chig777

BDR

Valued Contributor

Broken SDR seeking advice on whether this is a sustainable process from sale savages..thank you

Hello all, I am reaching eight months in as an SDR and questioning how effective the current system is. For a quick context:

My immediate manager left for another job in Jan. I am the only SDR at my company for the U.S market.
I am given leads from conferences and digital events—around 10 per month. We also put out whitepapers but get close to 2 leads per month.
I primarily use LI sales navigator to cold call IT decision-makers, and the success rate has been meager. Currently, making around 50 - 70 calls per day and 20 personalized emails per day.
We also use B2B lead generation software that shows which companies visited our site. Get close to 10 - 15 visits per day and a low success rate as it's one person out of a 500 - 5000 headcount company that looked at our site.

I have over 1000 ready-to-nurture leads, 200 contacted leads, and I am struggling hard every day going back and forth between lead gen, and cold calling leads from sales nav. Totally understand you're suppose to generate your own leads but.. I see other SDRs get actual inbounds and a list of leads at their companies! I am getting by minimally with some luck, and doordash/uber eats gift cards to book meetings.

Part of me is convinced I am the problem, but other BDRs and sales managers are telling me that this is just not sustainable for one person. We use a telemarketing agency that books meetings for AEs independently, and conversion rates for those have been low as well.

VP had told me that all he had when he started was a list of numbers to call and a phone, and I should be able to do a lot more with salesforce and ZoomInfo. I respect the building something out of nothing, accountability mentality but.. I am really burnt out. I don't know whether this means I am just not cut out for it or whether there is something wrong with how things are. I would appreciate any insight..

👑 Sales Strategy

🧢 Sales Management

12

31 comment

Sort by:

braintank

Politicker

4

Enterprise Account Executive

Why did your manager leave?

Perhaps your product sucks??

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

2

Officer of ♥️

probably^ Seems I'm in the same position unfortunately, manager left, no marketing leads though or any kind of leads, everything is self-sourced with no organization or procedures.

playerone

Politicker

3

Regional Account Executive

I feel you. I have more autonomy than I’m comfortable with lol

chig777

Valued Contributor

1

BDR

Damn, how do you self-source everything with no support? How are you currently meeting quota, and getting feed back from upper management? I almost feel like I am just going to get fired out of nowhere by the VP at this rate lol

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

0

Officer of ♥️

And I’m having a hard time its like a shotgun approach and sometimes a sniper rifle. Getting good at list creation and identifying ICP’s with key indicators like job growth or revenue growth helps.

playerone

Politicker

1

Regional Account Executive

Oh yeah 100% know what you mean. My position is new to the company so my VP keeps telling me to cast a wide net which is so contrary to how I work. That’s what I like about sales navigator- that it shares those insights I can interact with.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

0

Rolling 20's all day

Shit. Talk about being left in a hard spot.

chig777

Valued Contributor

0

BDR

I wasn't given an explanation other than that he is leaving for a better opportunity.. our service isn't the best but we are definitely going through growing pains in the US region

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

3

Officer of ♥️

Lmao yeah no I just manage up. I report my stats, whats working, whats not, what I need, its up to management to give me what I need to hit their made up numbers out of thin air, all I can do is put in the activity and report back to them. If they want to fire me they can, but at the end of the day you have to make it clear you are already overperforming on your end regardless of if you hit quota or not because you dont have what you need (tools/motivation/money/talent/enablement/management) to do the job. That being said if they ate not open or receptive to that idea and still dont want to give you commission its time to get a new job and milk that one on the side till they let you go. Currently decided on finding a new job with a big boy like salesforce or oracle to no longer deal with bullshit like that. Startups are cool and all, but not at the price of the uncertainty and underwhelming amount of support, direction, or stability

chig777

Valued Contributor

1

BDR

This is insightful. Start ups are fun and flexible but the level of uncertainty and anxiety has gnawed at me long enough.. Good luck with your job search btw!

Also, to touch on that point, can I still be overperforming despite of hitting quota? Because I feel like at the end of the day, all I am measured on is did you book your targeted meetings or did you not..

Pachacuti

Politicker

3

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Who developed your call script and your email script? Is your VP helping with this? Did it come from the old mngr?

Your old mngr may have had insight you don’t. While I don’t advocate quitting something cause “it’s hard”, I do advocate jumping off sinking ships. And that’s a tough call.

