How to Maximize SDR Performance

Back in my Oracle SDR days, sometimes we were allowed to go home early if we could set 3 meetings in a given day. My record was leaving the office at 9:45 am 😂 I have a love / hate relationship with cold calling, but it's damn effective. Over the years, I've spoken to hundreds of SDRs/AEs/Mgrs on this topic. Here are the steps I've seen teams take that have truly "figured it out"💡 I'd consider each a non-negotiable. Step 1: Build a very targeted list with the *strictest* mobile phone accuracy filters for a single buyer persona. Step 2: Write out (word for word) an A+ call script that, in theory, will set a meeting with that specific persona in <60 seconds. The most experienced SDR/manager/founder should own writing this, and get feedback from at least 2+ others. If qualifying questions might take this conversation 2-3 different ways, ensure each path is written out 100%, just as you'd like the call to go. Step 3: Write out (again, word for word) responses to the top 3 objections you'll get most often. Step 4: Hit the phones until you have 5 or more 20+ second conversations, ensuring calls are (legally) recorded, or others on your team are listening in. Step 5: Critique what went well / poorly in each call (this will uncover inevitable areas of product / industry knowledge gaps amongst your team). Step 6: Iterate, iterate, iterate. Tweak your script based on objections you're getting, where you sound awkward, or too salesy. Push yourself, and your team, to find new ways to boost conversion rates at the top of the funnel. Make sure any changes are clearly documented on the master script, in one single & easy to access place. Step 7: Add a recurring slot to review good and bad call recordings. Steps 4-6 should be on non-stop repeat. Especially for any team with 3+ SDRs, only after you've nailed this would I recommend tweaking the script to be used across the rest of your outbound motions (between sequence steps, calling people who have opened your last email, etc.). For enterprise companies with 100s of SDRs, these fundamentals are just as important. Given the slow-moving nature of messaging evolution across larger orgs, it's super likely that changes in the market (or from your competitors) are making parts of your core script redundant more often than you'd think. You. need. to. keep. investing. in. your. sales. team's. resources. If anything else has been elemental to your process which I didn't include above, I'd love to hear about it, please comment below!

I’ve stood up 500+ SDR teams for clients in countless industries. Do NOT send an SDR live on the phone if they haven't mastered these 5 elements. 1️⃣ Key industry lingo/terms Each sector has its own language, and reps need to be comfortable using it if they’re going to talk to decision-makers. Develop a glossary of terms to help them communicate confidently. 2️⃣ Persona statements Persona statements are indispensable tools for understanding the key individuals working at your target companies. SDRs need to understand the unique concerns of the people they speak to so they can tailor their outreach. This is especially true if there are multiple stakeholders who oversee a particular area. 3️⃣ Targeting criteria These are the key firmographic or behavioral qualifiers that must be true for a lead to move forward. SDRs need to master this info so they can properly qualify leads early in the sales process. 4️⃣ Value proposition The value proposition is a statement that encapsulates the overall benefit a product or service offers to customers, including how it solves a problem and why it's a better choice. They also need to understand the nuance of how the value proposition relates to the specific persona they are calling. Value props are different from scripts; they inform the script and approach. SDRs need to internalize the value prop so they can effectively think on their feet when calls go off-script (as they inevitably do). 5️⃣ Competitive differentials Competitive differentials are distinct features, capabilities, and benefits that set a product or service apart from other options within the market. “We already have a competitor” is a common objection, and understanding the competitive landscape us the only way around it. The difference between a good SDR and a great one lies in the details, and these 5 drive sales excellence. #prospecting #leadership

Listen to this one, we decided to shake things up and brought in an external SDR team last year. Thought we'd see some typical SDR action, but guess what? They hit a jaw-dropping 1% of their quarterly goal. Yep, you read that right. As someone who’s pretty confident in my sales development skills, this was a plot twist I did NOT see coming. There I was, thinking, "Is this it? Are SDRs a relic of the past? Is outbound prospecting about to bite the dust?"  It felt like we were facing the endgame for a key part of our pipeline. But wait, the story gets better. We made the bold move to cut ties with the outsourced team and bring it all in-house. It was tough, not gonna lie, but fast forward six months, and our in-house team smashed 174% of their target! 🌟 How does that even happen? Same number of reps, same tools, same lists, and yet one team barely scratches the surface while the other skyrockets past the goal. Mind-boggling, right? Here’s my take on our epic comeback: 1️⃣ The Right Squad: We brought back a veteran SDR leader and re-recruited proven performers. Turns out, having a team that’s passionate and skilled makes all the difference. 2️⃣ Nailing the ICP: Targeting accounts that will never convert is like shouting into the void. We refined our ICP and, lo and behold, results followed. 3️⃣ Every Account Under the Microscope: We scrutinized every potential account and contact. If it wasn’t on our vetted list, it was a no-go. 4️⃣ Evolving Our ICP: Every day's a school day. We're constantly learning what works (and what doesn’t) for our target accounts. Does website traffic hint at better conversion rates? How impactful is a shopping cart feature, or active engagement on Instagram? Each day brings new insights. 5️⃣ The Message Not the Medium: Turns out, email isn’t the dinosaur some folks made it out to be. With the right message, you can grab attention and engage. Who knew? Turns out, the secret sauce to sales wasn’t extinct—it was just waiting to be unleashed 😊A huge shoutout to Jon Dyer and the team for driving such a radical transformation. #SalesDevelopment #SDRSuccess #OutboundProspecting #B2BSales #B2BMarketing B2BMarketingPros

