{"id":316068,"date":"2025-07-10T05:31:03","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T12:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/?p=316068"},"modified":"2025-07-09T14:11:47","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T21:11:47","slug":"we-sent-4495-ai-sdr-emails-in-2-weeks-and-got-the-1-response-rate-heres-how-its-not-what-you-think","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/we-sent-4495-ai-sdr-emails-in-2-weeks-and-got-the-1-response-rate-heres-how-its-not-what-you-think\/","title":{"rendered":"We Sent 4,495 AI SDR Emails in 2 Weeks and Got The #1 Response Rate. Here&#8217;s How (It&#8217;s Not What You Think)&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>After less than 30 days with our AI SDR, we became the highest response rate on our AI SDR platform. #1. Here&#8217;s what actually works \u2014 and what doesn&#8217;t.<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">_______<\/p>\n<p>We&#8217;ve all gotten that terrible AI SDR email. You know the one: &#8220;Hey [FIRST NAME], I did some research on [COMPANY] and thought you might be interested in [GENERIC PITCH].&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Yeah, that&#8217;s not what we&#8217;re talking about here.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>In just two weeks, SaaStr&#8217;s AI SDR sent 4,495 hyper-personalized messages<\/strong>, opened pipeline, booked meetings, and reactivated lapsed accounts \u2014 all while outperforming our historical human SDR averages.<\/h3>\n<p>But here&#8217;s the thing: it took <strong>a lot<\/strong> more work than just &#8220;turning it on.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>If you think you&#8217;re going to flip a switch and watch the magic happen, you&#8217;re in for disappointment. But if you&#8217;re willing to put in the effort to train it right, the results can be extraordinary.<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"SaaStr AI Live: What\u2019s Working Now: AI\u2019s Real Impact on Sales\" width=\"1080\" height=\"608\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/vrP8d5H3KTw?feature=oembed&#038;enablejsapi=1&#038;origin=https:\/\/www.saastr.com\"  allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>The Reality Check: Our Unfair Advantages<\/h2>\n<p>Before we dive in, let&#8217;s be honest about why our results were so strong:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">We have a brand<\/span>.<\/strong> SaaStr has been around since 2012. People know us.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>We targeted our existing database.<\/strong><\/span> These weren&#8217;t cold prospects \u2014 they were website visitors, past attendees, and folks who had engaged with us before.<\/li>\n<li><strong><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">We spent two weeks doing basically nothing else (beyond our normal day jobs)<\/span>.<\/strong> 90 minutes in the morning, an hour at night, plus real-time responses throughout the day.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>If you don&#8217;t have a brand and you&#8217;re planning to blast cold lists, your mileage will vary. A lot.<\/p>\n<p><iframe data-src=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/presentation\/d\/e\/2PACX-1vRTNH5ZgyE-iLlbpttHciNXPjNkJLh3Cm12xrYDO-nVyjqcec94fZk_FINIlA0tCE0d-g7kR-GvBj_3\/pubembed?start=false&amp;loop=false&amp;delayms=3000\" width=\"960\" height=\"569\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" class=\"lazyload\" data-load-mode=\"1\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h2>Top 10 Learnings for Making AI SDRs Actually Work<\/h2>\n<h3>1. Your AI Has to Add Real Value (Not Just Send Volume)<\/h3>\n<p>The difference between good and terrible AI outbound isn&#8217;t the tool \u2014 it&#8217;s whether your AI actually provides value to the recipient. If your AI is sending &#8220;Hey, saw you on our website&#8221; messages, you&#8217;re doing it wrong.<\/p>\n<p>Our AI references specific SaaStr events people attended, congratulates them on new roles it found on LinkedIn, and suggests relevant programs based on their company profile. The bar is: would I have written this email myself?<\/p>\n<h3>2. Expect to Spend the Same Time Training AI as You Would a Human<\/h3>\n<p>This isn&#8217;t a &#8220;set it and forget it&#8221; solution. Plan to spend <strong>at least<\/strong> two weeks of intensive training, just like onboarding a new hire. The upside? You can train the AI at 6 AM or 11 PM \u2014 it doesn&#8217;t need traditional work hours.<\/p>\n<p>For the first two months on our website AI, our general chat, we spent 30 minutes every morning auditing conversations, catching errors, and manually writing better responses for the AI to learn from. Now we do it once a week.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-316080 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.28%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1000%2C564&#038;quality=70&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"564\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.28%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?w=1000&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.28%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=600%2C339&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.28%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=768%2C433&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.28%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1080%2C609&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1080w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.28%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=980%2C553&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 980w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.28%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=480%2C271&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 480w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1000px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1000\/564;\" \/><noscript><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-316080\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.28%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1000%2C564&#038;quality=70&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"564\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.28%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?w=1000&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.28%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=600%2C339&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.28%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=768%2C433&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.28%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1080%2C609&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1080w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.28%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=980%2C553&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 980w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.28%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=480%2C271&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<h3>3. You Need ALL Your Data (And It&#8217;s Probably Messier Than You Think)<\/h3>\n<p>Your AI needs to be trained on everything: CRM data, marketing automation platforms, website content, past event attendees, sponsorship history \u2014 all of it. We trained ours on 20+ million words of SaaStr content.