SDR Trends - Future of Biz-Dev Funnel
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SDR Trends - Future of Biz-Dev Funnel

TOPO does highly credible research in the area of all things business-to-business (B2B) selling. They recently issued their latest report on sales development and it highlights that the average SDR (sales development rep / inside sales role for inbound and/or outbound lead-generation) is in their job for less than 18 months and takes 90-120 days to get up to speed. Lack of sales pipeline is a huge issues for every organization... so what do we need to know to drive better results?

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Here are three quotes from the report that stood out for me.

  • SDRs are the most significant pipeline drivers in world-class companies. SDRs generate $415K in pipeline per month, on average, and 57% of overall pipeline.
  • Chat will be the next “table stakes” SDR channel, with AI bots soon to follow. Today, 25% of respondents cited chat as a channel, and early TOPO buying indicators predict the number will increase by at least 50% in 2019, moving closer to becoming a standard for inbound SDR follow-up. 
  • Artificial intelligence is slowly becoming a reality in the SDR tech stacks, with 8% using AI-driven email tools. This number will increase slowly in 2019, with 2020 being a likely launch point for significant bot adoption, particularly around straightforward and non-mission-critical touch patterns.

SDRs may generate 57% of a company's sales pipeline but Account Executives (all senior field-based sellers) need to create 70% of their own... they need to be their own SDR finding ways to break into the C-suite for meetings that open opportunities. This is because SDRs struggle to carry conversation at senior levels and senior field sellers need to elevate engagement themselves to anchor the customer's business case for change or increased investment to improve results.

The other important thing for everyone to be aware of is that automation and AI is radically changing everything. If you want two examples, have a look at www.Triggr.ai for automated trigger event monitoring and outbound; and TrustSphere.com for automated relationship analytics revealing the power-base and nodes in influence human networks.

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Justin Michael is the #1 real world sales development genius and his 2018 article remains cutting edge yet timelessly true today. He believes in "a return to innocence. A return to just, well, sales. Acronyms fall away: SD-this, AE-that, ABM the other thing. No need. Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication per Da Vinci." Justin explains intelligent sales automation for trigger events and personalization. Read it here.

The debate of humans versus technology is relevant when considering the 'transaction of commodities', but it's a false dichotomy when it comes to complex enterprise selling where humans AND machines are the key to unlocking value and creating success.

CRM technology enabling sales pipeline creation is the future and this quote from Tomasz Tunguz is amazingly insightful. "The startup that disrupts Salesforce will be worth much much more because instead of simply recording leads and sales, the next CRM will create business for its customers leveraging social proof. It won’t be enough for a CRM to inform a salesperson which potential customer to call the way Salesforce’s task list operates today. This new CRM will scour the web to find potential customers, discover points of social proof with potential customers increasing close rates and finally record the transactions in the system. Today, Salesforce only solves the last problem, which is by far the least valuable of the three."

Back to the TOPO report... There was one comment I disagree with: "LinkedIn has the potential to become the top outbound channel. GPDR and cluttered inboxes are forcing SDR teams to increase usage of LinkedIn. The triple touch (phone, email, LinkedIn) has been widely used for the last 4-5 years. Now usage is increasing, with 42% of respondents reporting between 2-5 LinkedIn touches in their touch patterns. Faced with strict enforcement of email and phone restrictions, European SDR teams are largely adopting LinkedIn, with some SDRs reporting LinkedIn as their only outbound channel."

In my experience, Behind the fa?ade of LinkedIn, actual engagement is decreasing with leaders and buyers regarding the platform as the spammy domain of recruiters and sellers. A CEO recently described LinkedIn to me as “the world’s biggest spam generation machine” that clogs his mental in-box’. He told me that he resents the time LinkedIn consumes as he seeks to identify the small amount content and communication he regards as being of genuine value.

The best SDR's are orchestrators of tools and designers of automation for targeting and personalising outreach in digital channels, combined with getting back on the phone... the channel so many are neglecting.

What are your thoughts on driving effective sales pipeline creation?

Thanks for reading and I discuss what it takes to succeed in sales today in my book, COMBO Prospecting, published by HarperCollins and The American Management Association and you can purchase it here on Amazon. If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' button and also share via your Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Facebook social media platforms. I encourage you to join the conversation or ask questions so feel free to add a comment. Please also follow my LinkedIn post page for all my articles and you can find out more on me at www.TonyHughes.com.au and RSVPselling.com.

Martin E. Stevens

Hate cold calling? Meeting the wrong people? Can't attract big customers? All of our customers agreed with at least one of these, but if you said no to all three, we won't be doing business together.

5 年

It's fascinating to wonder where we're going as an industry and I'm still not sure if?Justin's amazing article suggests dystopia or utopia is more likely. But your article highlights something almost as scary - what we've created along the way; SDR teams who run their outbound campaigns exclusively on Linked In is just mad. But that kind of thinking has obviously contributed to something else I'd not considered - that Linked In is fast becoming the world's largest spam-generator (or maybe we have Gary V's idea to create 100 pieces of content per day to thank for that)?! One of your other observations also hit home - I've often thought of Linked In as a type of university for sales people - but that won't continue if the voices we learn from continue to drowned out by pointless videos shot in people's cars, connect and pitch merchants or advertisers dressed in teachers clothing. My final thought when reading your article was immediately reinforced by Justin's article - will there be any point in SDR's soon? If they're too junior to have senior level conversations and they're too expensive (when compared to AI) to speak to prospects in transactional sales - why bother with them? I suspect the one group of people whom you didn't focus on - our customers - will ultimately answer that question for us. Thanks for writing an article that's really got my mind racing to begin the week Tony J. Hughes, it's much appreciated (and unfortunate that there will by rather less of us that can appreciate it than there used to be).

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