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A few weeks ago, I saw this question from a VP of marketing at a Series B company:
Imagine a world with AEs who close and BDRs who fill pipe. If there isn’t enough pipeline coming through, would the AEs start prospecting? Even if the BDRs are ALSO prospecting? I’m concerned about multiple stakeholders in the business reaching out to the same buying committee with the exact same messaging.
It’s a good question.
But here’s the mistake I often see when companies aren’t generating enough pipeline:
They jump to a solution before understanding the problem.
You might hear recommendations like:
Hire more BDRs.
Buy more prospecting tools.
Ask your AEs to start prospecting.
Any of those could be the right decision.
But how do you know which one will actually help?
If your existing BDRs aren’t producing enough pipeline, hiring more might just make the problem more expensive.
If your AEs are already spending most of their time managing opportunities, adding prospecting without changing their workflow might not produce the results you expect.
And if your BDRs and AEs are contacting the same accounts without coordinating, you could end up creating more activity without creating more opportunities.
Before you change anything, you need to understand what’s limiting your pipeline production.
Here’s how I’d approach it:
1. Start with your actual pipeline gap
Before deciding whether to hire more BDRs or involve your AEs in prospecting, you need to understand two things:
Pipeline production: How much qualified pipeline can your business actually generate through marketing, outbound, and other sources?
Sales capacity: How much pipeline can your AE team realistically work and convert into revenue?
These are two different problems.
And I’ve worked with companies that made assumptions about both.
1.1. The AE side: Who’s going to create their pipeline?
At one company I worked with, the planning went something like this:
“We need $5 million in ARR. Each AE carries around $600k in quota. That means we need eight or nine AEs. Let’s hire them.”
On paper, the math makes sense.
But there’s a missing piece.
Where is the pipeline for those eight or nine AEs going to come from?
You can hire enough AEs to cover your revenue target, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have enough opportunities for them to close.
And that’s before accounting for the time it takes to recruit and ramp those AEs.
In our case, the company didn’t have the pipeline production to support the planned team.
The hiring plan explained how much revenue the AEs were expected to close. It didn’t explain how marketing or outbound would generate enough opportunities for them.
And if your AEs are expected to create some of their own pipeline, that needs to be part of the plan too.
This is something Matt Plank and Mark Roberge discuss in Science of Scaling podcast episode.
Increasing your sales capacity only works when you have enough demand generation capacity to support it.
1.2. The SDR side: What are your existing reps actually producing?
I had another conversation with a CEO who was planning for the following year’s revenue target.
They had three SDRs and wanted to hire eight more.
So I asked a simple question:
“How many meetings are your existing SDRs booking?”
Zero.
Now, hiring eight more SDRs might eventually make sense.
But before making that investment, wouldn’t you want to understand why the current three aren’t booking meetings?
Because if you haven’t figured out how to make outbound work with three SDRs, what makes you confident it’ll work with eleven?
I call this the Headcount Trap.
It’s when you calculate how many SDRs you need based on your revenue target without first establishing what your existing SDRs can realistically produce.
There are two very different situations:
Situation A: You haven’t found a repeatable outbound motion.
Your team isn’t consistently generating qualified opportunities.
You might still be figuring out which accounts to target, which personas to reach, what messaging works, or how to build conversations.
In that situation, hiring more SDRs to execute the same approach probably isn’t your first priority.
You need to establish a working outbound motion.
Situation B: You already have a repeatable outbound motion.
Your SDRs consistently generate qualified opportunities. You know what works, what each rep produces, and what it costs to acquire customers.
Now adding more capacity could make sense.
The difference is important.
In Stage 2 Capital’s Science of Scaling, Mark Roberge describes GTM fit as acquiring and retaining customers consistently and scalably, with strong unit economics.
I apply a similar principle to outbound.
Before scaling your outbound team, you want evidence that you can repeatedly:
Reach the right ICP accounts.
Start relevant conversations.
Convert those conversations into qualified opportunities.
Eventually turn those opportunities into customers at an acceptable acquisition cost.
Booking meetings is an early indicator. It isn’t proof that the entire motion works.
