Same Old Song and Dance

When early-stage B2B revenue leaders decide to start SDR teams, they’re screaming out to the world that they’re ready for growth. If done correctly, sales dev can quickly become a Top 3 source of closed won deals for some companies. Still, there are several factors that can be the difference between accelerating sales volume and fizzling out in frustration.

This series gives Revenue leaders the basics if they wanna be startin’ somethin’ with sales development.  For the sake of simplicity, all references to individuals doing dedicated outbound outreach are based on the word “sales”: sales development representatives, sales dev, SDRs.

Once you’ve weighed the costs and returns and considered creating the team internally versus outsourcing (Part I), you’ll need to think about how to structure the role (Part II).  After that, setting up your SDR team for success will take priority. 

Part III covers giving your team the right target, messaging, tech stack, and training.

A Change Would Go You Good

Afraid of getting stuck in the middle when setting up sales dev?  Make sure your team has the following to be successful:

• ICP: Nail down your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). Spend time thinking through exactly who you want your SDRs to prospect.  Narrow it down to a combination of industry, title/level, company size, and any other relevant criteria that help narrow down the field to specific people who have pain that your solutions could solve.  SDRs will search for the right people based on these criteria.
• Message: Distill your messaging into 8 to 10-second soundbites, simple email subject lines, and to-the-point email body sentences. SDRs must be relevant quickly within a crowded space. Speak to the specific ICP’s pain point and how you could solve it.  No broad-based email blasts (Marketing will take care of awareness campaigns) and no click-bait. Prospects won’t thank your SDRs or your company for either.
• Tech stack: Your SDRs must be able to verify that prospects match your ICP, obtain their direct email and phone details, consistently reach out, and log their activity and results.  This is why the basic SDR tech stack includes an information source, a cadence sequencer and dialer, and a CRM.  Many solutions are fully integrated now, so ask about these specific capabilities when you talk to vendors.  It’s possible to get everything you need with an all-in-one solution.  If you’re not impressed with any one option, à la carte best-in-breed solutions could work just as well. 
• Training: Once you’ve established the areas above, your new SDR(s) will need onboarding and ongoing training to make it all work together. Plan to spend at least the first two weeks covering key motions like finding and verifying the right prospect, delivering messaging in real-time, and recording all activity in your CRM.  One critical area is call training.  The more time you spend running drills through the various types of objections SDRs will encounter, the higher their conversation-to-meeting conversion rate will be.  Practice, practice, practice.
• Tip: Tech stack costs can add up quickly for SDRs.  Remember to cover the basics first (find, reach out, record activity) before adding in fancy functionality.  All the conversational intelligence or AI-suggested best outreach times in the world won’t help your SDRs if they can’t find the right person in the first place.