The pattern is too familiar- you get hold of TAM, sequence emails, cold call prospects, leave voicemails and repeat.
The classic SDR sales process is all well and good, only its execution needs a little brushing up. There are now too many distractions, too many other priorities, and people are busier than ever.
SDR sales experts suggest ditching spray and pray; surprising prospects with “pattern interrupt” and becoming ‘sales engineers’ for best results.
If you are wondering what these buzzwords are and how these will help you become better at sales, this blog is for you. In this, I will start with the definition of SDR sales, then go in detail on how to become a masterful sales development representative with 11 easy to follow tips.
Let us jump right in.
At the forefront of sales, sales development representatives (SDR) or business development representatives (BDR) are the ones who reach out to new leads, qualify them and push them further down the sales funnel.
In simple words, SDRs are there to:
While they may not be responsible for the final closing of deals, they play an important role in sales prospecting which is a core part of business success.
Spray and pray is long gone and for good reason.
The basic idea of spray and pray prospecting is to execute campaigns, or other forms of marketing communications, out to as many people as possible (spray), and hope that it motivates some of them to buy their product or show interest in their service (pray) – without setting up metrics, such as conversion tracking, to measure campaign success and ROI.
This strategy has not worked for B2B businesses for a long time, as a message that is not personalised and targeted is likely to drown in the noise of promotional communications.
SDRs need to shift their efforts to a content strategy that the prospect wants to see, at the same time, make sure it resonates with them in a more personal way to make them want to engage with it. The transition from spray and pray to highly-targeted, focused campaigns is therefore essential.
As more and more sales operations get automated, SDRs need to become proficient at executing various software as the manual skill of gathering and executing will be automated. Jake Dunlap recommends three core areas you need to focus on to become SDR sales engineers:
He believes that companies who invest in tech and operations are going to be pillars of modern sales organisation.
As an SDR, you need a few tricks up your sleeve to win over your prospects and build long lasting relationships. An out-and-out tech stack tops that list because without it you are a goldsmith without a flame.
A B2B sales stack or sales technology stack is a collection of technologies or software solutions that B2B sales teams use to carry out their roles. Some of these technologies are essential to have, while others offer extra value to the sales team such as scalability, automation, or increased productivity.
Check out our detailed blog on the B2B sales stack for more on this.
Without further ado, here is a list of soft and hard skills that you need to brush up on, whether you are a seasoned sales professional or new at the job.
Technology is certainly a big enabler for the SDR sales team’s success. In the age of automation and AI, SDRs must know how to use the tools and software to automate lead management and increase productivity.
In the words of Daniel Gray, SDR sales “warriors” are driven by the company’s greater mission and vision, and embrace a “human+technology” sales motion to build scalable success. Expertise in basic tools like CRM, email tracking, reporting and dashboards is no longer optional but required.
As the average SDR sales stack has risen to six different solutions that include social selling tools, conversation intelligence and more, working knowledge on these various tools needs to be constantly updated.
As motivated SDRs, we are tempted to cram in every single selling point for your product in a single email. But that is not how prospecting emails work.
Always put yourself in the shoes of your prospects. Would you like to read a long piece of boastful content that is nothing about you and everything about them?
Here are a few pointers to up your copywriting game:
Copywriting is a skill that improves with care and practice. Lean into what works and keep refining your strategy for the best results.
Cold calling remains the fastest, lowest-cost, and most direct technique to initiate a sales process. But are you proficient in it?
Here are some common pitfalls to avoid:
Cold calling is not as hard as you think it is. Just spotlight the prospect, inject some personality and focus on providing value instead of solely blabbering about your product.
Prospecting usually takes the form of cadences of calls, emails, LinkedIn InMails and potentially other social media touch points to target buyer personas at companies within an identified target market. This means data, data and data. What it also means is that if you do not know how to manage data, you are setting yourself up for failure.
Data management for SDRs relies on 4 key cornerstones:
Data is the cornerstone of a sales process that promotes rigor, efficiency and insight. In B2B, it is often the adoption of advanced analytics that differentiates the winners from the rest.
