What you'll get
- 2 copy-ready blocks
- 5 min read
A weekly SDR one-to-one has one structural enemy: the pipeline review eating the whole half hour. This template caps the numbers at five minutes, because they were in the tracker all week, and spends the rest where a manager is actually irreplaceable: blockers, coaching and the market's feedback. Five parts, 30 minutes, same order every week.
The agenda
1. The four numbers (5 min)
Accounts worked, real replies, people mapped, next steps dated,
against last week. Trend, not blame. Anything odd gets a question,
not a verdict.
2. The stuck list (8 min)
Rep brings two accounts they are stuck on. Manager brings one from
the tracker the rep did not mention. Each leaves with a move:
a new person, a new angle or an honest park.
3. Coaching (10 min)
One call or one written thread, reviewed together against the
rubric. Ends with THE one change for next week, written down.
4. What the market said (4 min)
Patterns from the week's replies and calls: objections recurring,
a message dying, a segment waking up. This is where the team's
playbook gets its edits.
5. The two-way close (3 min)
Manager: "what do you need from me this week?" and the answer gets
a deadline. Rep hears last week's ask answered first.Why the numbers get five minutes, not twenty
Because the four numbers (the same ones the SDR daily plan logs at 15:45) are a trend, and trends need no meeting: both of you can read them Monday morning. The meeting exists for what numbers cannot carry: why Calder went quiet, whether the new opener is working, what "we already have a vendor" is really hiding this month. A one-to-one that re-reads the dashboard is a meeting that could have been a glance at the weekly dashboard.
The six questions that surface problems early
Rotate two or three a week into parts 2 and 4:
1. "Which account do you least want to talk about?" (that one, then)
2. "What are you doing this week that feels like work but probably
is not?"
3. "Which message are you sending that you would not reply to?"
4. "Where did you follow the cadence when you should have broken it?"
5. "What has changed in what prospects say back, even slightly?"
6. "If you owned the list, which ten accounts would you drop?"Question 1 finds the avoided account before it stalls. Question 6 is the quiet list-quality audit, and reps are usually right.
The coaching slot
Part 3 is the call review rubric in miniature: one artefact, scored by both, one change agreed. The discipline that makes it compound is checking last week's change first. A change that did not stick is not a failure; it is this week's coaching topic, already diagnosed.
Worked example (illustrative, not a real company)
A Tessaro Analytics manager runs the template with their SDR on Tuesdays. Week one: numbers fine, but question 1 surfaces Northfield Logistics, avoided since a cold reply from the finance lead. The move agreed: approach the operations director instead, with the forwardable note. Part 4 logs that three prospects this week said "we are frozen until the budget resets", which becomes a January re-engagement list nobody had planned. The ask upward: faster feedback on drafted emails, deadline Wednesday. Twenty-eight minutes. All names are invented.
Five mistakes to avoid
- Letting the tracker run the meeting. If part 1 regularly overruns, the real problem is tracker hygiene, and that is a daily habit to fix, not a meeting agenda.
- Bringing only the manager's stuck accounts. The rep's two choices reveal where they think the difficulty lives, which is half the diagnosis.
- Coaching three things. The one-change rule from the rubric applies here doubly: a one-to-one that ends with five improvement areas ends with none.
- Skipping part 5. The two-way close is what makes it a one-to-one rather than a review. A manager who never gets asked for anything is not being used, and reps notice whether last week's ask got done.
- Cancelling when the week is busy. The busy weeks are the ones where the stuck list and the market feedback are most valuable. Shrink it to 15 minutes before you skip it.
Why this works on named accounts
Common questions
What should a weekly SDR one-to-one cover?
Five parts in 30 minutes: the four account numbers as a trend, two or three stuck accounts with a move agreed for each, one piece of coaching ending in a single change, what the market said back this week and a two-way close where the manager takes an action too.
How is a one-to-one different from a pipeline review?
A pipeline review inspects accounts and can happen in the tracker; a one-to-one develops the person working them. The numbers open the meeting for context, then the time goes to blockers, skill and market signal, which are the things no dashboard shows and no async update carries.
What questions should a manager ask an SDR each week?
Questions that lower the cost of honesty: which account do you least want to discuss, what feels like work but is not, which of your own messages would you ignore, what would you drop from the list. The answers surface stalls, dead messaging and list rot weeks before the numbers do.
More from the Academy
SDR Daily Plan
For SDRs and their managers tired of days that end busy and empty.
You leave with an hour-by-hour plan built around named accounts, two protected call blocks and the four numbers worth logging at the end of each day.
SDR Call Review Rubric
For managers who review calls by vibe and reps who dread it.
You leave with a ten-line rubric scored 0-1-2, a 30-minute weekly review format and the one-change rule that makes scores move.
Outbound Weekly Dashboard
For teams that review outbound on feelings and anecdotes.
You leave with a paste-in weekly dashboard on the five account KPIs, a 20-minute review agenda and a reading guide for when a line flattens.
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