How to Land an SDR/BDR job Tomorrow

First off, if you are looking to push a button and instantly line your pockets, keeping scrolling... I'm sure there is a crypto/meme stock post right after this.

Now, for those who actually want to launch a career in tech sales, let's get your mind right.

The Mindset

There are something like 100,000+ open sales development positions available yet I am willing to bet if you are reading this post, you still somehow can't seem to land an interview...

Why?

Well, it all comes down to the Golden Rule baby. That's right... just like that kooky after school special taught you:

"Treat others the way you want to be treated"

Modern day business translation = It is NOT ABOUT YOU, it is about THEM.

This is as true in pursuing a prospect as it is in landing a job. The truth is your first sales target as an SDR is finding a job and I hate to break it to you but you are blowing it.

You think because YOU added the word "technology" to YOUR resume and clicked submit 26 times this week that you should have been chosen right? Wrong.

Here is the thing... the job of an SDR is to make 20-100 cold email, phone and messages daily... day in and day out. The brutal reality is your college degree, your accolades DO NOT MATTER.

SDR skills are intangible.. meaning it is all about your work ethic, creativity, and perseverance. Some Microsoft word doc resumé that your mom helped you write does not give the hiring manager any insight into whether you would be a good or terrible hire for them.

That's like ranking NBA prospects by their Bios... they are all 6' 8"+ , 225+ lbs with a 45" vertical....

Which means you need to showcase your "intangibles".

Let me take your through a learning exercise that you likely won't ever get in your first SDR job.. it is called "a day in the life of your prospect". This is where you get to sit in the seat of your prospect and understand life through their dollar-sign shaped eyeballs.

Being that landing an SDR job is your first target, your prospect in this case is a hiring manager who is likely: Head of Sales, VP of Sales, Sales director, Sales Manager, SDR manager or something similar.

For our purposes let's call him Michael Scott and assume his title is Sales Manager.

Michael Scott has a boss named David Wallace and David cares about one thing: month over month revenue growth. This revenue growth only happens when Michael's sales team performs and hits their targeted quotas.

Michael therefore spends his days in back to back to back blocked zoom calls. His calendar looks like tetris... each moment accounted for.

He spends his time:

• Coaching his reps
• Onboarding new hires
• Hopping on important sales calls and helps them close
• Managing the distribution of prospects and leads in the database
• Ensuring his team has all the resources they need to hit their targets.
• In between calls to each dinner and be with his family....

Michael is busy... Oh and somehow he has to find time to be an HR hiring manager because the only way for the company to keep growing revenue is to keep growing the sales team.

So HR helps Michael throw up a boiler plate SDR job posting. Now Michael gets, let's say conservatively, 5-10 new "applications a day". Those resumes sounds like this:

"Hard working, teachable, charismatic, people-person, excel-proficient, Bachelor-holding candidate desires to break into the exciting software sales industry." blah blah blah...

Are you starting to see the problem?

YA BASIC. Ya look like everyone else.

How is Michael, the dude who has to schedule his bathroom breaks, supposed to pull your special profile out of a crowd?

The answer is he can't and he won't. Michael will never tell you this, but he doesn't want your resume or your application. You submitting your bran flakes resume creates MORE work for Michael making his life harder...

What Michael really wants is for a candidate to STAND OUT so he doesn't have to expel any more of his very limited, energy.

The answer:

YOU NEED to STAND OUT by DOING THE WORK.

Your first SDR assignment is to prospect Michael Scott and get him want to book a meeting (read interview) with you.

The Process

Remember our goal is to stand out and make Michael Scott's job EASIER not HARDER. If you make yourself stand out, that is one less task on Michael's insane calendar and Michael will be mighty grateful for that.

How do we stand out?

Remember the golden rule... treat Michael the way you would want to be treated if you were him... What does Michael care about? Growing revenue.

How does the Company grow revenue? By first setting new demo meetings with good prospects (the SDR's job) and then having the senior sales team close them.

Well then let's do a little extra work to show Michael we understand why he is hiring for this role and that we know what he cares about (treat him as we would want to be treated).

Step 1 - Pin down what ideal prospects Michael & his team care about.

A) Scan the job posting and look for insights about what types of clients/markets the company sells to.

B) Go to the company website, look for information about the verticals and targets. Find the Testimonial or Client page and jot down what logos they have on they have showcased on their site.

C) Go and signup for a free 1-month trial of LinkedIn Sales Navigator: Choose the Sales Pro

D) Using the search function, search for those companies and the ideal Title at each company

This is a list of their ideal clients and therefore likely market segments they would love to grow into.

Step 2 - Build the list of Michael & team's ideal prospects

1) Download a lead scraping tool like Lusha, LeadIQ or Seamless.AI. These tools allow you to located anyone's email/phone number & other contact information online instantly. They all have free trials of some sort

2) Follow this video to get the contact information for the prospect list:

3) You now have the email and phone numbers of similar target prospects for the company you are looking to work for. Starting to see how different this is compared to just sending in a resume? YOU are putting in the work for what THEY are interested in. (all about them!)

Step 3 - Craft your Pitch to Michael

Continuing with the "IT IS ABOUT THEM NOT YOU" we want to make sure, that when we reach out to Michael, we are delivering a message that resonates with him.

Remember how ideal SDRs have those intangible skills: work ethic, creativity, perseverance...

Well now we need to showcase those by reaching out to Michael directly. We don't just want to send him some long winded email though... we want our outreach to be special and STAND OUT.

My suggestion would be to use video for this. Video works best for a number of reasons:

1. It shows your face and showcases your ability to communicate... literally the skills you would use in an SDR job constantly.
2. It highlights your personality - let Michael see your smile and your speaking voice
3. It shows MAJOR initiative. I can guarantee Michael has not received many, if any, videos from SDR candidates. Not only will you stand out... but you also show that you are not afraid to try out new tools and get on camera to get in front of your prospects.

A) Download the video tool Loom or Vidyard for free

B) Use the screen AND the video feature so you can showcase the research and list building you did. I would then come up with a 1-2 minute quick pitch that was all catered to Michael's interests.. the demographics he serves, a creative list I put together and even how I would go about reaching out to those prospects.

Here is an example video pitch I made for Michael:

Now this is just a fake example I came up with on the fly... but you can see how in less than 2 minutes I was able to give Michael a little insight into my personality... demonstrated that I put the work in AND that I understood his problems.

C) Wrap up this video link and the CSV prospect list file that you scraped up and either send it in an email direct to Michael or send it over in a direct message on something like LinkedIn.

The key here is to send it as a true 'message'. No need to be overly formal... just reach out and talk like they are a colleague... because well, they are!

Wrapping it All Up

Hopefully by now you see how impactful it is to go the extra mile, see the world from the hiring manager's perspective and decide that your future is worth this level of creativity.

Know this, creative, personalized outreach like this showcases the #1 skillset that SDR hiring managers care about... your ability to do the job!

This simple video and 1 hour of extra work shows that you actually already did the work you would be asked to do if hired. The hiring manager doesn't have to hope that you are going to work out... you already proved that you are willing to go the extra mile!

Quality inputs = quality results.

With all this said, there are still going to be hiring managers you send this personalized message to who do not respond. That is just the nature of sales... do not let it beat you down!

This is just a small taste of what life will be like as an SDR. Rinse and repeat this process 1-2 times a day for a couple of weeks and I guarantee you will have more interviews than you can handle.

PUT IN THE WORK TO STAND OUT!