Hiring, onboarding, and coaching high-performing sales development reps
AI-powered outbound tooling and modern sales development practice
Top-of-funnel pipeline strategy and outbound team leadership
Education
Brock University: Goodman School of Business, BBA
About the author
Mel Smith is the Head of Sales Development at Nooks, where she leads the team responsible for top-of-funnel pipeline. She has spent her career inside the SDR function — starting as an SDR herself, moving into AE and sales leadership roles, and ultimately building and scaling multiple sales development orgs from the ground up. Before Nooks, Mel led sales development at Klue, where she was a Nooks customer — an experience that shaped her perspective on what AI-powered tooling actually needs to do for reps and managers in practice. Over her career, she has hired and onboarded nearly 100 SDRs, many with no prior sales experience, and interviewed hundreds more. Mel holds a degree from the Goodman School of Business at Brock University, and writes and speaks on SDR hiring, ramping, coaching, and building outbound teams that consistently hit pipeline targets.
