Why SDR Teams Should Report to Marketing, Not Sales

In this episode of The Marketing Front Lines, we speak with Alice Wyatt, a Fractional CMO who recently made the leap from full-time leadership roles at companies like Adyen and Kodat to fractional consulting. Alice shares the real challenges of transitioning to fractional work—from positioning and pricing to managing ego when the recruiter calls stop coming. She discusses her current stealth-mode project building an AI-native go-to-market engine for the call center industry, and explains why she believes SDR teams should report to marketing rather than sales. Through her experience managing cross-functional revenue pods and breaking down organizational silos, Alice provides a candid look at how sophisticated marketing leaders can drive alignment between marketing and sales teams. Topics Discussed: Making the transition from full-time CMO to fractional consultant Building relationships with VCs and exec search firms as a fractional CMO Managing SDR teams under marketing leadership Creating cross-functional revenue pods to eliminate team silos Building an AI-native marketing stack from the ground up Positioning and pricing strategies for fractional work Navigating the cultural shift from London to New York to Austin Lessons for B2B Marketers: Build Your Fractional Foundation Before You Need It: Alice spent significant time doing pro bono work for VC portfolio companies before going fractional, creating a network of relationships that became her pipeline. She maintains three critical groups: past connections (with a policy of always saying yes to help requests), VCs (staying top of mind through referrals and advisory work), and exec search firms (acting as an advisor on job descriptions and hiring processes). This ecosystem approach created a "chock full pipeline" within weeks of going fractional. Position Through Specificity, Not Breadth: Despite receiving conflicting advice about keeping her value proposition broad, Alice ultimately created a single Notion page that clearly articulated specific pain points she could solve and how she solves them. Her principle: if you can't explain what you offer in one page, you can't explain it to anyone. She's now comfortable telling prospects exactly what she can't do, which keeps client relationships clean and prevents scope creep. Eliminate Team Silos Through Shared Incentives: At Kodat, Alice created cross-functional pods consisting of an AE, BDR, and marketer—all focused on the same set of target accounts with the same goal. Instead of meetings focused on activity metrics ("how many calls did you make?"), these pods collaborated on account strategy ("where are we at in cracking these five accounts?"). This structure eliminated finger-pointing and created genuine teamwork because everyone won and lost together. SDR Teams Belong in Marketing, Not Sales: Alice argues that the traditional justification for SDRs reporting to sales—creating a talent pipeline to AE roles—is "absurd" in enterprise B2B where that career path is unlikely. SDRs are more mentally aligned with marketing operations, and sitting in marketing helps them understand how to leverage marketing resources. The best SDRs, in her experience, don't end up in sales anyway—they use it as incredible training for various career paths. Align with Your Commercial Leader or Don't Take the Job: The number one factor for success when managing SDRs as a marketing leader is true alignment with your commercial/sales counterpart. Alice recommends not taking on this responsibility unless you can see real potential for cooperation and can create shared incentives together. Without this alignment, the structure will fail regardless of how well you execute tactically. AI Tools Aren't as Ready as the Hype Suggests: Despite building what she describes as an "AI-native go-to-market engine" in her stealth startup, Alice admits the reality doesn't match the vision yet. Many companies claiming to be "AI-first" are actually just using Clay for emails and ChatGPT Pro licenses—"stuck together or bitty." Even sophisticated tools like Clay require significant technical knowledge to implement properly. Most marketers are still in the "productivity tools" phase rather than the "full-scale transformation" phase that the industry narrative suggests. Make Decisions Based on Energy, Not Just Skills: When considering fractional work (or any career move), Alice recommends identifying what gives you energy rather than just what you're good at. For her, it's organizing teams and solving brand-new problems across different disciplines—an approach rooted in her cell biology background where figuring out metabolic pathways was genuinely fun. Being clear about energy sources and drains helps you position yourself to take on only the work that's sustainable long-term.   //   Sponsors: Front Lines — We help B2B tech companies launch, manage, and grow podcasts that drive demand, awareness, and thought leadership. www.FrontLines.io The Global Talent Co. — We help tech startups find, vet, hire, pay, and retain amazing marketing talent that costs 50-70% less than the US & Europe.  www.GlobalTalent.co   //   Don't Miss: New Podcast Series — How I Hire Senior GTM leaders share the tactical hiring frameworks they use to build winning revenue teams. Hosted by Andy Mowat, who scaled 4 unicorns from $10M to $100M+ ARR and launched Whispered to help executives find their next role. 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