Perseverance and Grit are extremely important qualities but knowing when to leave is also important. I have stuck it out for too long at a couple companies during my career when I should have gotten out sooner. But through those tough times came important lessons.

chig777

Valued Contributor

1

BDR

Hello, I used the script that I got from another SDR (no longer there) and made changes to see what works/what doesn't.

Yeah, I completely see what you are saying - I wouldn't have gotten into sales if I was looking to cruise effortlessly.. but I am trying to differentiate whether I am on a sinking ship or I am just seasick (for lack of better metaphor lol)

As much as I know that cold outreach works, I feel that if the buyers are given just a slight awareness of what we sell, I would be shut down less..

playerone

Politicker

2

Regional Account Executive

Partition your day to focus on what you need more. If you have leads now that need to be contacted, then do that first. Then take a break during that to prospect. Schedule your IGAs and schedule your breaks. I do the best in 90 minute cycles. 90 minutes hard focus and then I take a break- work out, bullshit, play games. Breaking up the monotony is important

chig777

Valued Contributor

1

BDR

Thank you, this is helpful. Usually I try to push on through besides my hour break and I feel like my brain becomes fried lol Also, what does IGA mean?

playerone

Politicker

3

Regional Account Executive

Oh sorry, I forget it’s not a typical acronym. Income generating activities. You definitely need more breaks than the hour lunch

CuriousFox

WR Officer

2

🦊

Hhm maybe you should go to a larger more established company 🤔

chig777

Valued Contributor

1

BDR

yeah, it was my first tech sales position transitioning from education sector so definitely a good experience overall and getting my foot in the door.. Hate to leave because AEs are good people and overall culture is great but really getting no support as a SDR..

Diablo

Politicker

1

Sr. AE

How about AE in the org? Same performance wrt conversions?

If same I don’t think it’s your problem alone. Marketing is a shit in your company (number of leads tell that). Are you given any break up of how many leads would be IB and OB?

Your superior may have sold just with the phone numbers but those times were different. Listen to your own self people will come and go

chig777

Valued Contributor

0

BDR

Our VP is closing pretty huge deals. I have 2 AEs and one of them closed one deal in Q1 (I am told sales cycle is long, we sell to info sec).

I am not given any break up of how many leads would be IB or OB, marketing actually asked me to report back on what's working lol its gonna suck telling them they haven't really helped with anything for the last quarter..

The_Sales_Badger

Notorious Answer

1

Account Executive

If I'm you, I'm quitting... Like right now - opening my email, putting together a quick "it's been real, but my quality of life isn't anywhere I need it to be."

Worst case scenario, you hit the reset button for a company that may actually not give you this mentality.

Best-Case - Your company recognizes they be trippin'. Maybe they come back and try to make life easier... doubt it, but who cares - they're no longer your problem.

Good luck cuzzo.

chig777

Valued Contributor

0

BDR

damn, yeah, I am not sure how long I can continue on like this.. but at the same time, I want to express my frustration and what I need to the VP to the fullest extent.. I will have to decide soon. thank you!

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

1

Professional Day Ruiner

you have zoominfo, use it. at most companies bdr's don't get a ton of inbound. If they did, why would they need bdr's? Just sent the warm leads to AE's and let them close them.

If you're light on people to call and prospect to, bulk exports from zoominfo will help with that. Build your ICP and create custom advanced searches. They can search by your ICP to show you people that you should be prospecting to. Export those to your CRM and hit them hard.

I would also pump up those emails. 5-70 calls a day is fine, but only 20 emails won't get you far when its completely cold outreach. Make sure you're following up with those people you email as well. Typically when I'm doing email prospecting, it takes 3-5 emails to a person over a 2-3 week window to get a response.

Keep the emails short, end them with a firm ask, and follow them up with a call a day later.

Any cold calling I do is part of an email sequence. Typically email-email-call-email-continue.

If you're just sending one email and calling it good that isn't going to work. If you call someone one time and never call again, it isn't going to work. Cold outreach is all about building name recognition so that the next time you reach out they know who you are and want to hear more.

chig777

Valued Contributor

0

BDR

These are solid tips, I appreciate it. Question about the emails: Are you personalizing them to a degree? What do you put as contents for 2nd, 3rd or 4th emails? Usually, I send something relevant (whitepaper) or just follow up.

