How to track and measure SDR activities in Ambition for improved outbound results

If you run or manage a sales development (SDR) team, you know the drill: everyone says “track what matters,” but then you’re given a firehose of dashboards and vague KPIs. You want to know what your SDRs are actually doing, what’s working, and what’s just noise. That’s where Ambition comes in: it’s built to help you track and coach sales teams. But Ambition is only as good as what you put into it—and how you use it.

This guide is for sales leaders, SDR managers, and anyone who wants to get real about outbound results. We’ll walk through setting up, tracking, and actually improving SDR activities in Ambition—so you don’t just look busy, you get better at booking meetings.

Step 1: Decide What You Actually Want to Measure

Before you open Ambition, get honest about your goals. SDR work is messy. Not every call or email is equal, and “activity” for activity’s sake is a waste. Here’s what to do:

  • Identify your “north stars.” What really moves the needle? Usually: meetings booked, qualified opportunities, and maybe positive replies.
  • Avoid “vanity metrics.” Calls made and emails sent are only useful if they tie to results. Tracking “dials” alone won’t get you anywhere.
  • Choose a few core activities. For most SDR teams, these are:
  • Outbound calls
  • Personalized emails
  • LinkedIn touches (if relevant)
  • Meetings booked

Pro tip: If you’re not sure what’s driving results, start simple. You can always add more later.

Step 2: Map Your Activities to Salesforce (or Your CRM) Fields

Ambition pulls activity data from your CRM. If your CRM data is a mess, no tool will save you. Before you plug Ambition in:

  • Audit your CRM fields. Make sure activities are logged consistently—no “catch-all” notes.
  • Standardize activity types. Make it clear what counts as a call, a meeting, a LinkedIn touch, etc.
  • Set up required fields. Don’t let reps skip logging important info.

Why bother? Garbage in, garbage out. Clean data makes tracking (and coaching) way easier.

What doesn’t work: Letting reps free-type their own activity notes. You’ll never get clean reports.

Step 3: Set Up Ambition Activities and Metrics

Now, log into Ambition and start building your activity tracking:

  1. Go to “Metric Builder.”

  2. Create metrics that map directly to your CRM activities (e.g., “Outbound Calls,” “Meetings Booked”).

  3. Define the rules.

  4. What counts as a “meeting booked”? Does it need a calendar invite and an opportunity created? Spell it out.

  5. Set up “Activity Scores.”

  6. Assign points to different activities. Example:
    • Call = 1 point
    • Personalized email = 2 points
    • Meeting booked = 10 points

  7. Weigh things so it’s not just about volume—reward quality.

  8. Don’t track everything.

  9. More isn’t better. Five metrics you’ll actually use beats twenty you’ll ignore.

What works: Weight your activities based on effort and impact. Don’t let easy-but-low-value activities (like mass emails) dominate your scoring.

Step 4: Build Dashboards That Make Sense

Ambition loves dashboards. So does everyone, until they’re lost in widgets. Here’s how to keep it useful:

  • Make one dashboard for SDRs, another for managers.
  • SDR view: daily/weekly progress, top activities, meetings booked.

  • Manager view: team roll-ups, historical trends, leading indicators.

  • Highlight what matters.

  • Put meetings and qualified opps front and center.

  • Hide or downplay raw activity totals unless they’re tied to outcomes.

  • Keep it visual, but simple.

  • Use leaderboards sparingly—they’re motivating for some, demoralizing for others.

What doesn’t work: A dashboard with 15 widgets and no clear takeaway. If you can’t glance at it and answer “how are we doing?”, it’s too much.

Step 5: Set Realistic Targets and Scorecards

Targets are tricky. Too low, and they’re ignored. Too high, and people give up or fudge numbers. Here’s how to set targets that actually help:

  • Base targets on historical data. Don’t pull numbers out of thin air. Look at your best reps and average reps, then set stretch but doable goals.
  • Make targets weekly, not monthly. SDR work is day-to-day. Weekly targets keep things on track and let you course-correct faster.
  • Include both activity and outcome targets. Example:
  • 100 calls/week
  • 20 personalized emails/week

  • 5 meetings booked/week

  • Use Ambition Scorecards.

  • Set up scorecards that mix activities and outcomes.
  • Make it clear what “winning the week” looks like.

Pro tip: Review targets every quarter. If people are always missing or always crushing, adjust.

What to ignore: Company-wide “call blitz” competitions that track only volume. They burn people out and rarely improve results.

Step 6: Coach With the Data, Don’t Just Report It

Ambition can automate reminders and send report cards, but tools don’t coach people. Use the data to have better conversations:

  • Spot patterns, not just outliers. Who consistently books meetings with fewer calls? Who’s sending lots of emails but not getting replies?
  • Ask “how” and “why.” Dig into what’s working for top performers—and share those tactics.
  • Review in 1:1s, not just team meetings. Personalized feedback beats public dashboards every time.
  • Watch for “gaming the system.” If a rep’s activity spikes but their results don’t, something’s off.

What works: Use Ambition’s activity alerts to flag folks falling behind, and check in early—don’t wait until the month’s over.

What doesn’t work: Treating Ambition like a surveillance camera. The goal is improvement, not Big Brother.

Step 7: Iterate, Don’t Overengineer

Sales is never “set it and forget it.” Here’s how to keep things working:

  • Review your metrics every month or quarter. Are you tracking things that matter, or just things that are easy to measure?
  • Talk to your SDRs. Are they spending time on activities that actually get meetings, or just chasing points?
  • Kill off useless metrics. If nobody looks at it or it doesn’t drive behavior, drop it.
  • Stay flexible. If your sales process changes, update your tracking.

Pro tip: Keep a “metrics graveyard” so you remember what you tried and why it didn’t work.

Honest Takes: The Good, The Bad, and The Meh

What works: - Combining activity and outcome metrics. - Focusing on a few high-value actions. - Using the data for real coaching, not just reports.

What doesn’t work: - Measuring everything because you can. - Focusing on volume over quality. - Letting dashboards replace actual conversations.

What to ignore: - Fancy gamification if your team isn’t into it. - Activity alerts that just create noise.

Wrapping Up: Keep It Simple, Stay Curious

Tracking SDR activities in Ambition is only useful if it helps your team get better—at booking meetings, qualifying leads, and closing more deals. Don’t drown in data or chase vanity metrics. Start with a few things that matter, measure them honestly, and tweak as you go. The best teams aren’t the ones with the prettiest dashboards—they’re the ones who use their data to learn, coach, and improve, week after week.