@feroz.zaveri. Great post and a few things to unpack here.
First is the understanding of the different roles you highlighted, SDR/BDR and ISR.
Second, depending on their role with depend which skills need to be developed in order to help them move to the next level.
Third, Are there any 3rd party agencies who can help.
SDR/BDR, and ISR…Oh My!
in most organizations there is a difference between an SDR/BDR and an Inside Sales Rep (ISR).
SDR/BDR are typically responsible for generate leads/meeting with a primary objective to set up an initial discovery call for AEs.
ISRs are typically AEs who sell virtually (which one could argue we are all ISRs these days). In some cases ISRs either work on SMB/Mid-Enterprise Accounts and work high volume-low dollar transactions. In other cases, ISRs will team with a Strategic/Global Account Exec to help offset the “busy work” while the Strat/Global AE focuses on strategic relationships, etc.
Skills Challenge
SDR/BDRs are typically entry level positions and they are simply just trying to get the meeting schedule. Of course this all depends on how organizations run their SDR/BDR teams, but in my experience, they are looking to get a prospect on the phone or respond to an e-mail, then get them to agree to a meeting. Simply put, this job sucks, but we all had to go through it in order to earn our stripes.
The only objection these guys will face is “Thanks but not interested…” This is where products like Databook come in to help the SDR/BDR identify a potential pain point your solution can eliminate.
What I see is that SDR/BDRs are slaves to Marketing and they send out a bunch of marketing crap which does not look any different than any other vendor…therefore low response rates.
Rapport building for a SDR/BDR is very difficult since most are straight out of college and do not have the work experience to relate to a prospect who has been in the workforce for 10-20+ years. So what they have to do is identify the pain, confirm/validate the pain, confirm/validate they are the right person, and then understand how the prospect is attacking that pain in order to ask for an introduction meeting to an AE.
Of course I am over simplifying, but I think you get the idea.
So the skills development for an SDR/BDR is to be able to craft an authentic message, have an authentic conversation (hitting the points above) and then secure the meeting.
It would help to have your SDR/BDR shadow you on calls/meetings. This will help them understand the issues/pains customers are experiencing and be able to relate those stories to prospects.
How should they prospect?
The guidance I give SDR/BDRs and AEs are to break down their target list into A, B, and C.
A accounts are accounts the AE has 100% responsibility to prospect into.
B accounts are accounts the SDR/BDR has 100% responsibility to prospect into
C accounts are accounts the SDR/BDR manages via marketing automation (ie SalesLoft, Outreach, etc)
Accounts can move from list to list and often refresh monthly. As an example if an AE is not getting much traction the the accounts on their list, then a decision can be made to relegate it do B or C…and so on.
Breaking down your account list into three sections allows you to:
(1) focus on account that matter
(2) maintain a manageable set of accounts to do research and personalize out reach
(3) allows the BDR/SDR to maintain outreach volumes by leveraging automation in the C accounts.
Shamless plug…I will be touching on this topic during my roundtable on Sept 7th.
So now about the ISR. ISR are Jr sales folks who need to have the skill an AEs but may not be as mature in managing the sales cycle.
Rapport building is key and as we discuss in other forum posts, hard to do in a virtual world…but it is doable.
Part of discovery is doing research. IMO a discovery meeting is validating the research to open up conversations so you can dig deeper into the pain. Discovery is also giving the AE the opportunity to confirm if they want to pursue this interest or not…in other words qualify in or out the opportunity.
My message here may be subtle, but way too many reps hold on to every oppty like it is a precious gem. Stop chasing ghosts. If you are not a fit, you are not a fit. If the person you are talking to is not the right person, they are not the right person…move on.
If you have the right discovery, then objection handling is easy and everything else falls into place. BTW, discovery is a ongoing thing, not just a one time event.
3rd Party training
I am not sure I have seen a successful 3rd party organization come in an help companies truly handle objections for the solutions they are selling. They are great in proposing a framework to handle.
3rd parties do not typically understand, in detail, how you can actually help a customer. So objection exercises tend to fall flat since it is surface level, and as we all know if you can’t get past the first or even second pushback you are not going anywhere. 3rd party training companies often prep for the first pushback.
Ok, so i know there is a ton in this post and I can go deeper into this topic. But I will be touching on this during my roundtable on Sept 7th.
Hope this helps!