Sales Operations

The ultimate guide to sales development

Steli Efti · June 25, 2019
The ultimate guide to sales development

Things used to be a lot simpler. Marketing was responsible for building interest and generating leads and then sales would pick up the baton and close revenue. Easy.

And then, things changed. Marketing, driven largely by traffic goals, developed all sorts of techniques to build inbound interest and send leads pouring in— but this increase in traffic also increased the number of low-quality leads. Meanwhile, sales has always been driven by quotas. They spent their time focusing only on the most interested parties they felt they could close, leaving most of those leads completely ignored.

With marketing asking why sales wasn’t following up on their leads and sales wondering if marketing even knew what a decent lead was, it became apparent that something needed to fill the gap. Enter sales development.

Overview of sales development

What is sales development?

Sales development is the process by which potential leads are identified and qualified for further sales outreach, bridging the gap between marketing and sales to reduce the time and resources spent on low-quality leads.

Let’s break this down a bit. In high-performing organizations, marketing teams cast a wide net of outreach through campaigns and content to increase awareness among potential customers.

Successful campaigns = more leads.

But more doesn’t necessarily mean better. In fact, the vast majority of leads won’t convert. Even precisely targeted campaigns generate just a small proportion of successful leads. The conversion rate average for lead generation in the software industry is just 5-10%.

Want more advice on selling software? Grab a free copy of our book on customer acquisition for B2B software companies!

Companies assign leads a numerical score to rank their sales-readiness. High scoring leads are ready to buy, while low scoring leads may need some more nurturing. Lead scoring models may differ a little depending on the company and industry, but in general, points are given based on different attributes and behaviors of the prospect.

  • A lead that has engaged with content and is ready for a conversation with sales is called a marketing qualified lead (MQL).
  • A sales qualified lead (SQL) has been researched and vetted by both marketing and sales and has been deemed ready for the next step in the sales process.

Sales representatives generate the most value when they’re focusing on qualified leads– which is also one of the reasons your lead distribution system should be working for you and optimizing the process.

The initial sales qualification process typically occurs over the phone in an initial discovery call.

sales-development-discovery-calls

(Source: neilpatel.com)

This conversation helps qualify the lead by determining their pain points, budget, and overall needs so sales can be armed with exactly what they need to close the deal.

Sales development vs business development: Are they the same?

This is where it can get a little confusing. In most organizations, sales development is executed by a team of trained Sales Development Representatives (SDRs), also commonly referred to as Business Development Representatives (BDRs). While there can be some overlap between sales development and business development, using these titles interchangeably obscures the different purposes and goals between the two functions.

Both are in pursuit of growing new business, but they employ different techniques and focus on different people.

Business development refers more broadly to efforts around

  • entering new markets,
  • building connections to new business, and
  • finding qualified leads.

Sales development refers more narrowly to

  • qualifying existing leads and
  • moving them down the funnel.

Neither is interchangeable with the sales process, however, which occurs after sales development and relies on previously qualified leads to generate revenue for an organization.

4 reasons why sales development is essential to your business

1. Faster response times increase conversions

sales-development-faster-response-times

(Source: Velocify)

When it comes to responding to leads, it’s no exaggeration to say that every minute counts. According to a study by HBR, companies that respond to leads within an hour are 7 times more likely to convert leads to sales. In fact, up to 50% of sales go to the vendor that makes contact first. Dr. James Oldroyd found that calling a lead within 5 minutes will increase your chances of reaching a lead by 100 times compared to calling after 30 minutes of sign up. Your chances of qualifying that same lead? 21 times higher. A team of well-trained SDR’s can use a variety of channels including email, SMS, and phone calls, to make contact with prospects as soon as possible and help win their business.

2. Increased ROI from sales reps

Improving the quality of your leads increases the number of deals your sales team can close. But just getting in touch with prospects can take up huge amounts of time and resources. It takes an average of 18 calls just to connect to a buyer. And younger generations in the workforce view phone calls as tedious and disruptive, preferring to be contacted digitally. Quota-carrying sales reps simply don’t have the time to follow up with leads across multiple digital channels.

SDRs can be outsourced and staffed with entry-level hires, making them an affordable way to free up valuable bandwidth from your top closers. Combined with their ability to leverage technology to rapidly respond to and cultivate leads, investing in sales development can exponentially increase the ROI of your expensive sales reps. According to Marketo, a 15% decrease in the length of the sales cycle can yield a 30% increase in revenue! (If you’re doing complex sales, we have an actionable piece of advice for you to shortening your sales cycle!)

