33: How to Scale an Outbound SDR Team in 2026: ICP Math, Hiring, and What AI Changes, with Florin Tatulea, GTM Engineer at ZoomInfo

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Florin Tatulea is GTM Engineer in Residence at ZoomInfo, where he builds the AI agents and workflows behind modern outbound. He was Loopio's first sales hire, on the team that grew revenue 65x in six years, and he built the outbound engine at Common Room, where he 4x'd the SDR team, grew monthly outbound pipeline 20x, and sourced seven figures in outbound revenue. He writes Prospecting from the Trenches, and he treats outbound as a system to design, not a headcount number to fill.

We discuss:

• The top-down headcount math that quietly over-hires outbound teams
• TAM vs SAM, and why the real number was 6,000 accounts, not 30,000
• Why you don't need an SDR before $1M ARR or product-market fit
• Hiring two SDRs at once to separate the person from the process
• The four things Florin looks for in a first SDR, and how he vets curiosity
• Building the team like a sports team, with complementary skill sets
• What AI and GTM engineering actually change about the team you build
• Why Anthropic, OpenAI, and Clay are still hiring SDRs

Referenced:

• Prospecting from the Trenches (Florin's newsletter): salesflo.substack.com
• Florin Tatulea on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/florintatulea/
• ZoomInfo: zoominfo.com
• Hyperbound (AI roleplay, Florin is an advisor)

When you're ready
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Chapters:(00:00) Intro: who is Florin Tatulea(01:29) The episode outline(02:21) Where the scaling math breaks(04:55) TAM vs SAM: 30,000 accounts or 6,000?(09:23) What CROs and CMOs get wrong next(13:06) Why you don't need an SDR before $1M ARR(16:25) Hire two SDRs, not one(19:17) What to look for in your first SDRs(22:00) How to actually vet for curiosity(24:53) The prospecting homework task(28:14) Build the team like a sports team(32:55) A better way to interview for passion(35:43) Vetting coachability on a live cold call(38:46) What changed in 2026: AI and GTM engineering(42:18) Why the best AI companies still hire SDRs(46:13) The best AI use cases for SDR teams(51:45) Automating the deal handoff(53:08) Q&A: trade-show lists with Claude Code(54:44) Where to find Florin