FormerStartupJobHopper

AE

Valued Contributor

Shit, my team is hiring SDRs to "qualify" inbound!

No hate as I was an SDR until about a year ago. Count me somewhere in the middle of the pro and anti SDR camps, but I don't love the plan for the new ones coming on board in my division. We are SMB and mid-market and mostly inbound. I would be more than happy to have SDRs filling my calendar with outbound meetings, but I strongly believe it makes the most sense for all inbounds to continue to flow to AEs. They are moving towards having the SDRs "qualify" all inbounds with at least 3/4s of BANT to send them to us live, round robin. What?!

Maybe it's because I deal with small businesses, but I feel like half the deals I close don't have BANT until the very end. I almost always spend the first 30-60 minuts on "N", then work in B A and T at the end. I also feel like the SDRs are going to fuck up and DQ people that are real buyers or scare them off by having another step in the process, not knowing the answers to things, or not having enough finesse to move stubborn people along in the process.

I think I've been an SDR recently enough to know how cluless they are (I certainly was) and that scares me. Am I being unreasonable? They say they're doing this so we can spend less time sifting through unqualified people and wrong number. I just feel like this is a mistake. Seriously, not shitting on SDRs in here, but I feel your services are best used on outbound.

👑 Sales Strategy

☁️ Software Tech

☑️ Qualification Calls

17

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poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

2

☕️

Do you have a volume and velocity that is causing AEs to miss inbounds and hold unqualified meetings?

FormerStartupJobHopper

Tycoon

0

AE

I don't miss inbound but I think the webform team has trouble getting to them all in a timely fashion, but I kind of think that's just complacency and laziness on the part of some people.

I don't think anyone is really having unqualified meetings. But we get an insane amount of wrong numbers, which may be what they are trying to solve for

TennisandSales

Politicker

2

Head Of Sales

oh good lets put more steps in front of our prospects.....lets make it harder for them to buy from us....AWESOME idea.

Sorry man that it rough!

CuriousFox

WR Officer

1

🦊

No one wants extra work. Ever.

Sunbunny31

Politicker

1

Sr Sales Executive 🐰

Another step in the process for inbound SMB/MM can be deadly. It complicates and slows things down. The exception is if the SDRs are really, really good and are capable of closing, just haven't gotten that role yet.

Why is your company considering having the inbounds flow to SDR rather than continue to AE? Have there been issues, or is it more a case of trying to manage a round robin process equitably?

FormerStartupJobHopper

Tycoon

0

AE

I think it's less about handling it equitably and more about trying to have us spend more time actually selling, which I get. The issue they see this as addressing is that, for reasons I won't get into as it would possibly reveal who I work for, we get a TON of wrong numbers calling us, way more than right numbers, and really need to wait for the diamond in the rough to come in.

I don't mind that though, as I'm still able to create on average about 1 real opp per day from inbound. But I think enough people have complained that they decided to do something about it. I just fear it will do more harm than good.

LordBusiness

Politicker

1

Chief Revenue Officer

Do you and your colleagues experience a ton of challenges “sifting though unqualified people and wrong numbers” <- where is that coming from?

FormerStartupJobHopper

Tycoon

1

AE

I wouldn't say a ton no. To be frank, I think it's complacent people or people who are missing quota bitching. We do get those people, but I figure them out almost immediately. I find it a price well worth paying to have the inbound flow that we do. When it comes down to it, I just don't trust a kid who's never done sales before with my precious leads. Let him fuck up on outbound rather than inbound IMO

Blackwargreymon

Politicker

1

MDR

Do you have a volume and velocity that is causing AEs to miss inbounds and hold unqualified meetings?

Diablo

Politicker

0

Sr. AE

Had been there, having an SDR for SMB/MM might not make sense when the subscription value is low, sales cycle is small etc. As you correctly mentioned, utilising them for outbound or enterprise level inbound/outbound makes more sense.

Beans

Big Shot

0

Enterprise Account Executive

This is rough, AE's are perfectly capable of qualifying, and much quicker.

I'd push back against this, if you have the time to book 15-30 minute conversations then your team should still be taking them.

SlinginSoftware

Politicker

0

Account Executive

My last two roles have had inbound SDRs qualifying prior to setting a meeting and I love it.<br>We have pretty decent lead flow from marketing - during a good week, I might have 5 legit qualified meetings set for me. Without my SDR, I could easily have an additional 10-15 that are absolute trash and a waste of everyone’s time.

FormerStartupJobHopper

Tycoon

0

AE

Interesting point. There def could end up being pros, I just got a real meeting from an SDR Friday afternoon. However I'm usually able to filter out time wasters and people in the wrong place almost immediately, cause there are certain tells

southernfriedsales

Opinionated

0

Senior AE & Business Owner

But for real. How many inbounds do you get to where this is even an issue? All inbounds should always flow to AE’s

FormerStartupJobHopper

Tycoon

0

AE

We have enough inbound right now that we are basically too busy to do much outbound. Which I realize I'm luck for btw. I just don't think SDRs taking inbounds is the way to address it

OnemoreJoe

Contributor

0

AE

Had the exact same thing at my company (all SMB opps). What’s the expectation when they get passed to you? Another disco? Disco / demo hybrid call?

FormerStartupJobHopper

Tycoon

1

AE

I think they're hoping a lot of the discovery will be done, but realistically I will likely need to borederline start it over again

OnemoreJoe

Contributor

1

AE

I hear ya - I was PISSED when we started doing this, but a way that started to make things hum somewhat smoothly was having the SDR primarily make their call focus on the Need aspect of BANT, with the other items being gathered at the end of the SDR's call kinda as a "ok before we get you booked with an AE..."

Once the opp was passed to the AE, the expectation was to do a disco and demo on that same call. The demo could be just something short & high level so that the client doesn't get antsy and feel like they're being passed around & interrogated without getting anything in return.

Wasn't uncommon to schedule a 2nd demo that would go more in depth and hit on some more items you got from your own disco.

Definitely get your frustration though

Pachacuti

Politicker

0

They call me Daddy, Sales Daddy

An inbound lead should go directly to a real sales person, not to a SDR who will just follow a script and add a step to the whole process - and might screw it up in the process.

Error32

Politicker

0

ISR

Being the underdog means you have to work harder, but the wins are more your own and you can reap more rewards.

Clashingsoulsspell

Politicker

0

ISR

As easy as it is working for the No. 1 in a sector, I don't find it as fun and as you see, you are not paid as well as a competitor trying to gain more market since the company name and history kind of sells itself.

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