Doink profile picture
Doink profile picture

Doink

BDR

Opinionated
Member
Contributor
+2

Road to AE

Just got approved to start running disco calls to begin transitioning from Sr. SDR to AE. I guess more of a test to see if I can walk the walk and then talk the talk. in a previous role as an SDR I ran discovery calls but never really felt like I nailed it. 

I'm now selling a much more polished product with a great support group and more importantly trust from leadership. 
I've got good product knowledge and a decent understanding of the pains our customers experience. But as I've been practicing been feeling like my talk track for running discos needs work and our platform has a ton to offer/present to prospects. 

curious of any SDRs->AEs experience getting comfortable with longer presentations and advice for how to prepare/practice my presentation skills and get up to speed with the process to feel more confident. 

any and all advice is extremely appreciated 

thanks yall 
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12 comments

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braintank
Politicker
8
Enterprise Account Executive
I tend to follow this basic framework:

• I have to imagine there's a ton of folks asking to get time on your calendar. What prompted you to decide to meet with us?
• How much do you already know about us? Totally fine if the answer is 'not much', but I certainly don't want to re-explain stuff you already know.

1. Tell me about your biggest challenges when it comes to [product category]?
2. What's going on in the business that's driving [what they shared] to be a priority?
3. What metric is suffering most as a result of that?
4. What's driving you to solve all this now rather than later?
jefe
Arsonist
4
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💥
Doink
Opinionated
2
BDR
Thanks Brain!🧠
Gasty
Notable Contributor
2
War Room Community Manager
☝🏻 This is great!!
@Doink Becoming a kick ass AE requires practice, don't you give demos to yourself by now? Or Ping anyone that you know to just spend an hour with you? Or give demo's to existing AE's at your org?
Sunbunny31
Politicker
2
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Very simple way to get your prospect talking.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
1
🦊
They will ALWAYS talk about them 🔥
SalesBeast
Politicker
3
Sales Leader
Watch the other AE. Reply to prospects fast- they will match your speed typically. Always learn about competition. Try your schedule tons of meetings. You got this. We believe in you. Congrats
Sunbunny31
Politicker
1
Sr Sales Executive 🐰
Oh gosh yes, procrastination is never good from the sales rep. Time kills deals. Be fast.
Pachacuti
Politicker
3
They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy
Create a loose script you can run with, with all the info you’ll need to know. Treat it like how you’d like to be treated. Make the questions casual and personal and no yes/no questions if you can help it.

Good luck!
886GFl
Opinionated
1
Account Executive
Congrats! Huge jump super exciting.

Record your calls and review each of them with your direct manager. I’d try to do this at least weekly. But it sounds like your org prob does this already. Watching the replay is cringe at times but good learning experience.

Time your demos, and know what features to spend little time on. Try not to feature dump.

Also think about what questions you can ask your prospect during the demo as well.

BigShrimpin
Politicker
1
Account executive
frameworks, selling models, etc are all great but at the core you just need to understand what the problem is and if its something you can solve everything else stems from that.

Its rare you'll piss people off by asking too many questions but if you're concerned that might happen just look into setting upfront contracts itll alleviate any of those issues
SalesinSeattle
Valued Contributor
1
Account Executive
Questions will need to fit into whatever you open personal style is so they feel natural and you can make it more of a conversation than an interrogation.
Biggest things that you need to find out during discovery are: why are they interested/here, ie what drove the action of reaching out to your company (this hopefully gives you a trigger event, which you might give you timeline) and what is the real pain point or need that they're trying to solve for and how severe it is. It's this a departmental priority, a regional directive, or is this an organizational gap/compliance concern etc that MUST be solved? Orrrr it could be they're interested but it's just something they WANT which means it gets bumped by anything higher priority and you know that your chances of getting this to the finish line are low.
The more you know about what's driving your buyer, the better you can connect your solution to their need and start to find wins (personal wins, departmental wins, org wide wins). If you can make somebody your Coach in this process and then find a way to make them a hero in the org (will require follow through after the sale) you'll earn repeat business from this customer forever.
Good luck!

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