{"id":5687,"date":"2020-09-21T15:33:20","date_gmt":"2020-09-21T20:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/?p=5687"},"modified":"2020-12-04T18:50:54","modified_gmt":"2020-12-05T00:50:54","slug":"successful-sdr-in-90-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/successful-sdr-in-90-days\/","title":{"rendered":"How To Be Successful as an SDR in Your First 90 Days"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The job of a Sales Development Representative is not easy \u2013 it takes a particular kind of person to succeed in this role.<\/p>\n<p>As any SDRs will attest to, in the first weeks and months of the role, you can feel like you\u2019ve been thrown into the deep end of a particularly cavernous pool. This baptism of fire can leave many first-time SDRs wondering if they\u2019ll ever succeed in sales.<\/p>\n<p>So to give them a pointer in the right direction, I sat down with Sarah Hicks, Senior Sales Development Representative at Predictable Revenue, to find out how SDRs can set themselves up for success in the first 90 days.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah comes from an unusual background for a sales rep: she initially trained as an actor before deciding to apply the skills she had learned in the theater to a sales role, which gives her a brilliant perspective on tackling the early days as an SDR head on.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe class='youtube-player' width='700' height='394' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/VzqdU5OJDkw?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent' allowfullscreen='true' style='border:0;' sandbox='allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation'><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<h2>How Do You Define Success as an SDR? [1:05]<\/h2>\n<p>Sarah notes that one simple metric by which to measure your SDR success is targets. Ultimately, the number one thing for SDRs is always going to be booking meetings for your company.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe next thing that signifies success is knowing the role like the back of your hand, so you know all the rules about <a href=\"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/sales-prospecting-techniques\/\">prospecting<\/a>, you know your company, you know everything about your product and service,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n<p>The third marker of SDR success, according to Sarah, is when you begin to come up with your own strategies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThen you no longer have to rely on the tried and true methods of your company \u2013 of course those will always be your foundation \u2013 but you can branch out and start trying new things on your own,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n<h2>What Are Some Key Areas for a New SDR To Focus On? [2:04]<\/h2>\n<p>Sarah pointed to five key areas new SDRs should concentrate on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Learn about your industry and your company<\/li>\n<li>Know your product or service<\/li>\n<li>Get comfortable communicating on the phone and over email<\/li>\n<li>Figure out how to organize your time in the most effective way, and create good habits<\/li>\n<li>Be experimental<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Read on to discover how to put these points into action.<\/p>\n<h2>How Do You Execute Learning About Your Industry and Customer? [3:42]<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cLearn from your manager: when someone\u2019s training you in, you\u2019re going to ask them as many questions as you possibly can,\u201d she advises, adding that new SDRs should learn from their peers, too.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFollow thought leaders in the space that your prospects are interested in, or follow your prospects on LinkedIn. And just become an expert in all things in that industry, in all things that your customers are going to worry about.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>How Do You Execute Learning About the Product and Service? [5:33]<\/h2>\n<p>Sarah describes your manager as your \u201cnumber one resource\u201d for learning about product and service during the onboarding phase. Your colleagues are valuable resources as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThose are the people that have been working with this product or service for a long time, they know how to talk about it, they know how the customer wants to hear about it, so they\u2019re the best resource,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n<p>Next, it\u2019s time to get familiar with your company\u2019s case studies.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cKnow them really, really well so when you\u2019re having a conversation with a prospect and they say &#8216;I\u2019m in this space and I\u2019m having this problem,&#8217; you\u2019ve got this litany of examples that you can pull from,\u201d she recommends.<\/p>\n<p>Sarah also suggests that newbies take advantage of the execution side of the company, as they\u2019re the ones actually delivering the product or service, and they\u2019re the ones who continue to have customer relationships after clients have moved on from the <a href=\"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/manage-sales-team\/\">sales team<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h2>How Do You Execute Getting Comfortable in an SDR Role? [7:35]<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cYou need to get going as soon as possible,\u201d says Sarah. \u201cThis is something the guy who trained me in was very good at \u2013 he made me cold call on my very first day, he made me design a sequence, write all my own messaging on the very first day.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But it was awesome to force me to go to work right away, force me to get on the phone, and I was probably totally wildly unprepared, but it forced me to think on my feet and it also forced me to see what I didn\u2019t know yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Sarah emphasizes the importance of being given the room to make mistakes at the beginning of your SDR career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShow your script to the managers and have them show you why something doesn\u2019t work,\u201d she suggests. \u201cYou\u2019ll always have a better understanding than if they just give you a script and you never question it and you just go from there \u2013 you\u2019ll never know why things are written or designed in a certain way unless you give it a go yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>How Do You Execute Forming Good Habits Around Time Management? [9:29]<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a fine balance between what your manager wants you to do and what actually works for you,\u201d Sarah explains.<\/p>\n<p>However, she does recommend blocking out the time to complete certain tasks \u2013 such as LinkedIn messages or <a href=\"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/masterclass\/email-personalization\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">personalized emails<\/a> \u2013 back to back.<\/p>\n<h2>How Do You Execute Personal Development? [11:50]<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cThe number one thing for me has been following thought leaders on my space in LinkedIn,\u201d she says. \u201cBeing in the sales space, there are so many great thought leaders that are constantly sharing tips and tricks and strategies with really good data to back them up, and they\u2019ve been the best for me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When it comes to literature, Sarah recommends leaving your comfort zone behind and reading books about every area of a business in order to see where you fit into the bigger picture.<\/p>\n<h2>How Do You Execute Experimentation? [13:52]<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cThe most important thing is to learn all the rules so you can break them,\u201d she says, recommending that once SDRs have a foundational understanding of outbound, they start going above and beyond that.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cRework a strategy that you see a thought leader share. If you watch a webinar on some strategy, try to apply it and then try to re-jig it so it\u2019s really specified to your product, audience, or service. Or even just make something up totally out of the box,\u201d she suggests.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you have any questions, feel free to send Sarah a connection request on <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/sarahjanehicks\/?originalSubdomain=ca\"><strong>LinkedIn<\/strong><\/a><strong>. Check out the <\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/predictablerevenue.com\/\"><strong>Predictable Revenue website<\/strong><\/a><strong> for more resources on outbound strategies and what makes SDRs successful. <\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The job of a Sales Development Representative is not easy \u2013 it takes a particular kind of person to succeed in this role. As any SDRs will attest to, in the first weeks and months of the role, you can feel like you\u2019ve been thrown into the deep end of a particularly cavernous pool. This &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5688,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/i1.wp.com\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Successful-SDR-in-90-Days.jpeg?fit=3840%2C2160&ssl=1","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v15.5 - http:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>How To Be Successful as an SDR in Your First 90 Days<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/kmbrian.com\/blog\/successful-sdr-in-90-days\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How To Be Successful as an SDR in Your First 90 Days\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The job of a Sales Development Representative is not easy \u2013 it takes a particular kind of person to succeed in this role. As any SDRs will attest to, in the first weeks and months of the role, you can feel like you\u2019ve been thrown into the deep end of a particularly cavernous pool. 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