You can read a lot of books or watch a ton of videos, but here are 4 things that helped me go from brand new SDR to top of the board in 3 months: - Find the best reps on the team and sit next to them. ↳ This worked better in the days of working from an office but even virtually you can do this with call recordings or virtual sales floors (example: Nooks). When you place yourself in the proximity of greatness and listen to what those conversations sound like, learning is inevitable. - Ask to sit with CS. Talk to actual customers. ↳ You can spend hours with enablement, or days pouring over internal resources, but there's just no better way to learn how to talk about your product and the problems it solves than by talking to the people whose problems you're solving, ya dig? I would try to fit in 10 customer meetings in month 1 if I could. Plan B? Listen to those call recordings. - Put in more hours. ↳ This one is unpopular, and I don't recommend it to everyone. I am not a big fan of hustle culture but I have to admit, one of the things that helped me ramp up quickly is I simply put in more time. When you're new you don't have the advantage of skill, and you can't out-talent 5 yrs of experience. What you CAN do, is just put in 10-15% more time than everyone else and pay down that ignorance debt as quickly as possible. I did 10-11-hour work days during my first 3 months as an SDR. By the end of my time there, I could work 6 hrs a day and hit 130% of quota, dedicating the other 2 hrs to marketing projects because I wanted to move to that department. The SDR role is a grind, but it gave me the foundation for every role I've taken on since. I am so grateful for that experience. It's the key to the kingdom if you ask me! Anyone who's been an SDR- what would you add to this list to help reps ramp faster? Ps. This is just what worked for me. Feel free to ♻️ repost to share w an SDR pal in your network who needs a lil' encouragement today.

I was listening to an SDR make one of their first calls the other day and they made a super common mistake. As soon as the prospect picked up, the SDR got excited and started bombarding them with info. They wanted to get their pitch out as soon as possible, thinking that would be helpful. In reality, it causes information overload and the prospect hung-up. My advice? Start with a concise opener that explains why you’re calling and then ask permission to continue. ***Bonus points if you can personalize this specifically for the person or business you are calling For example, “Hey (prospect’s name), this is a John Rosar with REVGEN, I work specifically with (target audience) to help them (insert benefit), I see that you currently do XYZ and thats why I’m calling, Do you have a minute to talk? I’ll be super brief. This reduces the chances of being hung up on immediately and gives the prospect room to think. Give it a shot and let me know how it goes! #ColdCalling #Prospecting #SalesDevelopment

When I first started as an SDR I booked a ton of meetings. Almost none of them showed up. Here is what I learned. 50% of the battle is won after the meeting is actually booked. So many SDRs don't do this correctly. Every time you call to confirm a meeting you booked you need to resell the excitement. The excitement around what they will see on the demo in regards to the PROBLEM you are going to help them solve. Hi Jim, Just calling to make sure 2 pm on Tuesday still works for our quick demonstration ❌ Hi Jim, Just got off the phone with my director Jane! We are really excited to show you some of the things we found in regards to (Insert problem/pain!). 2 pm on Tuesday still works for you yeah? ✅ You want them to get off the phone and be like "Oh, Jesse yeah he's the guy who is going to help us with X" Always always always make the last thing you say be around the problem/pain, the reason they accepted the meeting in the first place. Never sit down on these calls- Stand up, act excited, and assume the time still works. What are you doing to get your meetings to show?

A few pieces of advice I would give to an SDR or AE that is seeking a promotion: 1) Be a top performer in your current role - You can't look too far ahead and not take care of tasks at hand- hint: that behavior won't work in your next role either! 2) Start acting the part now - AE's - you shouldn't wait to be named a sales manager to begin digging into your individual metrics and compare them across your peers looking for areas to work on. SDR's - start asking more AE-level discovery questions and qualifying buyers without being asked! 3) Get around the people you want to become (Read Ken Coleman's book The Proximity Principle - he breaks this down in detail - incredible read) - Spend time around people who are in the roles or industries you want to be in. Offer to take them out to lunch or get 15 minutes of their time to ask questions and learn! AE's - if you want to be a Director or VP, start spending time around them, learning what they do and what they did as AE's to get there. - SDR's - reach out to AE's you admire or look up to at your company or outside your company. If you want an internal promotion, get with some of your company's best AE's and ask them about discovery questions you can ask. Listen to calls if you have Gong, Salesloft, or something else. Listen to the verbiage they use, the questions they ask, how they speak to prospects - You can start doing that now and flexing those muscles! I've been fortunate enough to get promoted from IC to leadership in a few companies, here's one example - My first real sales job was at an auto dealership. I started in sales, but I wanted to be a finance manager so bad (That's where the real money was!) So in my downtime, I was hanging around the finance desk, talking to the finance managers and learning everything I could. I'd even load their printer with documents <> The F&I guys loved me taking small tasks out of their hands, while I was learning how to use the programs and bill out deals). I would hang around as they were submitting deals, and they would teach me about credit applications and how to use our software to build out a deal in the system. They loved teaching me, and eventually I was volunteering to bill out and print entire deals on my own while they managed. I also started practicing the job - I began talking to my customers about finance products and trying to pre-sell them before they even met my finance manager. <> S/O SDR's who ask buying/qualifying questions and have customers REALLY interested before they even meet with an AE! When the time came for my GM to pick our next Finance manager, I made it easy - - I had good numbers in sales and the highest finance product penetration of any sales rep - I already knew how to bill out deals in the system and use all the software - very little onboarding needed - I already had finance managers telling my GM I'd be a great choice - Proximity works! #Sales #promotions #careeradvice

