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A Step by Step Guide to Building an LDR or SDR Team – Part 1
matthewsonmarketing.com
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In this two part series, I present a checklist for doing it right. I’ve worked with and set up several SDR and LDR teams over the years, supporting both inside and field sales. I’ve seen it done right and done wrong. I think I finally have the formula. Here are your first four steps. “Is your aim to better qualify leads and free up rep time for calls and meetings?” Decide on LDRs, SDRs, or Both – Your objective(s) will clarify your strategy, and help decide who to hire. The job of an LDR is to better qualify existing leads. Their focus is on handling the inbound – in other words, qualifying leads that are already coming in. The job of an SDR is to focus on outbound, namely prospecting: “I need a meeting with the person in charge of buying welding robots at Ford.” LDRs should work for marketing, as they are helping with the quality of leads marketing is generating. SDRs should work for sales, as they are working outbound, and are typically assigned to a rep or a territory. You may need both an LDR and SDR function in your company, as I have in my current role.
In this two part series, I present a checklist for doing it right. I’ve worked with and set up several SDR and LDR teams over the years, supporting both inside and field sales. I’ve seen it done right and done wrong. I think I finally have the formula. Here are your first four steps. “Or are you looking to get more meetings for reps in their assigned territories, or perhaps in their assigned account list.” Decide on LDRs, SDRs, or Both – Your objective(s) will clarify your strategy, and help decide who to hire. The job of an LDR is to better qualify existing leads. Their focus is on handling the inbound – in other words, qualifying leads that are already coming in. The job of an SDR is to focus on outbound, namely prospecting: “I need a meeting with the person in charge of buying welding robots at Ford.” LDRs should work for marketing, as they are helping with the quality of leads marketing is generating. SDRs should work for sales, as they are working outbound, and are typically assigned to a rep or a territory. You may need both an LDR and SDR function in your company, as I have in my current role.
In this two part series, I present a checklist for doing it right. I’ve worked with and set up several SDR and LDR teams over the years, supporting both inside and field sales. I’ve seen it done right and done wrong. I think I finally have the formula. Here are your first four steps. “Sounds obvious, but I’ve seen a poorly defined mandate for an SDR or LDR role cause all kinds of confusion and reduce effectiveness.” Decide on LDRs, SDRs, or Both – Your objective(s) will clarify your strategy, and help decide who to hire. The job of an LDR is to better qualify existing leads. Their focus is on handling the inbound – in other words, qualifying leads that are already coming in. The job of an SDR is to focus on outbound, namely prospecting: “I need a meeting with the person in charge of buying welding robots at Ford.” LDRs should work for marketing, as they are helping with the quality of leads marketing is generating. SDRs should work for sales, as they are working outbound, and are typically assigned to a rep or a territory. You may need both an LDR and SDR function in your company, as I have in my current role.
In this two part series, I present a checklist for doing it right. I’ve worked with and set up several SDR and LDR teams over the years, supporting both inside and field sales. I’ve seen it done right and done wrong. I think I finally have the formula. Here are your first four steps. “Be careful if you said “all of the above,” as these are very different activities that different skill sets.” Decide on LDRs, SDRs, or Both – Your objective(s) will clarify your strategy, and help decide who to hire. The job of an LDR is to better qualify existing leads. Their focus is on handling the inbound – in other words, qualifying leads that are already coming in. The job of an SDR is to focus on outbound, namely prospecting: “I need a meeting with the person in charge of buying welding robots at Ford.” LDRs should work for marketing, as they are helping with the quality of leads marketing is generating. SDRs should work for sales, as they are working outbound, and are typically assigned to a rep or a territory. You may need both an LDR and SDR function in your company, as I have in my current role.
LDRs – Decide how many qualified leads you need LDRs to convert and pass to sales. What I like to do is carve out a percentage of my overall funnel for the LDR role, say 10% of marketing qualified leads (MQLs) will come from LDRs. Further, I usually have LDRs focus on the lower quality leads that need more development, like white paper downloaders or webinar attendees. I then calculate how many MQLs are needed to make up 10%, and this is their target (In part 2, we’ll get to calculating activities (calls/emails) needed to his this number.) “Decide how many meetings your SDRs need to set to contribute the number of opportunities (sometimes called Sales Generated Leads, or SGLs) you want your SDR team to contribute.” Hire the Right Profile – Given what we’ve covered already, it’s no surprise that LDRs and SDRs can be quite different human beings. LDRs call and email people who have already expressed an interest in your product. It’s an easier (though not easy) interaction. LDRs are generally assisting and nurturing. SDRs, on the other hand, are prospecting, often cold calling. You want hunters who can handle rejection.
