I Help Sellers Get Better At Their Job | Enablement Leader | Coach | Podcast Host | Speaker
Ok, I'm getting on the SDR discussion train, but not in the same vein as a lot of the conversation going around over the last few days. 🌶 Hot take: SDRs shouldn't be an entry-level job. 🌶 If you take what many GTM leaders out there are saying about what SDRs should be doing, it's not a skill set for kids fresh out of school in their first professional job. Sorry, y'all. It's just not. The role of an SDR, when executed to match 2024 buying environments, takes professionalism, finesse, drive, sales technology navigate, market awareness, and many other skills that take years to develop and hone. And if you're selling enterprise deals to the C-suite, I promise not a one of them enjoys being cold-called by a 23-year-old who knows little to nothing about their business or the industry. SDRs are a niche form of sellers and should be a secondary track developed in a sales org alongside AEs. They shouldn't be 'beneath' AEs and they also should be compensated in a much more evolved structure than the BS call volume or meetings booked metrics. At a bare minimum, they should be comped on pipeline generation, but the comp side could be a whole separate post. "But Fiiioooonnna, how will our company get entry-level folks?" You know where everyone should start in a SaaS company? Customer support. Learn the product, learn the customers, learn the culture, work hard and fail fast with a safety net more experienced colleagues. Imagine how good an SDR would be if they'd spent 6-12 months supporting customers? Thoughts?
It’s a really good point Fiona Simpson, CAPM and I couldn’t agree more, being a BDR/SDR is the hardest job in sales. Not only does it take all of this skills you mentioned above, but it also take grit, determination, resilience and sometimes sheer will to get the job done. That being said I think what your post more highlights is the changing nature of the SDR/BDR role. Organisations, especially at the enterprise SaaS level, should be upskilling their employees to meet the needs of their audience. In my opinion, no BDR/SDR should be just “let on the phones” without a understanding of both the market and the product they are selling without enough knowledge to hold a conversation with a c-suite executive. Otherwise, the business is damaging its reputation and doing a disservice to its employees. I do believe that SDRs/BDRs can and should be entry level postitions but a restructuring of the training and advise being given to these new hires needs to happen. At the end of the day, I believe anyway, that you learn more about sales as a BDR/SDR than in any other position.
I don't disagree but I don't agree completely. I think that someone that will be good at support might not be the same someone that it good in sales. Those personalities, roles, responsibilities are vastly different in my opinion. Do I think there are people that could succeed in Support and then succeed as an SDR? Yes! Do I think that path is so clear cut? No. I will say that bringing in an entry-level SDR can be great. They are often a clean slate and you don't have to break them of bad habits they've acquired along their sales career. They usually learn faster, catch on much sooner, complain less, and are eager to work. With the right leadership in place and the right onboarding/training for a new SDR, you can mold them into a powerhouse. I will say that I know some amazing people that started as an SDR and now lead SDR teams that have no desire to be an AE. I don't think SDR has to funnel to an AE role, just that it tends to. I also think industry, company size, and product can play a big influence on what should be the entry-level job at a company. *hot take from CS that has never worked true support or true sales but has had roles that overlap both of those worlds at the same time!
I absolutely love that you came in with a solution to help these folks gain experience via a customer support function! Arguably, the SDR/BDR function is challenging, and we throw a lot at someone who not only lacks the expertise on the business or industry, but also may lack the professional working world experience as well. I am curious how technical you'd expect the support function to be - in some tech orgs, I've experienced the support team needing to be much more technical, if the product(s) is/are complex. How would we want to manage that for a newer tenured person?
Spicy - and I agree! I think within what you're talking about, you might also have the Growth Ops/SDR track also - less sales acumen, more on orchestrating the process within the stack, but also more senior then we tend to think about SDRs being
I’m obsessed with these conversations!! That point makes a lot of sense! My first thought when I read your hook was where would they get the experience but then I saw you said CS! What an insightful way to look at it. Because from an enablement standpoint you could really get CS folks thinking revenue and then that be a natural transition into sales!!
Yes. I’m on the boat of many in this discourse that most orgs don’t need a lead gen team at all (some do! But I’ll save that for another convo). However, the entry level role into sales should just be a junior AE - someone with a smaller book of accounts that has to sell a certain volume or $$ before they’re given bigger accounts. But ALL reps should be generating their own leads. The caveat here is that companies should increase budgets for marketing to improve inbound funnels.
Hm. I don't know about assuming support is the main home for entry-level positions. I agree that nothing teaches you quicker about the customer experience and product than acting as Support. Like you mentioned in your post, an entry-level person there would need to benefit and learn from those more experienced and skilled. My two cents would be: - AI is replacing many of those entry level support positions. Right now, there's barely roles for skilled, experienced support professionals, who are key to translating customer experience and needs to engineering and vice versa. If you thought getting a green SDR was bad, wait until you need help and the person, who you were routed to after a failed Knowledge Base and AI chat attempt, can't help you. - Should there be *somewhere* for people to start in any department. Where is that role in Sales now? And the answer here may be... there's no entry level position in sales? Then we need to be open-minded about hiring AE's and other sales role that have ... no sales experience? I do think entry-level folks who can create and influence networks, quickly, are going to be the answer.
Fiona - what I hear: “The SDR role is one of the hardest jobs in sales.” Tons of sales leaders say it. So why in the world are we positioning it as an entry level role? I won’t feign that I know the best way to compensate that role. That’s beyond my scope, or just current brain power. But I do like your thoughts on how to develop people into that role. I’d be interested in hearing what ways other folks believe are a good path to becoming one.
I think 5 years ago when all it took to book meetings was dials and emails, it was an entry level position. But I agree with you that in 2024, it requires a lot more finesse, building relationships, and actually DEVELOPING BUSINESS, not just dialing until you find someone with the problem you solve for. Not saying it doesn't work at all, but I think it's becoming less and less effective. And, with what I've heard from different orgs, MANY are seeing a dramatic shift in inbound leads. Where they may have been (for example) 75% inbound before and SDRs were following up, it's now completely reversed and only 25% of leads are inbound. Definitely a good call out Fiona Simpson, CAPM! And I think there's no better way to learn how to sell than learning from your current customers and what they value.
Revenue Enablement | Author "The Teacher's Guide to Changing Careers" | Career Change Catalyst | Keynote Speaker | Transition Teacher Mentor
6moSDR should be entry level…and then have a very lucrative career path all its own. There should be a career journey mapped out that does not lead to ultimately being a sales director. The idea that one must be promoted to AE to be successful is nonsense. Prospecting is a skill set all its own.