To begin with, it is necessary to explain what the acronym SDR (Sales Development Representative) or Sales Development Representatives means: they are people of the sales team who focus exclusively on opportunities prospecting.
Unlike sales executives who close new businesses, SDRs seek new leads, qualify them and try to align a pre-sale. Many companies (small or medium) have not yet understood the importance of this key element, which may be the greatest ally in the integration between marketing and sales.
SDRs are equipped with information and data about the potential customer and the company before contacting them and have a fair understanding of the sector, the sales process and competition to have meaningful conversations.
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This professional will be responsible for leading the initial stages of the sales pipeline and getting them ready to talk to someone closer to the funnel fund.
Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is based on the number of qualified sales opportunities or qualified sales leads (SQL) they get every month.
What's the role of an SDR?
Now that you have a fair understanding of what an SDR is, let's take a look at its functions, responsibilities and objectives. The function of a sales development representative (SDR) differs depending on the definition of each company. But, above all, the role of an SDR is double – prospecting for inbound and outbound sales.
PROSPECT OF INNER SALE
Encourage leads that have shown interest in a solution or service and have already engaged with the company through marketing channels.
PROSPECT OF EXTERNAL SALES
Reach potential customers who have never been involved with the company's product or solution, i.e. cold prospecting.
The SDRs reach potential leads or immediately accompany those who have asked questions or raised hands about their company and offers.
The three main channels they use most are phone, email and social networks – in short, SDRs reach potential customers in all directions, so that leads know who they are and what the product/services are being offered.
In addition to lead management and email marketing automation tools, sales representatives also use a lot of the CRMs (Customer Relationship Management) to develop their work in the day-to-day business.
Search, identify and prospect new customers
SDRs should have good knowledge of the potential customer business model, sales process, competition and attractive events to have effective and meaningful conversations.
Set Contact
This element of the function requires robust communication skills and a high degree of flexibility. The SDRs need to understand that not all companies want to be addressed in the same way. You're not contacting a company, you're contacting a person within a company, and everyone has their own communication preferences.
Depending on a single size approach simply does not work. According to InsideView,90% of decision makers “never” respond to cold calls. Your goal is to get better chances than 10%, and this requires you to adapt quickly.
To make contacts you can use calls, emails, schedule meetings or run a campaign together with the marketing team. In fact, over 70% of sales professionals now use social media tools like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn in the sales process.
It is important to highlight: Whatever approach you take, the key is not to see it as the only approach.
Contact can be divided into active or internal sales.
For active sales, the SDR focuses on contacting potential customers who have not had any previous contact with the company, but seem to be a good option for your service.
For domestic sales, the SDR contacts potential customers who have already shown interest in their service and have established contact.
Qualify leads
The lead rating is about determining whether the potential customer is suitable for your service. The key here is to ask the right questions to decide whether the relationship should move forward.
Understand that this is a double-handed street. You probably already know what you want from the relationship – a long-term customer, but the needs of potential customers can be more complex.
Disqualifying customers because your service does not meet their needs can be great. It distinguishes the most viable (and with greater probability of being satisfied customers) from others. It also gives more focus to the sales team, because the less time you focus on potential customers who will never use your service, the more time you can devote to potential customers who will.
Educate leads
Moving on to the last section, this is the part where you instruct your leads in everything that is related to your business. To do this, the SDR must have a deep knowledge of the service you offer and be able to answer any questions that are put in your way. Transparency is a valuable asset in the digital age, so it would be wise to be as transparent as possible.
Support the wider sales team
As briefly mentioned, the role of SDR can mean different things for different companies. General responsibilities are always the same, but aggregate responsibilities may differ from company to company, depending on how your sales operation is configured.
This means that SDRs can take on other tasks that support the broader sales team, such as boosting participation in live webinars and seminars, preparing executive summaries and creating awareness about special projects or events.
Focus
At least 50% of your potential customers are not suitable for what you are selling. This means you can waste countless hours with potential customers who will never buy your product, and time is money.
Specialisation
According to a study, 59% of companies say that the main barrier to providing effective sales training is that sales representatives are not held responsible for the application of the skills they have learned. This is where a more specialised approach is more effective.
The overall sales training is exactly that – it's very general. This means that representatives are more likely to forget some parts of training in favor of the parties that reflect more in their set of skills or interests. With specialization, you know that your representatives are already qualified in all areas, it's just about taking these skills to the next level.
What is the ideal profile of the professional SDR?
According to the Rock Content platform, a good SDR needs to gather some basic features ranging from skills to skills that will make it successful. Let's see some:
Organisation
The large volume of daily leads that need to be captured and related is something that requires a lot of organization. In the midst of this, the SDR must maintain a dynamic performance to ensure that all these leads are qualified in time, which will make this contact and even the sale take place at the right time.
Productivity
In the midst of so many demands, productivity is fundamental. For this, the SDR needs to master its working methods and maintain concentration. The higher productivity also represents more chances of achieving conversions and, for the professional, this also means greater gain in commissions.
Communication capacity
Knowing how to communicate is fundamental in the lead approach. In that case, more importantly, it is knowing how to do this well using a phone. The calls are a key part of the routine of an SDR, so it needs to be ready for contacts.
Ability to absorb feedback
In the corporate world there is even a term for this: coachability. The SDR needs to know how to handle feedback to turn it into content for its professional development. The better your absorption, the greater your margin of improvement.
Conclusion
As shown so far, the SDR is a professional responsible for verifying what funnel opportunities are or are not qualified, and through this sieve where the identification of qualified leads is made, with chances of closing, pass safely to the seller.
You may be thinking, but salesmen can do that too. Right?
Having a dedicated SDR team or someone also ensures that your sales executives spend most of their time on qualified leads and achieving goals, rather than engaging in prospecting.
Something that also weighs heavily on the decision to separate these functions is the fact that a seller who does not know how to prospect can disrupt all subsequent steps and close the month with a negative result, which will impact the entire team.
The role of SDR when checking and qualifying all leads, is to provide the seller with greater chances of successful closing.
Without this sieve, the probability of investing time and money in those who do not fit to receive the solution is high. Therefore, hiring an SDR contributes to the process being more assertive and better allocated resources.
