Tips for Applying Innovative SDR Techniques

In the last 3 months I've audited sequences from 10+ companies - virtually no one has email working as a channel Here are the 7 important shifts outbound sales teams need to make in order to get sequences and email actually work First - good copy I have yet to see an organization that consistently hits all copy fundamentals Make an observation, infer pain, share a value prop, invite to a next step Short mobile friendly sentences, 50-75 words One pain point, one value prop Rarely done Second - persona building Very few orgs have clear validated messaging in the buyer language I've see a FEW good marketing personas... but they're rare AND you also need the ability to prove a marketing persona WRONG (IE I got 100 replies from an email with this persona message and <10 were positive) Third - contact research ZoomInfo and Apollo.io make it easy to automatically find the right buyers at a company using personas/buying committee Sales nav has this too (though it's not as good) NO ONE IS USING THIS So SDRs spend .5-2 hrs a day just adding contacts ENORMOUS waste of time Fourth - no segmentation by intent, triggers, direct dials or channel responsiveness 60-80% of your prospects don't really answer the phone And many data providers have around 50% coverage on direct dials Reps are manually research prospects that don't have direct dials who have 60-80% lower connect rates than responsive prospects To top it off... those prospects often aren't even in market You have to be focusing on prospects you can actually REACH Fifth - there's little clear direction on personalization ✌🏽Dorothy Huynh helped me write a sequence with an extremely clear personalization framework for emails Where to look, what to ask about, etc Most orgs don't have that Without direction they tend to flop And no, Clay doesn't match the personalization of good SDRs, not by a long shot Sixth - too few or too many manual emails, too few multichannel touches (when appropriate) Most orgs fall in one of 3 camps Everything is automated emails with little split testing or segmentation Tons of manual emails which get completed late (credit for Remington Rawlings and 🖋Dave Breshears for talking about this) Or too MANY emails, calls, Linkedin messages... often targeting prospects without direct dials or Linkedin presence Tie manual touches to the level of intent, data, and channel responsiveness you have with each prospect instead Seventh - continuous optimization No one really has the bandwidth to split test, optimize and manage all of this So sequences usually become a mess This is why I'm building the outbound engine We build account and contact lists for your sales team Craft buyer personas Write good sequences And optimize based on what's working Build a machine that your sales team lives in, don't leave everyone to figure it out for themselves (DM if you want help)

If you're aiming to be an AI-enhanced SDR (aka The Modern SDR) 🤖 - Zoom in on these 3 pivotal areas: 1- Your ICP and their communities 🎯 To resonate, you've got to walk, talk, and write like your ICP. In their communities, they're their most authentic selves, spilling invaluable insights. Your mission? Blend in and soak it all up. Understand their priorities. The golden rule? Passion for the space. Choose an industry you're genuinely interested in, or it'll be a drag. 2- AI (obviously) 🧠 This is non-negotiable. Mastery over AI tools is a must. Traditional SDRs not adapting to AI? They're on borrowed time. AI-powered SDRs can easily outperform their traditional counterparts by 5X. They're faster at research, craft personalized emails swiftly, utilize AI-driven autodialers, and dominate Social Media. Beyond Chat-GPT, here's a tech-stack snapshot for the AI-savvy SDR: Data & ICP search: Humantic AI, Apollo.io 📊 Call: Orum 📞 Email: Lavender 💜 , Warmer.ai, Reply.io 📧 LinkedIn/Social Media, CoPilot AI, Taplio 📲 Outreach (sequencing): Outreach, lemlist 🚀 Dive into the AI ocean, test the waters, and find your perfect toolset! 3- Social Media 📢 The Modern SDR is also a Social Media maestro. Think of this role as a harmonious blend of Sales and Marketing. Shadow the top creators in your niche, and crucially, engage! Drop thoughtful comments on their posts - aim for 5 or more daily. Kickstart your content journey with a mix of professional insights and polished personal anecdotes (aim for an 80:20 ratio). And when in doubt, let AI be your muse. #sdr #aisdr #saas

