Hello, I’m Sam Tidy, and I’ve recently joined Adapt IQ as a Business Development Manager.
You might already be familiar with Adapt IQ. As a SI Partner, we work across financial services, manufacturing, automotive, energy, and local government. I’m currently getting up to speed on some of our recent projects with organisations like JLR, Western Union, and Lightsource BP.
I’m here to generate new logo opportunities and build a genuine partnership with you that ultimately leads to pipeline. The bulk of how I’ll do that is through building and scaling an outbound engine and a team that fuels it. My goal is run the best partner BDR team Salesforce has.
I’ve been in outbound sales for a while, and I thought I’d share my take on the mindset, the framework, and the future of this role I have a passion for.
...just like in sport, you’re constantly dealing with rejection. You’re operating in uncertainty. You need resilience, consistency, and discipline.
The Mindset: Becoming an “Outbound Athlete”
There are literally hundreds of reasons that CRM implementations fail (either in the implementation or post-implementation through poor adoption). Common themes include…
Picking up the phone. Starting a conversation. Finding an opportunity where none existed before.
And if I’m honest, I also love the fact that some people hate it. They fear it, avoid it, or don’t believe in it. “You cold call…? No. I couldn’t do that”. That’s always been part of the appeal.
I’ve always been competitive too. Growing up immersed in football, I hated losing and still do. I’m a passionate supporter of Birmingham City and a bang average Sunday league player, so you could say my competitive streak is strong.
There are similarities between sport and outbound and as strange as it sounds, I consider the BDR role as an “outbound athlete.”
Because just like in sport, you’re constantly dealing with rejection. You’re operating in uncertainty. You need resilience, consistency, and discipline.
Strategy Over Activity Equals Quality Wins
One of the biggest misconceptions I’ve heard about outbound is that more activity equals more success. Often, the opposite is true. The best BDR’s aren’t just making the most dials, they’re contacting the right prospects across platforms, at the right time.
When I first started doing outbound sales it was very much blind dialling. I used to smile and make 100 dials a day. But in my new role at Adapt IQ, our approach is different. We’re using a structured framework and I’m still smiling.
It starts with aligning closely with you on priority accounts. From there, I take the time to understand the personas within those accounts – what they care about, what they’re responsible for, and where the friction points are.
Then it’s about identifying real business triggers. Things like leadership changes, expansion plans, product launches, or shifts in the market.
From there, I build messaging that speaks directly to their pain points, the business impact of those triggers, and the consequences of not addressing them. And if I’m doing it right, it creates FOMO (fear of missing out), the conversation becomes “let me show you what you’re not seeing today” instead of “can I show you a demo”.
For me, it’s about creating enough value and curiosity that the prospect wants to join the call. We’ve all had meetings drop or no-shows—sometimes something more urgent does come up. But the goal is to get them thinking, “I’m looking forward to this because I’m going to learn something and get value from it”.
Working in business development isn’t activity for activity’s sake. We’re here to create real value using strategic prospecting and commercial awareness.
Of course, consistency is still important but it’s about being intentional, curious and strategic, because that is what builds the pipe and books the meeting.
If you’d like to partner and work on accounts, feel free to drop me a message.