Getting Started With Sales Development
Opt In | Ep. 44
What you need to know before building & scaling out your SDR function.
Taking a kid out of college and expecting them to generate revenue after a couple of weeks of training is…well it’s absurd.
But sales leaders continue to build SDR functions with the mentality of “hire a rep, train them quickly, reap the rewards.”
That might have worked ~5 years ago, but there are nuances to building a high-performing team in today’s environment that need to be considered.
And consider them we shall.
As you might imagine, a company that builds and manages sales development functions gets asked a lot of questions about team structure, compensation, motivation, etc.
The nitty gritty stuff that you have to consider if you want to build a successful, sustainable team.
AJ and Alex cover 6 common questions & pitfalls in our recent onDemand event. From there, they teased out a couple of “aha” moments to highlight in an episode of Opt In.
As the SDR function becomes more strategic, the investment in and management of your reps becomes more important.
Opt In to modernizing your SDR function and building it with sustainable success in mind.
AJ & Alex’s Take
The best way to learn about this is to watch the recording (linked above), but if you’re looking for an abbreviated learning experience we’ve got you covered:
AJ and Alex cover 6 common questions & pitfalls in our recent onDemand event. From there, they teased out a couple of “aha” moments to highlight in an episode of Opt In.
As the SDR function becomes more strategic, the investment in and management of your reps becomes more important.
Opt In to modernizing your SDR function and building it with sustainable success in mind.
Key Takeaways
AJ
I’m biased, but there are a few really solid takeaways from this conversation that can apply to anyone’s situation.
Development > Retention is definitely a topic that hit home for me when putting this together. I’ve talked about it a couple of times in the past (here and here) and I think it’s widely applicable.
Managers and leaders need to meet reps halfway. Set them up for success and they’ll pay you back in pipeline, candidate referrals, and positive reviews.
Casey Graham and the team at Gravy are huge proponents of this idea – and it’s worked wonders for them. They talked about it in the RevGenius Mag, Casey has posted about it on his LinkedIn, and we covered it on an episode of Jake & Friends.
Heck, it’s even part of our core values as a company: “Take care of your employees, and they’ll take care of the business.”
At the end of the day, investing in training and development for your SDRs will pay more dividends than investing in retention.
Alex
That idea of developing your employees bleeds into my takeaway – the SDR role is a stepping stone, but it doesn’t always have to end up in an AE role.
Being an SDR, you learn skills that can help you succeed in a number of different roles. Marketing, CS, Leadership…the skills you develop are applicable in a number of different business units.
We talked about it with Chelsea Leahy, our director of training, in 2021. We covered it in an episode of SDRevolution with Mary Grothe in 2020. AJ even talked about his move into marketing on the Simply Sales and Marketing show.
Point is, the idea of leveraging SDR skills into other positions isn’t a new idea, and yet too many companies still track SDRs into AE positions by default.
Doing that 👆 limits both the growth of your reps and the growth of your team.
As a manager, you can get a lot of production and growth out of your rep by simply asking them, “what do you want to do after being an SDR? How can I help you get there?” Investing in your reps and meeting them halfway nets you loyalty and production.
“You give me 18-24 months of buy-in and solid SDR effort, and I’ll work with you to get you to the next step in your career journey.”
You can do yourself a lot of good by finding win-win scenarios.
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