Time Management – The Key to Success

SDR Insider #3

Time Management – The Key to Success may sound like just another piece of content about managing your time, but it is far from that. Episode 3 is a dynamic conversation about getting back to the basics of the SDR role. It’s filled with tips and advice from a former SDR turned manager, Andrew Smith (who still gets on the phone with his team), who has takeaways for any listener.

Multi-hyphenate Andrew Smith has worn, tried on, and kept many hats throughout his time at demandDrive, making him the perfect guest to talk about organization and time management.

He juggles a lot on a daily basis, and he manages to see consistent success as both a rep and manager. 

How, you ask? 

In our conversation, Andrew admits that multitasking is never easy, but as he shares, it’s a skill that can be honed and developed through time and patience.

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Key Takeaways

You Don’t Have to be Organized, but You Have to Learn to be

Contrary to popular belief, being organized is not always an innate quality of successful people. Oftentimes, it’s learned. 

“I am not inherently organized, but I have had to become organized” is how Andrew described himself early on in this episode, proving organization and time management can develop over time – just like any skill.

He then goes on to share, “…exactly how I did it.” So listen to hear how he got there over time, especially at the start of his SDR career.

💡 Editor’s Note: A lot of people think the best sales reps have inherent ability – be it time management, confidence, or something else. We disagree; any and all of the best traits for sales reps are learned, not inherent. Dive into our take on confidence as an example.

 

If You’re Struggling, Go Back to the Basics 

A large part of our conversation about time management was the importance of going back to basics, especially when you are feeling overwhelmed or like you don’t have enough hours in the day. 

“What processes worked for you when you first started? What processes didn’t? What are the key takeaways from week one of training?” Sometimes, thinking back to how it all started can give you the perspective needed later in your career.

Another key takeaway was the importance of getting on the phones. As a manager, Andrew still gets in the trenches with his reps on a daily basis. And it’s not because he has to, it’s because he knows that prospecting is a skill that will always serve you well and needs continuous refinement – even if you don’t think you have the time for it.

💡 Editor’s Note: More than anything, this is a callout for reps to prioritize effectively. Let’s be real – you don’t need a full 8 hours to get all of your work done as an SDR. Done efficiently, you can bang out 100+ dials in a couple of hours. But that’s only possible if you set yourself up for success – that means activity blocking, preparing accounts for call sessions, and minimizing distractions when you make dials.

 

Be One Step Ahead of Yourself 

He doesn’t care what your process is, but “I would like you to have one.”  An iconic line from this episode shows the importance of having a plan, even if it doesn’t work, and honoring a process. 

An easy process to start with? Write everything down. 

Human error is real, and one way to combat it is to write everything down and set up tasks for yourself in your CRM. Andrew implores you to know what your CRM offers to keep organized by using those tools. It may seem simple, but little change can save you time and make you more productive. 

💡 Editor’s Note: Andrew actually talked about note-taking in a separate event on communicating with your pipeline. The points he made there ring true here as well – the best SDRs are systematic, not just talented. 

 

Focus Time is Everything

“I put everything on my calendar,” which Andrew says is his process that keeps him on schedule track. He admits that making sure the blocks of time are realistic and not too long is equally important. 

“Try to decide what you are going to do in blocks of time (every day) that are not too long.”

Something he has been doing with his team that he sees as beneficial is using Slack to signal to team members when they are having focus time. Multitasking is an important skill and part of the SDR role, but so is staying focused on your present task at hand, especially in our world of limitless distractions. 

💡 Editor’s Note: We’ve talked a LOT about guarding your time and finding your ‘golden hours’ as an SDR. Check out our podcast and symposium recap on that topic.


Sales Rep new or old, we hope you found this episode and post helpful. We are looking forward to sharing more insights from top performers through the SDR Insider, a new monthly initiative from demandDrive.

