AI SDR
What should you ask before buying an AI SDR? 15 questions
By Viktorio Shopov, co-founder of Sellinger. Reviewed by Asen Levov. Published . Last updated . 9 minute read.
Ask every AI SDR vendor fifteen things before you sign: where the data comes from, which channels really run, how your LinkedIn account connects, whether you approve messages, how opt outs work, what the pricing unit is, how you leave, and how meetings are counted. Get written answers and test them in a trial.
We sell an AI SDR, so read our answers as one vendor's position and test them. The questions work for any vendor, including us. Where a question touches LinkedIn, the sources are LinkedIn's own help pages, read on 19 October 2026.
How do you use this checklist?
Put the questions in front of every vendor on your shortlist, in writing. Score nothing numerically. Instead, mark each answer as one of three: clear and checkable, clear but not checkable, or vague. A vague answer on data, approvals, opt outs or meeting counts is a reason to keep looking. Then test the clear answers in a trial.
The table below has the question, why it matters, and what Sellinger answers. Answers come from our fact register and product, and were checked on 19 October 2026.
What are the 15 questions?
| # | Question | Why it matters | What Sellinger answers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Where does the contact data come from? | Bad data looks like a weak message. You pay for sends that reach nobody. | You can import your own list, search a database of 700M+ contacts, or start from intent signals on LinkedIn (26 ready made templates in 8 categories, included with every bundle). Spot check any list by hand. |
| 2 | Which channels does it really run, and which are inbound only? | Vendors list channels they only partly run. A logo is not a workflow. | Five outreach channels: LinkedIn, email, WhatsApp, Instagram and live chat. LinkedIn and email carry most of the outbound. Instagram is led by replies and inbox work. |
| 3 | How does WhatsApp work? | WhatsApp limits outbound messaging, and the setup affects your number. | Sellinger sends first messages and follow ups through your connected WhatsApp account at a small daily volume that WhatsApp limits, and answers people who write first. It does not use the WhatsApp Business API. |
| 4 | How does my LinkedIn account connect? | It decides who holds your credentials and where sends come from. | You connect your own account through a hosted login. Sellinger does not store your LinkedIn password. You can connect through your own proxy. |
| 5 | What happens if LinkedIn restricts my account? | LinkedIn says it may restrict or close accounts that use automation tools. | No tool can guarantee LinkedIn will never restrict an account, and we do not promise it. Each account has daily and weekly caps you control, and a cooldown applies when LinkedIn returns a rate limit. Read the sources below. |
| 6 | What are the pacing limits, and can the agent exceed them? | Volume is the dial most likely to hurt you. | Every connected account has limits the agent cannot exceed. LinkedIn defaults are 20 invitations a day (varied by a few) and 150 a week, with a quiet window of 01:00 to 08:00 account time. Email defaults to 50 sends a day per mailbox, with an optional warm up. All editable. |
| 7 | Can I approve messages before they send? | An agent that can say anything can say something you did not approve. | Yes. A campaign can run in approval mode, where every message waits for a person, or send automatically. |
| 8 | How does hand over work? | A warm thread is only as fast as the person who takes it. | A person can take over any conversation. The agent stops on its own when it cannot answer, for example a price it has no answer for. |
| 9 | What happens when someone opts out? | Ignoring a stop request is a legal and reputational problem. | A reply such as STOP or unsubscribe (English, Bulgarian and German among other forms) puts the contact on your suppression list, the agent stops and the lead is closed out. An unclear phrase makes the agent stop and a person decides. Before every send the platform checks the suppression list and refuses the send if the check cannot be completed. |
| 10 | What is the pricing unit, and what grows it? | Per seat, per contact, per meeting and per credit pricing behave very differently at scale. | LinkedIn is priced per agent per month: $198 for 1 to 2 agents, with lower per agent prices at higher counts. Email, WhatsApp, Instagram and live chat are monthly tiers (from $39, $29, $29 and $19). Bundles are $249 to $1,199 a month. Enrichment is usage based. |
| 11 | Can I try it, and for how long? | You cannot judge an AI SDR in an afternoon. | 30 days free on messaging modules and bundles, no card. Usage modules start with a $10 credit. |
