The Rise of Sales Development

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“The sales development team is the most important sales process

innovation in the last 10 years.”-David Cummings

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1. The 4 Critical Factors………………………………………………….4

2. Number of Touchpoints……………………………………………….. 12

3. Channel Diversity………………………………………………………. 16

4. Time Between Touches……………………………………………….. 22

5. Content of Touchpoints………………………………………………… 30

6. Re-emphasize Business Value………………………………………...37

1. The Rise of Sales Development………………………………….

2. The Rise of the SDR…………………………………………...…..

3. Modern Outbound Sales...……………………………………..….

4. Building a Great Sales Development Team ………………...…..

5. Onboarding and Training …….……………………………………

6. Further Reading……………...……………………………………..

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Table of Contents

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The Rise of Sales Development

The process that entirely focuses on the front end of the sales cycle (or top of the sale funnel).

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What is Sales Development?

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In the 1980s were lead by trend-setters such as Oracle, which was one of the fastest growing companies during that era.

Other companies, like Salesforce (started by a former Oracle executive) quickly followed suit and put an emphasis on using technology to sell.

Sales Development Pioneers

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Technology is transforming sales and a new way for prospecting and qualifying leads is emerging. It’s perfect marriage of technology, process and people and it’s known as “modern sales development.”

A New Paradigm for Prospecting

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“New sales technology means new roles, new rules & new resources.”

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Ken Krogue, founder of InsideSales.com, says, “Companies realized that they could be more leveraged if they broke the sales roles into closers and appointment setters.”

Taking this approach, they saw their close ratio jump from 10% to 17%.

New Roles Emerge

The “appointment setters” are the SDRs and BDRs who are responsible for prospecting, initiating contact, and qualifying leads.

The “closers” are the AEs who are responsible for giving demos or consultations and negotiating contracts.

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Role Specialization

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“Companies realized they could be more effective if they broke the sales roles into

closers & appointment setters.” -Ken Krogue,

InsideSales.com

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The Rise of the SDR

Google Trends shows that the term “sales development representative” broke into the scene no more than 2.5 years ago.

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The Sales Development Rep

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The Rise of the SDR

Simply put, generate pipeline.

How?

Outbound sales.

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The SDR’s Role

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Modern Outbound Sales

Outbound Sales is anything that involves the sales rep reaching out to a prospect.

This could be done through manually searching for prospects to calling and emailing prospects to interacting with them on social media.

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What is Outbound?

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The use of prospecting tools & setting meetings has become a skill in and of

itself; thus the role of the SDR was born.-PersistIQ

If you’re starting your first outbound campaign, we wrote an entire blog post on this, called The Quick Start Guide to Outbound Sales, which you can read here.

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A Guide to Outbound

Though not all are mutually exclusive, prospecting tools live at the very top of a company’s sales funnel, and include tools like the following:● PersistIQ Chrome Extension● LinkedIn Sales Navigator● Rapportive

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The Tools & Technology

Another option is to buy lists prospects from a list broker. This gives you the advantage of time and quantity, but it often comes with price.

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Buying Lists

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Build a Great Sales Development Team

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“World-class sales hiring is the biggest driver of sales success”

-Mark RobergeCRO at Hubspot

Great-functioning teams attract more great talent, making it easier to hire in the future.

Start by identifying defining your company and team culture. Don’t skip this step. Max Levchin said his biggest mistake at Slide was failing to define the company’s culture.

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Hiring

An SDR will probably spend a lot of time on the phone and writing emails, so look for people with good phone and writing skills and a track record of success in roles that required those skills.

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The Hard Skills

The ability to listen well is critical.

Ask candidates to explain back a complicated point about your product that you walked them through. Or ask candidates to review a case study before the interview, then and have them explain it to you live.

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The Soft Skills

At Hubspot, Mark Roberge looks for:

1. Coachability: the ability to absorb and apply coaching

2. Curiosity: the ability to understand a prospect’s context through effective questioning and listening

3. Prior Success: a history of top performance or remarkable achievements

4. Intelligence: the ability to learn complex concepts quickly and communicate them clearly

5. Work Ethic: proactively pursuing the company mission with a high level of energy

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5 Traits of a Good Sales Rep

We recently interviewed Jordan Wan, CEO of CloserIQ, and he offered his 5 Tips for Hiring the Right Sales Reps Without Getting “Sold”

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5 Tips for Hiring

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Advice from Ken Krogue of InsideSales

Encourage employee referrals

Profile candidates on LinkedIn

Hire recent college graduates who are energetic and competitive

Hire people who have recently finish professional accelerator programs

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Onboarding & Training

Spend the 1st week on company culture and processes, basic product training and getting comfortable with the sales process.

By the end of the first week, reps should be able to take calls.

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Onboarding - Week 1

The 2nd week should be heavy on role playing and taking calls every single day. Also consider peppering message and buyer personas.

Reps should be comfortable with taking calls on their own at the end of the second week.

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Onboarding - Week 2

Week 3 should consist of more specific process training, such as CRM and outbound platform.

Reps should be able to launch an entire outbound campaign on their own.

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Onboarding - Week 3

Week 4 should consist of more lead generation training as well as specific and more narrow topics, like call mapping and objection handling.

By the end of the 1st month, reps should fully ramped.

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Onboarding - Week 4

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“Nine out of 10 sales training initiatives have no lasting impact beyond 120 days”

-RAIN Group

Training doesn’t stop after onboarding.

Exams and certifications add predictability to sales trainings.

Establish this culture early on during your onboarding, and do not deviate from the plan.

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Ongoing Training

● How to Build the Perfect Sales Stack

● 4 Critical Factors For Sales Follow-Up Success

● 5 Steps to Personalizing Your Sales Emails at Scale

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Further Reading

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outbound sales?

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