If you are interested in being included in a future episode or have an idea for a conversation, feel free to reach out to Madi at madeline.resnic@demandrive.com

(00:00) [Music] hey Andrew welcome to Sr insiders how are you doing hi Maddie doing great how are you good thank you so much for being here I’m really excited to chat with you today um we don’t know each other well but we’ve both worked as demand drive for a minute so I’m really excited to just learn a little bit more about you
(00:23) today and just also talk about time management I think it’s going to be a good one I I’m super excited and you know managing at demand Drive these are conversations we have all the time so any opportunity I have to help other sdrs that are maybe getting started maybe they are in the midst of navigating getting a
(00:48) little tired of the role I I’m happy to share you know my process and hopefully it resonates I’m sure it will um I’m excited to just get to know about your process a little bit because you wear a lot of hats that’s going to be a theme throughout this episode definitely talking about all those different hats
(01:09) you wear but I would love just for anyone who hasn’t met you or doesn’t know you and is listening to just give a little background on yourself and about your current role at aand drive and yeah just a little bit more about yourself I think would be great to start off sure hi everybody my name is Andrew uh Andrew
(01:26) Smith pretty common name that you would probably find in like you know an example in a in an in an English textbook or like a phone that you buy it’s the example name the John Smith if you will um but yeah I I’ve been at demand drive over three years now um have a lot of sales experience in in different you know industry so I did uh
(01:53) employee benefits sales as an SDR in college uh managed a retail store in Manhattan for like 4 years uh that was absolute Madness uh and then I came to demand Drive uh you know in 2020 peak of covid looking for something new and different I’m a musician I went to music school it’s a huge part of my life I I music
(02:19) Direct in Boston I work with high schoolers kids um my life is chaotic in full and sales has been actually a really great partner as I navigate uh my music life and my professional life so at demand drive I have done a lot of different things and I’m here to tell you I didn’t even mean for it to happen
(02:45) I’m just one of those people that I’m a creative and I really I enter situations and I I do kind of beat to My Own Drum and I I started off you know as an SDR it was covid my cousin Gregory recommended the company and I thought you know what I want to I want a new opportunity so I started on a one rep
(03:14) project it was really challenging to be honest it was a healthc care cyber security project and I was on my own but it and this is so corny but it ended up really helping me learn the ins and outs of the role because of how challenging it was there was no alternative so after about a year on the project it kind of
(03:39) became clear that I took to training and I I really liked ramping up other reps uh not only on that Healthcare project but in other ways um you know Shadow sessions coaching s sessions so then I ended up being the week one trainer for demand drive for like a year and a half and I did that fulltime and we were you
(04:06) remember we were hiring at such a rate that that was like every week we were like there were like more more people so I learned so much doing that wow um training is so thankless and I I just learned so much and it it was a wild time then after that and i’ had been like a team lead and and a project lead
(04:31) and so so after that uh a little over a year ago an opportunity with unnamed big company uh came about with demand drive and we had a pilot opportunity and so Dan and Lindsay had thrown out to me hey we have this pilot opportunity with big big company and we want to see what you find see if you can find a process and
(05:04) scale it so that was a year ago and now we have goodness we have like 45 to 50 reps on that project and I’m overseeing that and another client of ours that is in the healthy air sustainability space so that is what I do at demand Drive no it’s actually amazing you laying it out that way of all the different things you’ve done since
(05:39) you’ve been here for the past three years it’s really really cool um and it also just shows how much you can grow with this company too which is a really great thing to see and yeah I mean you’ve just worn so many hats it’s crazy to look back at and so I’d love to go back to that first rooll as an Str strr
(05:57) and just wondering what was your approach to time management when you first started did you have any was it something that you were conscious of or is it something that you really had to develop over time as you’ve been in the sales World definitely had to develop over time I don’t want anyone listening
(06:16) to this to think I am organized um like deep in my soul I am not but to Sur survive professionally and grow professionally you have to figure it out so like I am a work in progress when it comes to time management I’m not inherently organized but I’ve had to become organized so I’ll tell you exactly how I did
(06:47) it I am a scattered person I’m always thinking of like three things at once and that’s honestly like another conversation with a doctor but me too honestly so I get you kidding but not so I find it very E I find it easier for my personality and my life to simplify in every way possible so you know my my
(07:18) partner will say let’s go this way it’ll get us there the fastest but we have to take a train a bus and an airplane I just want to take the train and have it take longer so I’ve had to fight that in the SDR role so when I started as an SDR I broke my day into two halves I looked at my activity expectations I cut them into
