Sales Development Manager

Athlete To Athlete; Santa Monica (CA); On-site; USD 100,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Equity grant

Job summary

Athlete to Athlete is transitioning youth athletes with Division 1 mentors to help them build confidence and steer their athletic journeys. We are hiring a Sales Development Manager to lead SDRs, drive growth, and partner with the AE team to ensure smooth handoffs.

The on-site role in Santa Monica, CA focuses on coaching, playbook creation, and fostering a high-performance sales culture that scales quickly while remaining human-first.

Qualifications

• 5+ years in sales, including time leading SDRs/inside sales teams.
• Track record of hitting targets through coaching and process.
• Experience hiring, onboarding, and ramping early-career salespeople.

Responsibilities

• Own team targets for qualified meetings, show rates, and pipeline contribution.
• Recruit, interview, hire, and ramp SDRs with a fast onboarding plan.
• Coach daily with live call listening, reviews, role plays, and development plans.
• Build and iterate SDR playbook: talk tracks, qualification framework, messaging, and sequences.
• Run daily cadence: huddles, activity tracking, and CRM hygiene.
• Collaborate with AE Manager on lead routing and no-show reduction; ensure complete notes.
• Work with Marketing and Sales Ops on lead scoring and tooling to maximize family conversations.
• Report to Head of Sales on pipeline, performance, and improvements.
• Identify and develop future Team Lead and Account Executives from within the team.

Skills

Sales leadership

Coaching

CRM proficiency

Outbound prospecting

Inbound prospecting

Dashboard reporting

Tools

CRM systems

Dialers

Sales engagement tools

Job description

About Athlete To Athlete
Athlete to Athlete pairs youth athletes with current Division 1 college athletes who play their sport and have already walked the road they're on. Our mentors don't just run drills — they help young athletes build confidence, find their path, and take real ownership of their game.
Our mission is to unlock every athlete's potential by connecting them with those who've lived it. Our vision is a world where every athlete rises and lifts the next.
We're a venture-backed, fast-growing sports technology company based in Santa Monica, and we run the way we coach: human-first, tech-forward, and built on the same values we ask of our athletes — Meaningful Connections, Coachable, Pathfinders, Teamwork, and Resilience.
About The Role
The Sales Development Manager leads the team that opens every door for us. You'll hire, coach, and run our Sales Development Representatives — known to families as Program Advisors — whose job is to reach inbound leads fast, qualify them in one conversation, and book Program Planning Calls onto our Account Executives' calendars.
We're scaling this team quickly, and you'll be building it: the playbook, the cadences, the daily rhythm, and the culture. You'll spend most of your day on the floor — listening to calls, running huddles, coaching reps in the moment — and you'll own the number of qualified meetings the team delivers every week.
You report to the Head of Sales and partner closely with the Account Executive Manager to keep the handoff between the two teams clean and the feedback loop honest.
This is an on-site position based in Santa Monica, CA.
Key Responsibilities

• Own the team's weekly and monthly qualified-meeting targets, show rates, and meeting-to-close contribution.
• Recruit, interview, hire, and ramp SDRs on an aggressive growth plan. Build the onboarding that gets a new rep productive in weeks, not months.
• Coach daily. Live call listening, recorded call reviews, role plays, and one-on-ones with clear development plans for every rep.
• Build and iterate the SDR playbook: talk tracks, qualification framework, objection handling, texting and email sequences, and disposition standards.
• Run the daily operating cadence — morning huddles, activity tracking, end-of-day reviews — and hold the team to high standards on volume, speed-to-lead, and CRM hygiene.
• Partner with the AE Manager on lead routing, meeting quality, and no-show reduction. Make sure every booked call arrives with complete notes.
• Work with Marketing and Sales Ops on lead scoring, sequences, and tooling so reps spend their time talking to families, not fighting systems.
• Report clearly to the Head of Sales on pipeline created, team performance, and what's working or not.
• Identify and develop your next Team Lead and future Account Executives from within the team.
  

Qualifications
We care about how you lead as much as what you've done. The ideal candidate has carried a phone quota, then built and coached a team that beat one.
Required

• 5+ years in sales, including at least 1 year managing or leading SDRs, BDRs, or an inside sales team.
• A track record of hitting team targets through coaching and process.
• Experience hiring, onboarding, and ramping early-career salespeople at pace.
• Strong command of outbound and inbound prospecting mechanics: cadences, speed-to-lead, qualification, disposition discipline.
• Fluent with CRM systems, dialers, and sales engagement tools; comfortable building reports and reading a dashboard.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
  

What Will Make You Successful

• You coach, you don't just manage. Your reps get measurably better every month, and they can tell you exactly what you're working on with them.
• You build. You'd rather create the playbook than inherit one, and you're comfortable when the process doesn't exist yet.
• You're on the floor. You lead from the middle of the room, not from a conference call.
• You're competitive. You keep score for the team and you take a miss personally.
• You're resilient. Early-career reps struggle, quit, and surprise you. You reset and keep the standard high.
• You're a teammate. You want the AEs to win as much as your own team, and you build that into how SDRs work.
• You're taking ownership. The team's number is your number.
  

Nice to Have

• Competitive athletic background, you've been coached hard and you know how to coach.
• Experience in high-velocity consumer sales (education, youth programs, fitness, coaching, insurance, or similar).
• Experience standing up an SDR team from a small group to a large one.
• Passion for youth and college sports.
  

Why Join Athlete to Athlete

• Build a sales development team from the ground up at one of the fastest-growing sports technology companies in the country.
• Lead a product you'll believe in: every meeting your team books puts a young athlete one step closer to a mentor who's lived their path.
• Work directly with the Head of Sales and the CEO on how the go-to-market engine gets built.
• Develop the next generation of sellers, many of your SDRs will become the company's AEs and leaders.
• Earn meaningful equity alongside a high-growth startup.
  

Athlete to Athlete is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to providing a workplace free from discrimination and harassment. We do not discriminate on the basis of legally protected characteristics under applicable federal, state or local law.
Athlete to Athlete is also committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified candidates and employees with disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation during the application or interview process, please let the recruiter know.
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses and identifying potential inconsistencies or verification signals in application materials based on available information. These tools assist our recruitment team but does not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.

• $100,000 base salary plus variable compensation tied to team performance.
• Target OTE: $120,000 in Year 1.
• Equity grant.
• Clear promotion path to Senior Manager, with a director track for leaders who scale with the team.