Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) are the bedrock of your business. Think about it. Long before your business development manager has even heard of the potential customer, there is somebody behind the scenes who is pulling all the right strings and helping to move the prospect further down the sales funnel. Now of course, in that brief description above, I’m guilty of oversimplifying the job of an SDR as there is a lot more to it than that. 

Firstly, an SDR must identify potential customers and reach out to them to see if they are interested or can be persuaded to take an interest in your product or service. This in itself is a process and SDRs will try to find prospects through LinkedIn, social media and telemarketing as well as a variety of other sources, including those who arrive via the marketing team’s lead generation efforts. Just quickly on telemarketing, it may not have had the best of reputations in the past but that was because back then there were a lot of companies going about it the wrong way yet, when it is done right, it is an extremely powerful tool to have in your business development armoury. The way to do it right, and this applies to all outreach methods, regardless of where the lead comes from, is to be prepared.  That is why we know each product inside out, have researched the prospect thoroughly and work to a proven set of methodologies in every interaction to help the process go as smoothly and successfully as possible. 

In fact, if you were to use SDR as a Service (SDRaaS) you notice that all of our SDRs are excellent communicators and the ideal people to take care of your prospecting and outreach. That’s because of our multi-pronged approach which can be of great benefit to most companies and there are a number of reasons for this. For a start, we all have a preferred way of being contacted. Some people are prepared to receive phone calls, some will only interact over email and for others it might be social media. The point is that there’s nothing wrong with having a list and there’s nothing wrong with cold calling but when you limit yourself to this you’re not maximising the value that is available to you. For example, Aexus trained SDRs can handle a call list and will do as the partner has requested but their strengths in this regard lie in researching the prospect. That’s because we believe in quality over quantity and it’s a lot easier to build rapport and make a connection with someone you have researched rather than someone you’re calling just because their name is on the list. This brings me to another point in that our SDRs know how to search for the right prospects – the ones they have the greatest chances of converting. What’s more, they are able to do this time and again consistently. The same applies to other channels as well such as social and email where research is the cornerstone of the ability to build, develop and maintain a relationship with a prospect so they can be moved further down the funnel.

Don’t forget that all the while this is taking place, the SDR is monitoring the responses of the prospect to determine exactly the right time to set up a meeting between the potential customer and the business development manager. It would be ridiculous to suggest that every meeting set up by one of our SDRs results in a deal but it is true to say that with SDRaaS a deal is always a lot closer than it otherwise would have been. And, that’s why we think SDRs are not only a huge part but an essential part of business development.

To see what our SDRs could do for your business development, get in touch. We’re always happy to jump on a call.