(07:46) two I put lunch in the middle and it wasn’t that efficient but it was like this is what my day is um I took a shower I put on like a nice shirt and I said 25 dials thoughtful dials is the morning 25 emails I would call people email them right after because I was approaching it like how do I just do this it wasn’t like maybe I’ll try this
(08:23) it was like let’s just get the job done in the beginning then when my responsibilities started growing I definitely started blocking off my calendar and really utilizing my calendar in every way possible so I’m kind of a one trick pony at this point uh I’ve said this a gazillion times at demand drive so it’ll
(08:49) be a repeat for a lot of people um if you want to go on a walk put on put it on your calendar if you like to take your dog for a walk at a certain time put it on your calendar I put everything on my calendar um am I a day ahead not always but if someone meets with me if they’re like hey um Andrew can we just
(09:16) sync really quick and it’s 15 minutes but it goes for 30 I’ll adjust what it was on my calendar because I don’t know why but I like to look back and see what what did my day what did I plan my day to be and what did it become but when you’re new I and I used to say this during training all the time I don’t all I don’t exactly care
(09:48) what your process is but I’d love you to have one it spaghetti at the wall I it’s just not going to work it’s not going to work and I’ll tell you I didn’t get a lead on my first project until 3 weeks in of like really trying it wasn’t like I’m just like kind of getting a feel for it wasn’t no I was really trying um
(10:15) exceeding activity expectations so you could argue that my process was actually not working for me but what it actually did was it helped me create a routine where respect the um the work day and the hours and and see it as like okay um this is going to work walking two feet to my desk and getting a feel for how my
(10:39) day was going to going to be and then I think professionally that helped me to take on other roles because I had already created a routine yeah honestly that advice is huge and I think that kind of goes into what I was going to ask next which was are there any tactics that you would stay away from and it kind of sounds
(11:05) like that spaghetti at the walls tactic it doesn’t work you need to have some type of process so other than that is there anything else that you feel like you tried in the beginning or you’ve tried in the past that you would stay away from that has not worked for you time management wise I think what
(11:31) I I love this question because there are a couple of different ways you could go I think what I would say is don’t ever think you’re going to remember anything you have to set up a task you have to write it down you will not remember o had a great conversation with Maddie VP a supply chain she’s got a
(12:01) little cold but she’s gonna she’s GNA be back on Friday and and I’m going to get it you’re not remembering her on Friday you no no no Andrew I will I will no you won’t so you have to write it down and depending on the CRM you’re using whether it’s Salesforce HubSpot a dialer at least know what the CRM offers for
(12:29) like call back features automation tasks know how to use them and then actually use them I I act I what a weird human nature thing that we can have so many resources to help us and weely don’t want to use them so yeah we we have a we have a bunch of people on my team that you know really uh utilized our CRM to its fullest
(12:59) extent and when I started seeing that I immediately was like well that kid’s training because you know you you become a guru so I would say tactics I would stay away from is uh what am I saying of tactics you could you should stay away from acting like you know how to do it when you’re new mhm we I really and
(13:25) again I’m a little biased but I think our training week one is really good here I know it’s fast but I think it’s really good and I always say when I started I did this job exactly the way Chelsey taught me to do it I didn’t say okay okay that that sounds good I’m going to do it my way cu the joke of it is when you’re new what
(13:54) is your way MH your your strategy doesn’t weigh that much when you don’t know much I don’t know if that was exactly no I think that you expected me to go okay no it was great and I think it’s so true to honestly even myself as an Str Str I think we think we’re able to remember everything and remember what’s going on
(14:20) when we have so much going on in our lives and in the role and maybe in other aspects of the company and we have to think ahead and know that we’re going to forget things and to be proactive in that way so I think I think that’s great and I am curious if someone is feeling like you know they’re doing those things
(14:42) but they don’t feel like they have enough hours in the day because I know that’s the way I feel a lot of a lot of times feel like there’s just not enough hours in the day for everything that I have to accomplish is there any advice or tips you would give to that that person who wants to make more of the
(14:59) hours in the day mhm totally so here’s what I would say and this is becoming a theme in a lot of my conversations lately I this might be a little controversial don’t cancel me Maddie I’ll try not to but I’m kind of getting tired of like the account mapping idea I just feel that it is best for our day our time our well-being to instead
(15:30) strengthen our skills over the phone to better connect with people and then follow the evidence like you’re a detective I’m just at a point with like scouring LinkedIn and zoom info and all these things I could spend 30 minutes doing that call the company and be like oh they’re leaving next week yeah so
