“A lead worth chasing is one where the signal, the persona, and your message line up in the same moment. I learned this running SDR teams at Chargebee, VWO, and Slintel: I'd rather my reps spend a day building a tight account list than spray a hundred generic emails.”
“I stopped trusting job titles years ago. The best leads were the ones showing a live moment: a funding round, a new VP of Sales, a missed target, or an outsourced SDR team that had just failed.”
“I look for motion, not fit. Two contacts can have the right title and company size, but only the one visiting pricing pages, engaging with category content, and sitting in the buying seat is worth my time. Relevance beats persona every time.”
“I’d tell the SDR to stop guessing fit and start triangulating: firmographics get you the list, but behavior, like which pages they hit or whether they’re suddenly engaging after months of silence, tells you who is actually in market. We’ve seen too many reps burn through 5,000 names when a freakishly specific ICP plus a couple of intent signals would have surfaced the ten worth calling that day.”
“I always tell our reps to prioritize fit over interest: a lead whose pain maps cleanly to what you solve will outlast the one who just thinks your product is cool. After fit, I look for momentum, because a great prospect who is waiting on a funding round is not the deal you close this month.”
“I look for the lead who has already done something with us, even tiny, because at Reveneer and DealRoom I saw that usage, not title, was the real buying signal. A prospect who registers for an event, downloads a playbook, or has a former champion inside is usually worth ten cold names.”
“I wasted too many cycles at New Relic chasing leads that looked hot because they opened emails but had no buying committee behind them. Now I tell reps: a lead is worth chasing when you can name the pain, the budget owner, and a date they need it solved, not just a high score.”