Also, how do you keep track of all the old leads, keep cadence, while adding new prospects and follow up with them? I am using salesforce but I just feel like I am spinning in a wheel. I noticed you sell to IT directors too and it's really hard to get them on the phone. Also, I don't have a territory (just the whole U.S) so I am not sure how to strategically approach this.

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

1

Professional Day Ruiner

this is where having a DM feature would be nice so we could have a better conversation...

Emails have very minimal personalization. usually just their first name. the first email will be a blanket about what we do and me wanting to schedule a call with them to learn more about their processes, how they handle things currently, etc. follow up emails will be a little more specific. So I'll focus on one specific problem we see our customers have, call that out, then point to how we solve it. Typically there will be at a minimum 3 replies like that. I always reply to the thread as well instead of creating a new email. This makes it look more like an actual person is emailing them and they aren't just on some list. Try to avoid links, pictures, etc, as this can cause them to go to spam.

As far as tracking goes we use an email program called outreach. I create the email sequence in there, then just add the prospect to it from salesforce. If your company does not have this I would recommend trying to talk them into getting it because it tracks things like opens, reply's, clicks, etc so you can A-B test email sequences. Make sure everyone is getting followed up with, stuff like that. If you have to do it manually though I would just keep track of it in a spreadsheet. Create say 5 columns and enter each date you sent an email to them or called them. Have a set process you use each time so you know if you see 3 date columns filled in then you already did a,b,c, and d is next.

Selling to IT directors is a massive space, especially selling to the entire US. We have over 60 reps to cover that much ground and growing. I would start by picking one area to really hone in on. Say NYC, DC, SF, somewhere that you know there will be a ton of prospects - then really focus in on that area. For example I have a list of over 15k prospects info just for the state of Michigan alone.

After you pick a city, narrow it down to exactly who you want to have conversations with. You already know you want meetings with IT directors. Now approach it with what size company is ideal for your product. My company that's any business that does over 100M/year in revenue, but really anything over 25M will do. With you having so much space, find that "perfect fit" client and really prioritize your time on them.

For more personalized emails, still do those as well. But keep them targeted to your focus accounts. Pick, say. 25 accounts you really want to get into this month. Those are the ones to put the effort of in depth personalization and LinkedIn outreach into.

Very, very long winded response here. So let me know if any of it doesn't make sense and I can clarify!

chig777

Valued Contributor

0

BDR

This is golden and I get what you are saying. To clarify, I mostly target directors in charge of infosec so maybe that explains the difficulty I have with reaching them sometimes.

I've been hearing a lot about salesloft and outreach for these sequences.. can salesforce accomplish the same job? I want to make a case that enablement tools will help especially because I am an one man band right now. Really appreciate your insight.

NotCreativeEnough

Big Shot

1

Professional Day Ruiner

Salesforce will not do this job. Outreach, if setup and coordinated with salesforce correctly, will log all of the activity and update salesforce automatically for you. so say outreach sends day 3 of the sequence automatically, if you look at that lead in salesforce it should show the last activity as today, and be able to view the email in salesforce.

salesforce however, to the best of my knowledge, does not do any automatic email campaigns.

Fnord

Praised Answer

1

VP of Sales

- You are in a shitty situation and it’s not your fault.
- SDRs at the front making cold calls makes no sense in 2022 where there are hundreds of ways of making a list of warm contacts via purchase intent data.
- 3-5 SDRs with a manager coaching everyday and role playing is the only way to feel better about a job that’s already hard enough.

Don’t feel bad or take your failure personally. You’ll hear a lot of No’s. I think if the company doesn’t help you with better tools and warmer leads, go find a greener grass.

chig777

Valued Contributor

1

BDR

Thank you, I appreciate the insight. Going to talk to my manager about intent data and a sales enablement tool.. I can't do this as an one person team.

TheIncarceration

Politicker

1

SDR Manager

10-15 website visits per day is brutal... Might a market fit problem

chig777

Valued Contributor

0

BDR

damn.. what's the average visit on sites?

TheIncarceration

Politicker

0

SDR Manager

Not sure what the average would be but I can speak to my org's numbers. We have hundreds of visitors on our site daily at any given time

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

© 2024 Bravado Inc. All rights reserved.

Privacy Policy Legal and Privacy Center Sales Jobs

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.