Third year. This time it's global!
State of Sales Development is back! One survey, three regions, and the gap we're trying to close.
Third year. This time it's global!
State of Sales Development is back! One survey, three regions, and the gap we're trying to close.
Dave Wilkins
September 01, 2026
Why this matters
168 SDR leaders across more than 15 countries gave us their numbers for the 2025 State of EMEA report, and it produced findings I still quote in nearly every conversation I have.
The one that stuck with me most: in 2024, 91.2% of EMEA leaders said they would never use AI SDRs. One year later that had fallen to 56.5%, with 13.7% already running them alongside human teams and another 29% actively evaluating. I have never seen a position collapse that fast in this function.
We also learned that 55.9% of teams grew headcount over the year, which is awkward for everyone who spent 2025 announcing the death of the SDR. That sales ownership of the function strengthened, from 63.2% to 69.5%. That GTM Engineers went from essentially nonexistent to sitting in 13.7% of EMEA organisations. And that 70/30 is now the settled base-to-variable split, used by 51% of teams.
Two of the findings I trust most were the ones where nothing happened. Whether SDRs sourced 30% of pipeline or 80% of it, AE quota attainment landed in the same place. And SDRs with AI tools performed about the same as those without. Both of those cut against things the market sells hard.
Third edition. First one that goes global.
The State of Sales Development 2026 opens this week. Same survey, run across EMEA, the USA and APAC, with the same questions so the answers are actually comparable between regions.
The ambition is specific. If you are asked to open a team in a new geography next year, this report should tell you what to pay, what the stack looks like, what ramp to promise and what ratio to staff at, with a real sample behind each number rather than a shrug and a LinkedIn poll.
It covers quota levels and actual attainment, ramp time, headcount and manager ratios, comp structure and pay by region and seniority, tech stack, AI adoption, and attrition.
A massive thank you to MemoryBlue for sponsoring this years edition and allowing us to make this survey a truely global one.
What you get for twelve minutes
The full report before it goes public in October.
Your own numbers benchmarked against the whole dataset, so you can see where your team actually sits.
Anonymous. We ask for an email for one reason, to send your benchmark back. Your name and company never appear in the report.
Closes 19 September.
And one thing beyond the survey
Send it to two peers in your market. The regional cuts are the whole point of going global this year, and right now APAC needs the most help.
Dave