Brenda Linhares - Partner & CMO @Insight Sales
The SDR role is critical to create a consistent and predictable sales pipeline for your organization.
Here, at Insight Sales, we have provided prospecting services for many different segments in our professional journey. For this reason, we can say it's not an easy job. But, without a doubt, it's a very important one. In summary, a SDR generates good results by helping the sales department to direct its energy towards more strategic activities.
And if you don't have the resources or the time to hire and train an entire SDR team, considering an outsourced SDR team for your sales operations can be the most productive and cost-effective way to implement this important role in your company.
But how can you choose the right SDR outsourcing company and how can you get the best results of this experience? In this article you will find the top reasons you need to consider.
But, first things first!
What are Sales Development Reps (SDRs)?
The Sales Development Representative, or SDR, is one of the most discussed roles within the sales department in the last years.
These professionals evaluate and prepare generated marketing leads so that salespeople can sell to them more assertively. Which means, they basically make a pre-sale work.
It is the role of a SDR that evaluate whether or not the lead have the potential to become a good company's customer. This professional is extremely important to support the sales team, precisely because it "filters" leads who are worth the investment, as businesses end up receiving many leads and contacts that are misaligned with the strategic goals set by the company.
In this role, he is basically responsible for understanding if the lead has a problem that the service/product can, in fact, solve and by doint that, improve its routine.
Instead of a generic speech (such as a telemarketing one), the SDR goes deeper (or should, at least) into the scenario and only then perform a fully customized demonstration. If it is effective, and the SDR manages to overcome all objections presented throughout the conversation, then the lead will advance into the funnel.
In short, their framework consists of qualifying leads for meetings and/or demonstrations that will be done by the sales executive. So, the SDR is responsible for managing the beggining of the Sales Funnel.
How is the routine of an SDR?
The routine of an SDR can be divided into 60% manual work and 40% intellectual work. The manual work basically consists on doing calls, following up good leads and managing the sales funnel.
The intellectual work is focused on defining the best types of approaches will maximize conversion rates and studying the lead landscape to shape the business pitch. Breaking this balance can be fatal for an SDR's routine.
Think carefully. A SDR works with a large volume of activities, right? If he misses leads because he spends too much time crafting his pitch, he will end up missing a lot of conversion opportunities.
However, by focusing too much on just providing untargeted service, he will end up doing a poor job for many leads.
This is one of those roles that reflects the sentence: "in life it's all about balance".
Why sales reps should not play the role of SDRs?
Many companies rely on hiring senior executives to sell more. It's a natural instinct to think that a sales rep will generate much more value to the process. However, making this decision can be like cutting your own throat and we'll explain why.
The name "sales funnel" is pretty self explanatory. To work, it must have exits and entries. On average, senior salespeople are great at managing the end. Their experience and established relationships will help your company close more deals.
But, to have a lot of businesses to negotiate at the end of the funnel, there needs to be at least 10x more at the beginning, taking into account that a good conversion rate from MQL to New Clients is around 10%.
To make this scenario even more difficult, human beings (all of us) have schedule limitations. Even the most productive of the species has a limit to what it can be accomplished throughout the day.
It's impossible to pay attention to leads that are at the beginning and in the end of the funnel at the same time. So, what happens in this scenario? The salespeople will focus only on what pays him better.
The salesperson, being a role that on average has a large part of their remuneration linked to commission, will tend to focus more on deals they are about to close or have bigger fees. By giving this special attention to the end of the funnel, the beginning becomes unattended. At the end of the sales cycle, when the hottest deals are closed, we usually see that are no others deals evolving to meet the demand for more closings.
This scenario ends up generating a disastrous inconsistency in the achievement of sales goals.
So this is where SDR enters in the process. Since he is responsible for starting the Inbound funnel, he has the mission of prospecting with quality the leads that arrive and, when it makes sense, transfer them to the sales executive.
In this work format, the end of the funnel will always be filled with good deals and the company will be able to consistently generate results.
It's hard to see companies without SDRs achieving good results every day. Aside from the seasonality factor, it is common to see good months succeed by bad months without the help of an SDR.
Did we convinced you about the importance to hire a SDR team for your business?
But after all, why outsource SDR services?
Now that you understand a little bit more about the work of an SDR, it's time to understand some advantages that outsourcing this service offers. Among them, we can mention:
1. Cost reduction
When hiring an outsourced service, the company has access to not only a range of specialized professionals, but also to important tools without spending additional resources. In addition, all training initiatives, daily monitoring, strategies and KPIs analysis are under the responsibility of the outsourcing company.
2. Access to specialized professionals
All SDRs should be qualified and trained by the outsourced company, which means that your organization can also reduce costs with hiring, training and labor charges.
Prospecting is no longer treated as telemarketing or just people that are scheduling meetings. As such, it needs professionals who are more prepared and involved in the process.
3. Time optimization
With targeted prospecting services, you can make closing deals a faster job and optimize the use of resources, ensuring the increase of sales without having to invest an exorbitant amount of money to hire a new team.
4. More efficiency in the sales processes
By adopting an outsourced SDR service, the company ensures the implementation of strategies that are fully customized to your needs, which can also ensure more efficiency in the internal processes.
5. More focused sales reps
Now you can have your internal team of sales executives focused on presentations and visits, which means, they will be focused on the solution your company proposes, in addition to the relationship these professionals need to make with the projects and clients they have already won.
6. More productivity
Finally, all of these advantages mentioned above can bring huge increase in productivity in all sales processes, maximizing the use of leads through the sales funnel and promoting sustainability for businesses to growth.
The Wrap
Outsourcing SDR services is a very beneficial initiative for your business. However, it can also be a challenge. More than 42% of sales reps say that prospecting is the most challenging part of sales, followed by qualifying (36%), and closing (22%).
It is necessary to be very careful and rely on an experienced, prepared company that offers the most adequate solutions for your business, so you can take advantage of the many benefits of hiring an outsourced SDR team. Doing so, you will be able to accelerate sales growth without adding the work of recruiting, training, and managing your own staff.
Our outsourced SDR teams are specialists, focused on delivering the best results to help your sales operation thrive. If you want to learn more about our outsourcing SDR services, talk to us!