If you haven’t established that yet, I’d start with the fundamentals:
Identify which accounts and personas are most likely to become customers.
Figure out why those people would have a reason to engage.
Test different channels, messaging, and prospecting approaches.
Coach the team and document what’s actually working.
Measure qualified opportunities and pipeline, not just activities or meetings.
Once you start seeing repeatable results, you have a better basis for estimating what another SDR could contribute.
You might need to hire someone experienced to build that motion. But that’s a different investment from hiring eight more SDRs to execute it.
1.3. Put actual production next to your revenue target
Before moving forward, here are five questions I’d want you to answer:
How many qualified opportunities do you need to reach your revenue target, based on current deal sizes and win rates?
How many qualified opportunities are marketing, SDRs, and AEs actually creating today?
How much qualified pipeline does each fully ramped SDR produce?
How much opportunity volume can your AE team realistically manage?
When will improvements or new hires begin producing results, after accounting for ramp time and your sales cycle?
Make sure you’re using consistent definitions and comparing equivalent periods and segments.
You don’t need a perfect forecast.
You need to understand what’s already working, where the gap is, and which assumptions you haven’t proven yet.
That tells you whether you’re trying to build a motion, improve an existing one, or add more capacity.
2. Find out what’s limiting your current BDR team
Now that you understand the gap, the next question is:
Can your existing team generate more pipeline before you hire more people?
There are a few areas I’d investigate.
2.1. Are your BDRs actually at their production ceiling?
Let’s say your BDRs are booking 15 qualified meetings per month.
Is 15 their maximum?
Could they book 20? Or 25?
And could they do it while maintaining the same meeting quality?
The mistake is assuming that what your reps currently produce is the most they can produce.
Before hiring more SDRs, look at how your existing team spends its time.
For example:
How much of their day goes toward actual prospecting?
How much time do they spend on manual work that could be automated?
Are they targeting the right ICP accounts and people?
How many meaningful conversations are they having?
Which channels are they using, and where are they struggling to get responses?
The answers can point you toward very different problems.
If your reps spend hours researching accounts manually, better processes or AI might give them more time to prospect.
If they’re reaching the wrong accounts, more activity won’t necessarily help. You might need to revisit your targeting.
If they’re speaking with the right people but struggling to convert those conversations, I’d look at the messaging, qualification, and coaching.
The goal isn’t to increase activity for the sake of activity. It’s to identify what prevents your team from creating more qualified pipeline.
That’s when a new tool, better data, automation, or enablement can actually make a difference.
2.2. Are you missing opportunities to create pipeline?
Sometimes the issue isn’t that your team isn’t working hard enough.
It’s that they’re relying on too few ways to generate opportunities.
Here are three examples from conversations I’ve had.
Example 1: You’re relying on one prospecting channel.
A few months ago, I spoke with an SDR at a company doing around $60 million in ARR.
Their team was only sending cold emails.
No cold calls. No LinkedIn.
Now, that doesn’t automatically mean adding cold calls will solve their pipeline problem.
But it’s an obvious area worth testing.
Every channel has limitations.
If your team only uses email, you’re relying entirely on your ability to reach people through that channel.
And the same is true if your team only makes cold calls.
You might be leaving opportunities on the table by not testing other ways to reach your buyers.
Example 2: You’re treating every account the same.
In another conversation, an SDR at a company doing around $600 million in ARR told me their enterprise team was struggling with outbound.
I asked what they had tried.
They were doing plenty of cold outreach.
But they weren’t really prioritizing accounts based on existing relationships or previous engagement.
For example, they weren’t systematically prioritizing:
Past champions or product users who had moved to new ICP companies.
Relevant closed-lost opportunities worth revisiting.
These are accounts where you might already have context or a relationship that makes starting a conversation easier.
Instead of immediately asking your reps to do more prospecting, you could first help them decide who deserves their attention and why.
A priority list might be a better first experiment than a new tool or additional headcount.
Example 3: You’re limiting outbound to just booking demos.
Most outbound teams measure success through meetings booked.
And that makes sense. Meetings can be an important step toward creating pipeline.
But a demo isn’t the only way to start a commercial relationship.
