Uncomplicate – Growth path for SDRs
Uncomplicate by Freshworks brings you crisp and insightful videos which will focus on answering one tactical question around sales & marketing, support & collaboration, employee engagement, and growth.
“I’m going through a personal change in thought about that,” says Scott Schnaars, head of American operations for Cloudinary, when asked about what he believes the career trajectory for sales development representatives (SDR) ought to be.
There’s an age-old belief in Silicon Valley that if people start their carers as SDRs for inside sales, there’s usually a chalked out career path that follows – outbound SDRs, junior sales person for corporate or mid market teams, senior on that team, SDR for enterprise market, then senior of that… you get the picture. But Scott is of a different opinion. “We believe that being an SDR is a really important job and not a quick churn and burn type of role,” he explains.
Being an SDR is a very critical function, but one where people move on too quickly to the next rung. This means that the management is left having to replace their entire SDR team and starting from scratch.
Scott believes that the longevity and scope of the role should be longer than just a six or nine or twelve month job. It is important to treat it as a full-fledged career in itself, celebrating the wins they bring to the business, because it is your SDR team that is building the pipeline and foundation for the entire organization.
This being said, it is only natural that while hiring SDRs, you have a focussed lens, looking for certain key attributes. Scott, who looks for three main attributes when he is hiring for SDRs, gets some of his insights from the popular book Never Hire a Bad Salesperson Again.
The first thing you should look for is whether your candidate has a thirst for achievement. “You need somebody who is going to think about what their goals are on a daily basis, set goals for themselves, and manage their goals well,” Scott explains.
The next critical thing is to gauge how competitive they are. You want the kind of people who are really geared towards being on top of the leaderboard. If you find people who actively indulge in sports, they are more likely to be competitive in their jobs as well. “Not if they stopped playing the sport ten years ago though,” he quips.
The final and most crucial thing you look for in a potential sales hire is their optimism. This is exceptionally important because being an SDR is one of the hardest jobs today. “You are constantly being told no, being hung up on, your emails are being ignored or going to spam,” reels Scott. That’s why he is looking for that rare person who has the ability to bounce back irrespective of failure, and is geared up about approaching the problem in different ways. They must be able to power through with optimism despite being told ‘no’ 99% of the time and that’s definitely a key ability to look out for.
Find people with these three traits, and you are definitely hiring the right kind of talent for your sales teams. Further, make sure you celebrate them and hone their skills such that they look forward to a long and productive career in sales.
(This post was co-produced by Praveen Ramesh.)
