BdubSE

Global Manager - Sales Enablement

Should SDRs be held as the Kings and Queens of the revenue team?

Bear with me here, then you can roast me if you'd like..

Background: I've been in sales for about 8 years now and 4 of those I was an SDR, 2 years as an SDR manager, 1 year in Sales, 1 year as a director of sales, and now in Enablement/L&D. This has been across 3 companies. Maybe I'm bias, but I loved being an SDR. I've experienced being the top on a team. I've experienced burning out. I've experienced managing the top and the burnt out.

Opinion: The job an SDR has is incredibly important. They're spreading the brand + value far and wide, they're in the trenches uncovering the small and big fish to "set the hook". I believe SDR's should be held in much higher respects than they often are.

Pay to get them professional photos for their LinkedIn, invest in a strong onboarding plan, Include them as much as is reasonable in decisions, meetings, etc. Celebrate them more than they've ever been celebrated, have a structured roadmap for success, invest in their professional development, Invest in a good tech stack, I mean really act like you're creating a strong foundational piece of the success of your company and elevate them. Celebrate the role like it's going to be the make or break in your company because they truly can change the game.

Reason I'm writing: Too often SDRs are seen as the entry-level peasant and for that reason are not empowered to succeed. They aren't encouraged to become the strongest they can be past the pressure of an outrageous goal on their head. They're not rewarded for weeks of hard work gaining a meeting with a whale when it sells. AE's hardly treat them with respect (although the great ones truly do). The turnover rate is incredibly high no matter where you're at. BUT .. but.. when they are seen and empowered, they can be the driving force for hitting every goal your sales team is after. I have a good friend who is an SDR lifer & his "qualified meetings" account for over 20% of the business existing clients at about 12mil/yrr in a ~60m/yr company

Thoughts? Am I just having one of those days lol

📞 Cold Calling

👨‍🌾 SDR

15

25 comments

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UrAssIsSaaS

Arsonist

14

SaaS Eater

I can appreciate the sentiment. SDRS are important, BUT sales orgs can succeed without them. My current team doesnt have SDRs and source all of their own deals. Is it ideal? No, but we are growing revenue year over year and people are getting paid so it can be down without em.

Ive also run into too many SDRs that are so fucking entitled. "I worked here for 6 months and my company wont make me an enterprise AE" shit makes my skin crawl.

DungeonsNDemos

Big Shot

4

Rolling 20's all day

I'm stuck just with spreadsheets and sales nav. No SDR's or SE's (enablement) or Ops.
It's a one man band for each of us on the small force we call a team.
For times where I worked somewhere that DID have SDR's, honestly most meetings they booked were not great.
Just my personal experience.

BdubSE

Opinionated

1

Global Manager - Sales Enablement

Just one of those days then, haha thanks

LordOfWar

Tycoon

0

Blow it up

Same here, I source my own leads and also manage our other sales members. Everyone is a lone wolf in prospecting and closing, nothing is handed to us.

Could my time be better used if I had vetted leads given to me? Sure, but our market is unique (defence/aerospace/medical) and I find any time I spend training SDRs is just time I could have been prospecting myself.

I am easing someone new in by getting them to do the admin grunt work while learn tendering systems and bidding, but I'm still finding and vetting all leads myself. The end goal will be to have him be a sales position but right now I need more marketing and admin support since our production is basically booked out until mid-next year.

BdubSE

Opinionated

1

Global Manager - Sales Enablement

SDRs in Defence/Aerospace is tough. I had to train a couple, but at the end of the day the people we hired to do admin and pure data collection/cleanup were more helpful! best of luck

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

9

☕️

Soooo

BdubSE

Opinionated

1

Global Manager - Sales Enablement

Just one of those days then, haha thanks

AlecBaldwinsHairline

Valued Contributor

6

Head of Sales Development

I love SDRS, in some orgs it really doesn't make sense to have them though.

I think more companies have SDRs because it's industry standard. But, more teams need full-cycle AEs.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

4

🦊

It's because we qualify correctly and get shit done.

InQ5WeTrust

Arsonist

5

No marketing, mayo isn't an MQL

SDR's are like toddlers, with enough training they're useful and can pull of low hanging repetitive tasks.

Think stacking blocks or finger painting. On a good day, they pull the task off after training and coaching.

You leave the toddlers alone though and it's chaos.

I say this as a pseduo SDR who's doing a bit of everything atm.

Avon

Politicker

5

Senior Account Executive

A good SDR can make a gigantic impact on your sales team and revenue attainment. Problem is, the job pays pretty shitty and is almost universally seen as strictly entry level. I think if more SDR orgs were willing to pay top SDRs good money (at least 6 figures) the quality would be much higher. But when most tech orgs are in high cost of living areas, of course paying crap salaries is going to get you (mostly) crappy SDRs.

RedLightning

Politicker

3

Mid-Market AE

They're important and sales development as a function is gaining more (deserved) respect. But, I wouldn't go that far.

The fact that it's becoming it's own path rather than a stepping stone to AE is pretty telling of how orgs see it.

I haven't shit on marketing yet today, so I'll say SDR's are the direct contribution to revenue that marketing wishes it was

Beans

Big Shot

3

Enterprise Account Executive

They're pawns plain and simple.

A key tool, but expendable and often sacrificed for the greater good.

Should they survive long enough they can be elevated to any position they dream of on the sales team.

cw95

Politicker

1

Sales Development Lead

I wouldn’t say kings or queens - I’d say the loyal prince that one day succeeds the king or queen.

goose

Politicker

1

Sales Executive

Any position that can be replaced in a matter of hours and can be outsourced in any industry can not be considered critical or important. Important? Sure. Critical? Not a chance.

alecabral

Arsonist

0

Director - Digital Sales Transformation

In my very own personal opinion, no. SDRs are definitely important. I was one and managed teams of SDRs as well...but honestly, I've also seen and run teams without SDR input at all and it was just fine. Not saying it's the same, just answering your question: no they should be treated differently than other people in sales roles who are accountable for pipeline.

That being said, there's nothing wrong with empowering them and making them feel better about their job. I'd even say we all need some of that at some point in our careers!

Diablo

Politicker

0

Sr. AE

SDR is important but I have worked in an org where we function without an SDR and doing quite well.

Njanack

Good Citizen

0

SDR

No

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