Mining the top-of-funnel: questions for the BDR sync

Describe your last three best-fit prospects — the ones where you instantly thought "this is exactly who we should be talking to." What did they have in common?

Which segment is heating up right now, and which has gone quiet? Why do you think that is?

Who looks great on paper but consistently disappoints — and what’s the early tell?

If you could only prospect one segment next quarter, which has the best fit-to-effort ratio?

Who should we be talking to that we’re not — a segment or company type we’re missing?

What’s usually happening at the company when a prospect actually engages — a regulation, an incident, a new hire, a funding round, a competitor move?

What separates a prospect who’s "interested" from one who’s actually going to move this quarter?

Is there a trigger event you’ve learned to watch for that reliably predicts a real conversation?

When a prospect describes their problem in their own words, what do they actually say? Give me real phrases.

What word or phrase makes a prospect lean in — and what makes their eyes glaze over?

What do they call the problem we solve? What do they call us, or our category?

Any terms in our materials that confuse or turn prospects off?

Top three objections you hear at first touch — in their words, not the polished version.

What objection do you not have a great answer for yet?

Where in the conversation do good prospects most often go cold?

What’s the deal-killer — the thing that ends it immediately?

Who do prospects name unprompted — who are they already using or evaluating?

When we lose interest to a competitor, what reason do they give?

What do prospects believe about us — right or wrong — before you correct them?

Who do you reach first, and who do you actually need to win the deal?

Who’s the gatekeeper vs the champion vs the economic buyer in these orgs?

How long, typically, from first conversation to "this is real"?

Which outreach angle or hook gets the most replies right now? Can you paste me a couple that worked?

What’s died recently that used to work?

What content or proof do prospects ask you for that you don’t have?

If marketing could hand you one asset tomorrow, what would move the needle most?

What do you send that consistently gets a response?

Where do prospects drop off that better content could save?

I’ve mapped these buyer personas — CISO, CFO/Treasurer, Head of Custody/Product, Compliance/Audit, CTO/VP Eng, Head of Tokenization. Which are real, which are missing, and which do you hit first most often?

We split the market into tiers — T1 qualified custodians · T2 TradFi banks · T3 BTCfi · T4 tokenization issuers · T5 corporate treasuries. Does that match what you see? Which tier is most active right now?

Anything in our personas or competitive positioning that’s just wrong from where you sit?

What is marketing doing top-of-funnel right now (campaigns, search, content), and how does it feed her pipeline?

Which segments is marketing prioritizing, and why?

What leads or signals can marketing route to her — and in what format?

How fast can marketing turn around the asset she asks for?