1 min lesson
Grade your draft on the SDR-writing rubric
Pick two rows from the table in "Grade your draft on the SDR-writing rubric" and explain the choice each one supports.
Step 1 of 2
Grade your draft on the SDR-writing rubric
- Dimension
- Personalization
- A 5 looks like
- A specific, real trigger only this account has
- A 2 looks like
- "I came across your company" - works for anyone
- Dimension
- Clarity
- A 5 looks like
- Under 90 words, one idea, scannable on a phone
- A 2 looks like
- Three paragraphs, two asks, buried point
- Dimension
- No-hype framing
- A 5 looks like
- Plain claim an engineer would believe; outcome, not adjectives
- A 2 looks like
- "Revolutionary AI-powered 10x productivity"
- Dimension
- CTA
- A 5 looks like
- One specific, low-friction ask with an easy out
- A 2 looks like
- "Let me know if you'd ever want to connect sometime"
| Dimension | A 5 looks like | A 2 looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Personalization | A specific, real trigger only this account has | "I came across your company" - works for anyone |
| Clarity | Under 90 words, one idea, scannable on a phone | Three paragraphs, two asks, buried point |
| No-hype framing | Plain claim an engineer would believe; outcome, not adjectives | "Revolutionary AI-powered 10x productivity" |
| CTA | One specific, low-friction ask with an easy out | "Let me know if you'd ever want to connect sometime" |
Anything under 4 on a row = rewrite that line before you stop.
Hype is poison with engineers. "Revolutionary," "transformative," and "10x" all read as someone who has never shipped code. Cursor sells to skeptics, so a plain outcome they can picture - "new hires get productive faster because the editor understands the repo" - beats every superlative you could reach for.
Give the buyer a graceful out in your CTA: "...or is that not a priority right now?" Naming the no makes the yes easier and signals you respect their time. It reads as confident, not desperate, which is exactly the tone a technical buyer responds to.