For some clients I’ve worked with, we created pipeline by organizing dinners with target accounts.
These were sometimes companies that hadn’t responded to cold calls or emails.
A dinner gave us another way to start a conversation.
The same principle can apply to conferences, onsite visits, introductions, and other relevant interactions.
That doesn’t mean every SDR should start organizing events.
It means you should ask:
Are we giving ourselves enough ways to start conversations with the accounts we want to win?
Notice how different these examples are.
One team might need to test another channel.
Another might need better account prioritization.
And another might benefit from creating opportunities outside the traditional demo-booking motion.
All three have the same goal: more qualified pipeline.
But the solution is different because the bottleneck is different.
3. Should your AEs start prospecting too?
Now we can come back to the VP of Marketing’s original question.
If there isn’t enough pipeline, should your AEs prospect alongside your BDRs?
Yes, they can. But I wouldn’t automatically give your AEs a smaller version of your BDRs’ prospecting workflow.
There are two things I’d consider first.
3.1. Understand the culture change
I’ve worked with four companies where AEs were suddenly expected to start prospecting after years of not doing outbound.
And that change is bigger than it sounds.
If you’ve hired and managed your AEs primarily to run opportunities and close deals, you can’t assume they’ll immediately become productive prospectors because you’ve added outbound activity to their expectations.
Their managers need to reinforce those behaviours too.
Building that outbound culture can take months before you see meaningful results.
So if you’re planning for next quarter’s pipeline, don’t assume that asking AEs to prospect today will immediately close the gap.
3.2. Give your AEs a prospecting motion they can realistically execute
There are two common approaches.
Option A: BDRs primarily generate pipeline, while AEs focus on closing.
You can see versions of this model at companies like Snowflake, Rippling, and Owner.
Your BDRs focus on consistent outbound prospecting, while your AEs primarily focus on managing and closing opportunities.
Option B: Your BDRs and AEs both contribute to pipeline generation.
This can work too.
But it doesn’t mean they should both run the same sequences into the same accounts.
You need to define what each person contributes.
For example:
Your BDRs might focus on:
Identifying relevant contacts and gathering account intelligence.
Creating consistent prospecting coverage across target accounts.
Opening conversations through calls, emails, and LinkedIn.
Sharing what they learn with the AE.
Your AEs might focus on:
Working a smaller number of high-value accounts.
Using existing customer relationships, warm introductions, and executive connections.
Reconnecting with relevant closed-lost opportunities.
Creating opportunities through events, onsite visits, or focused outreach.
The exact division depends on your business and your accounts.
Sometimes your BDR might engage managers and users while your AE engages senior leadership.
Other times, your BDR might be the best person to reach an executive.
The important thing is that you’re not assigning responsibilities based on job titles alone.
You’re deciding who has the best opportunity to start a relevant conversation with each buyer.
3.3. Why giving AEs 20% of an SDR’s workload doesn’t necessarily work
Mark Kosoglow shared an experiment he ran at Outreach.
He wanted AEs to spend 20% of their time prospecting.
So he took the SDR activity requirements and reduced them accordingly.
The assumption was simple:
If an SDR does a certain amount of prospecting, an AE doing 20% of that activity should produce a proportional amount of pipeline.
But the approach failed twice.
What eventually worked was giving AEs a different assignment.
AEs and their managers selected ten accounts with substantial deal potential.
they built account plans around those opportunities.
That could include warm introductions, executive relationships, onsite visits, dinners, and other ways to engage people within the account.
Instead of asking AEs to behave like part-time SDRs, they designed a prospecting motion around what AEs could realistically do.
That’s the principle I’d take from this example.
Don’t assume your AEs will produce 20% of an SDR’s results by doing 20% of their activities.
Your AEs still have deals to manage, meetings to prepare for, proposals to work on, and customers to coordinate with.
If you want them to prospect, give them focused accounts, dedicated time, coaching, and clear expectations.
3.4. What if BDRs and AEs prospect into the same accounts?
This was the VP of Marketing’s biggest concern.
And it’s a legitimate one.
If you have a BDR and an AE contacting the same buying committee with the same messaging, you’re not necessarily increasing your chances of creating pipeline.