<\/p>\n<p>But here&#8217;s the reality check: your data probably isn&#8217;t as clean as you think. We found opportunities that were never logged in Salesforce, missing context from AEs who never used the system properly, and gaps everywhere.<\/p>\n<p>Pro tip: Start with a data cleanup before you even think about AI.<\/p>\n<h3>4. Hyper-Segmentation Is Everything<\/h3>\n<p>The more you can segment your AI campaigns, the better they&#8217;ll perform. We ran separate campaigns for:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Lapsed sponsorship accounts<\/li>\n<li>Previous event attendees who haven&#8217;t returned<\/li>\n<li>Recent website visitors<\/li>\n<li>Cold outbound (this performed worst, as expected)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The website visitor campaign was hit-or-miss. The reactivation campaigns? Those were money.<\/p>\n<h3>5. Human-in-the-Loop Isn&#8217;t Optional \u2014 It&#8217;s Required<\/h3>\n<p>The AI alone is not enough. Period. You need humans actively involved in the process, not just reviewing outputs once a week.<\/p>\n<p>When prospects responded to our AI, I had to respond instantly \u2014 and at the same quality level as the AI. The expectation is that you&#8217;re always &#8220;on&#8221; because the AI created that impression of responsiveness.<\/p>\n<h3>6. Don&#8217;t Expect It to Replace Everything<\/h3>\n<p>This is additive to your existing sales and marketing efforts, not a replacement. We still send personal emails, we still do marketing air cover, we still have human SDRs. The AI just lets us touch way more accounts at a personalized level.<\/p>\n<p>Think of it as 3-6 combined touchpoints, not a single magic solution.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-316079 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.05%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1000%2C567&#038;quality=70&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"567\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.05%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?w=1000&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.05%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=600%2C340&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.05%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=768%2C435&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.05%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1080%2C612&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1080w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.05%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=980%2C556&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 980w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.05%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=480%2C272&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 480w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1000px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1000\/567;\" \/><noscript><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-316079\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.05%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1000%2C567&#038;quality=70&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"567\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.05%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?w=1000&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.05%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=600%2C340&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.05%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=768%2C435&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.05%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1080%2C612&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1080w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.05%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=980%2C556&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 980w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.05%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=480%2C272&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<h3>7. Go Way Beyond Just Outbound<\/h3>\n<p>If your AI is booking meetings for you (and it should be), you better know everything it knows when you get on that call. We developed what we call &#8220;The Four C&#8217;s&#8221; for pre-call research:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Chat<\/strong><\/span>: What did they discuss with our AI?<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Claude\/ChatGPT<\/strong><\/span>: Full company research and &#8220;why should they buy from us?&#8221; analysis<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>CRM<\/strong><\/span>: What&#8217;s our history with them?<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Cluely<\/strong><\/span> (or similar): Real-time intelligence during the call<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Come to every call with a working theory about why they&#8217;re interested, not a generic discovery process.<\/p>\n<h3>8. Create Dynamic, Customized Follow-up Materials<\/h3>\n<p>Stop sending generic sales decks. AI can create fully customized proposals and presentations in minutes based on your specific conversation. I use tools like Gamma and Genspark to create tailored booth options, pricing proposals, and company-specific case studies.<\/p>\n<p>The prospects love it. Who wouldn&#8217;t want a custom deck that actually addresses what you just discussed?