SgtAE

Being a player coach as a BDR? We're building out a team!

Hi team, currently working as a BDR/BDM but we're starting to build out the business development side of things. It's me and one other employee who is a junior BDR and reports to me.

I'm still carrying quota for meetings, but the goal is to build out a team of 5 reps in the next year and have a manager for them.

Has anyone ever played a player coach role like this and if so how did you go about doing your work + training your colleagues, thanks!

🎈 Mentorship

🥎 Training

🧢 Sales Management

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CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

I have not. Are you getting paid more for this? 🤔

jefe

Arsonist

🍁

They had better be putting some money up

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Honestly, you should be getting paid more.

That said, often a company will bring in a manager first, specifically to build out a team, rather than bring them in after the fact. Why is your company doing it this way?

Telehealth_2the_Moon

Notable Contributor

Director of Business Development

First, like @CuriousFoxsaid, are you getting paid more for this? If not, you should be.

Second, growing a team from the ground up is hard. I've been newly promoted in small teams and the most difficult thing I found was balancing the desire to hire experienced people I wouldn't need to spend as much effort onboarding or younger people that appear to have a desire to learn.

I ended up having more success with the younger folks due prioritizing people that seemed to have the work ethic and desire to learn even if it was their first job in "corporate America". This was after one of the experienced hires made it very clear that he knew the better way to do things and wanted everyone to know it all the time; that can be really damaging to a team of 3-4 you're trying to get to cohere.

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

Officer of ♥️

I am doing this right now. I have 2 one on ones a week. we go over their goals for the week, their metrics, their challenges, their wishes. Then we go into a training session on EQ Cold Calling or email drafting where I live coach and show them how to cold call or critique their cold call. and same with the other sections.

JustGonnaSendIt

Politicker

Burn Towns, Get Money

Player-Coach NEVER WORKS.

They have inherently conflicting objectives. Not a good plan. BDR's need to set meetings. Managers need to manage team performance and advocate for their team up the chain of command.

I think it looks good initially to save some $$ (or make some more $$) but it is unworkable in the mid-long term.

I know from direct experience.

Pick a primary objective and work to that. Don't get caught in the trap of having two things at priority #1.

Stratifyz

Big Shot

Account Executive

I’m with you on this. You can’t split time evenly and eventually one side falls (either you fall short on quota or your reps go misguided).

JustGonnaSendIt

Politicker

Burn Towns, Get Money

Yep.

90% of the time, the 'player-coach' rep consolidates down their time and focuses on getting their IC work done, leaving all of the other team members high-and-dry on needed education and guidance.

So, you're burning out your star player AND sinking funding into a bunch of under-performers with no hope of growth since the coach is too busy.

Need to mentor your reps? Hire someone who is focused on that. If you're so early-stage that you can't afford the hierarchy, you better spend money on reps that have their poop in a group already.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

Sales Rep

Never heard of it, but assumed it would be typical for smaller orgs

coletrain

Politicker

Account Executive

That is not a player coach, that is a team lead role being phrased like a player coach

Get more money for that

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SgtAE

Being a player coach as a BDR? We're building out a team!

10 comments

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