(16:05) just I would say if you’re struggling with getting it all done in one day something about your process just isn’t working and I I think it’s it’s probably time to ask yourself why that is and and again I don’t mean to be like um catastrophizing but a lot of times when reps are telling me that they might be overwhelmed
(16:34) they’re having trouble navigating their time management I often wonder if they’re hiding from the phone because a lot of times we can use our energy over the phone and have unbelievable conversations if we’re comfortable asking some of the tougher questions and I think that could give you two more hours a day I think that’s
(17:10) fabulous advice and I also think that as someone who has been in the role for I would say about two years now um it really is something you learn early on to make sure you’re on the phones call a lot and I think as the role progresses sometimes you’d lead more towards LinkedIn or maybe it’s email whatever it
(17:34) might be but really just going back to basics I think can really change your process especially if you feel like things aren’t working so yeah I think that’s great advice is to kind of just go back to the basics what you started with which is calling calls are everything and having those conversations yeah and I I often have to
(17:54) find a balance between being being positive and being ruthless mhm but I I do think uh as the role progresses we lean towards LinkedIn and email messaging cuz deep down the phone sucks we don’t want to do it that’s just the reality like a lot of the AES I work with won’t pick up a phone yeah they will not do
(18:25) it oh we had a no show I’m like oh my god really did you I don’t know call them 959 you give them a little ring dingding they probably would have hopped right on cuz I don’t know they forgot don’t avoid the phone just just do some mirror work say I have to do this and you’ll get five more leads and again I only I’m a little
(18:54) Huffy Puffy today but I do I talk to all like I talk to so many of our reps every single day so like I know what people are saying and what they’re struggling with and often times it’s not these like big things it’s actually super fundamental it’s like stuff oh my gosh you hate talking to people or like
(19:22) you hate the phone so we have to figure that out and we have to rewire that and get you to understand if we can get past this you’re going to make more money and I heard I don’t know I heard you needed that so like let’s figure that out and it goes back to again writing things down like you’re sleeping on
(19:48) leads yeah no one’s picking up you are sleeping on qc’s you forgot about mhm that great Tuesday you had and now it’s like the following Wednesday did you follow up on those and and I think that’s that and I’m going a little all over the place but that is when that’s when you can get into um thinking way too much about
(20:16) daily activity expectations and less about the big picture so for me too I talk a lot of on my team about like you know do you have like a vision board and I know that sounds like corny but a vision board or a dream board for your meetings for the month because if you really think about it I think our goals at demand Drive are
(20:41) extremely Fair it we’re just not going to ever be a company that’s like more um it it’s very realistic and for me it’s like if you get 10 Q CES a day something’s wrong like something is up with your messaging because you should be getting leads then so if your goal is 10 and you have 10 great conversations in week one of the
(21:10) month I want you numbering out 10 writing that down and stamping that on your wall having it in a Google Excel sheet having it in your CRM and that really should be a good way of like okay I to get two to three a week you know it’s crazy I think this conversation is going to be so beneficial to new reps just as much as
(21:35) tenur reps because as someone who has been in the role for a little bit I think hearing these things it’s things that I do but to just hear it in the way that you’re saying it it’s really eye openening so I I really think you’re giving some good advice right now so thank you I’m so glad and I mean as I
(21:54) say it I’m I’m sure I’m borderline insufferable on a daily basis but it’s the reality is is this is the job and you know I’m getting to a point like this is a wild job it’s a wacky job Maddie I’m sure you talk to your friends and they’re like I could never do that yes daily like I have friends that would
(22:22) rather die than order a pizza like over the phone yeah so it it what we’re doing is wild M to be successful you got to get wild you got to get wild with it um I of reps say what what would you say to someone who says this and I’d be like I’ll ask them why they’re saying that and they’re like you got to get a little wacky
(22:54) if someone says yeah yeah he’s uh he’s never going to take that meeting you you can send it to me say you know I actually have to only pass meetings with directors and above so I appreciate if you can help me there and then they’re like oh yeah and I think it’s also leveling with people at the end of the day you’re talking to
(23:20) another human being and I think we get in our head sometimes when we’re on LinkedIn on our CRM looking at all these big names and titles and at the end of the day you’re just having a conversation with someone that is the basis of this whole entire job and so leveling with yourself a little bit and reminding yourself of that especially
