SDR is dead. Long live the SDR.

All the talk about the future of the Sales Development Representative (SDR) made me want to do some digging and lay down a little history of the role and how so many of us got to where we are today (dead, apparently) and where the future may lie. I dug out copies of Tech Powered Sales and some the (brilliant) SaaS Blueprint books to fill in some blanks for myself - and for you.

The Early 2000s: The Birth of the SDR

Early noughties. Shaggy was telling us it wasn't him and Britney had realised she'd done it again. The dot.com bubble had burst but companies like Oracle and Salesforce were selling "Low cost infrastructure software sold on a perpetual basis with upgrade protection." causing the spawn of the SDR role - Kenny Madden (quoted in TechPowered Sales by Tony J. Hughes and Justin Michael ? )

This period marked the beginning of a new era - post dot.com boom/burst, with companies recognizing the need for specialized roles to drive revenue growth.

2011: The "Predictable Revenue" Era

Fast forward to 2011, when Aaron Ross's book "Predictable Revenue" hit the shelves. Groundbreaking on it's release, it further popularized the concept of specialization and the SDR role. However, as Tech-Powered Sales points out, some people misinterpreted the book's message: "Aaron Ross's fantastic book got confused with a linear 'Christmas trees cause Christmas' problem. Put a thousand dials in and get one sale. Therefore two thousand dials equals two sales." It helped cement the role but set up a model that wouldn't last when thousands of orgs jumped on the idea of scale in a way it maybe wasn't intended.

2013-2014: The Advent of Sales Engagement Platforms

SDRs got turbo-charged with platforms like Outreach, Salesloft, Groove, and XANT. Now the volume game had more structure. Shout to Tony and Justin here for predicting "the category will continue to proliferate before consolidating." - something we're seeing huge waves in currently. These platforms empowered SDRs to automate and optimize their outreach efforts, increasing efficiency and effectiveness in leadgen and appointment setting. They also led to an increase in what's now referred to as the 'spam cannon' - SDRs could automate quantity, but SEPs didn't address quality. Leading to......

2017: A Shift in Buyer Behavior

Forrester highlighted a significant shift in buyer behaviour in 2017, showing an increasing buyer preference to not meet with sales reps in person (20%) - by 2020 this was as high as one in three. On the one had this played into SDRs hands but on the other, the spam cannons were steadily repelling buyers and making outreach harder. The result was an increase in multichannel approaches and providing value and insights to prospects, leaning into buyer's engaging on their own terms.

2020: COVID

COVID sunk any hope of buyers meeting sellers face-to-face for the foreseeable, and accelerated the digital transformation of sales. "Seventy-five percent of buyers no longer see the value of interacting in-person with salespeople. My company's research and discussions with B2B sales leaders show the following: Buyers want an automated demo in lieu of a demo by a sales rep" said Tony Hughes. For SDRs this meant prospecting changed as everyone was working from home, inboxes were flooded even more, and many companies failed to adapt to remote working.

2020-2021: The Visual Era

With the increase in inbox spam, SDRs needed to stand out. How? Gifs, whiteboards with prospect's names on them, and 1:1 or 1:many video messages. "Instead of writing down long emails, leverage the power of video. Although video is a powerful visual aid, you should not use it like a SPAM email – make sure it is still relevant to your customer, and not just a pitch." say ?? Jacco van der Kooij and Dominique Levin in The SaaS Sales Method Fundamentals. Visuals are still an under-leveraged aspect of outreach to this day but in an era of HD camera phones, it's still a standout way to capture attention.

2024 and Beyond

Looking ahead it's clear that digital interactions will dominate. The Future of Sales predicts, "By 2025, 80% of interactions buyers will have with salespeople and their companies will be digital. In most cases, the first interaction will be digital". SDRs will need to focus on establishing themselves as trusted advisors and thought leaders within their industry to truly stick out - particularly against the incoming AI revolution.

We might not be at the singularity just yet, but the SDR role is evolving for sure.

Next up, what's next for the SDR.........