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How to hire SDRs and build a strong sales development ...
avoma.com
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SDRs can start inbound and transition to outbound “Many growing companies don't necessarily have the budget or scope to hire sales and business development teams separately. So they start by forming a sales development team that starts with inbound prospecting and gradually moves upstream to focus on outbound opportunities as the company's requirements for new opportunities grow.” At Avoma, we are still at the former stage. Of course, your mileage may vary. But for the scope of keeping things simple, let’s talk about SDRs as a team that owns the inbound and outbound sales efforts both.
Brandon Lawson, our Sales Development Manager, is a master of building processes. And, we can say with confidence that the sooner you build an onboarding map and a 90-day playbook, the better it is for your SDRs. “At Avoma, the onboarding process is almost waiting on the newly hired SDR’s desk to be kickstarted on the first day. It includes everything from scheduling introductory and overview meetings with stakeholders across the board to software access, weekly goals, and more.” In the next post, we will cover the details of how to onboard and accelerate the ramp-up of newly hired SDRs.
Many growing companies don't necessarily have the budget or scope to hire sales and business development teams separately. So they start by forming a sales development team that starts with inbound prospecting and gradually moves upstream to focus on outbound opportunities as the company's requirements for new opportunities grow. “But for the scope of keeping things simple, let’s talk about SDRs as a team that owns the inbound and outbound sales efforts both.” But let’s be clear about one thing—being a product-led organization doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t go outbound.
Role of SDRs and why do you need them? “Sales Development Reps (SDRs) typically tend to be professionals in their early-career stage whose primary focus is to build a healthy and consistent revenue pipeline for the organization. They typically acquire or qualify opportunities and schedule meetings for Account Executives (AEs) who demo the product to these qualified prospects and eventually close the deal.” There are several debates and schools of thought regarding the SDR role. However, here is a couple we often come across most often:
Here’s an example of our job description: “It gets posted on all key job boards such as AngelList, LinkedIn, etc., which obviously brings in a flood of qualified and unqualified candidates.” And keep in mind, we at Avoma are 100% remote, so none of our interviews happen in person. Our process comes from a remote-first mindset. Our Sales Development Manager (SDM) gets involved right from the screening stage, helping our recruitment team make selections, build observations, and help them develop the eye to spot the kind of candidates that fit our bill.
The SDR hiring process at Avoma “We try to very clearly list the expectations from the role. For instance, we clearly list the roles and responsibilities and, more importantly, the kind of techstack experience we are looking for in a new hire.” Here’s an example of our job description:
Our take-home assignment typically includes: “Writing a cold call script” Writing a personalized email
Writing a personalized email “Building a prospecting list” Doing a mock prospecting call with us
Building a prospecting list “Doing a mock prospecting call with us” At this stage, we’re not expecting the candidate to get everything 100% right, but rather looking for the amount of effort the candidate puts into understanding the context, how much they take customer experience into consideration at each stage, etc.
Typically, product-led SaaS companies start their demand generation motion with a 100% inbound model, majorly driven by content and performance marketing. “As organizations get to the next phase, moving from pre-seed to seed-stage or Series A, they start streamlining their inbound efforts and build a team of Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) for outbound efforts.” According to a Bridge Group survey of 406 B2B SaaS businesses, ~60% have an in-house SDR team. If you exclude companies below $5M in revenue, 67% have an SDR team. Amongst those with an ACV (annual contract value) above $100k, that number jumps to 89%.
SDRs can start inbound and transition to outbound “Many growing companies don't necessarily have the budget or scope to hire sales and business development teams separately. So they start by forming a sales development team that starts with inbound prospecting and gradually moves upstream to focus on outbound opportunities as the company's requirements for new opportunities grow.” At Avoma, we are still at the former stage. Of course, your mileage may vary. But for the scope of keeping things simple, let’s talk about SDRs as a team that owns the inbound and outbound sales efforts both.