The Outbound Reckoning: Why Even Inbound-First Businesses Need a Serious BDR Motion in 2026

I spent 3 hours with Jason Cohen and Jonathan Sturgeon on a podcast last night, getting drilled on operations, GTM, M&A valuations, and other areas from the viewpoint of an 8-figure operator (Jon) and a 2-times unicorn exiter (Jason).

Like I told Jason a week before the call, “I enjoy being the dumbest person in the room”.

Any deep dive for any business inevitably pulls skeletons from the closet – something I see 25-30 times a year during due diligence audits and revops assessments. Documentation is scarce, dashboards show unexplainable KPIs, awkward processes working in mysterious ways and so on.

(Some pushbacks missing context too which is normal).

Some comments caught me off guard – and critical thinking/deep analysis does that (this is why we work with mentors, advisors, therapists – introspection is only natural).

What TRULY bedazzled me is the loud “red alert” on “you don’t have enough hungry BDRs/SDRs calling/emailing all the time”. And 10% of headcount as a bare minimum to survival in the service ecosystem on outbound alone.

Yes, we have an FTE BDR. And yes, the executive team is selling too. We have a couple of external/fractional people in that function. And apparently, this is barely scratching the surface in 2026.

Organic no longer works the same. No SEO. AI SEO is… weird. Sales cycles are longer (4-5 months to a year nowadays). With layoffs and shorter hiring, job hopping is less frequent, hence fewer referrals/intros.

Social/newsletters are abandoned. And even paid ads are often falling on deaf years (we see Google ads not performing and LinkedIn outright dead).

So even in inbound-first businesses (speaking from experience with nearly 15 years of 90%+ inbound), strong BDR motion is non-negotiable – both calls and emails.

Some channels never get old.