Coffeesforclosers

Director Sales and Market Development

Titles, does it matter?

No not your title, of course that matters, though i have been a VP and had less power than i do as a Director so maybe that doesnt matter either, just pay me lol.

Question-

Does the title change and increase your response rate? I feel no, it doesnt matter if it says Sales Development Rep or Digital Experience Specialist. The prospect knows that they are being sold to in an email. Yay or Nay? Has anyone seen superstar return rates playing with titles?

🔎 Prospecting

💌 Cold Emailing

📞 Cold Calling

21 comment

Sort by:

poweredbycaffeine

WR Lieutenant

☕️

An interesting A/B test would be to remove your title completely from your sig and see if that increases open/click rates on your cold outreach over an email that you send with a title in the sig block.

My hypothesis is that it won't create a significant change because if they read far enough down on the text block to see your sig then you've already done the hard work of gaining their interest for a moment.

CuriousFox

WR Officer

🦊

I'd be interested to see the results of this test 💯

Coffeesforclosers

Notable Contributor

Director Sales and Market Development

Well said. I think just the name no title is a great idea.

AlecBaldwinsHairline

Valued Contributor

Head of Sales Development

Yes it does.

More than just "power" but also pay and equity in the company.

Typically a Director level job has different benefits and comp than a Manager/Department Head title.

Every company role and responsibilities differ, but the pay is scaled.

ARRisLife

Politicker

Account Executive

Bit of semantics at the junior entry level roles. I don't think it really has any lift in response rates.

In other avenues though we do use some senior folks with titles- even ghost writing notes for my SVP and to execs on a prospects side and we can usually get some solid response rates. Usually use this tactic for getting exec alignment in a deal, leveling up ect.

Additionally, we have our CTO thats very well known and involved in a specific community of people so we can leverage him in specific scenarios as well. Little different because he has some clout outside of just his title.

But to your point... at an sdr/bdr level playing with minor tweaks I don't think it would have much of an impact.

Just my 2cents!

Coffeesforclosers

Notable Contributor

Director Sales and Market Development

That's interesting so higher title more response. Interwsting.

We do Executive letters but actually sent by execs, we have to ghostwrite it for them which is hilarious as most of us "got through" undergrad and writing emails for Harvard Biz School grads is always humorous.

ARRisLife

Politicker

Account Executive

haha very ironic... didn't even think of that

HarryCaray

Notable Contributor

HMFIC

My title is Regional VP, and I think we've chosen that title for AEs here because we sell software to banks. The idea was to align our titles with something bankers are familiar with. Makes sense, but I'm not sure how much difference it really makes.

Coffeesforclosers

Notable Contributor

Director Sales and Market Development

Yes sir, banks love that VP title. My wife is in finance and is a VP, with no directs, no VP responsibility, its amazing how the titles work in different verticals

HarryCaray

Notable Contributor

HMFIC

When I first went to work for one of the big 4 banks and told my buddies I was gonna be a VP, they were shocked haha. But I also had no directs, and I was one of literally thousands of VPs with the firm.

softwarebro

Politicker

Sales Director

absolutely. Tried this with a fellow AE a few years ago. He registered for a conference as a "Managing Director" and I registered as a "Senior sales executive". We sent the same email to prospects (C/VP level) and he got a much higher response rate.

Chep

WR Officer

Bitcoin Adoption Specialist

I think Titles matter way less than people realize.

breezyboiii

Politicker

Sales Boiii

depends on the scenario, if you're prospecting a client then title probably won't mean too much to them. but if they're coming back for whatever reason or hoping to send a referral, I think the title then carries more weight.

brotato

WR Lieutenant

Head of Sales

Actually being vague works best. At several startups we just referred to ourselves as the Key Accounts team. Signature just said Key Accounts. That way every prospect felt like a snowflake

Blackwargreymon

Politicker

MDR

Bit of semantics at the junior entry level roles.

MrMonte

Arsonist

Head of Sales

I've seen head/VP of sales folks use "head/VP of partnerships" and other less sales-y titles in their email signatures. I'm interested in trying it too. Assuming the cold email copy and calls are intriguing and not pure sales pitches, it makes sense too me.

Coffeesforclosers

Notable Contributor

Director Sales and Market Development

Run that A/B test and circle back for us please

YoungMoney

Good Citizen

Director of Sales

I'm and AE with the title "Director of Sales". I do have pricing authority, for example, but I don't currently manage anyone...I've seen 0 increase in response rate because of the title change. I have seen a huge increase in sales people prospecting to me though. Just my experience.

Coffeesforclosers

Notable Contributor

Director Sales and Market Development

Oh yeah, thats a gleaming "prospect to" title. This dude runs the department he has budget, lol

DonDraper

Politicker

National Sales Manager

It can when an escalation call is made. I often do it with my team and choose a title like State Manager etc to ensure the call gets the attention of the decision maker. Sometimes the title when referencing an "Account" can get past the GK.

SalesPharaoh

Big Shot

Senior Account Executive

Nah I don't see a difference I simply compare my emails to the targeted accounts who are unresponsive vs the emails of my manager's we both don't get replyed too when the customer doesn't want to reply. So it comes down to your prospect/account

Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.

Products

The War Room Jobs Salary Guide Tech Sales U

Company

About Us How It Works Blog Bug Bounty

Contact

Press Careers

If you are hired as a contract sales rep by a Bravado customer, we may ask you to prove access to the employee email account provided to you by that customer. This data will be shared with customers to track your sales productivity; customers can use this data to confirm you meet the minimum activity requirements to pay out your ramp stipend and commission.

Coffeesforclosers

Titles, does it matter?

21 comment

Related posts

Sales Titles

Titles