revenuehunter

Global Enterprise Sales

Fresh Grads as SDR?

What are your thoughts on on-boarding a fresh grad as an SDR? Assume no exposure/experience in Tech/SaaS. I currently have a 3 week on-boring training planned which is like:

Day 1 - Company Introductions, Sales Basics and Introduction to Sales as a Career.

Rest of Week 1 - Product - Including use case we solve, personas we target and proof points.

Week 2 - Competiton.

Week 3 - Sales - Research, Processes, Mock Calls, Tools.

there's a Q&A planned twice every day for us to be able to answer questions.

what are a few best practices you guys suggest?

🤝 Interviewing/Offer

🛩 Onboarding

☁️ Software Tech

21 comment

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TheQueenofDiamonds

Politicker

Account Executive

Was the 3 week "on-boring" intended or just a Freudian slip?
How complex is your product? Do SDR's really need the full first week to learn the product?

revenuehunter

Executive

Global Enterprise Sales

My product has a few sub products. There are modules geared for Marketers, IT Org, Customer Service, Sales. One day per persona is how we’ve decided. Short answer - No, not complex. Yes, because there are a lot of use cases we cover and we have proof points. Think of (Zendesk+Jira+Chatbots)

FeedTheKids

Politicker

Solutions Consultant

I feel like SDR/BDR position is meant for those just getting into sales. So perfect for those fresh out of college.

The 3wk program you laid out makes sense - but depending on the complexity of the product and the market you are in, I'd always prefer to get the new SDRs on calls much quicker. Best practice/training is getting some reps in!

Learn AE's top 5-10 selling point. Learn major issues in the market that your product solves - start calling small+medium businesses to get reps in. Save the larger leads for when you know what your doing. (Having lists on standby is key - start mining contacts as early on as you can)

revenuehunter

Executive

Global Enterprise Sales

Mock Calls/Actual low risk customer calls is an important part in the entire on-boarding journey. My bad, I forgot to mention, there'll be actual Mock Calls all throughout the program. Even when we are studying the competition. And the results of the mock calls would be a guiding factor in how I deliver "Objection Handling" training.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

In that case I think you have a well thought out plan.

FeedTheKids

Politicker

Solutions Consultant

^ agreed

revenuehunter

Executive

Global Enterprise Sales

Thanks

SaaSam

Politicker

Account Executive

Agreed, my first SDR job training didn't really matter. I learned pretty much everything by hitting the phones.

LordBusiness

Politicker

Chief Revenue Officer

If you ask me, I say absolutely yes, if you ask my VP of Sales he would say "oh hell no" -- the biggest challenge with college recruitment into sales is identifying those who actually want to get into sales, and those who graduated with a degree in "post modern art history" and just want a job/paycheck. The good news is, there are a growing amount of colleges offering actual selling/experience courses and tracks.

revenuehunter

Executive

Global Enterprise Sales

I agree. Getting the right people is the most tricky part in college recruitment.

And there's still lack of college/degree programs focussed on selling. A lot of people still say Sales is an Art. I say Sales in a Science, and can be learned. Sales is such an important part of the business/personal ecosystem - I'm surprise there's no Full Time program focusing on Sales. Short courses, sure. But it deserves to be one of the majors in Undergrad/Grad programmes.

SandwichMan

Catalyst

BDR Team Lead

I definitely would suggest bumping your week 3 up to week 1. Have them learn how to structure the conversation first and then work the product into those conversations later.

revenuehunter

Executive

Global Enterprise Sales

This I guess would be subjective. Based on where the candidate is coming from, if he has tech background and education I can think of moving sales up to Week 1, but if the new hire comes from a non tech/non SaaS background, I’d say product/tech understanding becomes important early on. The primary reason being understanding the importance of proof points in AE Storytelling, Mapping of the right personas and how to relate the use case to business objectives. Unless they know the products, these conversations could be hard

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

I'd combine Week 1 and 2 into one week, week 2 would be what you have written as week 3, and then week 3 would be a test drive of the real world with heavy shadowing by the manager/team lead in order to enable quick and strong feedback.

revenuehunter

Executive

Global Enterprise Sales

Sounds like a good plan, I can see how I can compress the product and competition mapping into one week. Looks tough, can give it a go though.

CaneWolf

Politicker

Call me what you want, just sign the damn contract

This seems like a pretty solid breakdown to me. How much freaking competition do you have though that it takes a week?

revenuehunter

Executive

Global Enterprise Sales

Consider Zendesk as a competition. Atlassian as well. And all those products these guys are competing against. :)

MiniSavage

Opinionated

Sales Manager

I started as an SDR fresh out of college, 3 weeks after I graduated and am still in sales. I started with 17 people, I was the only grad there the rest of the guys were either with a sales background already or had a lot more work experience than I did, obviously since it was my first job ever. Started only for the paycheck to be honest, but however ironic it sounds I stayed cause I liked it - after only 3 weeks in the company it was only me and two other people out of the 17 who hadn’t given up and left.

I only had training from the AE’s when it comes to prequalification, reseach etc. for two days and was asked to start calling on day 3, hadn’t stopped since 😂

It’s a gamble hiring fresh grads, but it’s as much big of a gamble hiring someone with a sales background already, not everyone is for sales and that’s ok, you’ll never know unless you give them a chance and proper training 🤷🏻‍♀️

revenuehunter

Executive

Global Enterprise Sales

Risk with hiring people with background in sales is Unlearning. That’s the biggest for me

BlueJays2591

Politicker

Federal Business Dev Director

I do 1 week of training, 1 week of getting them set up with messaging, 3rd week they start prospecting. prospect for 2 weeks and then start a 1 hour a week training program that lasts 6 months. I invest the time and it pays massive dividends later on.

watercooler

Politicker

Manger, BizDev

We have an intern program built for this and then those individuals who show that they're ready to move to the BDR team... helps weed out those who truly aren't cut out or don't understand what they're signing up for

Devil

Fire Starter

Partner

can you please elaborate on the intern program @watercooler? it makes sense from a progression standpoint, but wondering how to even start such a program

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revenuehunter

Fresh Grads as SDR?

21 comment

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