Most DTC brands developing a wholesale or retail-partnership channel are managing it with founder time and a spreadsheet, because the team was hired to manage Meta ads, not prospect retail buyers. We build the outbound SDR motion – cadences, CRM workflows, qualified meetings – so your B2B channel can grow without hiring a sales org.
The Challenge
The team is designed for consumer marketing, not B2B sales
Your marketing team knows how to run a Meta campaign and optimize a landing page, but nobody on staff has ever built a cold outbound cadence to a retail buyer or corporate gifting manager. Wholesale and B2B bulk revenue require a different skill set – prospecting, qualifying, and booking meetings with people who buy on terms and volume, not impulse. Without that skill set in-house, the wholesale channel stays reactive: you respond to inbound and nothing else. Meanwhile a competitor with an actual outbound motion is signing the retail accounts you never called.
Trade show leads turn cold without a follow-up cadence
You spend real money on a booth, collect a stack of business cards or a scanner export of buyer contacts, and then the leads sit in an inbox for three weeks because nobody owns follow-up. By the time someone finally emails, the buyer has already placed the order with a competitor who called within 48 hours. This isn't a lead quality problem – it's a process problem, and it repeats at every show until someone builds a cadence that starts the day the badge gets scanned.
No CRM workflow for managing retail buyer relationships
Consumer CRM tools like Klaviyo track email opens and purchase behavior, but they don't track where a wholesale buyer is in a multi-touch sales cycle, who last spoke to them, or when the next follow-up is due. Retail and bulk-order deals are relationship-driven and often take months to close, and without a real CRM process those relationships live in someone's inbox and disappear when that person leaves. Pipeline visibility for the founder or VP Marketing is close to zero – nobody can say with confidence how many active wholesale conversations are actually moving.
The founder serves as the entire wholesale sales team
Every wholesale inquiry, every retail buyer intro, every corporate gifting request routes back to the founder because nobody else is authorized or trained to close those conversations. That's a hard ceiling on how much B2B revenue the channel can produce, since the founder's time is already split across product, fundraising, and the core DTC business. It also means the channel has no continuity – if the founder gets pulled into something else for two weeks, wholesale outbound simply stops.
How We Can Help
We begin by assessing the wholesale and B2B channel as it truly operates today, not how it looks on a slide. That means gathering every trade show lead list from the past 12 months, reviewing the CRM or spreadsheet currently in use, and interviewing whoever handles wholesale inquiries today – usually the founder.
We then develop an outbound strategy tailored to your channel. This includes defining the ideal retail buyer or corporate account profile, creating cadence sequences for warm and cold outbound, and establishing qualification criteria so an SDR can distinguish a buyer worth calling from a tire-kicker.
Execution is what separates us from a typical outsourced SDR shop. We embed – our SDR works your accounts, operates from your email domain and CRM, and reports to your team on an established cadence instead of through a black-box monthly report. You aren't renting a shared pod of reps simultaneously running cadences for six unrelated clients.
We address the CRM problem directly as well. Every wholesale and B2B lead – trade show, inbound, referral – is logged with a clear stage, designated owner, and next action date.
Measurement happens weekly rather than quarterly. We monitor meetings booked, meetings held, qualified opportunities, and cycle time from initial touch to signed account. When a cadence isn't converting, we know within two weeks rather than two quarters. This connects with broader <a href="/revenue-ops-for-dtc-ecomm/">revenue operations</a> work when a brand needs reporting infrastructure that can support the new pipeline volume.
The deliverables are tangible: a documented outbound playbook tailored to your wholesale/retail/bulk channel, a functional cadence library, a CRM instance configured for B2B pipeline tracking, and a trained SDR function putting meetings on your calendar.
When appropriate, we also link wholesale outbound with <a href="/partner-marketing-for-dtc-ecomm/">partner marketing</a> initiatives, because retail buyers and channel partners often respond to similar relationship-based outreach. Both motions strengthen each other when one team runs them instead of two disconnected functions.
What we deliver
- Wholesale/B2B pipeline audit of the last 12 months of leads and inquiries
- Ideal retail buyer and corporate account profile definition
- Outbound cadence library (cold, warm, trade-show follow-up)
- CRM setup and process for B2B pipeline tracking, separate from consumer CRM
- Trained SDR function embedded in your team, working your domain and calendar
- Weekly pipeline reporting: meetings booked, held, qualified, cycle time
- Documented outbound playbook your team owns after the engagement
A trade show lead without a follow-up call within 48 hours becomes a lead your competitor closes – not one that remains available next month.
