Get Pitched! Ep. 2

Welcome to Episode 2 of Get Pitched! The show where SDRs cold call mystery prospects and try to book a meeting in 1 minute flat!

Get Pitched! Ep. 2 ??

Congratulations to our three rockstar SDRs! Make sure to connect with them here ??

Finn Featherstone

Emily White

Francesca Malatesta

Do you have what it takes to book a prospect in 1 minute? ??

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?? Pitched Debrief - Interview with Chris Cicconi

Who is Chris Cicconi?

As per his bio - Chris is a salesperson turned coach tunred leader! He started his career in recuriting before making the jump to sales. From there he quickly elevated his career into leadership and has been mentoring, coaching, and supporting BDR teams across Canada and the US.

Going back in time - how do you think being the first manager at Aerotek's Canadian division shaped your style of coaching today?

"The beauty back then is that we had the background of the company, people didn't necessarily know who we were, but we had some customers and some processes built out. It was cool because I was able to grab what existed and apply it to a new division. But a lot of it was about testing - We knew it worked in the US but we didn't know if it worked in Canada. So we made sure to test, evaluate, repeat, and try again. I think that was the big thing for me - realizing we could do it in a very experimental way."

"Using that strategy piece I was very methodical around 'let's try it, does it work, yes - we keep doing it, no - let's adjust it and try again.' My career has evolved but it's always been about experimentation and being methodical about how we approach these conversations so we know if we are going about it the right way and leaving no stone unturned."

What are going to be the key shifts BDR organizations are going to need to prioritize so that they are not left in the dust in 2024?

"Ah, there is so much. At a certain point, there was this big push for quantity, parallel dialers, bulk emails, and I don't think that's the future. We have to get more strategic with who we are calling. We have to be more particular about why we are calling. And we need to be better armed for when we do reach somebody. So I think that's the first thing. And I think we do that by building better relationships. It's less about cold-calling a million people - it's more about having a great conversation with someone and building that relationship that will open doors to other opportunities and decision makers. At the end of the day you want more quality, not volume"

When doing an audit of your team’s performance, what are the key metrics you’re looking for to uncover their main areas of improvement??

"So there's a couple of things. It's not only about less activity, it's also about different activity. Selling to enterprise for example, If I'm going to spend an hour going over a company and finding exactly what to talk to them about, I'm going to add as many people as I can find."

"So step one is how many people am I talking to at these companies. That's the big starting off point. Looking at that, you're obviously going to have your regular metrics - number of calls, number of meetings, but then you need to look at what percentage of those meetings are moving on from stage 0 to stage 1. Then stage 1 to stage 2."

"Checking what the conversion rate looks like and seeing what is converting further than that is really critical because then you can say 'Hey Dom you're hitting your goal every month with meetings booked and SAOs but is any of that closing?' 'No? Well, are you calling the right people? Are you talking to the right people? Are you booking the right meetings? Are you talking to the right companies?' There's so much more to dive into there. I love analytics less for managing people and more for coaching them."

What is your "Pipeline Acceleration Plan" and what went into the deployment it at Visier?

"It was a mix of a few different things and at the time we went ahead and made a few extra hires, which was great at the time. We decreased the number of AEs the SDRs were supporting. Initally it was 3 each and we got to a point where the average went down to 1.5. What that allowed our SDRs to do was let them get more grandular into their territories and deeper into those accounts. Then we started to work closely with marketing. So we had a feild marketing group that was tied to ABM specific channels. We tried direct mail, Sendoso, local events, even making speciifc landing pages for each account."

"We were going after some of the biggest companies in the world so we created specific and personalized content for them, basically giving them a whole new experience. SDR outreach can sometimes be so peicemeal together so instead we created an expereince where prospects would see some marketing material, then they get a call from us, then an email, then a video, then a landing page, then more marketing content - all of that tells a story and is pieced together. And having everyone focusing on a smaller patch allowed them to be more specific and see more success."

Do you have any advice for SDR and BDR leaders looking to build and promote a healthier competitive culture for their teams?

"It's a tough one. I grew up as an athlete and I love competition and that's the thing I miss being older now and not playing as many team sports and I miss that competitive aspect of it."

"From a sales perspective - sure - it's always great looking at the leaderboard, but I think sometimes that gets twisted and and you run into a scenario where you have 10 SDRs and 3 are crushing it and 3 of them are struggling and then you got the 4 in the middle - let's say. Those top 3 will alys be there and it will be demotavating for the rest of the team. So I love the idea of gamification and I've used products in the past that have done a better job at quantifying more than the basic metrics. It's not just about who's booking the most meetings - You can look at different metrics. Maybe it's who's made the most calls into target accounts, or who had the most conversations. You want to be able to take the bottom 3, help coach and development them, and tie them to the results."

What's some advice or tips you'd give BDRs who are prepping for their first big call block of the year?

"Just make that focus on having great conversations. Make sure you're spending time in the right places and calling the right companies and just talk to people!"

"Be a human, be natural!"

Loved having this conversation with Chris - I wish we had more time to dive deeper into his strategies but maybe we can bring him back for a future episode ??

Thank you again Chris for joining the show this week! Make sure to connect and follow Chris ? Cicconi !

If you want to guest star on our next episode of Get Pitched! send me a DM!

- Dom Odoguardi

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