Systems Integration

1. You recently went through an acquisition. As someone who leads a team of BDRs, what was that like? How did you communicate the news and help them prepare for inevitable changes?

2. Let’s look at this from the lens of the big 3 – people, process, and technology. Starting with tech, how do you decide what to keep and what to fade out?

3. Looking at people now, how does your management style shift to accommodate and integrate new team members?

   • And what can reps do to meet managers halfway?

   • Reps can feel like a cog in the machine – how do you enable them to feel like they’re making an impact?

4. There’s typically a huge cultural shift amongst the employees of merged companies – especially if one team operates from an enterprise perspective and one has a start-up personality. How do you manage those two clashing personalities?

5. Process-wise, a lot can shift when two companies merge. Campaign creation, persona development, lead routing systems…they could all be at odds with one another. How do you decide what to “default” to? How do you get people on board with making that shift?

   • Is this a good time to evaluate all new systems & processes?

   • How do you combat the “this is how we’ve always done things” objection you’ll get from team members?

Top 3 Takeaways

🛡️ “I didn’t even know how [the CRM] was going to map to SPINS world…so I kind of shielded my team from that.”

This is a great example of how Jake was able to keep the momentum of his team high while tons of micro-decisions were being made in the background.

Migrating from one CRM to another during the acquisition was no easy feat – especially during Q3 and Q4, crucial sales times for his BDRs. Having them all shift their processes to match a new CRM would pose a huge challenge, and would likely stall any momentum. So Jake decided to keep his reps in their original system until he finalized all of the mapping challenges…which meant he also needed to generate regular reports to keep activity visibility high.

Taking on the brunt of that work made sure that his reps stayed the course while chaos was happening in the background. He also sold the CRM shift as a positive – their marketability as a rep goes way up if they’re well-versed in 2 of the top CRMs on the market. Selling the change to his team as a positive made them appreciate that sacrifice even more.

Owning that responsibility and putting a positive spin (pun intended) on the change is a lesson any leader can leverage at any time. Whether it’s managing changes associated with an acquisition or helping a rep through a slump, Jake’s approach is universally empathetic.

✅ “Make it easy on your manager to interpret, review, and act upon with you…”

The SDR <> Manager relationship is decidedly a two-way street. As the reps put in more effort, managers should continue to up their game and support to match. And the same can be said for the other direction – as managers make sacrifices for their reps’ well-being, they should repay the favor in kind.

For Jake, this meant allowing some of his senior reps to own basic reporting and message creation responsibilities during the acquisition. Giving them a longer leash not only helped them develop and refine new skills, but it took some work off his plate so he could focus on larger-scale integrations. Win-Win!

Plus, it helped solve another challenge that reps often face – being a cog in the machine. It’s very easy for an SDR to simply “go through the motions” every day. That breeds apathy, and once you slip into that rut you can kiss your goals goodbye. Make sure that every day presents a new challenge and that reps don’t feel like they’re just spinning their wheels.

🤷 “if you’re a BDR that’s a prospecting whiz…and all of a sudden you’re teaching and enabling others…it makes you a little bit more marketable.”

Jake moved from a 40-50 person company to a 400-500 person company. That shift comes with challenges, but it also comes with a lot of opportunities. For his reps, that meant the ability to work with a larger team, an increase in leadership opportunities, and exposure to different business units.

Selling those positives against the challenges is where Jake focused a lot of his time.

Managing an acquisition is tough – you need buy-in and patience from your reps. If you can communicate the positives (more marketability, responsibility increases, chances to make more money, etc.) and meet them halfway, you’re more likely to earn that buy-in.

And again – this should happen all the time, not just during a situation like Jake’s.