3. Better relationships with prospective customers

We live in the ‘Age of the Customer.’ Influenced by their experiences with brands like Amazon, Disney, Netflix, and others, customers expect nothing less than the highest level of service and personalization. SDRs are the face of your company. Better than any PR campaign or ad, they are living, breathing, avatars of your brand. Armed with the right attitude and content, they have the ability to deliver the personalized and meaningful support your buyers crave.

4. Improved marketing

Marketing teams need data to improve and optimize their campaigns. Sales reps are notorious for not updating information or leaving incomplete data about their leads. (Which is one of the reason why our sales CRM automatically tracks all sales activities in the CRM for you, thus minimizing the time reps spend on data entry and reducing incomplete or erroneous sales data.) SDRs practically live in CRMs and are well equipped to maintain data. This helps marketing get the information they need to craft better lead generation campaigns and optimize their messaging.

Sales development team members/roles

sales-development-roles

(Source: saasx.com)

One of the first decisions you’ll need to make as you build your sales development team is where they’ll be housed. Sales development teams sit, metaphorically, right between sales and marketing. Most organizations place SDRs under the sales umbrella, but some feel they fit better under marketing. Either way, their success will boil down to their leadership and training, not their spot on the org chart.

While it may be tempting to have just one group of SDRs, your sales development team should specialize to maximize their impact. The most obvious decision is to split your SDRs into inbound and outbound focuses. Converting inbound leads requires different skills than outbound prospecting. Because they deal with people who are very aware of your products and are motivated enough to make contact, inbound SDRs generally need to have deeper product knowledge than your outbound team. Lastly, inbound and outbound SDR face different kinds of objections and challenges that require more specialized knowledge and preparation.

Here are some of the most common sales development roles, responsibilities, salary ranges, and reporting structures:

Outbound sales development representatives

Main Responsibilities:

Outbound sales development representatives research, identify and prospect for new customers. Once those prospects have been determined, outbound SDRs reach out to them through phone calls, emails, or even social media. Their key objectives are to uncover pain points and needs, analyze if your product is a good fit, and educate leads on how your product can improve their business.

Salary Range: According to PayScale, the average salary for a Sales Development Representative in the US in 2019 is $43,165.

Reports to: Sales development managers

Inbound sales development representatives

Main Responsibilities:

Inbound sales development representatives qualify inbound leads for further sales engagement. They are responsible for promptly following up with prospects that have already shown interest in your products and have engaged with your company's marketing content. Their key objectives are to respond to as many inbound leads as possible in a timely manner.

Salary Range: According to PayScale, the average salary for a Sales Development Representative in 2019 is $43,165. They don’t differentiate inbound and outbound SDRs, and the compensation depends mostly on the company, industry, and other facts. There’s a lot of variation in the compensation of an SDR across geography and industries.

Reports to: Sales development managers


A note about compensation and expectations for inbound and outbound SDRs:
Due to the different nature of the roles, you should expect a smaller amount of demos from your outbound SDRs than your inbound SDRs. Inbound SDRs can expect a steady stream of high intent prospects from day one, whereas outbound SDRs are reaching out to cold audiences. Determine your compensation and success metrics accordingly. For example, you may choose to measure an inbound SDR's performance on things like response time and the percentage of demos qualified while outbound SDRs may be accountable for the number of demos booked. The split between base pay and total compensation can vary depending on your sales structure. Some inbound SDRs earn a slightly higher base salary than outbound SDRs, but the outbound SDRs earn higher commissions per demo.


Sales development managers

Main responsibilities:

Experienced sales development managers are critical parts of high performing SDR teams. They are responsible for interviewing, hiring, and training members of the team, as well as mentoring and coaching. They do this through training sessions, situational plays, and call monitoring.SDRs require this level of management strata to reach their full potential. Skipping this role and having your SDRs report directly to a VP of Sales or similar can be disastrous because they simply don’t have the time to provide the coaching and management SDRs require.

Salary Range: According to PayScale, the average salary for a Sales Development Manager in 2019 is $70,708.

Reports to: Senior managers, directors of sales or business development or the VP of Sales

Director of sales & business development

Main Responsibilities:

Typically the head of a sales development program, the director of sales and/or business development is responsible for providing guiding strategy, delivering market feedback to company leadership, developing sales tools and collateral, and growing the number of overall sales opportunities.

