Have you ever heard the phrase, “it takes a village”? Well, when you develop a successful SDR team, that couldn’t be more true. Think of high achieving companies such as Salesforce or Oracle. These companies compartmentalize each important step of the sales process. This includes hiring an SDR team.
What is an SDR? An SDR is responsible for cold calling and prospecting customers. This is a valuable person in the sales process because it allows the closer to focus entirely on what they do best: closing the sale. An SDR will take cold or marketing leads, qualify them and then schedule sales appointments for the closer.
In this article, we will teach your how to develop your SDR team. It will include
- Strategizing
- Hiring
- Training
- Creating incentives for your SDRs
- The sales development process
- Productivity
- Metrics
Step 1: Sales Strategy to Develop your SDR Team
- Lead Based: A lead based strategy is all about obtaining as many leads as possible and as quickly as you can. Time is of the essence. This is used more in larger markets with smaller sized accounts.
- Account Based: This is all about reaching a very specific customer. This is used more in smaller markets with larger sized accounts.
While traditional lead generation uses a loosely targeted strategy for a large audience pool, an account-based strategy places a greater emphasis on high-value targets.
Step 2: An SDR that Goes the Extra Mile
You want to make sure that you are hiring the cream of the crop! Hire applicants who demonstrate these 3 qualities: good worth ethic, an appetite for knowledge and a charismatic persona.
A role an SDR requires tenacity, so ensuring that your applicant has good work ethic is essential. SDRs might hear a few no’s before they hear some exciting yes’. You want someone who is going to try and figure out how to overcome objectives.
And last but not least, since SDRs are often the first point of contact, you want someone who will make a great first impression. Hiring someone with charm and charisma can catch the attention of your potential customer.
Step 3: Success Starts at in the Training Process
You can think of your SDR team as the face of the company. The first point of contact. Ensuring that they are well prepared for the role is vital to their success.
A training process should include:
- Training sessions led by an SDR manager
- Demo sessions so your SDR is well versed on the product or service they are selling
- Multiple sessions on the specific sales process for the company and how it works
- A section which includes a detailed overview of the type of customer that the company intends to target
Step 4: Develop your SDR Team with with a Compensation Plan
A role as an SDR is not for the weak. It is demanding and requires a highly motivated individual. Incentivize your SDRs on things within their job that they can control such as the number of meetings they schedule or opportunities they were able to pass onto a closer.
Your compensation plan should have a clear roadmap for your SDRs to understand. And by that same token, anything additional you can do to make them feel important will help them succeed, such as bonuses or public recognition. Congratulating and rewarding them will leave your SDRs feeling motivated to achieve more.
Step 5: Sales Development that’s Effective
- Define: Who will your SDR target? Is it an industry? A specific company size? Professionals in the same field? Find out who the target audience is.
- Outreach: How will your SDR team target them? This covers the different channels of communication, how often this communication occurs and the time between contact.
- Qualify: Make sure your SDR team is asking the right questions to ensure if the customer is ready to be passed off to the closer. Lead qualification includes but is not limited to: the customer’s budget, the authority they have in their professional life, pain points they experience, their career goals and what motivates them.
Step 6: Maximize Productivity with Optimization Tools
CRM: If you are developing a sales development representative team, then it is likely that your company is large enough to justify having a CRM system.
Your organization’s CRM tool will keep track of all the important information related to your customer.
While it’s unrealistic to expect each sales representative to recall their interactions with every prospect, it is necessary to keep track of that information.
If your SDR had to keep track of everything manually, it would significantly reduce productivity, even for small sales teams. As your team qualifies leads, CRMs come in handy since they free your team from the constraints of spreadsheets and disorganized notes.
Contact Information: Need help finding the contact data of your leads? Fear not, technology has an answer for that.
Here are 4 providers you can use to find potential prospect’s contact information:
- ZoomInfo
- Infotelligent
- Seamless.ai
- LinkedIn Sales Navigator
This will save loads of time when trying to connect with your lead.
Communication: Speaking with prospects usually happens over a course of time over several different channels of communication.
Instead of manually reaching out and then planning and tracking follow-up calls, outreach automation can handle the repetitive and time-consuming part of the task. Tools such as Salesloft or Salesforce Customer 360 does all the automation for you.
Step 7: Develop Metrics that Matter for your SDR Team
There are two categories of metrics you want to keep tabs on when you establish your SDR team: operational and strategic.
Operational: Optimize the SDR’s daily strategies by providing data to the manager. The first set of suggested metrics ought to correspond to the steps in your lead follow-up procedure.
You can also track:
- Email response rates
- Voicemail response rates
- Qualified leads that convert to accepted leads
Strategic: This tells you how effective your SDR team is
It includes:
- Total pipeline sourced by SDRs
- Percentage of pipeline sourced by SDR
- Closed business from qualified leads
- Number of qualified leads passed per month
There are many ways you can build and grow your sales development team. Having a plan with a solid foundation can make the process of developing your SDR team more successful. You can never predict the hurdles your SDR will face. The role can be stressful and can have a learning curve. That is why it’s up to the team leader to ensure each SDR is well supported and trained. The success of your SDR team is a reflection of your preparedness. By following these steps, you can make the SDR team building process more seamless.