Getting the Job
Present: Show that you can excel on the job today, that you will be fun to work with, that you are passionate about the company, and that you are trainable.
Future: Demonstrate how you will integrate with the team and contribute to the company’s growth. Show the qualities which will make you a future leader.
Sales Strategy
Adherence : Follow the process so that management has a means by which to evaluate its effectiveness. Even if it’s uncomfortable at first, it’s important that you fall in line.
Individual Growth : Demonstrate an ability to apply the concepts of your sales methodology, which will make you a better salesperson.
Predictable Metrics : Demonstrate a consistent ability to convert leads to qualified opportunities. Predictability helps ensure accurate sales forecasting, which is a top priority for sales leadership.
The Buyer
Posture and Relevance : Speak with prospects as if you are a peer, and do not rely on them to teach you the basics of their role.
Conversions : Use relevant messaging and customer success stories to avoid losing good leads.
The Market
Understand the Competition : Position your product for success against alternatives, know when to disqualify, and effectively manage a discussion about the competition .
Focus on Winners : Optimize your time by spending most of it focused on the best prospects, and disqualify losers fast.
ABS Strategy : Know who to target, when, with what message, and through which channels when prospecting into large accounts.
Your Product
Storytelling : Learn to tell specific stories about how your product solved someone else’s problem. Prospects don’t care about your features.
Scheduled Meetings : Find pain that the product can solve, then define the value of scheduling a meeting with the AE.
Working with Account Executives
Relationships: Whether in a round robin or paired system, develop productive and performing relationships with AEs. No one wants to manage a prima donna, arbitrate petty arguments, or endure finger-pointing.
Consistency: Produce results. Consistently. Wild vacillations in activity, productivity, or results demonstrate immaturity in the role.
Held Meetings: Hold prospects accountable to their commitments, and anticipate flakiness. When prospects fail to show for a meeting, it is costly and leads to missed goals.
Quality : Any executive in your company should be able to stand behind the emails you send. Think through your sequences from the perspective of the buyer and be aware of timing.
Results : Continue to calibrate your email activity until the use of email leads to the expected number of sales opportunities created. Then, don’t take your eye off of the metrics—changes can happen quickly.
Alignment : Ensure that your email efforts align with the messaging and cadence goals of the marketing team, as well as the AEs you support.
Phone
Conversions: Convert conversations, whether inbound or outbound, into qualified opportunities for your AE.
Call Mechanics: Demonstrate an ability to have natural conversation devoid of robotic qualification checklists, words like “great,” “cool,” “awesome,” “totally,” “definitely,” or “absolutely,” and tone-deaf responses to pain statements. If you are using a script, master it so that prospects are none the wiser.
Social Media
Brand: Maintain consistent messaging, so there is no doubt about what your company does and how it helps customers.
Reach: Maximize the number of people in your target market who know about your company.
Responsibility: Post responsibly as though you are representing your company on a highway billboard. You are a reflection of your company
Conversion : Turn social touches into qualified opportunities. Your job is to pass good leads to your AE…not become a social media star.
Other Prospecting Tactics
Building Pipeline : Constantly source leads. Without leads, there is no revenue. Without revenue, there is no company.
Smart Experiments : Identify prospecting experiments that might have impactful results. Be creative and be prepared to support your assumptions, defend a budget, and execute on a plan. However, don’t get discouraged if you are sent back to the drawing board.
Efficiency : Demonstrate your ability to optimize every channel. Referrals are a great example of how to produce stronger results with potentially low-hanging fruit.
Objection Handling
Objection Handling : Demonstrate an ability to turn objections into opportunities to explore how your product might be a good fit. Engage in challenging conversations and learn from them, instead of bailing out when the going gets tough.
Collaboration : Be a contributor to the team’s knowledge base. Whether through a formal system or technology, or in meetings and casual conversation, be sure that you increase overall team efficiency by sharing what’s working and what isn’t.
Tools
Technology Utilization : Learn to effectively leverage technology to create process efficiency around the things you are already doing well. Automation for automation’s sake is a recipe for disaster.
Quality : Ensure that every touch with a prospect provides a competent and positive experience. Even those who are not going to buy from you will either become critics or evangelists of your message and process.
Time Management
Impact : Ensure that what you spend time on is designed to optimize your impact on current team goals. If you don’t know… ask.
Employee Retention : Demonstrate an ability to manage stress, execute on goals, and be a positive force on your team. Management wants top performers to stay and grow, not leave because of stress, failure, or burn-out.
Core SDR Skills
Productivity : Consistently keep AE calendars full of meetings with quality leads. Period.
Administrative Efficiency : Log good discovery notes, apply standard qualification criteria, and and document strong next steps to eliminate inefficient activity in the sales process.
Pipeline Acceleration : Demonstrate responsibility for the top of the sales funnel. Without consistency in your role, a bottleneck develops in the sales process, which prevents acceleration down the line. The pace and volume of leads converted to opportunities is the difference between driving a Porsche on the open road and a Winnebago through the mountains.
General Skills
Leadership : Leadership is not a function of job title. Ensure that you demonstrate leadership by building and practicing the skills that lead to collaboration, professional growth, teamwork, and self-reflection
Working with Other Departments
Sales Enablement Ecosystem : Do your part to ensure that a prospect-centric mindset extends throughout each department in your organization. Formally and informally, letting colleagues know when something they have done or created is having an impact will bear fruit for the organization and your professional relationships.
What Does My Manager Do?
Alignment: Demonstrate that you are working toward a common goal.
Personal Development: By demonstrating accountability, executing on plans, and being committed to a process, you create a strong relationship with your manager, while also allowing your manager the bandwidth to become more effective. Their effectiveness impacts your opportunities for growth.
Mentors and Thought Leaders
Employee Development : Demonstrate that you are on track to become one of tomorrow’s leaders in your company by identifying outside resources who will be positive and supportive mentors.
Career Path
Keys to Promotion: Demonstrate realistic ambition, the ability to develop a plan with management around professional development, and execute on your measurable goals.