Salary Range: According to PayScale, the average salary for a Director of Sales & Business Development in 2019 is $96,014.

Reports to: VPs or C-level executives

Hiring sales development specialists

SDRs play a crucial role in the modern sales organization, bridging the gap between marketing and sales. While it may be tempting to go for quantity over quality, investing in your sales hiring is one of the effective ways to level up your org and get an edge over the competition. The goal here is to create an efficient, repeatable, and sustainable hiring process that can help you scale effectively.

The typical SDR hiring process:

hiring-sales-development-specialists

(Source: https://42hire.com/)


How to build your sales development team in 3 steps:

Step 1: Establish your sales development program based on the unique needs of your sales team and product.

No two organizations, solutions, or products are the exact same. Determine the makeup and focus of your SDR by carefully considering these factors:

  • Your buyer - Who is your ultimate customer? Will your SDRs be speaking to executives or individual contributors? Identify who their audience will be and you can figure out exactly what skills you need to hire for. (Creating an Ideal Customer Profile can help with that!)
  • Your solution - How simple or complex is your solution or offering? Will you need experienced SDRs or can you hire college grads that are more entry level? SDRs are the face of your business and can dramatically impact how your brand or products are perceived.
  • Your environment - Who are your competitors? Do you have sufficient inbound interest or will your team need to be comprised of entirely outbound sales? The structure and size of your SDR team can be influenced by a variety of factors including the strength of your inbound marketing engine and your organization’s position in the competitive landscape.

Step 2: Find leaders & initial hires with previous experience in your industry, working in inbound or outbound.

To effectively scale your SDR team, you need to hire quality candidates. Consider creating an exercise potential candidates must complete as part of the interview process. Be sure to evaluate multiple candidates for each position and check references.

Want more advice on hiring great sales talent? Get a free copy of our book “The Sales Hiring Playbook.”

sales-hiring-playbook-close

While the sales development representative is typically an entry-level position, consider applicants with experience that could be beneficial to the role including customer service and data entry. A winning personality plays a key role in SDR success. Some qualities to look for include:

  • Competitiveness - The best sales teams are like athletes— they want to win. Competition amongst your team can be good and push everyone to deliver their absolute best.
  • Attention to detail - Customers expect personalized solutions and little patience for errors. Top performing SDRs are detail-oriented, focused, and make full use of all the tools available to them to deliver a top-notch experience.
  • Resourcefulness - Prospects have problems that they are looking to solve. Successful SDRs are doers that earn the trust of potential customers by consistently providing relevant information and solutions to problems.
  • Phone skills - People underestimate how difficult it is to build rapport and carry a conversation over the phone. Since phone calls will make up the bulk of their time, look for people with strong conversation skills and phone etiquette.
  • Time management - Sales development is all about reaching as many prospects as possible in a timely manner. CRM software can help, but strong time management skills are a must.
  • Persistence - This may just be the most important trait for anyone in your sales org. The SDR that continues to follow up and chase those leads are the ones that help close business.
  • Positivity - Let’s be honest, sales is a grind. Even if you’re in the upper echelon of salespeople, you’re going to have more losses than wins. Staying positive and remaining polite at all times are non-negotiable for anyone on your SDR team.
  • Listening skills - Successful SDRs are great listeners. They know how to uncover pain points and get to the heart of what their prospects are looking for. A real conversation is not one-sided. Ensure your SDRs aren’t doing most of the talking.

Step 3: Create recruiting programs to attract & train talent.

According to the latest U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the current unemployment rate is now under 4 percent. That means it will be harder than ever to find qualified talent to fill your SDR positions. To compete with the name-brand employers that are trying to court the same talent you are, consider implementing a university program to bring on new college grads.

LinkedIn’s Business Leadership Program for Global Sales is a great example of a recruiting program that appeals to college grads by offering additional training and skill building. Generation Z values mentorship as much as they do healthcare. Offer coaching and career development to attract interest and inspire loyalty.

Employing this 3 step strategy will ensure you build the right team that can efficiently scale over time.

