Top 5 Things to Know When Creating an SDR / BDR Organisation
Tom Flowers ??
ADP | Global Sales, Business Development, Leadership, Strategy, Operations and Transformation
Business Sales Development is not new. I started leading BDR (also known as SDR) teams back in 2009.
Many competitors have consistently struggled to get it right, making unfounded big changes to the setup, locating the team in the wrong part of the business or under the wrong leaders, and not ever being fully comfortable with having 'non-closers' in the Sales Org.
However, those that have made it work (think Salesforce.com for example) are now reaping the benefits of the monumental pipeline growth that can be gained with a team focused on exactly that task..growing pipeline!
Below are 5 Top Things to consider with your BDR team;
1. COMMIT TO THE CAUSE
Clearly define roles and goals
Many bootstrapped companies wait too long to launch a BDR program because they’re hesitant to hire a non-quota carrying headcount. When they do take the leap, they hedge on the investment by having their first BDRs also sell, upsell and cross-sell.
This hybrid structure may help justify the cost in your mind, but it can lead to confusion around goals and responsibilities. Further, it can delay your ability to develop a true BDR team that can make your closers more effective.
When you decide to launch your BDR team, commit to building a true BD function.
Define the Goals of the Function
Be clear about what you are trying to accomplish with your BD Organisation. Are you trying to create a new channel to generate new leads? Is your goal to more efficiently qualify leads flowing in from marketing? Are you prospecting into your customer base to identify expansion opportunities?
Decisions about whom you hire, how you compensate, and how you measure success will cascade from the objectives you set for your BDR program, so don’t skip this step.
Define the Goals of the BDRs
Once you’ve committed, develop goals to measure your BDRs’ performance.
There are two pitfalls I have seen in this step that I recommend you avoid:
Better options for measuring BDR performance include: Sales Accepted Leads (SALs) and/or Opportunities Created, and Pipeline Value Creation. These goals not only help keep BDR teams focused on near-term results, but also keep the team accountable for the quality of the leads they are generating or passing on to the sales team.
2 : HIRE AND TRAIN THE BEST TALENT
The BDR role can be a challenging hire because many BDRs are early in their career or fresh out of college, meaning they have little in the way of a performance track record. As a result, many successful managers hire BDRs based on character traits rather than experience.
Traits most correlated with success include:
Of course, it helps ramp-up results to hire sales experience, but don’t get way-laid looking for a BDR who has sold software. Instead, look for people with competitive drive or natural sales talent.
Hire Teams
Many companies hire a single BDR to “run a pilot.” The risk you take with this approach is that you may get a false positive or false negative and not learn anything to inform future hires. A/B testing is as critical for the BDR function as it is for any channel.
Additionally, hiring in teams allows you to create a competitive dynamic that should drive results. A single BDR will provide you only a single data point on “the right” level of activity and results whereas two BDRs provide multiple data points from individuals pushing each other to perform.
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Onboarding
Because you’re emphasising aptitude over experience, your training needs to be dependable. Comprehensive, yet focused training is essential for getting the desired results from your BDR team.
Example onboarding process and schedule, Weeks 1 – 6:
3: SCALE-ABLE STRUCTURE
As you ramp up your BDR program, the structure of your sales team will evolve. You will hit critical milestones along the way, some of which will require making decisions and changes.
Here are some key decisions and recommendations along the path to scale:
4: MANAGE METRICS
As with most functions, the success of a BDR team, or an individual BDR, is measured in activities and results.
My preferred Key Metrics for success:
Targets for these benchmarks will vary based on a number of factors, including the products being sold, brand awareness, the quality of the contact database, and the prospecting approach.
I have found that making these metrics monthly rather than quarterly or yearly targeted keeps the best momentum and activity focus, and commission paid monthly enables fast reward for achievement.
5: CREATE CAMPAIGNS
A common downfall seen in new BDR teams is a failure to coordinate efforts with best practices being repeated or shared across Business Units or Regions.
Here are three ways you can organise your BDR team’s efforts:
BDR outreach becomes exponentially more effective when it’s focused on specific themes and targeted audiences and coordinated with wider business efforts.
DO NOT DELAY!
While BDR teams may at first seem like additional overhead and costs, they can ultimately increase the ROI on the significant investments you’ve made in your sales team, and professionally prospect, whilst your higher-cost sales personnel professionally sell to close.
Get to it!
Let me know your thoughts...
Tom Flowers
Head of Business Development - Furza
1 年Interesting read Tom and I agree with all your points, particularly around the importance of onboarding and training when hiring based on aptitude over experience
Vice President Sales EMEA - growing revenue, market share and sales productivity by building and improving sales teams.
1 年Great article Tom. Keep up the good work!
ADP | Global Sales, Business Development, Leadership, Strategy, Operations and Transformation
1 年Over 50 article readers within a few hours of posting.. im pleased this is a topic many people are interested in!
Sales Development Manager @ ADP | Sales Leadership, Sales Growth, Demand Generation
1 年Great summary of what it takes to start right a Sales Dev Org!