ChickenDinner profile picture
ChickenDinner profile picture

ChickenDinner

Account Executive

Politicker
Executive
Valued Contributor
+6

How much prospecting is done by AE vs SDR?

AE's at my company don't really do any prospecting and it seems like that is less the norm than I thought as I'm learning from other friends' experiences at other SAAS companies. I wanted to do a quick poll and see what's typical for Bravado AEs and SDRs.

How much of your pipeline is generated by AE prospecting vs SDR prospecting

Attached poll
*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.
🔎 Prospecting
📳 SaaS
22

27 comments

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Sunbunny31
Politicker
7
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Our process is SDR heavy right now. I expect that to shift next year, but we will see.
ilovemondays
Executive
0
Senior Account Executive
Why will that shift?
Sunbunny31
Politicker
0
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Possibly moving to territory rather than round robin inbound. Up in the air, though.
playerone
Politicker
5
Regional Account Executive
No SDRs at my company. We have one media planner which is a similar role in advertising, but mostly focuses on one side of the business. So it’s all me, besides the “MQLs” I get
Diablo
Politicker
5
Sr. AE
We are SDR driven doesn’t mean we don’t prospect but it’s way less than them
nomdeguerre
Executive
5
Account executive
In my opinion the SDR org should deliver 75% of the qualified meeting volume. The AEs should still prospect but should focus on a limited set of strategic accounts which will likely provide higher value even if it’s lower volume. Unfortunately, most organizations don’t do a good job of building an outbound SDR org which leads to AEs having to deliver all the ops themselves.
PhlipOut
Politicker
3
Account Executive
I wish!

I'd say 75% of my pipeline is generated from myself and the rest from SDRs.
we don't have many and most of them suck.
nomdeguerre
Executive
0
Account executive
Not uncommon unfortunately.
SaaSsy
Politicker
2
AE
Same, I was like our numbers are reversed 75% AE, 25% SDR (aka webinar leads)
nomdeguerre
Executive
3
Account executive
LOL. Webinar leads that’s a joke 😂
Blue_Turtle
Opinionated
1
sdr
Every time my org says “call the webinar leads, they’re warm” I have to roll my eyes. Granted, we do have lots of great inbound, but the webinars usually aren’t it.
SaaSsy
Politicker
2
AE
Nailed this! Key word is “should” 😂
Kosta_Konfucius
Politicker
3
Sales Rep
SDRs pretty much field RFPs/RFIs/VQSs, very limited pipeline is from them
TheIncarceration
Politicker
1
SDR Manager
Very interesting! What do you sell?
TennisandSales
Politicker
3
Head Of Sales
currently its heavy on the SDR but we have solid inbound all of a sudden so that is also nice.
HappyGilmore
Politicker
3
Account Executive
Don't have an SDR at all.
Pachacuti
Politicker
3
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
SDRs for have never seriously factored into my funnel. I am much better at prospecting than any SDR . Anything they can bring is great, but I never depend on an SDR to give me anything.

No AE should ever depend on an SDR for 100% of their funnel.
ilovemondays
Executive
0
Senior Account Executive
What do you think of processes designer for the AE never to prospect?
Pachacuti
Politicker
-1
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
A company is shooting itself in the foot if they don’t require AEs to prospect l. At the end of the day, it’s the AEs job to fill their own funnel.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
3
🦊
100% me
BlueJays2591
Politicker
1
Federal Business Dev Director
Our rule of thumb is typically 30% of total (quality) PL should be provided by the SDR team. This is PL that has progressed to a qualified stage and the AE has decided to fully run with it. Before that, it doesn't count for much
commishcapo
Opinionated
1
Commercial Account Exec
Can’t ever rely on SDR for pipe. I consider anything my sdr gets me as icing
slaydie
Big Shot
0
Account Executive
All jobs I've had the AE has prospected and then if there is SDR support they do as well.
SDM
Politicker
0
Sales development manager
SDR heavy
Chonkonaut
Valued Contributor
0
CSAM of Luke Warm Chowder
You guys have SDRs, I want an SDR! :'3
Arzola
Valued Contributor
0
Business administration
Well for all the company I think this change, however we are like 50% 50%.
jefe
Arsonist
0
🍁
We've moved more of that to the AE of late.

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