The No BS Guide to Team Selling: Aligning AEs with SDRs

There’s no way around it: if your Account Executives (AEs) and your Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) aren’t working together well, no one’s going to be happy. 

But as the saying goes: 

"Give an AE an SDR, and you'll help him for a day. Teach an AE how to collaborate with their SDRs, and you've fed him for a lifetime."

And that’s exactly what we’re going to cover today.

In this article, I’ll show you how to align your AEs with SDRs to create mega pipeline and drive even more results – step by step! 

How to Create Mega Pipeline

There are two methods you can use to align AEs with SDRs:

1. With spreadsheets (if you’re not already using Outreach)
2. With Outreach

1. Using Spreadsheets

Step 1: Create a list of all your accounts. You can pull them from Salesforce or your CRM.

Step 2: Throw these accounts in Column ‘A’ of a spreadsheet. Name it something like “Andrew (AE’s first name) + Justin’s (SDR’s first name) Accounts.”

Step 3: Set up a 30 min - 1hr meeting with each of the SDR’s you work with.

Step 4: Go through the list of the accounts you have with the SDR you are meeting with.

Step 5: Select up to 10 top accounts from your shared list. They should be high priority accounts. 

When selecting the top 10 accounts, use your best judgement and filter by:

• Target persona fit
• Potential user count (for SaaS)
• Use case fit 

LinkedIn has been my best friend when it comes to account prioritization. ;) 

Step 6: Put those top 10 accounts into Column ‘B’ of the spreadsheet.

And there you have it, you’ve just aligned your focus with your SDR! :)

Step 7: Now it’s time to get specific. Go deep into each account you share with your SDR, and create a new tab for possible ways in such as:

• Shared LinkedIn connections between your leadership and their leadership
• Shared partners or investors
• Research any past Closed-Lost opportunities with the account

Understanding the specifics of each account is going to help you and your SDR make a strategy for getting into it. 

My SDR, Justin Reidt, and I put this together:

Step 8: Come up with a plan. Don’t waste time while your SDR is cold calling and emailing the prospects. In fact, don’t just reinvent the wheel by rinsing and repeating silver bullet templates.

As the AE, you should be thinking of other plays you can run: 

• Direct mail 
• Targeted ads with marketing
• Introductions from executives or investors

Step 9: Set up weekly meetings with your SDR. This meeting time will help you check up on progress – both the SDRs’, and yours. They have to run your plays, but you have to come up with them.

Step 10: Rinse and repeat this process with all of the SDRs you work with.

2. Using Outreach

Creating a pipeline with your SDRs is much easier if you’re using Outreach.

Step 1: Filter your accounts in Outreach to show all of the accounts that you and a particular SDR own.

Step 2: Set up a 30 min - 1hr meeting with each of the SDR’s you work with.

Step 3: Go through the list of the accounts you have with the SDR you are meeting with.

Step 4: Select up to 10 top accounts from your shared list. They should be high priority accounts. 

When selecting the top 10 accounts, use your best judgement. For example, you can filter by target personas, potential user count, whether or not the account would be a good fit for your product. LinkedIn has been my best friend when it comes to account prioritization. ;)

Step 5: “Star” the top 10 accounts you both selected in Outreach. There you go, you’ve just created focus with your SDR :-)

And as Tony Robbins says: “Where focus goes, energy flows.”

Step 6: Create a “smart view” for the top accounts that you have with the SDR. My “smart view” looks like this:

Step 7: Let’s get specific! Go deep into each account you share with your SDR, and create a new tab for possible ways in such as:

• Shared LinkedIn connections between your leadership and their leadership
• Shared partners or investors
• Research any past Closed-Lost opportunities with the account

Understanding the specifics of each account is going to help you and your SDR make a strategy for getting into it. 

My SDR, Justin Reidt, and I put this together:

You can put these notes into a spreadsheet, or into the account notes tile in Outreach.

Step 8: Come up with a plan. Don’t waste time while your SDR is cold calling and emailing the prospects. In fact, don’t just reinvent the wheel by rinsing and repeating silver bullet templates.

As the AE, you should be thinking of other plays you can run: 

? Direct mail 

? Targeted ads with marketing

? Introductions from executives or investors

Step 9: Set up weekly meetings with your SDR. This meeting time will help you check up on progress – both the SDRs’, and yours. They have to run your plays, but you have to come up with them.

Step 10: Rinse and repeat this process with all of the SDRs you work with.

Bonus step for ambitious Outreach users: After checking in with the SDR on your top accounts, check to make sure that you still have low-priority accounts with prospects in sequence.

And there you have it!

You’ve successfully aligned your AEs with SDRs, making sure that everyone does their part and finds a way to win over the prospect.

It’s a win-win, and it’s all because of teamwork and a little help from tech.

Happy selling! 

-- Andrew Mewborn

PS - If you enjoyed this, please share. If you want to chat further on this topic, feel free to shoot me a note on LinkedIn or email me at [email protected]