Early advice I got as an SDR: "Your job is to leave no stone unturned." A mistake I made early on in my tenure was focusing too much on the perfect account. I was only adding accounts that checked all of the hundreds of boxes that I deemed important. Soon I realized this was counterproductive. I was disqualifying accounts more quickly than I was finding them. A few things that I previously saw as a red light 🔴 started to be a green light 🟢: 1. Previously Disqualified - I found that an SDR might DQ an account because a non-decision maker said "no." I see this as an opportunity to reach out to higher-level execs. Also, a "no" a month ago is not a "no" forever. Sales is a timing game. 2. No Previous Activity - I found the most success with the coldest accounts. SDRs tend to always look for the warmest accounts; be different, go after the coldest 🥶. Just because someone in the past hasn't been able to break into it doesn't mean you can't! As an SDR, I try to turn as many stones as possible. As long as I can find a single reason to start outreach, it's game on. LinkedIn Fam - Am I the only one that gets an adrenaline rush after breaking into a completely cold account? 🤣

Last week, I turned 2 "not right now" deals into 15 referral introductions. Here's what I did: First, how about a few stats about WHY referrals are so key: - People are 4x more likely to buy when referred by a friend. - The Lifetime Value for new referral customer is 16% higher than non-referrals. - 83% of consumers are willing to refer after a positive experience—yet only 29% actually do. Okay, so we can agree this is important, yeah? And probably underutilized by you? Okay, let's proceed. Here are the steps I used: 1) Ask for help The hardest part is the START of the ask. "Gotcha, seems like this may not be a fit right now. But hey, before I let you go to your next meeting, mind if I ask a quick favor?" 2) Share your goal When selling Cutco knives in college, I would always tell people about my goals. I'm working to get back into that - a goal to positively impact salespeople while creating a life of abundance for me and my family. I'm in a service business - I train sales teams to build more pipeline - so a lot of the game is planting seeds and building long-term relationships "Here's my goal and I'd love to work with great people like yourself...:" 3) Clarity Clear communication is key. Saying "Who do you know?" is a lot different than "What VP Sales in Chicago that are company size 100-500 and building their SDR team"? 4) MAKE THE ASK For months, I was loose-lipping it: "Let me know if you come across anyone you think I can help". You know how many referrals I got? An unwavering 0. You know why? I was leaving the ball in THEIR court. "Let me know" is an entitled and lazy way to make an ask - and that's what I was doing. As soon as we hang up, the person is focused on something else - not on finding me a lead. Now, I say "We have a few minutes, who can you think of that might fit that description?" 5) Make it easy! I send a ghostwritten example of what they can send. I follow-up with them. I continue to follow-up if needed. I respond to the intro 6) Gratitude Say a heartfelt thank you. In some cases, I will send folks a handwritten note or - when a deal closes, I send a kickback to them either in a gift or cash. I want to reward the behavior and let them know how much I appreciate it. That's it. What else am I missing? PS - learned a lot of this from a session Alex Kremer did for our Alluviance community last month.

✏️ I used to post content all the time about sales development and the tactics to be successful I’m not going to lie, the last few years have been some of the most challenging post Covid and what used to work… well it just doesn’t anymore 😅 But if every time something became a bit more challenging we said “it’s dead”, we would never innovate to bigger and better outcomes 🤷🏻♀️ ❌The SDR role is not dead. ❌Cold calling is not dead. ❌Emailing is not dead. ❌Outbound is not dead. While the old mentality, casting a wide net, and hoping for the best is no longer what reaches goals, being an SDR is still a cruical part of the top of funnel and if done right, it can be successful So what can you do to combat this? 🤔 - Know your ICP and drilling that down to be as specific as possible - Know how your product fits in the market and what your buyers care about - Collaborate with marketing to find out what messaging is most received and pushes more inbound requests - Utilize a tech stack that works for your business model (consolidation isn’t always what gets you the desired outcome) - Diversify your methods of outreach, being cautious with email sends to not hit spam filters, and having a registered business number to dial from - Build connections and leveraging your network for introductions and referrals - Try new things and measure them against the baseline (think variant testing, sequences steps, messaging, video prospecting, voice notes, etc) - Know your conversion rates and driving more of what is succeeding (this can be activity metrics, meetings booked, qualified meetings, closed won, etc) - Put in the work- activity drives success and if you understand where to put your efforts by looking at the conversion rate, you should come close to hitting your goals 💡 Sure, there’s always outside factors we have to prepare for. Sometimes it’s just a light season and you have to do more in order to get to the same goal 💀 But rolling over and saying something is “dead” versus acknowledging it’s taking more strategy and skill, well that seems like a cop out to me Leaders - show your team how to get better by expanding your knowledge too 🧠 SDRs- if you can do those above mentioned with diligence and consistency, you’ll see success 🤩 Don’t let the naysayers make you believe you can’t be successful in this role 💪🏼 #keepcalmandSDRon #progressoverperfection #justkeepswimming