If you are interested in maximising your prospecting results, A/B testing or split testing is your friend.
A/B testing is simply comparing two different versions of your cold email to see which one performs better.
Jason Vargus, in the book Sales Engagement, highlights these top variables to A/B test:
A/B and multivariate testing, done well, can lead to significant gains in site usability and sales conversions. Put simple, constant testing and improvement will keep your business up and running smoothly.
Business acumen is no longer an ancillary skill for SDR sales. Rather, it is a crucial competency skill that high-performing sales development professionals need to have.
Business acumen is defined as a keenness and quickness in understanding and responding to a business situation. It is the ability to understand how any business operates and use that to create your pitches and measure the results.
A business acumen will help you build a narrative, in turn, allowing you to have better conversations with your prospects. When you can do this, you gain their respect and trust and it is easier to move them through the sales cycle.
As sales is a people’s business, all SDRs must focus on building referrals and trusted relationships with the customers. Referrals have many advantages:
Justin Micheal and Tony Hughes recommend avoiding the use of the word “referral” as it sounds too much like a seller wanting permission to pitch and pressure their contact. Instead ask customers for feedback and then use that as an opportunity to jump in with simple phrases like these:
SDR sales requires thinking on your feet, but you can not succeed without putting a bit of research into your prospecting strategy.
Figure out your exact ICP and buyer personas based on real product/market fit. Then use business intelligence platforms like LinkedIn to identify people who have a high propensity to buy. In simple words, start by building a list of prospects and then identify trigger events.
Justin Micheal and Tony Hughes’ book Tech-powered sales highlights four types of trigger events relevant for SDRs to target:
Remember research directly corresponds to the quality of your list. The research will also have an impact on the targeted marketing communications you send to your prospects, so spend some time getting it right.
It is no secret that prospects are being flooded with cold calls, emails and LinkedIn messages nowadays. To get attention, you must find a way to stand out from the crowd.
Thinking out of the box is all about staying ahead; being creative to get noticed.
Video, for example, is an excellent tool for creative SDRs. It’s a quick and easy way to get attention.
Level-up: Justin Micheal and Tony Hughes mention the below ideas to encourage out of the box thinking in SDRs:
For instance, the duo once sent a shoe to a prospective customer as a pun on ‘getting a foot in the door’.
Build a list where the stakeholder’s past role was an existing customer. You want to map the champions of your product or solution into the power base because they either moved companies to get promoted or were promoted within.
Lead with a quote or highlight how one of their competitors is managing change. Remember to focus on a pain or fear statement to pique interest but do it in a positive way.
It is worthwhile to harness the power of your marketing team and their budget to break through with new sales.
Today’s organisational structures are more complex than ever, which means more stakeholders to convince. This is where multi-threading and combo prospecting comes into play.
Sales multithreading is when you develop relationships with multiple decision-makers on the purchasing side. Tony Hughes’ combo prospecting is when you use a combination of outreach channels to target your prospects.
Combo Prospecting technique allows you to use multiple channels to engage buyers and effectively combine them to reach your prospects. These channels include phone, voice mail, email, texting, social media and more.
Tony Hughes’ Tech powered sales defines an interesting action plan for outreach:
If you want to get your foot in the door, I suggest you get rid of the salesy tone altogether.
When cold calling, emailing, texting or reaching out on LinkedIn, you need to communicate from a position of strength, rather than sounding needy, hungry, or desperate.
Here are some tips from Justin Micheal and Tony Hughes’ book Tech powered sales:
SDRs play an important role and have a unique opportunity to help account executives close deals. Whether you’re new to the SDR role, or leading a new team of SDRs, I am confident that these 11 skills will allow you to flourish in your role. Just like every role, sales takes practice and so will honing these skills. So keep at it and keep smashing.
For those unfamiliar with hubsell, we provide an end-to-end B2B prospecting solution with on-demand generated B2B data and multi-channel personalised outreach automation software to generate qualified sales leads.
Book your discovery call today to see how you can scale your opportunity generation.