(23:42) when you’re having these conversations and getting push back that’s that could be a lead right there absolutely totally and always remembering you’re talking to someone that is a brother a sister a mom a dad um they they are a person most likely waiting counting down the minutes to 5:00 when they can get to most of the
(24:04) time what they’d rather be doing so spending time with their family making music there a lot of a lot of the people I think especially in our client pool or the the icps of our clients they are in industries that often don’t recognize them like as people so I think remembering that you can tap into their Humanity in that way hey you
(24:42) know my name’s Andrew calling from demand Drive how’s it going hoping you can help wondering if you can help this is what I have to do are you the right person cool you’re not who’s the right person awesome when’s a good time to to catch them and just getting really casual and personal with what you’re trying to do I
(25:08) think is always going to win over Maddie I’m sure do you get prospected a lot I’ve started to like I feel like now that I’ve been in the role for a little bit I get more emails oh my gosh with time it is more yeah the emails I get are an absolute Abomination so I I will be your phone guy all day yeah no I think it’s it’s a good thing
(25:36) to think about like how many emails are going to our spam every single day versus if you end up picking up if you’re going to have a conversation if it’s a real person you probably will yeah remember the scam calls I get I’ll answer sometimes and I answered one yes yesterday and he was like is this Andrew I was like yes he was like the
(26:01) business owner I was like get out of here yeah no so if you if you right off the bat have an intro that’s human MH and and friendly and imperfect that really that really sounds like you’re a breathing human that’s not reading something it goes such a long why it does yeah I think that is great advice Beyond time management but I
(26:31) think that people are really going to resonate with that I know I just did um and I guess going back to the whole thought process of your day and how you get so many things done wearing so many different hats are there non-negotiables that are a part of your day or that have become a part of your day and your
(26:53) current routine that you recommend to other sales reps regardless of their project regardless of their tenure that you think have really changed what your day looks like in your process I so full disclosure I have terrible boundaries is this at at work and uh I think a lot of people do I will answer every message um
(27:23) I’m multitasking all the time sometimes I’m even on the phone and I’ll me I’ll answer a question from a rep that a rep might have I think for sdrs that solely have to just do the SDR role blocking your calendar and utilizing slack or whatever or teams whatever you’re using leveraging like the away messages
(28:03) and the statuses can be really helpful so on our team and again I don’t know if this is working but it’s like you have to just try yeah we’re doing we’re doing like Focus time so if someone has the red phone OT MH that’s that’s Focus time for them and it’s just kind of a light indicator that they’re kind of doing
(28:37) their thing right now so like chill one of my reps right before we started was asking me the same thing because she’s navigating having a little bit more responsibility because she’s on a one rep deal that we just sign sign two more Reps for and I told her right off the bat that I I I didn’t want her to
(29:01) feel like she was you know having to answer all the questions but I think the reality is is it’s just what happens you you gravitate towards the person that’s done well and she’s on her own so she’s she’s having to fielded a lot of questions while meeting her own her own daily expectations so we talked through you know just when
(29:28) you’re calling you’re calling and maybe close slack like like don’t even have it open so that you can’t even see the notifications you can’t see the little red one two three four five at the at the bottom and just want to click it really bad CU it’s fun don’t even open it maybe shut off your monitor um I actually do that uh
(29:55) sometimes when I’m on calls like this I’ll full screen it shut off my monitor because you know in this new world you don’t you just you want to give people your attention so I guess just try to decide what you’re going to do in blocks of time that aren’t too long you know don’t say I’m calling for 2 hours
(30:25) like say no I’m calling for 30 minutes and I’m just going to focus on calling and what I’m saying because let’s be real if you’re on slack as you’re calling and you’re doing all these things um so and so is GNA say this is Mike and you’re GNA say hi I’m looking to speak with Mike and then you’re a dingus and he
(30:50) knows that you’re not ready and multitasking and multitasking and he’s probably going to be like you know what take me off your list yeah but that’s your fault so it’s the multitasking thing people can wait 10 minutes and in the manager role sometimes they actually can’t and that’s just the cross you have
(31:12) to bear but most things wait yeah most most things can wait yes yeah you’re so right yeah and I also think that just being present is something that our generation has such a hard time doing and I think when you’re on the phones when you’re emailing it’s not as important but I think when you’re on the
(31:39) phones just try to be present put your phone away your cell phone away make sure you’re really just taking the time and I think that could be a non-negotiable all in itself is just making sure that you’re really trying to be present especially when you’re doing activities like on the phone or whatever it might be with your
