What BDRs Know That Most AEs Forget | Carly Pledge, Head of Sales, Datamaran

Carly Pledge has led Sales Development and sales teams across CloudCall and Datamaran. In this conversation, she talks about what BDR culture actually teaches sales leaders, why the transition from top performer to manager is one of the most misunderstood moves in a commercial career, and how community can be one of the most powerful and most underused intelligence assets in a B2B sales motion.What we cover:- Why hustle culture in BDR teams produces skills that most AEs quietly discard — and why that is a mistake- The transition from BDR to AE: what nobody tells you before you make it- Psychological safety as the operating principle of high-performing sales cultures- Building a sales motion in a market where the buyer's understanding of their own needs is continually evolving (Datamaran operates in sustainability data and ESG reporting)- Why community is a commercial intelligence asset — and why most organisations listen too little and pitch too much inside theirs- Rapid Fire: the tools, the myths, and the metric every revenue leader checks on a Monday morningCarly also shares the most honest thing a sales leader can say: "I'm a better manager than I am a performer." It is worth hearing the argument she makes around it.About Carly PledgeCarly Pledge is Head of Sales at Datamaran, a sustainability intelligence platform. She previously led Business Development at CloudCall and has spent her career building and scaling commercial teams in B2B technology. She is a former colleague of Mike's from the CloudCall years.Links:The Outside Seat website: theoutsideseat.comInsideNow: insidenow.ioCarly Pledge on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carly-pledge/Steve Myers (My Sales Coach): https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevemyers0/Jacqueline de Gernier (GWI): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jacquidegernier/The Outside Seat is a B2B revenue leadership podcast hosted by Mike Tumalty. New episodes every week. Episode 4 is supported by Flourish, an early-career B2B sales recruitment and training business. If you are hiring sales talent, look at what they do: https://info.helloflourish.com/hire-a-sales-exec/InsideNow: GTM diagnostics and commercial due diligence for B2B SaaS. http://insidenow.io