Alright, it's time for the great debate! Who should SDR/BDRs report to? Sales or Marketing?
Who should SDR/BDRs Report to?
Who should SDR/BDRs Report to?
Attached poll
*Voting in this poll no longer yields commission.
6
The_Sales_Badger
Notorious Answer
2
Account Executive
Personally, I believe that there should be open communication b/w all three roles. In dissecting your territory, each role has something significant to offers. If you're in Tech, I would suggest the same for adding your Sales Engineer. All for one & one for all.
yaaaaaa meaaaannn?
yaaaaaa meaaaannn?
MMMGood
Celebrated Contributor
1
Senior Account Executive
Sales, 100%. People who think Marketing are probably part of an org with a failing Lead Gen program.
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
0
☕️
I have to disagree here. I've seen it work very well with BDRs reporting into Marketing because it holds marketing accountable for generating good leads by putting a traffic cop in place in the form of a BDR. The leads don't get handed over to sales until the BDR qualifies them, making Marketing feel like they've done a good job and it prevents AEs from blaming marketing for bad close rates. The org needs to be set up properly to make this work, but it has been proven to be effective.
MMMGood
Celebrated Contributor
0
Senior Account Executive
So they should align to marketing to make marketing feel good, like they are doing a good job? I hope I am reading that wrong.
poweredbycaffeine
WR Lieutenant
0
☕️
No, it was more to illustrate the benefit of where they sit and I didn't do a good job of qualifying what "feel like they're doing a good" means.
What I meant by my comment is that with marketing alignment, the BDR is validating that the lead profile looks good before it moves onto the sales team, making marketing feel like they've nailed it and they should do more of it rather than go on a goose chase. The latter pisses off everyone, including marketing.
When I had my last BDR team directly aligned with Demand Gen, we were able to increase our SQLs by 6x over when the team was aligned to our sales org. This turned into an additional $100K in revenue in that same quarter and a maintained SQL production rate because we were able to shorten the feedback loop and make real-time changes to our audiences and ad profiles. It worked because the entire org was behind the change and no one was arguing over where the bizdev team should sit.
What I meant by my comment is that with marketing alignment, the BDR is validating that the lead profile looks good before it moves onto the sales team, making marketing feel like they've nailed it and they should do more of it rather than go on a goose chase. The latter pisses off everyone, including marketing.
When I had my last BDR team directly aligned with Demand Gen, we were able to increase our SQLs by 6x over when the team was aligned to our sales org. This turned into an additional $100K in revenue in that same quarter and a maintained SQL production rate because we were able to shorten the feedback loop and make real-time changes to our audiences and ad profiles. It worked because the entire org was behind the change and no one was arguing over where the bizdev team should sit.
GrindingSales
Politicker
1
Account Executive
If we reported to our Marketing program, we would have the highest turnover! Specifically the way we are structured.
TargetSmasher
Praised Answer
1
Business Development Lead
Always sales.
Coffeesforclosers
Notable Contributor
1
Director Sales and Market Development
Ive managed both, sales makes sense. If you want to add pipe and have good conversations with sales on why things arent qualifying being in sales org is important. Marketing led, no respect from sales team and we are just flipping all the leads and dont know sales
Itsabaddaytobeaphone
Good Citizen
1
SDR
My company reports to marketing and i do not understand the benefits. anyone wanna explain?
AlecBaldwinsHairline
Valued Contributor
1
Head of Sales Development
Maybe SDRs because they deal with the inbound stuff marketing brings in, but BDRs - never. It's outbound and true sales.
salesnerd
WR Officer
1
Head of Growth
My opinion on this might ruffle some feathers...
SDRs should report to whichever executive cares the most about it.
If SDRs are an afterthought for your CRO, but your CMO is all about them, it should go to the CMO. If your CRO is enthusiastic about growing SDRs into AEs, they should lead it.
There is no steadfast rule about who owns it.
SDRs should report to whichever executive cares the most about it.
If SDRs are an afterthought for your CRO, but your CMO is all about them, it should go to the CMO. If your CRO is enthusiastic about growing SDRs into AEs, they should lead it.
There is no steadfast rule about who owns it.
Archivist
Contributor
0
Sales Manager
Why not both? It is a function of both sides of the house after all...
In all seriousness though it depends a lot on the size of the organization. Sub 20ish sales team members SDRs really are a strong function of the sales team.
Beyond that point you really want a strong SDR team having input into both marketing and sales processes as both have an effect on the role.
In all seriousness though it depends a lot on the size of the organization. Sub 20ish sales team members SDRs really are a strong function of the sales team.
Beyond that point you really want a strong SDR team having input into both marketing and sales processes as both have an effect on the role.
CuriousFox
WR Officer
0
🦊
I lean towards sales but I think it's necessary for both.
Related posts
9
Bravado is a community of trusted sales professionals endorsed by their customers.
© 2024 Bravado Inc. All rights reserved.
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.
13 comments