ghosthippie

SDR Team Lead

Ditching activity volume requirements?

Saw a linkedin post about an SDR who didn't have to make dials and could just focus her time on email and was intrigued....

Been hearing more about teams loosening expectations for the amount of daily/weekly/monthly dials and email sends and instead putting more autonomy on the reps to really own their outcomes through more personalization/creativity. Other folks seeing this? Ditching daily dail/email goals? Striking some balance with activity minimums and room for that creative piece?

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Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Its the easy path to say more volume equates to better results. However I have known rock star sales people who put in WAY less than 40hrs per week and other who put in 60+. Everyone is different.

I'm a fan of giving people the latitude to "run their business". That said, most SDRs don't know what they're doing and need a ton of hand holding. They complain they don't get enough help from their manager, no help with scripts, etc. - something we see in this forum quite often.

So if a company has a team of experienced SDRs, sure - let them go at it as they please. But that is probably the exception rather than the rule.

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

Officer of ♥️

don't yell at me

Pachacuti

Politicker

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

Lol

champchamp

Arsonist

Certified Savage

Also, keep in mind that 95% of the stuff on LI is BS. So, take it with a grain of salt.

champchamp

Arsonist

Certified Savage

I think setting activity minimums and leaving room for creativity is the way to go.

That way you ensure good activity across the board but also leave them enough time to focus the rest of their time on activities that work best for each SDR.

As @Pachacuti mentioned, I think that experience plays a big factor here.

Perhaps be more strict about activity metrics at the beginning and start loosening up once they find their groove.

TheNegotiator

Arsonist

VP of Sales

As a sales leader, I always told my people, I would set minimums, until I was confident they could work unsupervised and hit their targets. I also told them straight up, in their first interview that if they could make 10 calls a week and hit their targets, I wouldn’t say a word. They could work 2 hours a week from the Bahamas, as long as they made their numbers.

Anyone forcing activity metrics, just for the sake of activity is an antique, gasbag from a bygone age. Measure in results, only.

I take activity into account if and only if the rep in question is struggling, but still putting in the work. If the effort is there I can work with them, and I won’t give up on them. But at the end of the day, the only thing that matters are the results.

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

Officer of ♥️

i knew a girl who sent 15 emails a day but scheduled 2-4 meetings a day, mgmt was on her ass about calls but she was like 'fire me' she stayed for a year, became the top performer and never made one dial.

ghosthippie

Good Citizen

SDR Team Lead

Good for her!! Now get her over here to share her secrets lol

dwightyouignorantsale

Politicker

Account Executive

lmao i freaking love that

Notmyrealname

Politicker

A necessary evil at times.

We all know you could have the perfect email and call script prepared for that vp or c-level contact and never get anywhere.

The way they're set is often lazy and just guesswork, but the best poker players in the world will tell you that you need to play a large volume of hands to reduce the impact of chance and make use of your skill.

TennisandSales

Politicker

Head Of Sales

I think SDRs should be results driven just like AEs.....to an extent.

Most SDRs are brand new to sales, never mind the working world. Some will thrive off of having freedom, some will fail.

If i was told there was no activity requirements when I was an SDR I would have failed so fast.

I needed that guidance to just get me to do the things I needed to do.

but it can be taken too far, like when we were told to make 150 dials every day the week between christmas and new year.....

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

As long as deals are getting closed, does it really matter? Serious question.

E_Money

Big Shot

💰

I am all for ditching activity based metrics and using them more as a corrective tool rather than a daily expectation.

I like to track quality vs quantity. Connects/week or email replies/week. If those are low then we look at volume and strategy.

playerone

Politicker

Regional Account Executive

It’s funny because at my last job I kept telling management they needed to have activity minimums because there were lazy ass people and they would respond with the whole outcome thing. The only reason I cared was because they would make the whole team come in weekends and stay late when we weren’t pacing quota. When all they had to do was make sure the low performers hit certain minimums, you know, management. Then before I left they took it to the extreme with call tracking and over managed it so people starting faking calls lol. It’s all about balance and every salesperson is different. If someone is meeting their goals I would leave them alone like the SDR who never calls (I saw the post too). But if someone keeps failing, they need to hit certain activity benchmarks. When I’ve let go of salespeople it wasn’t just because they missed quota, it was because they failed to do things that would make them at least moderately successful.

Gyro25

Notorious Answer

Account Executive

Well, that's me. I made the least amount of calls from my team and had the most amount of call conversions and email conversions because instead of smiling and dialing for vanity metrics, I took the time to research who I was calling.

I made notes about what their problems were, what I was going to say, how I could solve it and why our next steps should be a demo. That said, cold calling is super important imo, but so is LinkedIn, good subject lines and actually trying to help with a solution. My team lead pulled me aside and asked me to help the rest of the team, but he didn't like my advice of them to do more research and spend less time blasting dials to hit 70 dials a day, but oh well..

Justatitle

Big Shot

Account Executive

I’ve never agreed with activity metrics as a measure of a “good” SDR. That said without calls and e-mails you’re never going to hit your nut. And it’s a numbers game the more opps you set up the more chance you have of hitting and accelerating.

SADNESSLieutenant

Politicker

Officer of ♥️

TheLaughingWolf

WR Officer

Business Development Manager

We used to do something similar before the comp structure was changed where I work.

We would have the daily activities, but if you hit your quota for the month, the activity quota went out the window.

It was great because it let the guys focus on being more creative. But it doesn't work for new reps. There needs to be some sort of structure for new people in sales.

ScopeCreep

Good Citizen

Regional Sales Manager

The whole point it’s adding value to prospects…email or calling, it doesn’t matter

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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.

ghosthippie

Ditching activity volume requirements?

19 comments

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