(32:02) role because then you’re you’re actually using that full 30 minutes you’re not really just using like the 10 minutes that you were actually calling and then the 20 minutes that you were doing everything else so I think being present is something that could be a really good non-negotiable to try to implement sure I what a what a what an
(32:22) enormous point you just made and and could probably be an entire episode yeah I I can’t believe I’m saying this I’m shocked I I don’t use my phone when I’m on when I’m calling prospects I actually don’t and and I I’m totally addicted to my phone um in in other aspects of life but when I am am prospecting and I’m I’m
(32:56) calling people I actually do just sit there and and think about what I’m going to say because I’m call oh I forgot to mention this I’m still on the phone yes I forgot to mention this for everyone listening I promise I’m not completely full of it I feel very strongly as a manager that I am still on the phone calling which I think is
(33:25) amazing it’s an amazing it’s hard but it’s an amazing thing to do yeah it’s it’s it’s hard to keep up but I just don’t want to manage people without being in the mud I I don’t want to be maybe try this when I’m not doing it um it’s the job is wild it’s hard there are challenges at every turn the messaging
(33:51) the approach the call blocks what time of day all of these things and it feels so much better for me knowing that I am still doing it when someone’s like yeah you know it just takes a really long time to to to find the numbers for the companies I’m like 30 seconds 45 maybe yeah and and it forces them to look in the mirror and I’m not
(34:23) trying to be a jerk it’s really just I don’t want to just show up I want to feel like I’m actually doing something and we owe it to our people to professionally develop them because this is one of those jobs oh my goodness you can just become a zombie and that I won’t allow that I won’t no I think it’s
(34:46) huge and I’m so happy you brought it up because I also forgot but it was a big part of our pre-con conversation is the fact that you are still on the phones you’re still getting that experience uh dayt day hearing what’s going on with your project and I think that’s huge it’s absolutely huge um so I will be
(35:06) asking this each episode and I think it’ll be a little different because you are still on the phones but is there any influential or funny or crazy story that you remember as an SDR that really has shaped you in maybe posit postive ways negative ways whatever it might be um would love to hear it it could be
(35:31) something from your first week of calling up until now but would love to just kind of hear anything that comes to mind when I say that uh right away as a story that you know you come back to still three years later I can think of a recent one while you’re while you’re thinking so recently I was on the phones
(35:51) and I called someone very high up at this company and he basically told me to f off right told me to get get lost and that same day I got a meeting with his research director oh so I think it’s also sometimes the perseverance in situations too where even if someone tells you oh we’ll never use you or
(36:20) we’re not interested we don’t we don’t want to talk to you or take me off the that doesn’t mean to give up totally and even 2 years in that happening recently it reminded me okay even if someone from a company is rude to you that doesn’t mean you should stop trying especially if you know it’s the right Prospect sure
(36:41) um so that thank you for doing that because now I have a story a really nice story um so had a really great uh experience when I started this pilot for big big company and it was um the first month of the project and I was doing my thing and we were navigating lists and data and not having full access into their
(37:08) internal server and all all the data that I really needed to be successful so it was kind of like let’s just give them a little bit and see what they can do so I call this man and found his cell phone number gave it a ring dingding and he was just this kind of kagin and you know he said if this is a
(37:37) sales call I will not take it and just because I love the accent he was French so it was it was very um you know matter of fact and if this is a sales I will not take it and he hung up I appreciate the accent thank you it was very lumere like Beauty and the Beast lumere like that think of that voice and I just
(38:07) loved his title it was one of those titles where I was like we’re trying to do strategic work and strategic conversations and this isn’t about do I have a gadget for you this is about more like bigger than that more about changing a company’s process on a on a bigger scale so I really liked his title
(38:33) and the fact that he picked up was amazing gave this guy like a solid month started calling him again another month goes by randomly he just picks up we have the most normal conversation ever not how’d you get my cell phone number wait where are you calling from it was so calm cool I’m asking you know
(39:04) day-to-day challenge points what are aspects of your job that where are you hitting robloxs tell me more about that I don’t have a ton of information on that vendor what is what does that mean what do they do and bigname Company oh I get the meeting of course big big name company is like why did you call
(39:34) him how did you talk how did you get him how did you talk to him and they immediately asked to meet with me and they had been trying to talk to this man for years wow and he ended up being the most influential person for that company like in the world wow so it’s definitely the biggest meeting I’ve ever passed at demand Drive yeah
(40:04) that’s huge but then big name company asked me to to go on the call with lumere to like kind of you know I be an icebreaker hey you know yeah thanks so much for hopping on as I mentioned here’s blah and blah blah we’re going to talk through through some of those things I’ll be on the call if you need
