The Outbound Experiment That Made LinkedIn Recorded Future’s Top Channel

Cracking Outbound

Outdated prospecting playbooks are holding back pipeline growth.

Bridget Conneely, Director of NA Business Development at Recorded Future, joins Todd Busler to walk through how her team transitioned from a broad commercial focus to a fully named account strategy. With experience hiring 400+ BDRs and building global programs at Riverbed and Mimecast, Bridget shares how she coaches young talent into high performers. She discusses redefining success metrics, leveraging LinkedIn as a primary channel, and partnering with marketing for an ABM-first model.

You’ll also learn about the shift from static product training to story-driven role plays, using small pilots for experimentation, and the importance of personal motivation, AE alignment, and clear scorecards to keep her team focused through change.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• How Recorded Future moved to a 100 percent named account strategy
• Why LinkedIn now drives the majority of the outbound pipeline
• What behaviors predict success in junior reps early on

Things to listen for:

(00:00) Introduction

(01:55) Selling a mission that matters

(03:29) Shifting from broad outbound to ABM

(05:07) Mapping ICPs using sales and voice data

(06:55) Leading BDR change without losing momentum

(08:59) How LinkedIn became 80% of the pipeline

(12:23) Coaching young reps into confident sellers

(16:56) Using story-driven enablement to win deals

(20:30) Tying promotion paths to skill-building

(22:26) Experimenting with channel-led SWAT teams

(25:34) Building high-trust BDR and marketing partnerships

(28:54) Traits Bridget looks for in every BDR hire