One of the biggest challenges organizations face today is scaling for growth. As companies grow, they naturally need to expand their reach and methodology for gathering leads. And, of course, as more channels are used, more leads are generated.
Sounds like a good problem to have, right? Unfortunately, with this influx comes the challenge of time restriction and optimization.
The reality is, not all incoming leads will be quite ready to buy. That means a good number will require additional nurturing – something that maxed out account executives often don’t have the time or capacity to do.
While these busy folks focus their efforts on leads that are ready to close, other opportunities inevitably fall by the wayside. The solution? Sales development representatives.
SDRs can essentially serve as liaison between the marketing department and the AEs, handling the process of qualifying oncoming leads for the last stage of the funnel. This enables marketing to keep churning out prospects and AEs to focus on what they’re best at– closing the deal.
The key is to empower your SDRs to score opportunities. Here’s how.
Make sure marketing is providing SDRs with the right leads.
Wouldn’t it be great if every click on every ad or every visit to your blog or website generated an interested lead? Unfortunately, we all know that’s rarely the case.
The first step in empowering your SDRs is to make sure they’re starting off with leads that have shown some type of interest in your product or service.
They don’t have to be ready to buy (in fact, they probably won’t be for a while), but they should at the very least have engaged with your content a few times. Otherwise, your SDRs will be wasting their time chasing down dead ends and letting quality opportunities slip through the cracks.
There are a number of different models you can use to score leads. For instance, with behavioral lead scoring, a designated number is assigned to each interaction. An email click might be 5 points while a webinar registration might be worth 10. Determine the total number a lead has to reach in order for SDRs to take action – say 15 or 20. This weeds out the cold leads and improves the chances of conversion.
And, of course, any leads that already show intent to buy should automatically be rerouted to the AEs.
Provide SDRs with sufficient context around leads.
Utilizing a quality CRM platform can help with this step and make the entire process much more efficient. Any time a lead is generated by marketing, SDRs should be able to view its activity log.
The more context surrounding a particular lead, the better the SDR will be able to determine where they are in the process and subsequently hone their approach moving forward.
For instance, understanding the specific behavior and interaction history a lead has, such as webinars attended or product pages visited, can help the SDR to provide a more relevant and personalized experience that is more likely to generate results.
Arm SDRs with the content and other resources they need.
Think of your SDRs as a concierge service for your leads. Their role is to provide those leads with the appropriate information they need through each step of the nurturing process. To do this effectively, your SDRs need a reservoir of content at their disposal, whether it’s email templates, blog posts, whitepapers, webinars or videos.
The more content that’s available to them, the more they will be able to quickly deliver whatever those leads need to help push them through the funnel.
Your content should also be segmented according to where each lead is in the process. For instance, SDRs should be able to quickly grab an introductory product video to share with a new prospect who is just coming into the funnel.
Conversely, a more in-depth case study would be more relevant to someone who is already familiar with the product but is still on the fence about whether it’s worth the investment.
By providing the appropriate leads and backing those leads up with contextual data and relevant content, you can arm your SDRs with everything they need to make the sales process efficient, effective and profitable.
Whether you’re looking to hire top-notch SDRs or looking for your next SDR role, get in touch and let us make the process easy and painless.