How broken internal trust is killing your BDR performance

Walk into any sales floor (or Slack channel) and you’ll find them: the BDRs.

Hustling. Dialling. Sequencing. Smiling through rejection.

They are the first line of attack in your revenue strategy. They’re the ones opening doors and starting conversations. And yet, many of them are quietly burning out, missing targets, or faking enthusiasm on Riverside recordings.

What’s going wrong?

It could be the market, the tech stack, or the messaging.

But most of the time, it’s trust.

And no, not buyer trust. We're talking about internal trust. The kind between leadership and reps. Between marketing and sales. Between the business and the people who are expected to book meetings out of thin air.

Let’s break it down.

BDRs are losing faith

Trust, the cornerstone of any meaningful relationship, is conspicuously absent in many sales interactions. It’s a rather “spoken” truth that buyers harbour scepticism towards sales representatives, often viewing them as self-serving rather than solution-oriented. Authenticity can be a rare commodity these days, but as riveting as the first sentences we put out earlier, can you believe this is an even bigger problem internally? 

In a 2025 survey by Cognism, 45% of BDRs said their biggest challenge was bad data. Imagine being asked to find gold with a faulty metal detector and a spreadsheet from 2018. That’s what most BDRs are working with.

Add to that:

• Recycled messaging that doesn’t match what the product actually does
  
  
• Target lists that make no sense
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• “Coaching” sessions that feel more like performance reviews

It’s demoralising and overall disorienting. And eventually, it becomes clear:

 “They don’t trust me to do my job. So why should I trust them to help me succeed?”

The bigger picture: In a bid to meet ambitious targets and cover inefficiencies (such as a lack of high-quality data), some companies resort to aggressive outbound strategies. An analysis of 50,000 outbound campaigns revealed a direct correlation between aggressive prospecting and declining brand trust. Alarmingly, 71% of consumers report negative brand perceptions following such outreach efforts. These attempts often backfire and roll into one inconvenient truth: Only 2% of cold calls result in booked meetings.

A refresher on ‘trust’ and its functionality

Trust isn’t some soft, squishy thing you throw into company values to sound nice. When we’re talking about high-velocity sales, trust IS THE infrastructure.

• When BDRs trust leadership, they bring their best ideas forward.
• When they trust the data, they don’t second-guess the call list.
• When they trust the message, they deliver it with conviction.
• When they trust marketing, they actually use the content.

Trust removes friction. And friction is the enemy of pipeline. BDRs who feel trusted and supported don’t just “feel good”—they perform better. In organisations where reps report high levels of psychological safety, sales productivity increases by over 27%, according to a study published in the Harvard Business Review.

That’s not fluff. That’s revenue.

How do you rebuild it?

You can’t A/B test your way out of a trust problem, but you can start here: 

1. Make your data their superpower, not their blindfold.
   Invest in robust data management systems to ensure BDRs have access to accurate, enriched, and intelligently segmented prospect information.
   
   
2. Prioritse quality over quantity (sometimes).
   Shift focus from sheer outreach volume to meaningful engagements, recognising that personalised interactions yield better results.

3. Give context, not just KPIs.
   Explain why you're targeting a segment and let them in on the product roadmap. Tell them what worked and what didn't in past campaigns.
   
   
4. Celebrate learning, not just wins.
   A booked meeting is great. But a well-documented “no” with insight? That’s what you should be aiming for. Build a culture where curiosity beats compliance.
   
   
5. Stop pretending outbound is dead.
   It’s not. It’s just bad when it’s boring. Coach creativity. Encourage boldness. Equip them with ongoing training, emphasising active listening and consultative selling techniques to build genuine rapport with prospects.
   
   
6. Treat BDRs like strategists, not task rabbits.
   Ask for their input, trust their judgement, and create space for them to shape the approach.

When your BDRs trust you, you get more than just booked meetings. You get insight, momentum, and loyalty. Because at the end of the day, trust doesn’t just close the gap between you and your prospects. It closes the gap between you and your people.

See how trust powers our world-class BDR teams, and what that could mean for your pipeline. Let’s talk soon!

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