SDRs, silver bullets don't exist! 🔫 There is not one singular thing that will get you to book 10x more meetings. Success is found when using multiple tactics and strategies together. But.... 🏋♂️ If you're looking for one thing that you can start doing today that will put you on this path, it's going to be consistency. Being a successful SDR takes a combination of skills that develop over a period of time. These could be anything from asking good questions to writing personalized emails to objection handling, the list goes on and on. But if there is one thing that will set you on the path to acquiring these skills. It is being CONSISTENT. 📝 The way I think of it - Consistency is a prerequisite to developing tangible skills. Being consistent is the bare minimum of what you have to do to set yourself apart. This means holding yourself accountable to daily/weekly KPIs. 📞 Back when I was an SDR the intention was not to book a meeting every day, it was to be consistent because I knew that as long as I was doing enough meaningful activity I would eventually get better and the rest would fall in place. The daily KPIs I held myself to were the following: - 5 meaningful conversations 📲 - 120 dials minimum ☎ - 15 personalized emails to my top prospects 📧 - 25 LinkedIn connection requests 🔗 🗓 Having consistent activity will look different for everyone. I chose these KPIs for myself because I knew it was the sweet spot between realism and challenge. 🏆 Some days I would book 1-3 meetings and some days I would book none. It didn't matter. I knew if I stayed consistent I would keep learning every day and eventually the meetings would follow. Curious to all SDRs and SDR alum out there, what metrics/KPIs do you hold yourself to?

I hear BDRs say, "This job is a marathon grind." If you think that, you're not doing it right! The job is more like 'sprint then take a break...sprint then take a break.' What do I mean? If you look at the job as checking off boxes on your to do list, then I see your point. If you wake up thinking you need to complete steps of a cadence or sequence, then it absolutely feels like this long slow grind. But that's not how the top people view the SDR role. The top people realize that not every prospect is the same. There are times you need a lot more focused energy and effort. Then there are times when you have to slow down. Sometimes you're doing research. It's a different mindset. You make dials when you do that research to gather the informationyou need to have a better chance of getting the meeting later. Sometimes you're hitting a Call Window where you have to bang through your list and dial 40 or 50 folks in quick succession. You might make those dials and only about 1 hour. That feels like a sprint for sure. you might get two meetings during that chunk of time. The metaphor of a restaurant server is much more accurate. Sometimes you get slammed and you're in the weeds. Sometimes you're waiting around for your tables to be seated. When you're doing that, you're doing your side work and prep work. You look at the table and signs up how you approach the different people sitting there. Who's paying the bill? Who has the most influence over the person paying the bill? Where are your upsells possibilities? So stop thinking about your job like it's a brutal marathon that never ends. Start opening up your mind and approaching it like you're doing interval training. Sprint. take a break. sprint. take a break. #sdrs #bdrs #salesprospecting #salesdevelopment #businessdevelopment

I've managed several SDR teams and 1 theme always comes up... "How can I manage my time better?" Effective time management isn't just about ticking tasks off a to-do list; it's about strategically planning and prioritizing to achieve our goals efficiently. Here are a few tips that have helped me streamline my workflow: ⏰ Prioritize Ruthlessly: Identify tasks that drive the most value and focus on those. Use frameworks like the Eisenhower Matrix to distinguish between what's urgent and what's important. ⌚ Set Clear Goals: Break down large projects into smaller, manageable tasks. This not only makes the work less daunting but also helps in tracking progress more effectively. ⏱ Leverage Technology: Utilize tools for project management and scheduling. These platforms can help keep everything organized and ensure nothing slips through the cracks. ⏲ Time Blocking: Dedicate specific time slots for different activities. This can help maintain focus and reduce the stress of multitasking. 🕰 Regular Breaks: Don’t underestimate the power of short breaks. They can refresh your mind and improve overall productivity. Remember, effective time management is a continuous learning process. Share your own strategies and let’s empower each other to achieve more with less stress. What are your go-to time management tips?