(40:29) me all I can say about that is and what a what a silly um talking point you know trust your gut but it’s like I don’t know I there was something about that guy when he said this is a sales call and I will not take it there was something about him where I was like no way he’s so nice like I his LinkedIn
(40:51) I was like there’s no way he loves like bad mitt he’s not going to be a mean guy so I just caught him at the wrong time he didn’t have the time to really listen to me and um I gave him another shot you know when the when the waters cool down or something whatever the saying is no I love that story and I
(41:16) think once you have an experience like that it makes you realize oh my gosh I could have done that with so many other prospects and maybe try it again should I go back like it makes you realize that perseverance really is key in this role and it is the most important thing at the end of the day yeah and who’s to say
(41:41) like a month later you can’t say hey Maddie uh Andrew Smith calling from demand drive we spoke really briefly around Halloween it was not the right time mhm want to set up a call with you talk about XYZ and be on your radar for the future you say no then I say why then you say cuz we have this and then I say well we want to
(42:08) show you what we’re doing and be ahead of the game for when you renegotiate and then you get a meeting and that’s really how it that’s that’s what it’s all about it is H Andrew this is such a great conversation really appreciate it and I just want to know as we’re wrapping up is there one thing from this conversation I know I
(42:32) have one thing that I’m going to share that you would want the audience to take away from this episode do you think there’s one thing that really stands out to you yeah MH so what I would say if you feel that one of your weaknesses is your phone work figure it out cuz it’s it’s you’re you’re missing
(43:05) out on money it you know if you’re the email Guy uh that’s fine and that’s valuable but really think about what you’re missing talking to actual people MH saying hey you know Maddie this is what I’m trying to do then you talk to Alex then you talk to AJ and just because you actually talk to Maddie you get the
(43:39) meeting with AJ and that’s that it’s harder to do via email it just is it is it’s hard because nothing’s personal anymore so like I would say if any part of you got butterflies when I said that work on being more confident on the phone asking more questions taking bigger risks you know if you’re like um
(44:05) okay I is it okay if I call you back in 6 months six months no don’t suggest six months I want next week yeah you know and that’s what I would say it’s it’s let’s let’s let’s build some confidence and if that resonates you have so many resources at demand drive to really help you with that and and think about your career Beyond
(44:34) demand Drive longterm these are skills even if you don’t work in sales forever oh these are skills that are going to take you so far so so invest in yourself and really care about it what also jumped out to me about what you just said about your your takeaway is what is the worst thing that could happen and I think that’s something we
(45:01) don’t talk about enough totally it’s someone says no if that’s the worst thing that can happen Okay you move on you go to the next Prospect I think just reminding yourself of that regardless of what project you are on whatever you’re working on to remember the worst thing that can happen is someone’s saying no it’s worth a shot
(45:23) it’s worth a shot to try um I would say that my key takeaway from this episode is the importance of going back to the basics making sure that your foundation is strong regardless of if you’re starting if you’ve been in the role for a while your shifting rules whatever it might be going back to basics and making
(45:46) sure that Foundation is always at a good spot that’s how you continue to succeed totally agree at the end of the day the basics are what the role is all about everything else is really supplemental in helping you grow into a new role but to grow into a new role you really have to understand this One MH yeah if you’re
(46:10) wanting if you want to be an AE oh you got to be a great SDR let’s let’s focus on that yes and it’s so crazy that the topic of this episode was time management but you realize that time management is just a word it’s all of the action that’s behind it there’s so much action that has to be behind it and I think people
(46:35) will be surprised by this episode that yes it’s about time management but we talked about so much more than just that because it’s the B it’s the basis of everything well so time management if you say from 10 to 11 you’re going to account map but if your account mapping is useless 10 to 11 didn’t even matter M
(46:53) so I also appreciate Maddie you’re an amazing host because I’m a chaotic interviewee and I I don’t stay on topic and I apologize a great conversation yeah but you’re a beautiful summarizer thank you I appreciate that you took a lot of my points and then made them a beautiful oneliner thank you appreciate that I’ll
(47:20) need you I’ll need you on other call I appreciate that and like I said I think it’s a bigger message time management isn’t just about the time it’s all the other things the building blocks and I think people are really going to appreciate that from this conversation and all of the tips and takeaways so I
(47:40) really appreciate your time and wisdom and I can’t wait for everyone else to hear this as well so thank you thanks Madi

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