HarryCaray

HMFIC

Notable Contributor

Notorious Answer

Celebrated Contributor

Hot take: Enterprise sales doesn't need business development

Sorry to hurt the BDRs/SDRs out there, but I've come to believe that large enterprise SaaS sales doesn't really need a robust business development team, if it needs one at all. Maybe I've not seen what a good BDR looks like, but I work at a leading company in my space and it seems like virtually all leads are inbound requests or RFPs put out by customers or consultants. I RARELY hear about a closed/won deal that started with a true cold call. We could probably eliminate at least 90% of the BDR roles here and not see much of an impact at all. Especially with all the meeting recording software and AI note taking tools we employ. Don't even need them sitting in the corner taking notes anymore.

BDRs are obsolete in enterprise software sales

Attached poll

agree disagree

*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.

🔎 Prospecting

📞 Cold Calling

☁️ Software Tech

16

27 comments

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RandyLahey

Politicker

9

Account Executive

This has become a lukewarm take.
Also great to see you back.
WOULD YOU EAT THE MOON IF IT WERE MADE OF RIBS?

jefe

Arsonist

7

🍁

Now I want ribs..

HVACexpert

Politicker

5

sales engineer

CUBS WIN!

HarryCaray

Notable Contributor

4

HMFIC

MINE'S THE SUN!!!

RandyLahey

Politicker

4

Account Executive

I ONCE TOOK A PAIR OF BINOCULARS AND STARED AT THE SUN FOR OVER AN HOUR!

CuriousFox

WR Officer

6

🦊

HHHHHAAAAAARRRRRYYYYYYYYYYY

HarryCaray

Notable Contributor

3

HMFIC

Just stepped out for a pack of cigarettes. Told you I'd be back.

pirate

Big Shot

3

🦜☠️ Account Executive

Agree

Phillip_J_Fry

Opinionated

3

Director of Revenue

It sounds like people already know your company though if prospects are reaching out to you, or partners are referring your product.

HarryCaray

Notable Contributor

1

HMFIC

yeah that's a big part of it. Don't think we need the "have you ever heard of us" or "this is what we do" kind of outreach anymore.

SoccerandSales

Big Shot

2

Account Executive

I see the point, and agree it probably makes sense to reduce BDR headcount at a lot of orgs. But if they take the frontline conversations and weed out the bullshit, it can be super helpful for reps with a big pipeline

HarryCaray

Notable Contributor

1

HMFIC

I think you're right. Cut down by like 90% and have the remaining folks weed out prospects who will never be qualified

wolfofmiami

Opinionated

1

🐺

Definitely a benefit to have sdrs at a smaller lesser known orgs to have a larger outreach

MyAnonymousName

Opinionated

1

Sales Leader

I agree the BDR/SDR structure is going by the wayside, but I have never worked with a high performing ENT rep that did not do their own prospecting on a regular cadence.

I don't mean hammering out 50 cold calls or whatever BDR's are being told to do nowadays, but asking for referrals, engaging on LI, attending events, whatever you do to build your network pipeline with a 6-9-18 month mindset.

HarryCaray

Notable Contributor

0

HMFIC

I need to ask for more referrals from my clients, that's a good idea.

TheColdestColdCall

Executive

1

Enterprise Account Executive

Yeah I struggle with this having supported the enterprise teams as an SDR, it was generally easiest with customer accounts, where name dropping was the easiest way to open a door cold calling / emailing. That said, since moving to AE. Every deal I’ve closed has been inbound, and all handed off to me without qualifying. It’s just, set the meeting, and get your meeting credit and see ya later. All outbound strategy falls flat.

Customers are so well informed, the whole “ahhhh” moment of a solid cold call rarely exists the way it did years ago.

I think great BDR/SDRs are worth it, but it’s just so saturated idk if the ROI is there anymore.

HarryCaray

Notable Contributor

0

HMFIC

Well said

SgtAE

WR Officer

1

AE

*Key accounts and tenured reps.

It's not fair to put a BDR on an enterprise account and give them opportunity goals. I had account lists where the account's we're just the biggest banks in the country. Got them meetings with the C-Suite and they still wouldn't accept them until we had a demo running.
Worked for one AE who had killer accounts and didn't need my help, the guy won top rep like 3 yrs in a row.
Put them where they are better suited, new territories and MM

HarryCaray

Notable Contributor

0

HMFIC

since you are selling to banks, is it broken down by asset size?

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

0

Sales Rep

How do you win a RFP when your competitor created it? Assuming the idea to buy a very specifc technology wasnt Procurements idea

HarryCaray

Notable Contributor

1

HMFIC

my competitor created the RFP? not following...

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

1

Sales Rep

Typically a vendor helps create an rfp so if you don’t they did

HarryCaray

Notable Contributor

1

HMFIC

I gotcha, yeah I've seen that maybe once or twice, but not typical in my space. Even still, not really what I'm talking about here. This post is focused on business development reps and their value to a firm.

Kosta_Konfucius

Politicker

0

Sales Rep

Waiting for the rfp to start conversations can cause you to lose those rfps. So this is saying you need BDRs to start proactive conversations, rather than be reactive

If your competitor has already met with the stakeholders and helped them build the list of questions

Also in my experience RFPs are usually 5+ vendors, so more competitive than a conversation started by a bdr

If its not common to build the rfp for them, at least the bdr gets you in front of the client earlier and its not when they are meeting with 5 other vendors
Also have you noticed less inbounds and rfps over the past year? How else are you supposed to get the same amount of opportunities without outbound, when inbound demand goes down

HarryCaray

Notable Contributor

2

HMFIC

My leads are virtually exclusively inbound. This is my point.

1

Merlo Product Specialist

I match my product up spec for spec on the RFP. Show everything where I win and where I lose.

SADNES5

Politicker

0

down voters are marketing spies

Tell that to SLACK. MS Teams dominated the space thanks to no BDRs from Slack.

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