5 outbound lessons from Snowflake at $4b in ARR
Why outbound is their #1 growth engine
Read time: 4 min
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By early 2025, Snowflake hit $4 billion in ARR, growing 28% in just one year.
They added $900 million in new ARR during 2024 alone.
And guess what? Around 60% of their pipeline came from their SDR team.
Yep, outbound is doing the heavy lifting.
Now here’s the wild part:
They get a 36% meeting rate on ABM accounts. Compare that to just 10% on non-ABM.
That’s what happens when you have the right workflow and tight targeting.
So what’s on the menu today?
5 outbound lessons from Snowflake, and how you can use them with your team.
Even if you’re not a $4B company. You don’t need their budget or their team size.
You just need to learn their playbook.
Let’s break it down.
1. Snowflake SDRs Only Work Warm Accounts from ABM
What they do:
SDRs don’t waste time on cold outreach. They only reach out after ABM warm-up accounts.
Why it works:
By the time an SDR reaches out, the buyer has seen an ad, clicked a resource, or visited the site. It’s not a cold call, the account is already familiar with Snowflake, and how they can help them. Which makes the conversation easier.
How you can apply this with your marketing team:
Use ads/webinars/content to warm accounts before outbound
Track website visits (use Albacross, Leadfeeder, or Hubspot).
Send outreach after clear engagement.
2. Real-Time Scoring: Lead Data Updates Every 2 Hours
What they do:
Snowflake pulls fresh engagement data from Outreach every two hours. Leads are re-scored and reprioritized automatically.
Why it works:
SDRs never chase stale leads. Their CRM is a living, breathing system, not a graveyard.
How you can apply this (without engineers):
Refresh intent + firmographic data weekly (ZoomInfo, Clay, etc.).
Use tools like Clay to automate enrichment and scoring workflows.
Prioritize based on real engagement, not CRM notes from 2022.
3. One GTM Team: Sales, SDR, and Marketing Run As One
What they do:
No silos. No fighting over MQLs (because they don't use MQLs but an account funnel). Sales, SDR, and marketing operate with one shared playbook:
→ Collaboration → Intelligence → Activation → Engagement → Optimization.
Why it works:
Everyone sees the same data, works the same accounts, and uses the same message. The buyer gets a cohesive experience.
How you can apply this:
Agree on ONE shared list of accounts.
Align on roles: who warms, who contacts, who closes.
Run weekly GTM standups. Same account funnel. Same goals.
4. Action Boards Over Dashboards
What they do:
Instead of dashboards with pretty dashboards, Snowflake builds “Action Boards”, pages that tell SDRs and BDRs what to do next.
Why it works:
Reps aren’t guessing. They log in and know:
“These 5 accounts are showing some interest (How and why). Here’s who to call. Here’s what to say.”
Way better than sending too much information.
How you can apply this:
Build a board that surfaces: Website visitors, Ad clickers, Content downloaders, the intent
Include: account name, persona, recent action, suggested message
👉 If your team has to interpret the data, they’ll ignore it.
5. Generative AI to cut SDR ramp time
Denise Persson, Snowflake’s CMO, shared how generative AI is boosting their outbound SDR team’s productivity in a big way.
Snowflake has around 300 SDRs, with an average tenure of just 15 months before they move up to inside sales or other roles. This means they need to hire roughly 200 new SDRs every year.
To keep up, they run monthly cohorts in their Sales Development Academy, onboarding new SDRs constantly. With so many fresh hires, creating effective emails and outreach content can be a challenge.
This is where AI steps in. Snowflake uses generative AI to help SDRs craft better messages
Why it works:
Their SDRs using AI are doubling their meeting rates.
How you can apply this:
Use ChatGPT or Perplexity to research your accounts
Then use again ChatGPT or Perplexity to write your outbound messaging
If you're curious about how Snowflake scaled outbound to $4B ARR, I wrote a detailed breakdown of exactly how they did it.
If you’re a founder or GTM leader building from scratch:
Don’t copy Snowflake’s size.
Copy their system.
What's your biggest takeaway from this list?
Let's get cooking!
See you in the next newsletter.
👨🍳 Elric
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