Goldilocks and Sales Development

Much like Goldilocks and the porridge, your sales development model needs to be “just right” for your organization. Figuring this out early will save you from account executives’ complaints such as “Those leads weren’t qualified enough. They aren’t worth my time” or “My SDR isn’t passing enough meetings. What are they doing all day?”

Effective sales development means maximizing the productivity of both the SDR and the AE teams. There are two main models in play: setting introductory meetings and generating qualified opportunities.

Don’t believe anyone who says you should consider only one or the other. There are hundreds of companies successfully setting introductory meetings. Hundreds more are productively generating qualified opportunities. And more still are utilizing a blended approach for different products, market segments, or territories. To help you along the way, here are a few general principles on when each model is most effective.

• Setting Introductory Meetings: Let’s be clear on the realities here. The meetings being set here are introductory—from the Latin “introda,” meaning not ready to buy yet. (Kidding!) This can include face-to-face meetings or a discovery phone call. With introductory meetings, prospects have a sense of your overall value proposition but haven’t been qualified as to their readiness or ability to move forward.
• Generating Qualified Opportunities: Qualified opportunities differ in that they are, well, qualified. The rep is still closing on a meeting or call but has a) moved the prospect from curiosity into interest and b) vetted that the prospect meets or exceeds a minimum threshold of “sales-worthiness.” We’ll discuss more on qualification criteria later in this chapter.

Introductory Meetings

One of the biggest mistakes I see companies make is setting internal expectations using introductory meeting metrics (quantity) and then requiring opportunity-level qualification (quality). This seemingly innocuous misstep often ends in total disaster. “Qualified introductory meetings” is an oxymoron. If your sales development process and expectations are at cross purposes, account executives will lose faith in the team, your SDRs will burn out, your culture will sour, and your group will fail to deliver.

 As I mentioned earlier, I don’t consider one model universally better, or more effective, than the other. I do believe that in certain situations, one is likely more appropriate than the other. Here’s my rule of thumb.

 You should deploy an introductory meeting model when the market for your product is immature and/or when your account executives need more at-bats.

Let me give you an example. Today, customer relationship management (CRM) software is a mature market. Most (if not all) technology-enabled companies already have a solution in place. Those companies have existing contracts with future renewal dates, and the thought of changing providers sounds like a major hassle. In this instance, if your SDRs are setting introductory meetings for the AEs, you’re just wasting everyone’s time.

Compare that to the market for a predictive lead scoring solution. That market is still immature, as the concept itself is new. Vendors are faced with doing the work of educating the market on the problem they solve. Rather than qualify themselves out of a meeting, sales development reps should be closing on meetings at full speed in this category.

In terms of qualification for introductory meetings, you can’t get much beyond right profile, right person, and right high-level pain.

If your SDRs are booking meetings with the right types of companies, the right people within them, and the prospects are at least curious about addressing a potential pain point, then the reps have done their jobs well.

In an immature market, the number one challenge your SDRs face is to arouse curiosity around a business issue that potentially hasn’t even been recognized yet. Sales development should be teeing up introductory meetings so that the account executive can do the work of educating the prospect and developing that curiosity into interest.

The second case for the introductory meeting model is when account executives are suffering from empty calendar syndrome. This one is easy. If your sales team is screaming for more “at-bats,” then break glass and set meetings. Conversion rates, qualification criteria, and cost per meeting all go out the window when your account executives’ calendars are anemic. Setting introductory meetings in this scenario is your go-to.

 I’ve never met a sales organization that quibbled over degree of qualification when AEs were starving to have more conversations with prospects. This is often the case for young companies that are just going to market or established companies that are launching new products (or even taking existing products into new market segments). In these cases, setting introductory meetings is an effective mechanism for rapid learning.

 The moral of the story here is that you need to put the model in play that makes the most sense for your organization. It doesn’t matter what your Board wants or what you implemented at your last company. Build the sales development model that makes sense for where you are now.