Reports and Guides

The SDR Manager’s AI Coaching Suite Playbook

Adam Sockel

“I’ve tried other AI roleplay tools, and Orum’s is top tier. It’s built right into the platform alongside the dialer, the scenarios feel real (honestly, harder than live calls), and my reps are ramping faster without needing me on every call.” - Nick Sproul, Sales Development Leader, Idomoo

How to Lead, Develop, and Retain Top Talent with Orum’s AI Tools

Modern sales leadership is as much about developing people as it is about hitting numbers. Yet most SDR managers are pulled in a hundred directions, juggling pipeline meetings, hiring, onboarding, and performance reviews while still needing to coach effectively. Orum’s AI Coaching Suite is designed to give managers the time, insight, and structure to do what they do best: lead.

As Kolbie Knorr put it, the suite is not here to replace managers or reps. It is here to empower them. “It gives managers more confidence when giving feedback to reps while empowering the rep to own their own career growth and track progress with more visibility into how they are performing.”

Colin Specter agrees. “All of our product design keeps the salesperson front and center. Just like Orum solved getting reps into more conversations than they ever could before, we are now focused on giving you more coaching and feedback than you ever thought possible.”

“I’ve always coached my team, but Orum’s AI coaching suite gave me the speed and clarity to do it way more effectively. It’s like I could be everywhere at once and still focus where it mattered most.”

Chad Sjursen

Director of Business Development, Yottaa

This playbook breaks down how SDR managers can integrate the AI Coaching Suite into their leadership routines for maximum team performance and development.

Step 1: Shift the Mindset from Monitoring to Empowering

Why it matters:AI is not here to take your role. It is here to give you leverage. By reframing the suite as a coaching amplifier rather than a monitoring tool, you help your team view it as a partner in their development, rather than a compliance measure.

How to do it:

In team meetings, explicitly position the suite as a development resource.
Share how it gives reps more control over their growth, with insights they can act on without waiting for weekly 1:1s.
Reinforce that you still lead the coaching process, but now with richer data and more frequent opportunities to give feedback.

Step 2: Create a Daily Coaching Cadence with AI roleplay

Why it matters:Reps perform better when they are warmed up and confident before hitting the phones. AI Roleplay lets them practice live scenarios without risking real opportunities, which means they come into calls sharper and ready.

How to do it as a manager:

Block 20–30 minutes before call blocks for your reps to run roleplays, focusing on one priority objection or talk track at a time.
Join these sessions occasionally to give live feedback or to set the challenge of the day.
Encourage reps to use roleplay as their “game day warm-up” and track how it impacts their early-block performance.

Step 3: Use AI Scorecards to Drive Data-Backed Feedback

Why it matters: Managers cannot listen to every call. AI Scorecards surface the most important ones to review, highlighting what is working and pinpointing areas to improve.

How to do it:

At the end of each day, pick two high-scoring and two low-scoring calls for each rep to review.
Ask reps to come to their next 1:1 ready to share what they learned from those calls.
Use AI’s breakdown of each stage in the conversation to guide your feedback and focus on the patterns, not isolated mistakes.

Step 4: Leverage the AI Coaching Portal for Strategic Insights

Why it matters: While scorecards give you call-by-call analysis, the Coaching Portal gives you the big picture. You can see trends across reps, identify coaching themes, and tailor your team development plan accordingly.

How to do it:

Check the portal weekly for team-wide trends.
Compare your own observations with AI recommendations to confirm priorities or spot blind spots.
Use this to set the theme for your weekly team training (for example, “overcoming budget objections” if that is trending low).

Step 5: Build AE-Readiness into SDR Development

Why it matters: Top SDRs are always thinking about the next step. By exposing them early to AE-level conversations, you build skill sets that not only improve SDR performance but also prepare them for internal promotion.

How to do it:

Use the Salesfloor and Live Stream features to let SDRs listen in on demos, negotiations, and pilots.
Debrief what they heard and discuss how those strategies can apply to top-of-funnel calls. SDRs can then use the AI Roleplay to go practice those exact calls and feel what its like to be in the driver's seat.
Track participation in these sessions as part of your talent development metrics.

Step 6: Make Adaptability a Core Competency

Colin Specter emphasized that the strongest competency in today’s sales market is the ability to adapt to market changes, technology shifts, and evolving talk tracks.

How to do it:

Use AI insights to identify when certain objections or openers are losing effectiveness.
Coach your team to update talk tracks proactively instead of waiting for performance to dip.
Share “what is working now” weekly and retire outdated approaches quickly.

Step 7: Turn AI Data into Team Wins

Why it matters: When coaching becomes a collaborative process rather than a top-down critique, engagement rises, and reps adopt changes faster.

How to do it:

Highlight wins from scorecards and roleplays in team meetings.
Celebrate individual improvements, not just top results.
Keep a shared “playbook” document that evolves weekly based on AI-driven insights and rep feedback.

“AI roleplay isn’t a nice-to-have; it’s a must-have. It helps us stay ahead and lets our reps work through mistakes in private before going live. And we’re just getting started.”

Kelly licthenberger

VP of Sales Development, HiBob

Action Plan for SDR Managers

Daily

Encourage 20–30 minutes of AI roleplay before call blocks.Have reps review two top and two bottom scorecards and send you their takeaways.

Weekly

Review AI Coaching Portal for team trends.
Set a weekly skill theme based on portal data.
Schedule at least one AE-level call observation session.

Monthly

Analyze improvement trends from scorecards and portal data.
Recognize top improvers and share their approaches with the team.
Update the team playbook with fresh tactics and talk tracks.

The AI Coaching Suite is your partner in scaling personalized coaching without losing the human touch. It frees you from chasing down every call and instead equips you to focus on high-impact coaching moments.

Managers who integrate these tools into their daily leadership rhythm will not only develop stronger SDRs but also retain top talent and build a bench of AE-ready sellers.