33 comments

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braintank
Politicker
14
Enterprise Account Executive
Just trying to get views. He does have a point that automation is hurting outbound more than helping. But I think he's way off on the inbound stuff. If I'm a CRO I'm not going to pay an SDR to respond to demo requests or content downloads. I'll send the demo requests to AEs and have the content downloaders put on an automated nurture campaign.
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
10
☕️
This is the way of the future for sales orgs and how they treat MQLs.

SDRs, in my opinion, should be targeted guns for higher that are tasked with outbound to target accounts on behalf of their assigned AEs.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Yes, outbound and watching for inbounds that come from those target accounts.
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
3
☕️
Indeed--the routing piece falls on a good Ops team, but this is currently watchdog duty for S/BDRs.
Sunbunny31
Politicker
6
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Our SDRs responded to all inbounds, and it’s been a real challenge. It can add an unnecessary step and slow things down, sometimes catastrophically. I agree with you.
UrAssIsSaaS
Arsonist
4
SaaS Eater
This is exactly how we are building our current sales org and its showing strong results so far. We use SDRs to target our highest value accounts and leverage automated tools (marketo, LeanData, Salesloft) to handle all of the IB stuff. Its super effective. 
CaneWolf
Politicker
1
Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract
So many S/B/M/A DRs forget to take people out of automatic flows when they tell them no as well. Automation can be a mess used improperly.
Tightquotacrush
Executive
1
Manager
that's on the tool, not the BDR. a good tool should pull them out of the flow as soon as there's a reply.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
0
🦊
I agree with this. Not all tools catch everything.
GDO
Politicker
3
BDM
Automation is fun and all until it isn’t. 
Goodie
Executive
3
Director
Did anyone else get distracted by the gum?...anyways, we have a ton of inbound flow that gets vetted by entry-level SDRs, as they progress in the role they eventually become outbound BDRs - who are tasked to prospect into AMPs, once an opp is booked it is routed to to Senior AEs. You need solid BDRs to help penetrate targeted accounts, the SDRs are key to vet out unqualfied leads for the rest of the sales team. It has worked very well for us over the years. I will say are BDRs and SDRs have transitioned to more of an automated outreach approach over the years, which I hate, and I think hurts more than helps. 
Upper_Class_SaaS
Politicker
3
Account Executive
I need a robot as an SDR ASAP... since there are no laws against how much I can verbally abuse them 
goose
Politicker
0
Sales Executive
This sounds like a "you" problem.
procurementdevil
Politicker
2
AE
Shit, guess I need a new job then huh? 😉
YaBoi
2
Manager, Business Development
Keenan is the type of person who hasn't held a quota in 15 years.  He writes things like this so he can get page views and sell tickets to listen to him bloviate for two hours along with the woman from Texas.

In the real world, businesses have numbers to hit.  If they don't hit their numbers the investors get mad.  If the investors get mad the C-suite gets mad then the VP gets mad and then the VP gets canned.

If you think an organization can afford to sit on their asses and let marketing funnel them leads you are sadly mistaken.


mastersfan
Opinionated
2
Account Executive
What's funny is every business wants to 'leverage' automation, yet not a single one of us wants to be sold to by a machine. Stop trying to 'hack' the damn sales process
Beans
Big Shot
2
Enterprise Account Executive
So wrong.

Personalization still matters, and it's not possible to automate yet.
boganoff
Good Citizen
2
Account Executive
Sales tech is an arms race with the prospect because it makes it so easy to spam: 

Phone -> Gatekeepers
Dialers -> Voice Mail to sales related 
Emails -> Spam filter
Sequences -> Personalization required

We are at an inflection point where attention is the most scarce resource and somehow bad actors ruined it for everyone else.
Diablo
Politicker
1
Sr. AE
We don't have any Sdrs (the business model is built that way) but I don't agree much with this post.
Wellss
Tycoon
1
Channel sales
same, same, & same! We also don't have SDR's because of how the team is currently built out, but I still think they play a beneficial role 
FormerStartupJobHopper
Tycoon
1
AE
It all sounds very nice and logical, and I think most people agree that would be an ideal state. Except if it was that easy to create massive inbound via demand gen would that few companies have figured it out by now? 

There's nothing wrong with heavily outbound prospecting when you're in that stage. Not all prospecting = spam
DasPeruvian
Contributor
1
Growth Manager
The issue is the seniority of marketing and how short-term the CEO is looking at. For inbound demand gen, it takes a lot of work and time to really see the fruits bear, and most upper managements don't have the patience or understanding to see that.
salesguy13
Contributor
1
Director of Sales Development
this seems like clickbait!
goose
Politicker
1
Sales Executive
Well, it’s a video that auto plays on LinkedIn but I get what you are saying.
corporatefemale
Fire Starter
1
Sales Manager
Our SDRs are almost completely outbound. They do a ton of cold emailing and scheduling. Agree that having an SDR respond to inbounds can be duplicative of what an AE would do.
laterskater
Personal Narrative
1
VP of Sales
Maybe or maybe not. I give him credit for this one sentence that I wish more "experts" would use regularly > "I don't have enough data"
brothertona
Member
1
BDR
As someone that is worked in that role I just don't see it. I've been a hunter for about 6 years. There is very much a place for people that can find net new contacts. Yes automation is great, yes marketing/demand gen has a place but give me a rep that can put food on his own plate without it being handed to him. 
pceccarelli1
Personal Narrative
1
VP of Sale
SDRs are dead in my mind - it’s an overpaid function that can replaced with AI software and better lead gen tools. They get in the way of the sales process just being another unnecessary touch point for a prospect. Pay your AEs more and have them own prospecting. Design comp plans around activities that lead to revenue not just $ targets. Plus companies like LeadRoll and CIENCE exist.
Kamper
Executive
0
Enterprise Account Executive
He scares me
tjk
Good Citizen
0
Sales Director
I'm in ed-tech - first time having an sdr team. Love them to death. In 6 months sold 4 mill with 75% coming from sdr meetings and the rest from my network.
OMG_It_has_a_watermark
Good Citizen
0
Head of Sales
There are definitely some truths here. But also, the SDR role is just evolving, especially with intent data and buyer intent signals. 
Honestly, the biggest thing that I took out of this was that I NEVER answer my phone anymore. If the number isn't stored, I don't answer. 
mantis
-1
SDR
He said "this is anecdotal" about 10 times in 3 minutes so I don't think anything he said should be taken seriously. 
Dorsiareservation
Good Citizen
-3
Sdr, Outbound
Outbound sdr opportunities tend to be worth much more revenue than inbound ones as you can qualify the account up front and get the meeting strategically. This is where the real value is for and sdr. Inbound can be handled more with automation over time as it's mainly a qualification function

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