Building out a pod model (instead of pit model where we just round robin everything) for our Enterprise Segment for the first time. Looking for any and all best practices on how this should be structured. We're doing 1:1 ration SDR:AE for now, scaling to 2:1. Specifically looking for thoughts on the below: How to measure performance (pipe gen by $$$ or by # of opps) What SDRs should do after they get an AE an opportunity (continue to find new contacts for that deal or work on other divisions or work on other companies) Unique ideas to divide and conquer Anything else I'm not thinking of. It's new to us

chef

Manager, Enterprise Sales

Looking for best practices for Enterprise SDR/AE Pods

Building out a pod model (instead of pit model where we just round robin everything) for our Enterprise Segment for the first time. Looking for any and all best practices on how this should be structured. We're doing 1:1 ration SDR:AE for now, scaling to 2:1. Specifically looking for thoughts on the below:

How to measure performance (pipe gen by $$$ or by # of opps)
What SDRs should do after they get an AE an opportunity (continue to find new contacts for that deal or work on other divisions or work on other companies)
Unique ideas to divide and conquer
Anything else I'm not thinking of. It's new to us

🧢 Sales Management

10 comments

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buckets1

Politicker

Big fan of SDRs helping to multi-thread for enterprise deals. Whether that’s additional contacts in the same department or going after other departments to build momentum for a true enterprise wide deal.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Also a good point. Being in more than one division or LOB will definitely help build overall value.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

@poweredbycaffeine 🧿

Upper_Class_SaaS

Politicker

Account Executive

I have been an SDR in a successful format.

I was the SDR for 3-5 AEs in a true ENT territory where the reps had a total of 50 accounts each and had me working angles of current customers but different teams.

Pipe gen was part of my quota, meetings SET, not qualified meetings since any meeting in the F500 is typically a good meeting if the rep is any good, and total activity on a quarterly basis (calls & emails). The last one is useless IMO but more of a way the manager could salvage his attainment number if the reps were under producing.

payton_pritchard

Executive

RSM

imo the individual pairing is the better approach. On a couple of the points you raised
-I've seen measuring performance by # of opps created work a little better as (depending on your product) different reps will enter pipeline in different ways, but opportunity creation isn't up for debate in the same way
-I think one of the benefits of this kind of model is that the AE and SDR can partner more deeply on what happens next. There's no one answer that will fit all scenarios (although I think there's a ton of benefit in an SDR continuing to work to get more footholds in a company) but the 1:1 pairing allows for better strategy here

Sunbunny31

Politicker

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

I agree re number of opps vs $$. Also agree on 1:1 pairing so reps and SDRs can get their mojo as a team.

saaster

Fire Starter

Account Executive

Be really careful on the sole metric being meetings booked/ops opened. I worked for a place that did this and the volume of shit on my calendar was pretty crazy. IMO the only way to make those metrics work is if the sdr is only comped after stage 2 or 3 in the sales cycle.

Diablo

Politicker

Sr. AE

We have recently hired SDR for Ent. We planned to leverage them to target different departments within company that can be easier (depending upon the company size) before hunting a new one. Its new to us as well so I will quietly follow this thread.

justadude

Fire Starter

The only sales guy

I like $$$ driven KPIs for SDRs. I currently have mine on a split between Sits and closed deals. $$$ pipeline generated aligns better with top line goals IMHO, and data analysis on forecasting is usually more accurate.

Auracle

Executive

Enterprise Account Manager

I've been summoned.

Love this topic, and am glad to see sales managers asking this question.

I'll crank out a longer post with deeper context when time permits, but to start, it's probably most important for you to have a hyperspecific goal in mind for your Enterprise account development efforts if you don't have one already.

Without it, you're just lobbing darts at the board in the dark.

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