Sales development training: Build the skills of your team

sales-development-training

Investing in a training program is one of the most valuable things you can do for your organization. Previous experience is usually not necessary for the SDR role, but you’ll want to provide plenty of coaching and mentorship so your sales development team can reach their full potential. Arm your SDRs with best practices so they can hit the ground running. A few teaching tools and exercises include:

  • Role-playing exercises - Take the anxiety out of those early calls and prepare your SDRs for rejection through role-playing. Educate your team what they should say based on the responses of the buyer so they can be prepared to navigate even the most difficult situations.
  • Example scripts - Phone and email templates are valuable tools that can prepare your SDRs for the most common scenarios. While they should refrain from saying things or writing things exactly as you have them laid out, a good script can ensure they remember key details and questions to ask and keep conversations productive. (Don’t have a sales script yet and dread the work of putting one together? We’ve got you covered with a proven sales script template!)
  • Objection handling techniques - The objections your SDRs encounter are very different from the objections your closers do. Giving your SDRs best practices for how to counter the most common objectives is the easiest way to improve their effectiveness. (We’ve created a simple but effective objection management template for sales teams. Download it free today!)
  • Closing scenarios - While they may not be focused on closing business, they do need to push leads down the sales funnel by scheduling a call or demo with an account executive. Train your SDRs how to steer their conversations to get to this endpoint.
  • Automation and tools training - SDRs have a wide range of tools to choose from and are often some of the most technically proficient salespeople on your team. Your SDRs should feel comfortable with their technology and capable of using these tools to their full potential.

    "Close has helped us tremendously to increase the efficiency of our sales strategies at Bonsai. The email sequences tool specifically has helped our team to maximize outreach and results, and the customer support team has always been a great help whenever we needed them. I would strongly recommend Close to any company that is looking for a CRM that is easy to use and delivers results." - Julian Golden, ShopBonsai.com

Once your SDRs are out in the wild, listen in on their calls and ask to see their email templates to provide feedback and coaching. All too often, training happens only once at the beginning of their tenure, but effective training should be continuous and evolve over time.


Recommended books:

Online courses and workshops:

Sales development analytics and goals

There’s a saying: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it.” Diving into the data is the only way you’ll be able to effectively scale your sales team, grow your revenue and beat your competition. The goal is to be data-driven, not data drowning. Measuring everything without any goals or purpose will only confuse your team and cloud your focus. Instead, pick a few of the most relevant KPIs and relentless focus on improving. Below are a few metrics that will help your SDR team track their efforts and increase their effectiveness:

What to track

Activity Metrics - What are your SDRs doing?

  • Number of calls, emails, or touches - The number of emails, calls, meetings and other outreach attempts SDRs make. This will give you an idea of how active your SDRs are and what their bandwidth is. You can track this per day, week, month and year. Use this information to optimize how your SDRs spend their time.
  • Open and response rates: How often prospects positively respond to voicemails, emails or other outreach attempts. Use this information to coach and train your SDRs to be more successful in their outreach.

Effectiveness Metrics - How successful are these activities?

  • Conversation rates: The number of outbound activities that result in meaningful conversations or interactions.
  • Number of calls per win: The amount of outreach it takes to generate a successful deal.
  • MQL to SQL: The number of SQLs your SDRs can qualify per day, week, month, or year.
  • SQL to opportunity: The rate at which SQLs become sales pipeline per day, week, month.
  • Average deal size: This metric reveals the average value of the opportunities your SDRs are vetting. SDRs should not just be focused on quantity but quality as well. Encourage them to go after the big fish whenever possible.

Results Metrics - What are our most impactful results?

  • Opportunity to win/close rates: The percentage of SDR-generated opportunities that become closed business. Reveals the quality of your SQLs.
  • Win/close rate: This measures how many SQLs are lost or won over time.
  • Total & percentage of sales pipeline sourced by sales development: These are general measures of the effectiveness and contribution your SDR team is making to the sales org.

How to track it

Track performance data through digital tools, CRMs, ESPs, etc. Map these numbers to individual and team performance over time. This can help you identify which parts of the sales funnel need attention and which individual SDRs are creating the most impact.

sales-development-process-conversion-rates

(Source: TOPO Sales Development Benchmark, 2016)

The most important piece of advice when it comes to tracking your sales teams performance is to find a solution that’s a) easy to use and b) provides you meaningful insights.

Here’s why this matters:

There are a lot of very powerful sales reporting and BI tools out there with very advanced feature sets which allow you to generate any kind of report. However, unless you have a dedicated data analyst and sales operations manager on the team, in reality these tools rarely are useful in surfacing actionable insights.

Which is why most sales teams are better off with actionable reporting that helps them stay focused on the metrics that matter.

sales-crm-activity-overview-close

Our CRM with built-in reporting will give you an always up-to-date snapshot on how your sales organization is performing, what needs to change, and enables you to drill into any data point in more detail if you want to investigate. All this is possible both on an individual contributor and on a team level, and the Leaderboard features makes it easy to keep your reps to stay focused on sales activities that actually generate revenue.

