SDRs are Undervalued - Negatively Impacting B2B Business

I've seen it over and over...B2B tech companies have a flawed philosophy around the SDR (Sales Development Rep) function: they hire entry-level candidates, keep the salaries low, provide minimal training and then expect them to prospect and qualify 85% - 100% of the business pipeline.

Does that make sense to you? Same here. This is why I felt compelled to discuss and hopefully help organizations value, enable and support these teams more in the future. So many will win if it's taken seriously.

Why They're Heroes

SDRs get lost in the shuffle, almost like the younger child. Marketing and Sales are the older siblings, pushing them around...but also pulling them in to do their bidding when needed.

Marketing needs the SDR to process and qualify all marketing leads and adjust their interactions based on the campaign type and audience profile. It's harder for SDRs to be effective if they aren't included in the campaign and content planning conversations, prior to the launch of the campaign. Without advanced insights, the SDR is left to figure it out on their own. This can delay the lead lifecycle and increase disqualification rates. Most importantly, the lack of inclusion with marketing, inhibits SDRs from giving effective input on what campaigns are working and driving the best leads.

I've often seen campaign channels with significant budget allocated, but the closed/lost and disqualification rates on those channels are high at 85%-100%. This isn't the SDRs fault, this is a collective responsibility from marketing, the need to establish enablement and a feedback loop with the SDRs and Sales on the quality of leads - and fix it. I've updated lead scoring and persona targets on a quarterly basis due to the tight relationship and feedback loop with SDRs, allowing me to quickly optimize programs.

Sales needs SDRs to prospect, qualify, set meetings, drive pipeline and revive dormant leads. Without a tight connection and clear rules of engagement between SDRs and their sales reps, it's guaranteed the relationship will be strained and SDRs will fail. It's important for SDRs to be enabled with; criteria/requirements the sales rep needs to accept an opportunity. This removes the guess work and decreases disqualification rates. In addition, SDRs should have regular meetings with their sales reps to discuss the pipeline, and gain insights into what campaigns and personas are driving the highest value closed/won deals.

A gap that needs to be filled at the marketing and sales level - is enabling SDRs to be included in discussions beyond the meeting and pipeline number. I've seen confusion and defeat on SDRs' faces when we discuss goals and share that we met 100% of pipeline goals - but only 35% of revenue goals. Businesses can't grow from pipeline alone - revenue is first and then it's a discussion of how much pipeline that SDR has to drive to deliver on the revenue goal.

Hiring

Bringing in entry-level candidates is fine, but make sure there's training and a proper onboarding process in place to ensure they're successful.

Training should include full walkthrough of the product, audience targets, messaging architecture and buyer journey. You should also provide continued training on the tech stack, audience targets and processes as things are constantly evolving. Help them continue to learn and grow with the organization.

Onboarding should include steps, tasks, documents to review, people to meet and their KPIs. Often, SDRs will be working for two months and still don't have clear insight into their comp plans and rep assignments or expectations. Most importantly, their comp plans must be aligned with the sales KPIs so they are a team and working toward the same goals.

Without these tools in place, your SDRs will struggle and start to feel demotivated. As a result, they won't meet their goals and they will leave. Turnover is high in these environments and often chalked up to "they just couldn't handle the work". This is simply not true.

A great resource to use to get your SDR teams up to speed and enabled quickly is the company ClozeLoop.com. The productivity levels of my SDR teams have increased 50%+ after working with ClozeLoop.

Retention

Understanding the candidates motivation for coming onboard as an SDR is critical to ensure you're keeping your talent and scaling your business. I've experienced three types of SDR candidates:

1. Wants to work for a tech company: without professional experience, being an SDR is typically the gateway to getting into the tech space. Most candidates are fresh out of school and not sure what they want to do as a career yet or they've worked in retail or a service function and want to transition to a professional career. There's the cache around working for a tech company and that's the primary motivation.

Working with them to support their career paths is important. It may come as a surprise, but not all SDRs want to become a Sales Rep. Help them find their calling...I've had SDRs on my team become Team Leads, Marketing Ops Specialists, Solution Engineers, the list - beyond Sales, goes on.

It is possible to to retain them long-term as an SDR and beyond. These candidates will require more resources and hands-on management time to get them up to speed and trained in business acumen.

2. Wants to become a sales rep: They've most likely had some SDR or commercial sales expertise and have to pay their dues as an SDR in this org to get to the coveted, lucrative sales exec role.

It will be hard to retain them long-term as an SDR is low. Hands-on management may not be as intense, but keeping them engaged and excited about what they're currently doing is key. Often, the focus will be 'how do I get to become an AE?' and if there's no progression plan in place for them to follow with milestones, you'll lose them.

3. Enjoys the SDR function: believe it or not, there are people who enjoy the function and process of being and SDR. Again, there's this perception that the SDR function is not as valuable to an organization and it's wrong.

It will be relatively easy to retain them long-term. But only if the organization invests in them, highlights their contributions, and builds a career path that keeps them inspired, feeling successful and valued. Opportunities could be;

• making them a Team Lead,

• moving them to handle only Strategic Accounts,

• increasing their variable percentage, giving them spiff bonuses.

Fair Pay

Paying SDRs fairly and based on their function is important as well. There should be at least two sets of salary bands for your SDRs, especially for organizations trying to grow from SMB to Enterprise level deals.

There always seems to be pushback in budgeting for SDRs and then there's confusion on why companies can't retain them.

SDR Band 1

This is a 3-tier range that should be set for entry-level, beginning teams in the SDR function. Experience could be from 0-18 months and are often assigned to SMB, Mid-Market reps as the prospects are more transactional, the learning curve is quicker.

SDR Band 2

This is a 3-tier range that should be established for SDRs who have experience in this role, include considerations of expertise within the Enterprise space.

All in all, SDRs are assets to any organization and should be valued, supported, included and invested in.