SDR is a job title most people are familiar with, although it performs a different function within each business. Senior Management often see recruiting an SDR Team as a no-brainer. Why would you NOT want to hire enthusiastic, social media savvy reps, and task them to hunt new business? But the truth is, SDR is not a magic fix. This article explores what the remit of SDR is and will leave you with questions to consider if it is right for your company now.
What is SDR?
SDR stands for Sales Development Representative, and as a department its origins are in the US software firms of the early 2000s.
It’s an entry level position and has replaced Telesales as the first (commercial) role for graduates. Whereas Telesales wasn’t always a coveted role, SDR is seen as a way of getting into some of the top companies and really making a name for yourself.
How has the role evolved?
20 years ago, there was a clear distinction between Marketing, Telesales and Field Sales. Marketing sent out email campaigns. Telesales followed up. Field Sales took the larger prospects for face to face meetings.
Cold calling was a high volume, ‘spray and pray’ approach. It required gregarious, quick thinking conversationalists who could read a person based on the tone of their voice, as the phone was answered. Not an easy thing to do. Many reps got it wrong, and the more bad calls prospects received, they less they started answering. We have GDPR for a reason.
With every problem comes a solution, and technology developed to advance sales tactics, the rise of Salesforce, Hubspot, LinkedIn & GoToMeeting fundamentally changed how we engaged with and tracked customer interactions. We moved ‘online.’ Marketing started pulling instead of pushing. Telesales had multiple channels to reach a prospect. Field Sales could hold a meeting without leaving home.
We started to see valuable opportunities coming from the analysis done before a rep reached out. Reading a prospect’s LinkedIn bio and tracking their online behaviour meant pitches could be specifically tailored. Prospects are approached with stories about customers ‘just’ like them.
The skills required to work in this way draw from the gregarious Telesales mould, but now SDR reps need more than that. They need to be fast paced desk researchers with natural social media skills. Their grammar has to be perfect, almost everything is written before it is spoken. They need to stay on top of a large volume of daily administrative tasks and be ready to jump into liveliness when a prospect answers the phone. Telesales was never easy, but SDR is even more demanding in different ways. Software firms took the brightest graduates to do this multifaceted role and used their ambition for promotion as a driver for them to work hard, fast and smart.
How does SDR work with Marketing and Sales teams?
Due to the digital manner all teams now work in, it is natural for there to be crossover, it’s much more difficult to attribute a customer to one lead source (who knows if a prospect accepted a LinkedIn connection request because they saw an article promoted by Marketing?). But, never has there been a better opportunity for teams to collaborate.
In an ideal world Marketing are responsible for brand presence and content. SDRs capitalise on Marketing’s buzz to create direct engagements with prospects. These engagements should be friendly and informative, whilst simultaneously a qualification process, creating a next step for the Sales team to run with.
Put simply, an SDR Team ensures that Marketing’s messages are seen, and that the Sales Team is focused on closing qualified opportunities.
Is an SDR team right for your company now?
We’ve talked a lot about the positives of SDR, but for every positive, there is also a negative. Taking on a team of ambitious first jobbers is an investment of time and money, it requires strong, attentive leadership. Without proper training & investment, SDR teams are at risk of low engagement and high attrition. This in turn creates a negative company culture with employees from other departments so used to seeing new faces, they stop properly welcoming them, expecting them to leave in a few months anyway. As soon as the new SDR picks up on this atmosphere, you’re at risk of losing them, they feel like they’ve joined a sinking ship.
7 questions to help you consider if SDR is right for you now
1. What is the size of our prospect database?
2. Can our solution to be articulated in 1min 30secs or an introductory email?
3. What will be the percentage of cold calling vs warm lead follow up?
4. Is there a strong commercial lead to take ownership of an SDR Team?
5. Do we have time and resources to onboard and train employees with little or no experience?
6. Do we have the right office space to house a noisy team?
7. Are we geographically located to be attractive to the calibre of employees we need?
Too many companies make the mistake of hiring a full SDR team at the beginning, because it’s a quick route to market whilst other departments ramp up. Or hire SDR because the Sales Team need more opportunities, without considering it may be product that needs investment first. When it’s a speculative, ‘Let’s hire some SDRs and see what happens,’ you’re not considering it enough, to give it a chance to work. Take time to think about if SDR is truly right for you, and if it is, that’s great, the next step is to create company buy-in before you start hiring a Team.
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