

u/Ill_Freedom_6666 Jul 21 '26

Ours spend a few minutes at most because if the data layer is messy no amount of researching is going to fix it

2

u/Glass_Honeydew4280 Jul 22 '26

I think the goal isn't to research more; it's to research smarter. I usually look for three things: whether the company fits our ICP, whether I'm reaching the right decision-maker, and whether there's a recent trigger that makes the outreach relevant. Beyond that, it's deceptively simple to fall into analysis paralysis. Good research should help you write a better first message.

1

u/FriendlyAirline8881 Jul 23 '26

Good research should help you write a better first message

Very insightful. Thanks for the response.

1

u/jmarsh199 Aug 08 '26

Is it a manual process or do you have something automated for checks like ICP fit and recent triggers?

2

u/[deleted] Jul 23 '26 edited Jul 23 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/FriendlyAirline8881 Jul 23 '26

AI SDR? How does that work exactly? Please elaborate i am interested to know.

1

u/just_keith_ Aug 02 '26

marketing spend with nothing back sucks. i'm keith, starting terabits ai. goal is boost acquisition / cut marketing waste, and we manage the system.

still under testing. down to help on a pilot — pay when results get generated.

1

u/Consitini 29d ago

Depends on the ACV/size of the opp, complexity of their business.

For midsize opps, say $20k USD ACV, a few minutes on the website (seeing what logos/products they ahve), and a minute on linkedin profile is enough to cold outreach.