Let me (Re)Introduce myself!

First things first…

I recorded a podcast with Tolu Adebekun and the What Makes Your Tick Podcast on Monday to discuss leadership. I think it will provide people with a lot of value and give them some more insights into my journey!

I will let you know when it’s out in the new year!

Content of the week

• ChatGPT hack for writing your cover level
• 10 Killer closing questions to ask your buyer
• High achievers often face ongoing shame and guilt from feeling like they never do enough.

What am I seeing this week: Let me (re)Introduce myself!

So many of you are new to my network and my newsletter, so I wanted to give you some insight into the author!

I never knew what I wanted to do with my career. I moved to the Netherlands to play rugby and thought I'd become a teacher. I ended up working at a mayonnaise factory, and nothing ever settled. I was a lost soul for many years, never knowing what I should or should not do. Friends couldn't trust me as I wasn't reliable, and I seemed to be in a state of inertia, unable to explain clearly what I wanted to do. Then, I found a sales development representative role, which I was scared of doing as it was entirely out of my comfort zone. Suddenly, all the skills I had picked up from coaching rugby and teaching could be transcended into helping people solve their pains and help others. Two senior leaders, Katja and Malcolm, saw the rough potential in me and elevated my game. So began my growth from an SDR to senior leader as part of the fastest-growing SaaS company in history!

This newsletter informs and educates about the latest sales development, marketing, and revenue trends.

I’m always looking for ways to improve the newsletter, so please drop me a message if you think there are areas it can improve!

Five Questions of the Week: David Dulany

We have a very special guest today. David Dulany is the founder and CEO of Tenbound, the world's leading Sales development research and advisory service. David will share his perspective on where he sees Sales Development as a function progressing over the coming years.

Thanks for joining this week, David! What is it about the SDR world that you love??

The SDR world is an exciting, fun and youthful opportunity for people to enter the workforce and make a real contribution to their company. There's such a mixture of skill development around the people, the processes, and the technology stack where you learn something new every day, and there's a new challenge to overcome.

If they're interested in breaking into technology or getting into sales, I always recommend that people check out the sales development position. And even if they do it for a couple of years, they learn an incredible skill set that can be applied to several future positions.

What would be the main piece of advice you would give a first-time global SDR leader?

My main piece of advice would be to look at yourself as a great coach. The people coming into this position need hands-on mentorship, guidance, and support to make a significant contribution to the company and their careers.?

You cannot phone in the job or become what we call a “dashboard cowboy” “simply monitoring metrics and not adding value to the actual skill development of becoming a great SDR. Too many people get into SDR management because they've been in SDR for a few years and they're looking for career growth and to stop doing the SDR job. But the SDR job becomes even more important if you're an SDR leader because you have to demonstrate the best practices and what it takes to do a great job as an SDR so that your team can follow your lead and build credibility with them daily.?

What has been the most significant development in the SDR industry in the past three years?

I think the advent of usable artificial intelligence (AI) as applied to sales technology has created incredible opportunities for SDRs. The evolution of sales technology over the last 20 years has been at breakneck speed, and the tools available now help accelerate the process of the SDR job to an extent that it would be hard to imagine just a few years ago.?

By applying AI to the manual labour of doing the SDR job, many of the repetitive and boring aspects of the job can now be transferred to a machine. Machines are better at doing labour-intensive, repetitive work than humans. This is so they can free up the SDR’s time to be more creative and focus more on the sales skills of human interaction versus spending hours and hours digging through information. The hardest part of the SDR job is learning to communicate and persuade, which takes time and energy to perfect.?

SDR tech can be somewhat overwhelming. What would you recommend as a foundational tech stack for a newly formed SDR org??

I would look at all-in-one packages becoming more consolidated as we move forward. There have been great strides in consolidating sales technology into what Dan Gottlieb of Gartner calls the “Seller Action Hub”, essentially everything an SDR needs in one package versus a Frankenstein of point solutions.?

There are several excellent examples of this in the Tenbound Sales Technology Directory.?

In your eyes, how will the SDR function continue to evolve over the next 24 to 36 months??

I see the SDR function blending art and science and moving toward an “Ironman” model, where the human aspects of being a marvellous SDR are freed up by technology and emphasized by the seamless melding of technology, similar to Tony Stark and JARVIS. This will create an amazing amount of productivity and allow SDRs to spend less time doing repetitive manual work and more time in a creative zone. Understanding how to speak to the right prospects with the right message and move them forward in the pipeline.

As Tenbound becomes the centre of insights and intelligence about Sales Technology, we are excited to see this future!

Check out our back issues!

We have over 20 editions of the newsletter already! Check them out here!!

And Finally!

I was on the internet last week (as you do) and I stumbled upon this really interesting post by Dariia Gerasymova from LeadOtter. The team at LeadOtter was able to provide a list of over 2000 companies with open job roles. The original post is here. I was really fascinated and asked Dariia to share a little bit more about how the LeadOtter team could source this with the newsletter!

Trigger-Based Lead Generation with LeadsOtter (hiring signals)

LeadsOtter is changing the game in cold outreach by providing hiring intent data.?

Trigger-based outreach: what’s it??

LeadsOtter specializes in trigger-based cold outreach, leveraging hiring signals to identify potential leads. This method is not just about reaching out to prospects; it's about reaching out at the right time (as you know, they are hiring!). When a company starts looking for new hires, it often signals growth, change, or new needs—an ideal moment for introducing your service or product.

Global hiring monitoring system

At the heart of LeadsOtter's effectiveness is a powerful monitoring system that scans over 140,000 job boards across 67 countries, operating 24/7. This extensive coverage ensures that no hiring signal goes unnoticed, no matter where it comes from. Whether it’s a startup in Silicon Valley or a tech giant in Tokyo, it will be defined if they hire an X role.