Why You Need to Support Development Representatives

“Why You Need to Support Development Representatives”

An Exploration, By: Nathan Sugerman - Strategic Growth Consultant - ANNUITAS

Do me a favor…

…Consider what your Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) mean to your organization.?

Consider what an SDR really is.

Yes, SDRs come in all shapes and sizes. They have even become savvy with their titles in the hope of straying away from the negative connotations that prospects associate with a “salesperson”.

We now have Business Development Representatives, Marketing Development Representatives, Demand Development Representatives… and the list goes on into the never ending abyss that is the Business to Business (B2B) environment.

Our strategy team at ANNUITAS hears it all the time:?

“I need better SDRs!”

“I have too many Account Executives (AEs), and not enough SDRs!!”

“I need my SDRs to actually qualify before bringing prospects to meetings!!!”

Yet, and please do me the courtesy of hearing me out on this, what if we are looking at it all wrong?

SDRs, as much as they are seen as sales representatives, are in truth Support Development Representatives!

No need to take it from me alone, the wonderful folks at McKinsey in their take on the B2B digital inflection point note that:

“The sharp rise in the use of digital and self-service channels means that companies need to be thoughtful not only about how to enable effective digital interactions but also about how to deploy their sales reps to best effect.?

Re-orchestrating the customer experience and the accompanying sales processes across channels should be at the top of the list for sales leaders…

So should determining how best to deploy sales professionals across channels to help customers and provide support when it is most needed.”

Sadly, I must throw a literal ?? into the mix - industry wide the necessity of the role of the SDR is increasing at a rate that is unprecedented, but that rapid increase is not being met by internal organizational support.?

Yes,?

Please do call out that my last sentence was a significant generality. Then, once you remove yourself from those creeping thoughts that are telling you to ditch out on reading the rest of this article “because this Nathan guy clearly does not know what he is talking about - I provide loads of support to my SDR team”, compose yourself, and let me offer you a story of how receiving executive and managerial support to change my title impacted our businesses bottom-line:

12 months ago? (53 weeks, 1 day, and 1 hour ago to be exact… and yes, I do keep track of every day at this job because I cannot help but let my organization take a hold of me) I began my journey with ANNUITAS. I was a nobody.

In fact, I was such a nobody that April 5, 2021 was the first day I had ever heard the terms SDR, SaaS, and B2B. I was so much of a nobody to the ANNUITAS organization, which I now fondly and proudly call home, that I was not even a part of the organization!

As an outsourced sales representative, supporting net-new business for ANNUITAS,? I had a unique perspective and visibility into many sales and marketing organizations across industries (healthcare, finance, communications, etc.) through my employer, demandDrive.

Over my first few months at demandDrive I heard stories from colleagues and from the greater development representative community, of which there are countless, of SDRs who feel unsupported.

I heard about challenging sales processes that were not time effective and delivered little returns. I came upon situations of poor sales enablement, which were reflected in the dissemination of bad data, poorly executed technology, and lack of training and support for sales representatives. I heard about organizational misalignment and lack of marketing support. Having simultaneously joined a number of noteworthy sales and marketing communities I continued to hear the same stories over and over again on forums, in trainings, and in breakout sessions as well.?

Coupled with this, the amount of times I positioned myself as an SDR and was immediately shot down by the mere mention of sales made me want to up and quit the game altogether.?

“I am only a few months into a new career in sales.”

I said to myself,

“What could be the harm in quitting?”

Bringing these concerns to all of my friends, colleagues, managers, and mentors, it began to dawn on me that I’m more than “just an SDR”. I could become an integral part of greater organizational and institutional objectives, and in doing so align my own professional development with the business needs of my client. But, we as a sales team, as an institution set on marketing and sales alignment, could only achieve our goals if we worked in lockstep.?

From sales, to finance, to marketing,?

From C-suite all the way down to me, the lowly lonely SDR,

The best way forward is to build an environment of support, togetherness, and mutual respect.

By training with, and by extension, gaining support from those around and above us, creating an environment of trust, and keeping both professional development and a goal-mindset “top of mind”, we began to drive substantial growth and sales process improvement.

Support is a symbiotic relationship. When we began to work in lockstep at ANNUITAS, not only did we feel it, we could, and we can see it through the tracking of our goals - whether that be closing a deal, finishing a client initiative, or onboarding a new team member - it does not matter the action, project, or initiative.?

The resulting change within all team members is not only positively palpable, it is deliciously desirable, more so even then the direct deposits that deliver those undeniable dollar bills to us each and every week.

So, how did we, as an organization, get there? And, what process changes did I make to increase support and further my own impact?

The first step - remove my SDR title, of course!

Going to the drawing board to analyze the ANNUITAS methodology, our Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), and how best I could present myself in the most supportive light to our prospective customers, clients, and buyers, I suggested the idea to my senior manager and mentor.?

They accepted, bestowed upon me a title and with it a promotion (well, if I am being honest, I took the title change and ran with it as a promotion), and this simple change made the world of difference in the eyes of our prospects, clients, customers, and those individuals who I am grateful to call my colleagues.?

The title change was merely a trigger event. It collectively changed the professional paradigm of how my colleagues, mentors, and prospective clients viewed me. Executives I work closely with encouraged, and still encourage me (rigorously I might add) to translate the “boots on the ground” knowledge that make up my day to day into actionable steps that all of us can take to improve process, develop worthwhile relationships, and - in turn - generate revenue.

The voice of the SDR is the greatest asset of our net-new acquisition motion. Period. Full stop.

From perspectives of demand and revenue, making this simple change increased our scope of opportunity. From a personal standpoint, it was the first time in my life where my research and hard work made a true impact on a business's standing.?

Not only that, it dramatically impacted our ability to grow and generate new relationships, which turned into new opportunities, which are now solidified clients who will ostensibly provide us years worth of revenue as we provide them years worth of service towards transformations, optimizations, and growth.?

The commission thereafter was, and has been great.

The ability to look back and know that I and those around me achieved incredible results throughout 2021 is amazing.

But, these great, amazing feelings are nothing compared to the support I have received since the day my title changed.

In our day to day we never forget the symbiosis of managing up and managing down…we all have something to learn from one another, no matter our title, function, or position in life. Read that last bolded bit again, because that is the true definition of support. It is up to all of us to recognize the support, utilize it, and deliver it back to our colleagues in kind.?

I am speaking to you now, the SDR, or whatever you choose to title yourself, who is reading this: your impact matters. You deserve the symbiotic support that comes with representing those above you the best way you know how, and receiving that support back from senior colleagues in kind.

I am speaking to you now, the AE, SDR manager, Marketing leader, C-suite executive, or whatever you choose to title yourself: if you are not supporting your SDRs, how can you expect them to support you?

Looking for actionable steps on how to assist and reinforce your Support Development Representatives?

Well,

I am truly sorry to say it,

But you will just have to wait it out and be on the lookout for my next article where I will cover:

“Supporting Development Representatives: Actionable Steps You & Your Team Can Take To Increase Support For Your Organizations SDRs”

In the meantime, my employer and my client, demandDrive and ANNUITAS, are putting on a webinar on “The Power of Empowering your SDRs”. It’s happening tomorrow, Tuesday April 12, 2022 (2 - 3pm ET). Click this link to register!?

Not able to attend? No problem, sign up anyways and we will send you a recording after!!