You might just be duplicating effort.
But the problem isn’t having two people working on the same account.
The problem is having two people working on the same account without a shared strategy.
Before they start prospecting, agree on:
Which stakeholders each person will contact.
What's the goal for each contact: getting intel? etc
Why their outreach is relevant to that particular buyer.
How they’ll share information and coordinate follow-ups.
What happens when someone responds or an opportunity is created.
Your BDR and AE can work toward the same goal without sending the same pitch to everyone.
And that’s what you want: coordinated account coverage, not duplicated prospecting.
4. When should you actually hire more SDRs?
After going through this diagnosis, hiring more SDRs might still be exactly the right decision.
I’m not against hiring.
But hiring is expensive.
You’ve got recruitment costs, ramp time, management time, tools, and enablement.
And if you’re hiring into a motion that isn’t working, those costs can grow without generating the pipeline you expected.
Before adding more SDRs to execute an existing motion, I’d want you to have evidence of three things.
1. Your outbound motion actually works.
Your existing team can repeatedly create qualified pipeline at acceptable economics.
You understand the expected production of a fully ramped rep.
2. You have enough opportunity to scale it.
There are enough ICP accounts in your market to support additional prospecting capacity.
You’re not just dividing the same small market across more SDRs.
3. You can support the additional team.
You have the management, coaching, processes, and resources needed to recruit, onboard, and ramp those SDRs.
And your forecasts account for ramp time, sales cycle, win rates, outbound deal sizes, and expected rep tenure.
If you don’t have those things yet, you might need to improve your existing system before increasing headcount.
Or you might need an experienced person who can build the outbound motion with your current team.
That’s a different hire from adding another SDR to execute an established process.
Also, don’t confuse the pipeline you need now with the capacity you’re building for later.
Hiring today doesn’t mean you’re generating more pipeline tomorrow.
The same applies to introducing AE prospecting.
Both take time before they contribute meaningfully to your revenue plan.
5. So what should you actually do next?
If you’re not generating enough pipeline, here’s how I’d think about the decision.
If your SDR team isn’t consistently producing qualified opportunities:
Start by figuring out why. You might need to establish outbound fit before adding more SDRs.
If your SDR team is producing pipeline but might be capable of more:
Look for bottlenecks in targeting, prioritization, workflows, channels, conversations, and conversion. Improve the existing motion before assuming you’ve reached its ceiling.
If you have a proven outbound motion and your team is already operating at sustainable capacity:
Now additional SDR headcount could be the right investment, assuming you have enough market opportunity and the resources to support it.
If your AEs can help create opportunities:
Give them a focused prospecting strategy that fits their responsibilities and coordinate their work with the BDR team.
These aren’t mutually exclusive. You might find more than one issue.
The point is to identify which bottleneck matters most and what you can realistically change.
Back to the original question
So yes, your AEs can prospect alongside your BDRs.
They can even work the same accounts.
But if I were working with that VP of Marketing, my first recommendation wouldn’t be to immediately change the prospecting responsibilities.
I’d bring the sales leader and BDR manager together and start with three questions:
What's the current gap?
What’s preventing our current team from producing more?
Which change is most likely to close that gap?
Maybe you need more SDRs.
Maybe you need to improve your existing team’s prospecting.
Maybe you need to introduce focused AE prospecting.
Or maybe you’re missing opportunities because you’re targeting the wrong accounts or relying on too few ways to create conversations.
You won’t know until you diagnose the bottleneck.
And that’s the lesson I want you to take away:
When you don’t have enough pipeline, don’t start by asking who else you should hire or what else your reps should do. Start by understanding why you don't have enough pipeline.
I hope this helps you get clearer on what to do when you’re not generating enough pipeline.
And if you’re struggling to figure out what to fix or build next, reply to this email.
Tell me what’s happening with your team, and I’m happy to help you figure out what I’d prioritize over the next 30 days.
Elric
P.S. This is also the kind of problem I’m building the Outbound Kitchen Membership to help you solve: understanding what’s limiting your outbound results, identifying what matters most, and getting a clearer roadmap for what to work on next.