Our Methodology
We structure sales development engagements as a 90-day sprint, rather than an open-ended retainer without a defined endpoint. The initial 30 days focus on assessment and build: auditing current leads, defining the buyer profile, writing cadences, and establishing the CRM process. No outreach reaches a buyer until the target list and messaging are reviewed against your actual products and pricing.
Days 31 through 60 focus on execution and calibration. The SDR function goes live, cadences begin running, and we refine messaging each week based on what generates actual replies instead of what simply looked good on paper. This differs from a traditional SDR outsourcing shop, which usually fixes a script for the entire contract term and reports at month-end regardless of whether the approach works.
Days 61 through 90 focus on demonstrating that the motion can operate without our constant hands-on management and delivering a playbook your team can continue using. Most engagements last 3 to 6 months in total, depending on the wholesale channel's complexity and whether you want us to continue operating the SDR function or transition it to an internal hire after the process is proven.
Our Working Process
The first 30 days center on diagnosis and build: we gather your lead history, establish the buyer profile, and put the cadences and CRM structure in place before any new outbound message is sent. You'll review both the audit and the playbook draft before we contact anyone, eliminating surprises in how the channel presents your brand.
Days 30 through 60 move the SDR function into live execution at a defined weekly outbound volume, with messaging refined using actual reply data rather than assumptions. You receive a standing weekly check-in instead of a monthly PDF – when part of the cadence isn't working, we identify and correct it within the same week.
By day 90, the pipeline should generate a repeatable stream of qualified meetings, and together we decide whether to keep running the SDR function, transfer it to an internal hire using the playbook we created, or increase volume. Typical engagements last 3 to 6 months and are structured like a fractional team member rather than a hard-stop project.
The team structure is intentionally lean: one embedded SDR resource focused on your accounts, supported by senior oversight from our side for strategy and messaging. You aren't paying for a management layer separating you from the person doing the work.
- A documented, repeatable outbound process for wholesale and B2B accounts
- Faster follow-up on trade show and inbound wholesale leads
- Real pipeline visibility for the founder or VP Marketing
- A qualified meeting cadence that doesn't depend on the founder's calendar
- A CRM structure the team can keep using after the engagement ends
If your dtc / ecomm company needs sales development (sdr/bdr) leadership, we should talk.
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Frequently asked questions
What does a sales development engagement with Winston Francois cost?
Pricing follows a monthly fractional retainer model, scoped according to your wholesale channel's size and required outbound volume. We set it during the initial assessment based on the target account count and cadence complexity, rather than using a flat rate card.
How soon will qualified meetings appear on our calendar?
Cadences generally begin generating replies and booked meetings within the first 30 to 45 days, after the buyer profile and messaging are calibrated using real market responses. The initial two weeks are dedicated to building – list, cadence, CRM setup – so meetings won't begin on day one.
How does an embedded SDR integrate with our current team?
The SDR uses your email domain, records all activity in your CRM, and attends your regular team check-ins instead of working through a separate agency platform that requires another login. The person currently responsible for wholesale relationships – typically the founder – remains informed about each qualified meeting before handoff.
What makes this different from a traditional SDR outsourcing agency?
Most outsourced SDR shops give you a shared rep dividing their time among several unrelated clients and using a generic script with little customization for your product or buyer. We dedicate one resource to your account, refine messaging weekly using actual performance, and leave you with a documented playbook your team owns at the end – not a black box you must rent indefinitely.
How do you evaluate ROI from the sales development engagement?
We measure meetings booked, meetings held, qualified opportunities created, and cycle time from the first outbound touch through a signed wholesale or bulk account, with weekly reporting. You'll consistently know how much pipeline the channel produces and where deals get stuck.
What type of company is the best fit for this service?
This service is best suited to Series A, B, or growth-stage DTC and ecommerce brands with roughly $5 million to $100 million in revenue that already receive wholesale or bulk B2B interest – trade show leads, inbound retail inquiries, corporate gifting requests – but lack a dedicated process for managing it. If these inquiries are going cold or the founder is handling them personally, this engagement is designed to close that exact gap.
