Tips for Advancing in an SDR Career

I went from SDR to Sr. Manager running pricing in 4 years. Every new job and promotion came from the help of mentors. My mentors reviewed my content to help me get clearer with my writing and helped me think through potential objections or questions from leaders on projects. One of my mentors is why I pivoted from my role in product marketing to running the competitive function at Grafana Labs - she suggested it when I wasn’t even in the room. 3 types of mentors everyone should have: a mentor, thought partner, and sponsor (separate from your board of directors). Mentor: At or above your level (similar function) This is someone who knows your discipline or is in the function you want to be in next You spend time knowledge sharing what projects they work on, offer to give feedback, and learn how they operate Take these lessons, apply them to your own role and share the feedback on how it went with your mentor Thought partner: At or above your level (same function) This is someone who shares the same ambitions or interests as you that you can continuously bounce ideas off of. This could be someone on your team or in a different department or even a different company. Knowledge share with these folks, review work together, brainstorm together. These are people who complement your weaknesses and vice versa. Sponsor: At the highest level at your company This is typically a VP or C-suite. Executives at companies are effectively resource allocators. When you are working on projects that affect the business, you will work with execs to get resources from a team or multiple teams. Finding an executive who can help sponsor you by unblocking you, helping secure resources, or promoting your work to get you on what’s most important for the business is key. You should have more than one sponsor if possible across functions. Having different types of mentors also gives you practice in tailoring the altitude of your conversation and switching context. E.g. if your thought partner is at a different company than you, practice sharing just the right amount of context so they can help. For weekly tips like this straight to your inbox you can find my newsletter in the first comment #negotiation #theopsguy

I've promoted 30+ SDRs to AEs 🥳 (how to do it and hit the ground running) 𝗚𝗲𝘁𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲: 1. Learn how to do discovery calls and demos. Study calls. Make this the focus in your 1:1s with you AE buddy. Do mock calls with your peers. Prepare ahead of time so you're not scrambling. 2. Focus on performance. Do whatever it takes to get great results in your current role. Easiest way to stand out and get the opportunity to interview. 3. Know your numbers and strategy. Be able to speak in detail about your results to date, where you stack up, why that is and what you're working on to improve. 𝗢𝗻𝗰𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗼𝗹𝗲: 1. Commit to working as hard as possible. SDR to AE is the biggest jump in sales in my opinion. Especially if you're selling a complex product with 1, 2 and 3 year commitments. 2. Be super proactive. Ask your manager/team a ton of questions. Loop your manager into calls. Ask them to review calls and give you their harshest feedback. Use every single resource at your disposal. 3. Be ruthless with your calendar. Only go to meetings that are absolutely necessary. This means saying no to things that are great and really blocking time to study, drive revenue and outbound. What tips would you give SDRs looking ot make the jump to AE? - Mike G 👉 Join 5,000+ sellers getting my (free) sales newsletter here: https://lnkd.in/gwQVvVBK

Promotion paths are a hot topic right now and I'm talking to more and more SDR's who are 2 years + in the role with no end in sight wondering what to do. Someone can tell you there promotion path is x amount of time but it doesn't matter because you could do everything right and there could still be no open spot for you to promote into due to lack of hiring and open roles. So do you quit? Here are some situations you can evaluate first. Is there promotion opportunities in another department outside of the role you want that you could move into, it may not be what you wanted but if is a way to keep your career moving up. Can I ask for a raise in my current role, that could prolong my shelf life in the SDR role? Is there a role that currently does not exist, but could have a huge impact on the company, you could put together a business case for it and pitch that role being created and you moving into it. If you are interviewing with companies right now here are some good questions to ask to vet some of this out. When was the last time an SDR was promoted off your team, and how long were they in seat? Is there a formal documented promotion process for SDR's? What is the companies growth plans for the next 1-2 years from a hiring standpoint? I've seen plenty of cases of people sticking it out at their current company and it paying off big time. I've seen people make jumps and it work out for them as well. But before I'd leave my tenured SDR role to start again at another company, I would try and make some moves internally first..especially if you are doing well.

Reps you need to start preparing for the next role far earlier than you realize. If you want to go from SDR to AE. You should be shadowing disco calls, demo calls, pricing calls 6-8 months before you are “ready” Practicing WEEKLY to get ready. AEs if you want to make the move to ENT. Same idea. This might even be a year of work, review, shadowing, to start to get a grip on what it will look like. Same idea here too. Practice creating business cases, POVs. Ask to help and ENT rep with their proposals. SDR Managers - if you really want to cross the aisle like I posed about last week. Same. Idea. Build a relationship with the closing managers. Shadow their 1x1s, their coaching calls, hop on calls with AEs. Practice pipeline reviews and deal management. Managers wanting to be Directors and VPs. Same ideas!!! The key idea here y’all is to get ready early! Who do you think gets prioritized for an internal promo? Someone doing the above or someone who says “I’ve been here long enough, I should have that promo” I get asked all the time “how do I get the next role?” And when I ask questions about if they have been doing the things above, the answer is almost always no. Is the above extra work? Yep. Deal with it. That’s part of the journey. If you think about the fact that each one of these promo levels could be $100ks in you pocket each year. I think that’s pretty worth it. Stay ready so you don’t have to “get ready” Let’s go.