<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-316081 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.18%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1000%2C563&#038;quality=70&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.18%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?w=1000&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.18%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=600%2C338&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.18%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=768%2C433&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.18%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1080%2C608&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1080w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.18%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=980%2C552&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 980w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.18%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=480%2C270&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 480w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1000px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1000\/563;\" \/><noscript><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-316081\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.18%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1000%2C563&#038;quality=70&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"563\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.18%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?w=1000&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.18%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=600%2C338&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.18%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=768%2C433&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.18%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1080%2C608&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1080w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.18%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=980%2C552&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 980w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.18%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=480%2C270&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<h3>9. It&#8217;s More Work, Not Less \u2014 But Higher Quality Output<\/h3>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the uncomfortable truth: doing AI right is <em>more<\/em> work than not using AI at all. You get 10x better output, but it requires &#8220;S-tier human orchestration&#8221; to get top-tier results.<\/p>\n<p>You can&#8217;t just hand this off to junior ops folks or agencies. It requires someone who knows your business deeply and can provide high-quality training and oversight.\u00a0 Every single day, and maybe, all day long.<\/p>\n<h3>10. Audit Everything Daily (At Least Initially)<\/h3>\n<p>Spend 30-45 minutes every single day reading a sample of what your AI sent. When you find something wrong, don&#8217;t just fix it \u2014 teach the AI why it was wrong and what to do instead.<\/p>\n<p>After 60 days of daily improvements, you&#8217;ll have something you&#8217;re proud of. But you can&#8217;t skip this step.<\/p>\n<h2>The Tools We Use (Since Everyone Asks)<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>AI SDR Platform<\/strong><\/span>: Artisan, Qualified, Amplemarket, etc.<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Data Enrichment<\/strong><\/span>: Lusha, Seamless, ZoomInfo, Apollo<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Presentation Generation<\/strong><\/span>: Gamma, Genspark<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Call Intelligence<\/strong><\/span>: Claude and Perplexity ahead of time, Cluely for real-time research<\/li>\n<li><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Training Data<\/strong><\/span>: 20+ million words of SaaStr content, 10+ years of CRM data and marketing automation data<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-316076 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.42.26%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1000%2C567&#038;quality=70&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"567\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.42.26%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?w=1000&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.42.26%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=600%2C340&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.42.26%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=768%2C435&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.42.26%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1080%2C612&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1080w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.42.26%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=980%2C556&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 980w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.42.26%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=480%2C272&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 480w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1000px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1000\/567;\" \/><noscript><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-316076\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.42.26%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1000%2C567&#038;quality=70&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"567\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.42.26%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?w=1000&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.42.26%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=600%2C340&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.42.26%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=768%2C435&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.42.26%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1080%2C612&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1080w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.42.26%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=980%2C556&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 980w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.42.26%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=480%2C272&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<h2>What Doesn&#8217;t Work<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Bad AI Email Example<\/strong><\/span>: &#8220;Hey SaaStr team, how&#8217;s it going? I did a bit of research and thought you might be familiar with [COMPANY NAME]. We help companies like yours with [GENERIC BENEFIT].&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\"><strong>Good AI Email Example<\/strong><\/span>: &#8220;Hi [NAME], saw you attended SaaStr London last year and just noticed your move to [NEW COMPANY] \u2014 congrats! Given [COMPANY]&#8217;s focus on [SPECIFIC AREA], thought you might be interested in our 2025 London program, especially our new VC track&#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>See the difference? Specific, relevant, valuable.