SDRs – Decide how many meetings your SDRs need to set to contribute the number of opportunities (sometimes called Sales Generated Leads, or SGLs) you want your SDR team to contribute. You may need to estimate a close rate, as you may have no experience with the role, and success rate will vary widely by company, as the product and buyer may be quite different. You can find some good resources, like this report from OpenView, that give industry averages you can start with. “You want hunters who can handle rejection.” Trish Bertuzzi in her book, The Sales Development Playbook, also makes a great point about differences in career aspirations. SDRs are usually considered reps in training, and most want a career in Sales. LDRs may want to move into sales, though many move on to marketing specialist roles. Trish recommends building out career paths for LDRs and SDRs, and showing new hires where they can go, even going so far as to include career path in the job specs your company posts, to show potential candidates that your company cares about their progression.
In Hiring SDRs
In this two part series, I present a checklist for doing it right. I’ve worked with and set up several SDR and LDR teams over the years, supporting both inside and field sales. I’ve seen it done right and done wrong. I think I finally have the formula. Here are your first four steps. “Sounds obvious, but I’ve seen a poorly defined mandate for an SDR or LDR role cause all kinds of confusion and reduce effectiveness.” Decide on LDRs, SDRs, or Both – Your objective(s) will clarify your strategy, and help decide who to hire. The job of an LDR is to better qualify existing leads. Their focus is on handling the inbound – in other words, qualifying leads that are already coming in. The job of an SDR is to focus on outbound, namely prospecting: “I need a meeting with the person in charge of buying welding robots at Ford.” LDRs should work for marketing, as they are helping with the quality of leads marketing is generating. SDRs should work for sales, as they are working outbound, and are typically assigned to a rep or a territory. You may need both an LDR and SDR function in your company, as I have in my current role.
In this two part series, I present a checklist for doing it right. I’ve worked with and set up several SDR and LDR teams over the years, supporting both inside and field sales. I’ve seen it done right and done wrong. I think I finally have the formula. Here are your first four steps. “So, decide on your objective.” Decide on LDRs, SDRs, or Both – Your objective(s) will clarify your strategy, and help decide who to hire. The job of an LDR is to better qualify existing leads. Their focus is on handling the inbound – in other words, qualifying leads that are already coming in. The job of an SDR is to focus on outbound, namely prospecting: “I need a meeting with the person in charge of buying welding robots at Ford.” LDRs should work for marketing, as they are helping with the quality of leads marketing is generating. SDRs should work for sales, as they are working outbound, and are typically assigned to a rep or a territory. You may need both an LDR and SDR function in your company, as I have in my current role.
In this two part series, I present a checklist for doing it right. I’ve worked with and set up several SDR and LDR teams over the years, supporting both inside and field sales. I’ve seen it done right and done wrong. I think I finally have the formula. Here are your first four steps. “Is your aim to better qualify leads and free up rep time for calls and meetings?” Decide on LDRs, SDRs, or Both – Your objective(s) will clarify your strategy, and help decide who to hire. The job of an LDR is to better qualify existing leads. Their focus is on handling the inbound – in other words, qualifying leads that are already coming in. The job of an SDR is to focus on outbound, namely prospecting: “I need a meeting with the person in charge of buying welding robots at Ford.” LDRs should work for marketing, as they are helping with the quality of leads marketing is generating. SDRs should work for sales, as they are working outbound, and are typically assigned to a rep or a territory. You may need both an LDR and SDR function in your company, as I have in my current role.
In this two part series, I present a checklist for doing it right. I’ve worked with and set up several SDR and LDR teams over the years, supporting both inside and field sales. I’ve seen it done right and done wrong. I think I finally have the formula. Here are your first four steps. “Or are you looking to get more meetings for reps in their assigned territories, or perhaps in their assigned account list.” Decide on LDRs, SDRs, or Both – Your objective(s) will clarify your strategy, and help decide who to hire. The job of an LDR is to better qualify existing leads. Their focus is on handling the inbound – in other words, qualifying leads that are already coming in. The job of an SDR is to focus on outbound, namely prospecting: “I need a meeting with the person in charge of buying welding robots at Ford.” LDRs should work for marketing, as they are helping with the quality of leads marketing is generating. SDRs should work for sales, as they are working outbound, and are typically assigned to a rep or a territory. You may need both an LDR and SDR function in your company, as I have in my current role.
In this two part series, I present a checklist for doing it right. I’ve worked with and set up several SDR and LDR teams over the years, supporting both inside and field sales. I’ve seen it done right and done wrong. I think I finally have the formula. Here are your first four steps. “Be careful if you said “all of the above,” as these are very different activities that different skill sets.” Decide on LDRs, SDRs, or Both – Your objective(s) will clarify your strategy, and help decide who to hire. The job of an LDR is to better qualify existing leads. Their focus is on handling the inbound – in other words, qualifying leads that are already coming in. The job of an SDR is to focus on outbound, namely prospecting: “I need a meeting with the person in charge of buying welding robots at Ford.” LDRs should work for marketing, as they are helping with the quality of leads marketing is generating. SDRs should work for sales, as they are working outbound, and are typically assigned to a rep or a territory. You may need both an LDR and SDR function in your company, as I have in my current role.
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