RevOps playbook · AI Employee: Rev

SDR → AE Handoff

Handoff completed in < 24h with brief attached

Install this playbookBack to marketplace
The problem

SDR-to-AE handoff is where deals go to die. SDR does the qualifying work, hands off in Slack: "you got the Acme meeting next Tuesday, good luck." AE opens the CRM 30 minutes before the call, reads a two-line note, and walks in cold. Prospect wastes half the meeting re-answering questions the SDR already asked. Half the handoffs never get a follow-up because the AE didn't know who to email. SDR wonders why their bookings-to-closed-won ratio is 5%.

At a glance
Trigger
CRM event
Approvals
Manager on disputed handoffs
What it does
Writes to your systems
Systems
Salesforce · Slack · Calendar
How it feels in production

An hour-by-hour walkthrough.

SDR Kiran books a discovery meeting with Acme Corp. Rev picks up the meeting event immediately and starts assembling the handoff: - Company: Acme Corp — SaaS company, 340 employees, Series B, based in Berlin - Contact: Priya Sharma, VP Engineering, on LinkedIn 2 years at Acme, previously at Stripe, PhD in distributed systems - Fit signals: use our top 3 tech stack markers, competitor to 4 of our customers - Conversation history: 3 email exchanges with Kiran, 1 phone call — pain points mentioned: onboarding takes 6 weeks, no unified analytics, security team overloaded - Qualification: BANT — Budget (allocated for H2 2026), Authority (Priya + likely CTO signoff), Need (pain confirmed), Timeline (target implementation Q4) - Similar wins: DEAL-3401 Beta Corp (same industry, same size) closed 8 months ago at $180K; DEAL-2891 similar profile — read notes - Prospect's likely questions from public content (blog posts, hiring signals, recent Twitter) - Suggested talking points: your 30-day onboarding playbook, unified analytics case study, security-team-scaling stories - Post-meeting cadence: send recap within 4 hours, share security packet by day-2, propose technical deep-dive within 5 business days AE gets the packet 48 hours before the meeting. Reads for 10 minutes. Walks in prepared with context, relevant stories, and a coherent narrative — instead of asking Priya to repeat the pain she already told the SDR. Post-meeting, Rev logs the outcome (SDR + AE), updates the opportunity, drafts the recap email for AE review + send, and schedules the follow-up sequence. SDR sees the handoff outcome in their weekly dashboard — closed loop.
How it works

Step by step.

  1. 01

    Detect the booked meeting + trigger handoff assembly

    Meeting booked → 48-hour countdown to full handoff packet. Includes both SDR-to-AE handoffs and inbound-to-AE handoffs.

    Chili Piper · Calendly · Google Calendar · CRM
  2. 02

    Enrich the account + contact deeply

    Company: size, industry, stage, tech stack, competitors. Contact: LinkedIn history, role, likely influence, public content (blog posts, talks, tweets). Fit signals against ICP + similar-customer patterns.

    LinkedIn Sales Navigator · Crunchbase · Clearbit · BuiltWith · Twitter
  3. 03

    Extract qualification + conversation history

    Every email exchange, phone call transcript, LinkedIn message with the prospect. Pain points identified, budget signals, authority mapping, timeline hints. BANT summary + supporting quotes.

    Email · Gong · Chorus · Outreach · CRM notes
  4. 04

    Draft talking points + similar-deal reference

    Suggested talking points from prospect's pain + our messaging. Similar-shape closed deals as reference (industry, size, product mix, decision timeline). Cited so AE can dig deeper.

    CRM history · Content library · Case study database
  5. 05

    Post-meeting logging + follow-up cadence

    AE logs outcome + Rev updates opportunity + drafts recap email + schedules cadence (recap-day-0, security-packet-day-2, deep-dive-day-5, decision-check-day-14).

    CRM · Email · Outreach cadence · Follow-up scheduler
Systems and wiring

What you connect to make this run.

Chili Piper · Calendly · Google Calendar

read

Meeting-booked event as the trigger. Meeting metadata (attendees, when, source) drives handoff assembly.

Salesforce · HubSpot · CRM

read+write

Full opportunity + account + contact history. Write handoff packet + AE assignment + follow-up cadence back to the opportunity so pipeline visibility is complete.

LinkedIn · Crunchbase · Clearbit · BuiltWith

read

External enrichment — company, contact, tech stack, industry. Cached to reduce cost; refreshed weekly for active accounts.

Gong · Chorus · Outreach · Salesloft

read

Conversation history: emails, calls, cadence responses. Pain points extracted from transcripts. Prior AE + SDR notes attached to the packet.

What changes

Before and after, honestly.

AE prep time per handoff
Before
5-30 minutes (or none)
After
8-15 minutes reading a prepared packet
Meeting-to-follow-up conversion
Before
50-70%
After
85-95%
SDR handoff quality complaints from AEs
Before
20-40% of handoffs
After
Under 5%
Discovery-meeting-to-closed-won conversion
Before
3-8%
After
8-15% (prepared conversations convert better)
Related

Playbooks that pair with this one.

RevOps

Inbound Lead Enrichment & Routing

Same enrichment engine feeds both — inbound lead routing and handoff prep.

RevOps

Account Research Brief

Deeper research for pre-meeting; handoff is the light-touch version.

RevOps

Pipeline & Deal Lookup

Post-handoff, deal-in-flight questions use the same context.

Frequently asked

Answers about this playbook.

What if the meeting is short-notice (booked for same-day)?

Rev prioritises short-notice handoffs. Full packet in under 20 minutes; AE gets the essentials even if the enrichment isn't complete. Post-meeting update adds what came late.

How does it handle handoffs from other sources (partner, event, referral)?

Source-aware handoffs. Partner referral includes partner context + past joint deals; event lead includes event conversation notes; referral includes referrer relationship. Same packet skeleton, source-specific enrichment.

Can AEs pull up the packet on-demand (not just pre-scheduled)?

Yes — any deal in the AE's book has an on-demand refresh. Useful for cold-call prep, follow-up crafting, or executive-briefing prep.

How does the SDR see whether their handoff converted?

SDR dashboard shows handoff outcomes: meeting attended, follow-up scheduled, next-stage advancement, ultimate close/lose. Feedback loop on handoff quality; SDR performance measured against final outcomes.

What about handoffs where the SDR should stay involved?

Handoff type configurable per team. Full handoff (SDR done, AE owns), assist handoff (SDR stays as project manager), or team-selling (both AE + SDR on the meeting). Rev routes and notifies per configured type.

See it run on your data.

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