| 12 | How do I leave, and what happens to my data? | Lock in and data retention are where the surprises are. | Cancel, upgrade or change modules at any time, with no lock in contracts and no setup fees on self serve plans. An erasure function anonymizes matching leads on request and adds the identifiers to the suppression list. |
| 13 | Which integrations are live? | A planned integration is not an integration. | Live: HubSpot (two way), Cal.com, Calendly, Slack, Fireflies, RB2B, GoHighLevel, Shopify, a REST API with webhooks, and Claude and ChatGPT via MCP. Salesforce, Pipedrive and Zoho are coming soon, not live. |
| 14 | Where is my data hosted, and who can sign in? | Procurement will ask, and so should you. | Database, sign in and file storage on Supabase (AWS, Stockholm); application servers on Google Cloud (Finland); web hosting on Vercel. Sign in with email, Google or Microsoft, and single sign on on request for Enterprise. API keys are stored only as hashes. Details are on the security page. |
| 15 | How does reporting count a meeting? | Booked, completed and held are different numbers. | We report booked and held separately. In our own data, 351 showcase meetings were booked through the agents and 33 are confirmed held with a recording or a host mark. Ask any vendor for the same split. |
Why do these five questions matter most?
If you only have time for five, ask these.
Question 15, how a meeting is counted. A calendar marks a meeting completed when its time slot ends, whether or not anyone joined. Vendors that quote "meetings completed" may be quoting the clock. We explain the three definitions in Count meetings honestly.
Question 7, approvals. Starting in approval mode lets you read the first 50 to 100 messages and fix the rules before anything goes out unseen.
Question 5, LinkedIn restriction risk. LinkedIn's help page says it does not allow third party software that automates activity on the site, and that it may restrict or close the account of a member who uses such tools (LinkedIn Help: Prohibited software and extensions). A separate page lists sending many invitations in a short time, and invitations that are ignored, left pending or marked as spam, among the reasons for a restriction (Types of restrictions). Any vendor that promises no restrictions is promising something it does not control. Read Is LinkedIn automation safe? for how we think about it.
Question 9, opt outs. Ask the vendor to show you what happens after a reply that says "please stop". Do not accept "we respect opt outs" as an answer.
Question 1, data. Ask where each field comes from and how fresh it is. Our advice for any vendor, including us: open 30 random rows and check every person by hand.
What answers should make you walk away?
- No denominator. "Our customers see 40% reply rates" with no count of people contacted.
- Replies as the headline. Replies are the easy part. Meetings per person contacted is the harder number. See Replies are easy, conversion is audience and offer.
- A guarantee about LinkedIn. No tool can guarantee that LinkedIn will never restrict an account.
- No approval or hand over control. If the agent sends and you cannot see or stop it, you are trusting copy you have not read.
- A channel list with no limits. Ask what is outbound and what is inbound only, and at what daily volume.
- No exit. If cancelling needs a call, a notice period or an annual term you did not ask for, that is information.
What should you test in the trial?
- Day 1. Connect one account and one list. Check the pacing settings against question 6.
- Days 1 to 7. Run in approval mode. Read every message. Note what you would change and change the instructions.
- Week 2. Send a test opt out reply from a mailbox you own and watch what happens next (question 9).
- Weeks 2 to 4. Let approved message types send automatically. Keep a count of people contacted, replies, positive replies, meetings booked and meetings held.
- Day 30. Compute cost per held meeting. The method is in the ROI post, and the full 30 day plan is in Do AI SDRs actually work?.
How does this compare with other vendors?
We keep side by side pages for the main alternatives, written from public sources and our own product. Start with the best AI SDR tools, and for the human alternative read AI SDR vs human SDR. Our own rules for what an agent may and may not do are on the outreach rules page.
Common questions
What is the single most important question?
Should I ask for references?
How do I test a vendor's answers?
Is a lock in contract a red flag?
Do I need to worry about LinkedIn restrictions?
How Sellinger helps
Read how it works on See pricing and what is included, or see a real campaign in Read the Sellinger case study.
