"In 2024, Yanni Pappas was two months into his first full-time job as a business development representative (BDR) at Workshop-an Omaha-based company that provides internal communications teams with email marketing tools priced from $5,000 to $100,000 per year-when he got transferred to a new role. Now working as a "special products BDR," he was cut off from his company's inbound lead system, making his task of landing demos with prospective customers infinitely more difficult."
"Pappas, 24, says he appreciated being selected for this role because it showed his supervisors believed he was creative enough to secure meetings without hand-holding. But it was also terrifying. He tried all the traditional sales tactics to get new leads-cold calling, cold emailing, purchasing mass email lists-but they didn't work, so he turned to artificial intelligence. When that didn't work either, Pappas decided to try posting on LinkedIn."
Yanni Pappas, 24, started his first full-time job as a BDR at Workshop in 2024 and two months later was moved to a special-products BDR role. The reassignment cut off his access to inbound leads, increasing difficulty of booking demos. He appreciated the vote of confidence but faced pressure and fear. He attempted cold calling, cold emailing, and purchased mass email lists without success, then experimented with artificial intelligence tools that also failed to produce meetings. After those approaches failed, he began posting on LinkedIn. The early-rate deadline for the 2026 Inc. 5000 is Friday, January 30, at 11:59 p.m. PT.
Read at Inc
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