5 Superhero Traits of a Sales Development Rep (SDR)

The job of a Sales Development Rep may seem simple and inconsequential to most people, mostly on paper, but the reality is vastly different. Sales Development representatives are the face of an organization as they directly deal with the end customers and if they are not trained well, they might end up damaging the reputation of a business organization beyond repair. Even the job role of Sales Development representatives has changed massively over the years. No longer do they have to make Cold Calls for hours to convince customers to buy a product or to pitch a product, they don’t even have to send emails after emails until the recipients started flagging their email ids as spams. Most of these tasks have become automated. Sales Development representatives now have to make crucial business decisions or at least they have to provide valuable inputs so that the marketing department can come up with creative marketing plans to promote the product or service.

Now Sales Development representatives are treated more favourably by most organizations and sometimes they are considered as industry thought leaders and rightly so. A motivated and well-groomed Sales Development representative now needs to do extensive research about their prospects so that they can communicate with them without making them feel uncomfortable. The idea is to pitch their products without making it look like an attempt to sell their products. Unlike yesterdays’ SDRs who were only equipped with a telephone and a pen to communicate with their target audience, modern SDRs are equipped with latest technologies like helpdesk software and it allows them to automate the boring tasks and to infer valuable insights from the data that they have fed into the system.

Evaluation of the strategies implemented by SDRs

Sometimes, you might feel jittery that the success is eluding you no matter how hard you may work and this may make you go berserk against your authority. The work pressure sometimes plays trick with the mind of an SDR and therefore, as an SDR, you need to figure out how to stay calm even under extreme stressful situation. No matter how complicated the situation is, as a Sales Development representative, your job is to close the deal as fast as possible without pushing the customers too far.

Everybody makes mistakes and that means, you will make mistakes while interaction with the customers at certain point. But the story does not end there. How you are going to rectify those mistakes will show light on how you have evolved as a Sales Development rep.

You can be successful only when you start working smart and this can be achieved by eliminating mistakes from the process by analysing the data. So, to get the best results and succeed as a sales representative, you must evaluate your own strategies, performance, and motives time to time.   

Here are the 5 Five superhero traits of a sales representative:

Ability to work for long hours

Professional sales representatives or SDRs need to work very hard and there are no so-called restricted duty hours implemented for them. It is true that each company has its own PTO policy, but still, to achieve the target, Sales Development Representatives need to wok beyond the schedule. They show up early in the office and end up working till late night and they feel grumpy for that as they well aware of the importance of their job role. Of course, it is hard breaking to see their co-workers from another department leaving the office at 5pm but in order to excel in their field, Sales Development representatives have to work really hard. Hard work pays off at the end for sure.

The ability to analyse complex Data

As we have explained earlier, the job role of SDRs has changed and it has changed for the good. The incorporation of powerful analytical tools and helpdesk support software has removed guess work from the process. Now, Sales Development representatives can make informed decision by taking a look at the data. They can look at the ‘Incomplete Deals’ report and try to figure out what went wrong there and based on their analysis, they can come up with new strategies to woo back those customers. Sometimes, they might need assistance from experts and industry leaders to up their games.

Ability to perform Consistently

As an SDR, your job is to deliver steady stream of leads. You need to meet the target every month. Just because you have met the target in one month does not mean that you can go slow the next month because that would definitely hurt the business bottom-line.  

So, it is quite obvious that consistency is one of the most essential ingredients that determines the success or failure of a Sales Development Representative. As an SDR you must meet the expectations envisioned by the company and it is expected of you.

Ability to Make Accurate Forecasting

With a proper data-driven process, you can forecast your own performance level and it is very important for your company. Even your manager or boss has to meet his or her own quota, and without knowing your own sales-forecast, he or she cannot generate the sales-end reports. So, you need to evaluate your own performance level and use your last few month sales data to forecast your own ability and inability.

Generate Revenue on a regular basis

As an SDR, you can use various modes to achieve your target such as cold calls, social media campaigning, digital promotion etc. It does not matter what method or model you are using to generate leads; you have been hired to meet the target and therefore, your willingness to meet the target plays a vital role in the survival and growth of your organization. So, don’t hang on a lazy ladder, and try to meet the target with a positive vibe.

Understanding ICP for SDRs:  

SDRs create a connecting link between the company and the prospects. Understanding ICP (Ideal Customer Profile) is very important for SDRs because, with the ICP, they not only analyze their data-driven process, but they can also reach their target in an efficient way. Ideal Customer Profile can identify the different types of pain points and help you to evaluate these points to close your quota. Even you can also apply your personalized approach to meet the target. But your personalized approach cannot work well in your professional life. So, you need to evaluate your ICP and understand the pain points present in your performance.

Get an adequate knowledge of the products:

Your company may have various products under its belt and as expected, the company will ask you to hit the market with a proper plan so that its products start selling like hot cakes. But without knowing the features and benefits of the products, you cannot convince the people to buy the products from you. Sometimes, sales development representatives approach people without knowing the features of their own products and this, in turn, can leave a sour taste in mouth of your targeted audience. So, you need to do extensive research about the product that you are planning to promote and then in the next stage, you will have to identify the potential customers. Once done, then you need to focus on the prospects of your products, and not just push your products by force or false gimmick.

Technological backup for sales reps:  

Implementation of a persistent workflow is very important for a company as an improper implementation of the workflow can adversely impact the productivity level of the sales development executives.

The workflow should have a guideline pertaining to how customers should be engaged at every stage of the buying circle so that the sales reps can follow all the steps of the workflow religiously.

Business organizations must ensure that there is an outreach plan in place so that sales representatives can engage with the potential customers with a certain level of confidence. Now companies are implementing various outreach processes such as phone, email, social media and software to meet the needs of the sales team. But to become a superhero, you must be well-conversant with these outreach processes.   

Building trust is the key to secure a stable position in the global sales market:

The market is getting even more competitive in every single day and that means, pitching product has become a lot hard for sales development representatives.

As a sales development representative, you are not only liable for selling the products and close your own target, but more than that you need to build a trust in your company. If you cannot build and gain the trust of your potential customers, then you would not be able to close the deal anymore. Today, SDRs always try to build the trust and if a customer cannot make a deal with you initially then also he or she will be back soon to get your products only because of the trust which you have intentionally instilled in his or her mind. Building trust needs time, engagement, positive attitude, efforts and lots of patience. Social media can help you to get engage with more people, and through different social media platforms, you can also build an aura of trust around your company or products.

World of the web can help you to interact:

Personalized approaches cannot always work well to meet the sales quota, but with a personalized sales approach you can help you build a positive vibe for your company or products. Today you can get tons of information about the prospects from the web and there are hundreds of gateways available to connect with your potential clients in a more personalized way. LinkedIn and Twitter are one of those open gateways, where you can find more information about potential customers. Modern SDRs are very active in their social media circles, because they know that social engagement can produce amazing outcome when done right.

So, the general theory which must be followed by every SDR is to access different company resources, evaluate their own mistakes, meet the prospect with a positive attitude and build a long-lasting trust toward the company. It is not a difficult task, but with proper examination and evaluation of your own sales strategy, you can easily reach the success in the “world of sales”. After all, it is true that “all progress takes place outside the comfort zone.”