SDRs - Reclaim Your Music!

Brought to you by Jody Geiger, Jenna Bugiardini and Klue

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Much like Taylor Swift's audacious move to regain control over her art with "Taylor's Version," Sales Development Reps (SDRs) today stand at a pivotal juncture. The market is flooded with re-mixed tracks of impersonal outreach tools, akin to the corporate entities overshadowing original music. The problem isn’t the tools themselves, but how they are being used. The true essence of sales development isn't in robotic, spam-like persistence; it's in the human touch, the ability to understand and connect. Just as Swift brought back authenticity by re-recording her classics, SDRs must reclaim the magic of their role, championing genuine interactions over automated bombardment. In this era of sales, the true 'hit' is the SDR's innate creativity, intuition, and ability to strike a chord with their audience.

For current SDRs and AEs looking to succeed in this evolving landscape, the focus should be on evolving their mindset and increasing their confidence. They must believe they are valuable. Personalized outreach offering a unique point of view while demonstrating acumen on the industries and personas they serve will make them stand out.

Let’s turn to the experts for tips on what is working today in developing mindset, a POV and tactics to try.

MINDSET

You are a salesperson, OWN it! Featuring: Jason Bay and Michael Neme

Link to Original Voice: Cold Calling Executives with Michael Neme

Key Quote: “look do you really not have time or do you just want to talk to me because I’m a salesperson?”

Takeaways:

• When you’re cold calling, be human and own that you are a salesperson. Don’t try to be anything you are not on the phone because the person on the other end is also a human.?
• You’ve got nothing to lose by making the call.

Experimenting at Klue:

• We coach our team to own the fact that they are making a cold call.?
• “Yes, this is a cold call…how about I take 1 minute of your time to tell you why I’ve called and if I’ve missed the mark I’ll hang up on myself?”.

Practice: how to gain clarity from experience. Featuring: Scott Ingram , Luke Floyd and Sarah Brazier

Link to Original Voice: Sales Success Stories

Key Quote: Your “internal noise hasn’t yet been qualified by the clarity of experience.”

Takeaways:?

• People are telling folks the tactical things to do in prospecting but if you don’t have the right habits and mindset to make the tactics happen or actually take the time to practice them, you won’t get it.
• You have to learn the why and how of tactics and then you have to try them, again and again. You need to get some cycles under you before you understand why it matters and why the tactic should be executed the way it should.
• As you practice and get feedback, listen to your own body. You have to internalize the process and make it your own. That is ownership.
• Doing this gives you the clarity of experience over time.

Experimenting at Klue:

• We are testing out a tool called SecondBody ?? to help our reps learn by stepping into the shoes of our highest-performers. It is a space to practice and be coached on tactics and to get the cycles needed to gain the clarity that comes from experience.

Striking a chord while prospecting has never been easier thanks to AI-driven efficiency in lower-level engagement tasks. SDRs now have time to become experts in the industries and personas they sell into. If prospecting takes less manual time and expertise and acumen is valued, some might wonder, why not revert to the traditional full-cycle Account Executives (AE)? While there's allure in the classic hits, remember the challenges that birthed the SDR role in the first place. Realistically an AE can create only ~35% of their required pipe while effectively owning later stage deal activities.

DEVELOPING A POV

Multichannel prospecting. Featuring: 30 Minutes to President's Club and Vin Matano ??

Link to Original Voice: Energize your Prospecting

Quote: “If I get to the point where I need to use a template that’s when I know to stop reaching out”

Takeaways:

• Research as much as possible to become an industry expert (look for 10ks, podcasts) and leverage it in your outreach.?
• If you don’t have anything valuable to say in your emails that's your cue to stop reaching out.

Experimenting at Klue:

• We are huge believers in personalization. Our team’s creative outreach to formulate a POV that is relevant and specific is often referenced in reasons we win deals during external win-loss interviews.
• It takes time, but it pays off.

Give your prospects a reason to care. Featuring: Will Aitken

Link to Original Voice: Make it About your Prospect

Quote: “No pain point = no reason to care. Highlight a big, bad thing that is either happening or could happen if they continue doing things the way they are today without a solution. People are more likely to take action to avoid loss.”

Takeaways:

• Drop your self-serving, biased messaging.?
• Before you can get your prospect to validate their problem, make a guess at it with a POV on problems they face (use problems that you know people like them are facing).?
• Avoid talking about “my products, its benefits, and its positive outcomes”.

Experimenting at Klue:

• We are leaning into Will’s advice of “No pain point = no reason to care” and diagnosing an unknown risk to pipe that is causing pain: losing revenue to competitors unnecessarily.
• Our own example from Klue:When you run a revenue team, you are always working towards closing the gap between your quota and attainment. Klue knows the easiest lever to pull is solving your Competitive Revenue Gap (CRG).?Many revenue leaders don’t realize how much of their pipe is being taken by competitors. Deals you were counting on that bought something else. Ouch.

In a world where buyers prefer organic recommendations over commercial playlists, executives are turning to trusted peers for tool recommendations and are conducting independent research. It is critical that SDRs focus on higher-quality original work. Building real connections isn't a solo gig. It requires a band—SDRs harmonizing with their own company's executives and influencers to create meaningful dialogues that not only catch attention but also sustain it.

TACTICS

8 Cold Call Openers (that actually work). Featuring: Mike Gallardo

Link to Original Voice: Cold Call Openers

Quote: “Jill, this is Mike, I know you didn’t expect me to call this afternoon. Do you mind if I take one minute to tell you why I called specifically”

Takeaways:

• 3 types of cold call openers: Permission-based, context-based and humor-based.
• Each person is going to have their own style that can fit into one of these buckets.

Experimenting at Klue:

• We have a repository of cold call openers that our team tries and tests. Typically with new reps, they test them all out to see what fits best for their own personal style.

Shadowing to learn: Featuring: Florin Tatulea

Link to Original Voice: Learn Through Shadowing

Quote: “I'm convinced that learning through shadowing is the absolute best way to onboard and train SDRs…Having personally onboarded over 50 SDRs, I've noticed that the biggest blocker to a quick ramp time is in the nuances of prospecting workflows.”

Takeaways:

• Top reps are more efficient at researching, more comfortable adapting their messaging, and understand their sales engagement tools better.
• Recommend recording videos that walk you through the why and how of the work and then be surrounded by peers and managers who are doing the work and who can provide feedback or answer questions.

Experimenting at Klue:

• We are working to create more work together moments in a hybrid-remote environment including workshops and enablement with cross-departmental revenue teams. We are creating shadowing opportunities within our onboarding process as well as ongoing learning and deal coaching. We have played with peer-coaching-triangles as well as deal triangles. Selling as a team means asking yourself who can you bring into your deal to help you see around corners and serve this specific customer best.?

As we continue to navigate this shift, we'll keep you updated. See ya next month!