Benchmark on one or the other, not both. “One of the biggest mistakes I see companies make is setting internal expectations using introductory meeting metrics (quantity) and then requiring opportunity-level qualification (quality). This seemingly innocuous misstep often ends in total disaster.”
Maturity of market is critical decider. “In an immature market, the number one challenge your SDRs face is to arouse curiosity around a business issue that potentially hasn’t even been recognized yet. Sales development should be teeing up introductory meetings so that the account executive can do the work of educating the prospect and developing that curiosity into interest. If you’re selling a disruptive solution, asking BANT (budget, authority, need and timing) types of questions make no sense. There isn’t going to be a budget set aside for problems that prospects don’t know they have.”
SDRs free up AEs and are also a talent pool. “account executives at this particular company were wearing many hats. They were identifying accounts, reaching out to secure first conversations, conducting discovery calls, working existing opportunities, the works. This created a problem. The reps were so focused on the top of the funnel, on opportunity creation, that they were actually elongating their own sales cycles… To meet its aggressive growth targets, the company decided to build an in-house sales development team. This not only allowed account executives to focus exclusively on moving prospects through the sales process but also gave the company access to a pool of new candidates to nurture and grow — a farm team for future account executives.”
Intro meetings model means longer sales cycle. “For groups setting introductory meetings, business likely won’t close for months (or even quarters.)” Sales development is an investment, not a cost center.”
Marketing is not enough. “The reality is that the majority of companies source less than half of their pipeline from marketing. Only the tiniest fraction — about 10 percent of companies — are able to source more than three quarters of pipeline from inbound. Companies with revenue less than $10mm receive only 41% of their pipeline from marketing.”
SDRs need to go after elephant accounts. “Since inbound is worth twice as much as outbound, I say go after accounts twice as big when you go out-bound. Winning large customers is much more about causing a sale, not just catching one. That doesn’t mean calling each and every prospect under the sun. It means identifying the accounts that are the most profitable and targeting them with outbound activity.”
Inbound SDR can handle nurturing 200 leads per month. “One inbound SDR can typically handle about two hundred to three hundred leads a month when fully ramped.”
Inbound and Outbound SDRs are different. “Separate inbound and outbound into distinct roles. We split the role for three reasons. First, lead routing rules had become complicated to the point of being cumbersome. Second, reps were constantly shifting gears between inbound and outbound. That was impacting momentum. Finally, reps followed the money as the compensation plan paid at different rates for inbound versus outbound.”
Territory division for outbound SDRs “The outbound team: Territories were divided by geography and product. Initially, reps were measured on the number of introductory meetings- a less strict qualification criterion than their inbound counterparts. Over time as outbound effort matured, the model migrated to generating qualified opportunities. At that point, the group focused on target accounts. They deeply qualified opportunities before passing to sales counterparts. Without the (often distracting) flow of inbound leads, reps were more strategic about planning their days.”
sammy@blossomstreetventures.com