How MaintainX Increased Connect Rates by 20% & Delivered a World-Class SDR Career Path

Listening to 200 calls a week just to see what was going on

MaintainX has built an energized Business Development Representative (BDR) organization that not only generates massive pipeline for its sales organization, but also serves as a training and proving ground for the next generation of Account Executives. In fact, MaintainX has found that their highest-performing, fastest-ramping AEs often come directly from their internal BDR organization.

However, tracking performance to prepare those reps for promotion was a challenge. BDR managers had to rely on an ad hoc sheet that pulled limited data from their outbound tools to identify where to coach. This system lacked the deep details required to actually diagnose rep performance.

"Time wise, I had to probably listen to triple to quadruple the amount of calls that I do now. I probably listened to 200 calls a week trying to figure out what was going on." — Aidan Jones, BDR Manager, MaintainX

Managers were wasting hours hunting blindly for coachable moments. MaintainX needed a platform that could pinpoint exact coachable moments and empower reps to take ownership of their own metrics.

Managers see the exact second a call goes wrong

MaintainX decided to roll out Nooks, overhauling their outbound dialing and coaching infrastructure. The shift transformed their management workflow and united their remote and hybrid teams.

1. Granular Visibility for Managers

Instead of guessing where a call went wrong, managers now use Nooks to see exactly when a prospect's interest drops off on an outbound call.

• If a rep's conversation percentage drops at the 30-second mark, the manager might coach them on improving their permission-based opener.
• If the drop-off happens at the 60-second mark, the manager can step in and fix how the rep introduces the company.
• This targeted approach saves managers massive amounts of time, allowing them to fix specific behavioral problems rather than just focusing on the final outcome of meetings booked.

2. Gamifying the 1:1 Experience

MaintainX asks every BDR to bring one specific insight they found within the Nooks Coaching Lab to their weekly 1:1 meetings. Because reps can compare their stats against top performers and team averages, they are gamifying the small details of their process, celebrating a 20% increase in connect rates or a 30% increase in close rates.

"It's really if you can have the skill to be able to analyze your own performance and make adjustments, that's gonna be huge in the next role... I think the coaching lab and metrics helps reps get in that motion now." — Jake Harry, Business Development Director, MaintainX

3. AI Warm-Ups and Single-Pane Execution

BDRs also utilize the Nooks AI coaching bots to warm up and practice conversations before dialing live prospects, which is especially helpful for knocking the rust off after a vacation. When reps get on a live call, having prospect insights, like their LinkedIn tab and previous CRM notes, all within the unified Nooks view helps to increase the likelihood of a strong conversation that turns into a meeting.

A 20% connect-rate lift - and adoption no one had to mandate

The introduction of Nooks immediately improved the team's top-of-funnel metrics. Before fully adopting Nooks, the team had a solid 10% connection rate. By utilizing Nooks' high-quality phone numbers and clean interface, that connection rate instantly jumped to 12%—a highly meaningful 20% relative increase.

Because the tool actually made reps more successful, leadership didn't have to force adoption.

Key Results:

• 20% Connect Rate Lift: Nooks numbers instantly bumped connection rates from an already strong 10% up to 12%.
• 75% Less Time Reviewing: Managers reduced their manual call review volume from 200 calls a week down to a fraction by using Nooks' granular data.
• 100% Organic Adoption: Instead of forcing adoption, reps actively requested Nooks licenses after seeing peers achieve higher connect rates.
• Daily AI Warm-Ups: Reps use AI coaching bots to practice their pitch before jumping on live calls, preventing them from stumbling.