What does it take to help sales development reps succeed in their competitive business environment? There are several ways that sales managers and team members can smooth out the road. By eliminating three key obstacles, SDR work can be far more rewarding for the representatives themselves, and for the company as a whole.
Help Sales Development Reps Succeed by Building up their Team the Right Way
When Jim Collins and his team were conducting the research that culminated in his now-classic book on business success, Good to Great, they learned an important but counterintuitive principle. Businesses that were able to make a transition from being merely good to becoming truly great always focused on getting the right people “on the bus” before they worried about where they were going to drive it. “First Who, then What.”
This principle applies to any efforts to help sales development reps succeed as individuals and as a team. Your first priority should be to ensure that everyone on that team has the right kind of driven mindset for a sales development role. It’s a job that calls for a combination of great tenacity and excellent interpersonal skills, and less-motivated individuals will struggle there. Of course, no one’s ever stuck forever with the skills they have today. You can train new SDR’s. You can coach anyone who’s underperforming. Managers should rely on their best judgment and the best hard data about who to hire and fire, though. A person with the wrong attitude will drag down everyone around them.
Design Sales Approaches Based on Buyer Personas that Make Sense
Don’t waste time hard-selling every single prospect who picks up the phone. Use techniques like SPIN Selling to help discover whether a prospect fits the mold for the kind of buyer persona that’s most likely to find your solutions helpful. Those are the people with whom you’re most likely to close a deal. Your SDRs should know what they sound like.
Doing this right involves doing a careful analysis of prior successful sales, and listening in on as many current calls as possible. You can help sales development reps succeed at finding the best prospects to send on to account executives when you and they know who to look for.
Let Sales and Marketing Work Together in a Coordinated Way
Another way to help sales development reps succeed is to make sure that you’re using your resources as efficiently as possible. Whenever marketing launches a new campaign, it’s important that your SDRs know what it includes. This matters because if marketing brings in a lead who was attracted by a specific advertisement, the SDR should be able to refer to it and make clear why it was worth their attention.
Likewise, make certain that your marketers get clear feedback from sales about the end results of each campaign. This lets them fine-tune their future efforts.
Lastly, keep in mind that most marketing deliverables, like one-sheets, white papers, blog posts, and interview videos can all double as excellent sales collateral that can up the chances of SDR success!
If you need to get a successful SDR team on your side, fast, make sure to reach out to us here at Boom Demand! Our remote SDRs use technology to integrate seamlessly into your in-house sales team and vastly boost productivity. Contact us today to discuss your sales and growth objectives, and discover how we can get you there and beyond!