How to forecast and set goals for your team

Forecasting is a critical part of your sales strategy. By identify trends early, you can course correct to remain on track. Accurate forecasting also helps you anticipate any changes in headcount or budget so your organization can adequately prepare.

Accurate forecasting starts with good data. Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

  • Individual and team sales goals: What are your team’s success metrics? Determine not only which goals are most important but which are attainable, and make sure they support your overall sales strategy.
  • Your detailed sales process: Top performing sales teams not only know how to move prospects down the sale funnel, they know how long it will take, what their bandwidth is, and how to repeat the process consistently. Without some steady numbers here, it’s nearly impossible to generate accurate forecasts.
  • Standardized definitions of leads, opportunities, and closes: As your organization grows, it becomes incredibly difficult to keep people in alignment. Don’t underestimate how easy it can be to develop different definitions for what should be common terms. Only by getting everyone speaking the same language can you make progress on your sales forecasts.
  • A powerful and flexible CRM: Sales teams need a single source of truth to track and manage all of their prospects, leads, conversations, and sales data. CRMs revolutionized how sales teams work by making all of this data easily accessible. There are a ton of CRMs on the market, but Close was built from the ground up specifically to meet the needs of modern sales teams. We don’t usually like to toot our own horn, but beep beep! (But don’t take our word for it: Try it free for 14 days!)
  • Info on product costs, expenses, and potential market or price fluctuations: It’s never entirely possible to predict how every factor will affect your business in the future, but make your best guesses and look to the past to give you some ballpark numbers.
  • Financial data: Businesses are pretty simple things— money comes in, and money goes out. Get the specifics on where and how the money is flowing so you can build an accurate model that will help you plan for the future.

With all of this data in hand, you can start estimating future sales, plan for future growth, and anticipate any problems before they happen.

For specific forecasting strategies, check out our guide to 7 forecasting strategies for startups. It breaks down 7 of the most popular forecasting methodologies and will help you determine which one is right for your business. And our sales forecast templates will help you to get up and running in no time.

Goal setting can ensure your sales team supports business goals and objectives, but they can also help ensure everyone is performing at their peak. The best sales goals are SMART:

S - Specific

What exactly are you trying to achieve? The more specific the goal, the more likely your sales team is to hit it. Set a clear number for your team or individual SDRs to work towards.

M - Measurable

Your sales goals should have a quantifiable outcome. This will help you and your team ensure everything’s on track and enable changes to be made if anything starts to slip. Review and measure your progress at regular intervals and provide coaching when necessary.

A - Attainable

Goals that are unreachable don’t inspire your team, they crush morale. This isn’t to say you shouldn’t set stretch goals. You always want your team to push themselves beyond what they feel is possible, but it should always be within the realm of possibility. Set goals that are within reach and be sure to celebrate your wins.

R - Relevant

Setting unrealistic goals or irrelevant goals will do more harm than good. People want to understand how what they do fits into the whole, and that their work matters. Align individual and team goals with overarching business objectives and you’ll inspire your team to give their all.

T - Timely

A goal without a timeframe will not keep your team motivated. Set limits on when you’d like to see goals achieved and you’ll be better able to prioritize effort and develop a successful strategy.

Setting ambitious goals and reaching them can put your team into what psychologists call flow— a state of peak performance and energized focus. Set SMART goals for your SDR team and empower them to achieve consistent growth.

Other great tools and software to use

There are several components to a sales development workflow including researching prospects, following up on warm and cold leads, reaching out through a variety of digital and analog channels, and passing on qualified leads to sales executives. It’s a time-consuming process, so SDRs rely on several different categories of tools to speed up their process and help them execute at scale. Here are some of the best and most popular tools and resources for sales development teams:

Data source tools

One of an SDR’s key responsibilities is researching and identifying prospective customers. Data source tools can help provide SDRs with information and insights about companies and buyers without wasting a lot of time or effort.

