SaaS account executive calling playbook: call blocks, cadence and KPIs

What this playbook covers

A SaaS pipeline fills with opportunities that were real two weeks ago and have since gone quiet: the security questionnaire that stalled, the champion pulled onto a launch, the trial that never enabled the integration. This playbook structures the AE’s calling week so those deals get revived on purpose instead of by luck. Outputs can be missing, delayed or wrong; verify important details against the recording.

List hygiene starts in the CRM export

The weekly export pulls two lists: active opportunities with no next meeting on the calendar, and trials sorted by usage signal. Each row carries stage, champion name, last activity and the last demo note, because the opener that revives a deal references the account’s actual state. Dedupe across AE patches so a shared prospect is not called twice the same day, apply your internal DNC list, and set quiet hours per contact time zone.

The B2B exemption in the FTC Telemarketing Sales Rule covers much of this calling (16 CFR 310.6), but the edges are constant: personal cell phones sit on prospect lists, and the TCPA’s restrictions on autodialed and prerecorded calls to wireless numbers apply regardless (47 CFR 64.1200). Human-dialed lines, stop requests honored on the spot, and a recording disclosure for all-party consent states are the whole posture.

The calling week in blocks

Evaluation revival block, morning, 90 minutes. The no-next-meeting list, worked in order. The opener names the suspected blocker; the call surfaces the real one; the close books the next meeting or a dated retry.

Trial block, midday, twice weekly, usage-triggered. The account that never enabled the integration gets the integration call. Trials worked by calendar instead of usage get generic check-ins; trials worked by signal get conversions.

Expansion block, afternoons, weekly. Accounts with seat utilization above 80 percent, a new department in the data, a renewal ninety days out. The call names the usage fact and asks who else should be on this. Expansion runs early so seats and scope are settled before renewal season hands the conversation to procurement with a bigger number and no story.

Champion-departure sweep, monthly. The champion-gone disposition is a requalification task from zero: new stakeholder, new context, existing recordings.

Attempt cadence that avoids the trap

A quiet champion gets attempt one, a useful email between attempts (the filled questionnaire, the redlined MSA), attempt two the following week at a different hour, then a dated retry disposition, not a mood. Cold titles get three attempts over two weeks and a long-cycle nurture. Nobody gets called twice in one day across lists; dedupe and attempt caps handle it. The disposition “unresponsive, dated retry” is a scheduled event, which is the difference between a worked list and a nagged one.

Dispositions that tell the truth about the pipeline

Next meeting booked, security review, procurement, champion gone, lost to competitor, unresponsive with dated retry, do not call. Seven dispositions mapped to real deal stages, and the disposition distribution becomes the org’s healthiest leading indicator: a rising security-review share means the product is attracting buyers whose procurement needs attention before quarter end. Pipeline reviews fail when every stalled deal is labeled nurture; these labels make the forecast arguable in a good way.

Three lines keep the revival block in conversations instead of rings. The AE verifies dates and titles against the recording, especially the incumbent cancel date, then moves on. Outputs can be missing, delayed or wrong; verify important details against the recording.

The same record is the onboarding system. A new AE’s first week on an inherited patch is listening: the demo where the champion described the problem, the security call where the blocker surfaced. Successors inherit recordings instead of a CRM field that says positive relationship.

KPI ranges and the production benchmark

• Dials per active calling hour: 60 to 90 on warm AE lists, median near 85 in The team’s own daily use, single line, 90 days.
• Dials per AE day: 200 to 500 depending on patch size and meeting load; the revival block, not the daily dial count, is the unit that matters.
• Person-connect rate: 17.8 percent measured over the last 30 days; set your planning band from your own list mix.
• No-next-meeting coverage: 100 percent of active opportunities called within two weeks of going quiet. This is the playbook’s core promise.
• Booked next steps: set your own baseline from the first month; stage mix decides what healthy looks like.

Compliance checklist for the AE desk

Human-dialed lines, stop requests honored and logged same-day, quiet hours per contact, recording disclosure in the script for all-party states. The B2B exemption is partial: keep the wireless rules in mind for every cell on a list, and keep list provenance documented in sales ops policy. Nothing here is legal advice; the calling program belongs in written policy with counsel’s review where your territories are strict.