Why are Tech companies phasing out AE/SDR roles in favour of Integrated Sales?

A growing number of tech companies are reshaping their sales team and eliminating the Sales Development Rep and Account Executive positions.

It turns out that hiring graduates in large numbers and throwing them into the deep end is a terrible strategy.

Let's break this down:

?? Starting with entry-level sales reps (SDRs):

In many cases, these are filled by recent graduates who initiate conversations with prospects on a company's behalf, with the goal of setting up meetings for more senior team members.

These poor souls don't even know what lawyers do, yet have to call Managing Partners and somehow convince them to meet.

While they might book some meetings, in most cases they are burning contacts, getting blocked and undoing any goodwill gained by marketing efforts.

The meetings that do get booked, rarely close. If we are being honest, it's typically less than 10%.

The few that do close take months and place a significant burden on resources, affecting customer acquisition costs.

?? Account Executives are also at risk:

Many of them lack prior sales experience and were confined to cold calls and emails in their previous role. By the time they reach the Account Executive level, they want to focus on pipeline management and closing deals.

Other Account Executives switch industries frequently, failing to cultivate expertise or build deep networks. This results in prolonged onboarding periods and delays in bringing revenue into the business.

Currently, there is a need in the market for subject matter experts with extensive networks, especially within LegalTech.

Successful Account Executives in LegalTech behave more like commercial directors in their approach, knowledge, and intensity.

So, what's the solution?

Best practices are gradually emerging, and they look something like this:

?? Integration of the commercial team:

Sales, marketing, customer success, and partnerships work collaboratively rather than existing as separate entities:

• Hold commercial team meetings at least once a month.
• Have marketing and sales work together to map out competitors, define ideal customers, align messaging, and conduct account-based marketing.
• Encourage customer success and marketing collaboration to improve brand awareness, enhance Google reviews, set up events and much more.
• Ensure all these departments use a centralised tool for CRM and knowledge hub.

?? Creating and capturing inbound demand:

• Place a huge emphasis on generating inbound demand through events, account-based marketing, articles, advertisements, and other strategies.
• Organic (non-paid) inbound leads are the best type, as they close quickly, have high conversion rates, and result in good CAC.
• Brand awareness creates a sense of trust and credibility, making it easier for BD managers to convert interest/demand into sales.
• Founders and subject matter experts in the company should regularly give talks, write articles, post on LinkedIn, and generate buzz around the topic

?? Sales/BD Managers replacing AEs/SDRs:

• Greater focus on business development by building long-term relationships with ICPs.
• They proactively open new doors, pitch to network groups, attend events, and become subject matter experts.
• Handling the full sales cycle (cold calls, discoveries, demos, pricing, negotiations, client care, referrals, testimonials, upselling).

?? Building referral schemes with business partners:

• Leads from these sources are far more effective than SDR-generated outbound leads, with conversion rates exceeding 50%.
• This is also important for finding integration partners.
• Belonging to an ecosystem is crucial for the success of any LegalTech company.
• Most law firms build their tech stack around practice management software, benefiting from plugins, integrations, and an established ecosystem.
• Even if your product doesn't require integrations, you can still leverage the credibility and trust of another vendor.

As always, let me know your thoughts!