  • LinkedIn Sales Navigator
    This tool is proving indispensable for SDRs because it enables you to quickly filter LinkedIn’s 500 million strong user base down to the most relevant leads for your business. It provides actionable information, recommendations, and insights so SDRs can find the best prospects to connect with.
  • Datafox
    Datafox helps sales teams identify and prioritize their prospect lists through AI-sourced, human-audited company data. It integrates with some of the most popular CRMs to push intelligent account data into your leads, contacts, and accounts.
  • DiscoverOrg
    This marketing and sales intelligence provider guarantees direct-dial phone numbers, verified email addresses, and department level org charts so SDRs know exactly how to reach key buyers.
  • ZoomInfo
    This data platform boasts the world's most comprehensive B2B contact database. It's even searchable by industry, location, company size, company revenue, job title, job function, and more.

CRM tools

Managing leads, conversations, prospect data, and interactions make up the bulk of an SDR’s day-to-day work. CRM tools make it easy to keep all of this information in one, easily accessible and searchable database.

  • Close
    A CRM developed for salespeople, by salespeople. We’re the only CRM to offer lead management, email sequences, predictive dialers, text messaging, and more. Manage your workflow, stay on top of your pipeline, track every touchpoint, and win more with Close.
sales-crm-close

Standalone email tools

Email is one of the most popular channels for outreach and one of the best ways to follow up after successful conversations. These tools help SDRs monitor, track, and schedule their email communications so nothing slips through the cracks.

  • PersistIQ
    This sales engagement system enables you to schedule, automate and personalize your email outreach at scale.
  • Rebump
    A browser extension that enables you to send friendly, automated and customized email follow up messages.
  • Reply
    This email outreach tool allows you to automate and personalize communication with inbound leads.
  • Clearbit
    Easily get in touch with anyone—Clearbit promises you'll be able to find anyone's email address under five seconds.

Standalone calling tools

Despite major advances in communication technology, most B2B buyers till prefer the humble phone call. These modern tools add the ability to log, record, and analyze phone calls so SDRs can optimize their technique.

  • CallHippo
    Log, track, and analyze sales calls with CallHippo’s virtual telephony and workflow automation.
  • CrazyCall
    Automate, record, monitor and transfer hundreds of calls with a few clicks of a mouse.
  • Gong.io
    Get powerful visibility into your customer conversations with Gong.io’s advanced call analysis.
  • Myphoner
    Simple call tracking software for sales teams with email follow up functionality built right in.

4 important sales development FAQs

  • How are leads qualified?
    Qualified leads are prospective customers that match your company’s ideal customer profile. They are aware they have a problem, understand that your company may have the solution, are in a position to buy and have the authority to do so. For more information on what goes into qualifying a lead and what goes into it, this guide can help.
  • What are the most popular methods for qualifying leads?
    There are a number of sales qualification methodologies that are usually represented by acronyms. Three of the most popular are BANT, CAMP, and MEDDIC.
sales-develpoment-bant-chart

(Source: https://www.lucidchart.com/blog/what-is-BANT-and-how-can-it-streamline-lead-qualification)

BANT

  • Budget
  • Authority
  • Need
  • Timing

CHAMP

  • Challenges
  • Authority
  • Money
  • Prioritization
sales-development-meddic-chart

(Source: https://now.iseeit.com/meddic-sales-process-checklist/)

MEDDIC

  • Metrics
  • Economic buyer
  • Decision criteria
  • Decision process
  • Identify pain
  • Champion

Read more about all three of these methodologies.

  • Can/should you outsource sales development?
    There are pros and cons to using an outsourced sales development team. Because the SDR is typically an entry level sales role that requires little experience, it can be tempting to outsource this function. Outsourced SDR teams can be an incredibly affordable option. They are experienced, require little time to ramp, are well equipped, and often have access to multiple business databases. In-house teams have their own advantages including providing better feedback, being more flexible in case priorities shift, and have more intimate knowledge of the brand and products. Many of the same things that are generally true for outsourcing sales also apply to outsourcing your SDR team.
  • How large should my sales team be before I start doing sales development?
    If your sales team is struggling to devote enough time to prospecting, are allowing leads to go uncontacted, or are finding it difficult to maintain a prospect’s interest during a long sales cycle. you should specialize and hire SDRs. A good rule of thumb is one SDR for every three account executives.

Awesome articles and guides to learn more

sales-development-articles

It should be clear by now that SDR teams are a critical part of the modern sales org. They are at the front lines and are often your potential customer’s first human connection with your brand. They serve the valuable purpose of transforming warm or cold leads into real sales opportunities. Building your processes and investing in technology to support an SDR team can have an exponential effect on your sales org’s ability to close business. We covered a lot of ground in this article, but we’re just scratching the surface of all there is to know about sales development. Check out the resources below to get further insights on how you can build the ultimate sales team:

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