<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-316082 lazyload\" data-src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.56%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1000%2C564&#038;quality=70&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"564\" data-srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.56%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?w=1000&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.56%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=600%2C339&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.56%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=768%2C433&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.56%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1080%2C610&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1080w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.56%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=980%2C553&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 980w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.56%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=480%2C271&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 480w\" data-sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" src=\"data:image\/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAAAAACH5BAEKAAEALAAAAAABAAEAAAICTAEAOw==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 1000px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 1000\/564;\" \/><noscript><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-316082\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.56%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1000%2C564&#038;quality=70&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"1000\" height=\"564\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.56%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?w=1000&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1000w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.56%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=600%2C339&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 600w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.56%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=768%2C433&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.56%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=1080%2C610&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 1080w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.56%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=980%2C553&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 980w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.47.56%E2%80%AFPM-scaled.png?resize=480%2C271&amp;quality=70&amp;ssl=1 480w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1000px) 100vw, 1000px\" \/><\/noscript><\/p>\n<h2>The Bottom Line<\/h2>\n<p>AI SDRs can work incredibly well, but only if you&#8217;re willing to invest the time to train them properly. This isn&#8217;t about replacing humans \u2014 it&#8217;s about augmenting what humans can do with hyper-personalization at scale.<\/p>\n<p>The companies that figure this out first will have a massive advantage. The ones that just turn it on and walk away will wonder why they&#8217;re getting the same terrible response rates they always have.<\/p>\n<p>Pick your platform, commit to the training, and prepare to spend more time on orchestration than you expect. But if you do it right, you&#8217;ll be sending thousands of emails that sound like you actually wrote them.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"text-xl font-bold text-text-100 mt-1 -mb-0.5\">What We&#8217;re Looking to Do Next<\/h2>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">We&#8217;re literally onboarding two more AI sales tools this week. The outbound piece is working, but we want to go deeper across the entire sales cycle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">We&#8217;re still hunting for a really good AI marketing tool \u2014 if you know of one that actually works (not just another content generator), hit us up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">We&#8217;re also hiring someone specifically to manage our AI operations.\u00a0 A human \ud83d\ude42 This is becoming a full-time role and frankly, we need someone whose entire job is orchestrating these systems. If you know someone good at both AI and revenue operations, send them our way.<\/p>\n<p class=\"whitespace-normal break-words\">The goal is to have AI touching every part of our sales and marketing funnel by the end of the year, but doing it right \u2014 with proper training, human oversight, and real value creation.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>Amelia Lerutte is SVP + GM at SaaStr. You can reach her at ai@saastr.com or connect on LinkedIn. Yes, that inbox is monitored by both AI and humans \u2014 and you probably won&#8217;t be able to tell the difference.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After less than 30 days with our AI SDR, we became the highest response rate on our AI SDR platform. #1. Here&#8217;s what actually works \u2014 and what doesn&#8217;t. _______ We&#8217;ve all gotten that terrible AI SDR email. You know the one: &#8220;Hey [FIRST NAME], I did some research on [COMPANY] and thought you might&#8230; <br \/><a class=\"more-link fade\" href=\"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/we-sent-4495-ai-sdr-emails-in-2-weeks-and-got-the-1-response-rate-heres-how-its-not-what-you-think\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":316069,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[]},"categories":[24898,31,24987],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-316068","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ai","category-blog-posts","category-saastr-ai"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/funding-in-the-time-of-corona-2-scaled.jpg?fit=1000%2C563&quality=70&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5oib2-1kdS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/Screenshot-2025-07-09-at-1.46.28\u202fPM-scaled.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316068","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316068"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316068\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":316071,"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316068\/revisions\/316071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316069"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316068"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316068"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saastr.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316068"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}