7 Things You Don’t Know About Your SDR/BDR Team

Managing a modern SDR or BDR team is more challenging than ever.

This drives creativity, agility, and experimentation – all things vital in a strong SDR team leader – but it also causes bottlenecks, confusion, and inefficiencies.

So we teamed up with Predictable Revenue and surveyed over 75 SDRs to get behind-the-scenes insights straight from the source. Below, you’ll find benchmarks and relevant trends to guide you as a fearless sales leader 👇

And get your complete copy of The 2021 SDR Survey Report and for the inside scoop on the true dreams, struggles, and needs of a modern-day SDR.

Check out these essential SDR/BDR insights:

1. SDRs are doing way more than just prospecting
2. SDRs are struggling to convey product value
3. A compensation package can make or break SDRs’ motivation
4. SDRs are proactive learners
5. Sales engagement platform choice makes a big difference
6. SDRs are running into one major setback: admin work
7. SDRs are siloing messaging best practices

1. SDRs (BDRs) are taking on various responsibilities

In 2021, SDRs are doing way more than just cold-calling and emailing. The role has matured into a multi-faceted position consisting of market research, social media marketing, and sales strategizing.

However, one of the biggest productivity killers in sales is giving a sales rep more than one core responsibility because people simply cannot be experts at everything. If you’re familiar with Aaron Ross’ best-selling book “Predictable Revenue”, you may remember that he suggests sales teams should be divided into specialized functions.

Aaron explains, “Researching, qualifying, content-creation, problem-solving, negotiating, closing, and account management, are not all responsibilities that should just fall on SDRs. One of the biggest productivity killers in sales is a lack of specialization.”

Multiple responsibilities for SDRs lead to both the diversification of their skillset and also the division of their valuable prospecting time.

2. SDRs are struggling to convey value

The majority of SDRs stated to have a clear understanding of their target market, although 56% of them also mention that they do not feel very confident conveying value to prospects. This means that while most SDRs know who they’re supposed to be targeting, they aren’t as clear on why.

While the SDR’s job is not to sell a product or service and explain the intricacies of a business case, having a strong understanding of the impact they can make on a prospect’s day and to their bottom line will help build SDR confidence in what they are pitching. Believing that they are offering value will also help SDRs overcome any call reluctance.

SDRs know a lot about their target markets and about their solutions, but struggle to see the value they provide prospects.

3. A compensation package can make or break SDRs’ motivation

It’s no surprise that when it comes to the main KPI for paying out SDRs, meetings booked still reigns king. But interestingly enough, over 35% of SDRs are also compensated for deals won, on top of opportunities and meetings.

Taking a deeper look into the data behind rep motivation, we found when paid additional incentives for deals, SDRs are slightly more motivated by their comp plans than their counterparts without the extra kicker. And every little ounce of extra motivation counts when it comes to meeting targets.

So, while for some companies, comping on meetings booked or meetings attended is enough, for many SDRs holding them accountable for the quality of their meetings by comping them a percentage on deals closed/won can drive results.

4. SDRs are proactive learners

The sales landscape evolves quickly. Strategies that worked last year, last month, and even last week lose steam as more and more SDRs hop on the bandwagon. Therefore, staying up to date with which trends are emerging and which are oversaturated is a vital skill for SDRs.

76% of our survey contributors said they stay on top of trends, informing themselves proactively through podcasts, blogs, and actively participating in sales communities.

While SDRs do a great job at staying abreast of changes to the ever-evolving sales landscape, it can be very difficult for companies to implement & track tactical changes to their day-to-day operations without an experienced Sales Manager or a next-gen sales engagement platform.

5. SDRs (BDRs) are running into one major setback: admin work

On top of the additional tasks many SDRs are responsible for completing, there’s one major thing holding rockstar reps back: admin tasks.

Over 20% of SDRs are still spending over 2 hours per day on administrative tasks such as updating the CRM and manually recording call results.

The automation of some of these tasks through a robust, optimized tech stack can buy some of your SDRs’ precious prospecting time back.

6. Sales engagement platform choice makes a difference

With SDRs facing ever-expanding responsibilities, reps need tech to keep their workday organized and manageable. Fortunately, we found that overall most SDRs feel supported by their tech stack in their day-to-day.

And while the plethora of new tools and tech on the market can make prospecting easier, faster, and more effective, some can also swamp SDRs and their managers in endless admin.

Productivity apps, calendars, and of course SDR managers help reps move through their daily tasks to a certain extent – but ideally, an all-in-one sales engagement platform like Bloobirds can organize and direct the SDR’s workday.

We found that reps who are guided through tasks by their SEP spend 1.5 hours less on admin tasks per day than their counterparts.

7. SDRs are siloing messaging best practices

A lot of experimentation and iteration is being done on the messaging and call script front, but SDRs are often shouldered with that responsibility, and there isn’t a lot of documentation happening to validate the experiments and make sure the data isn’t lost.

Updating the sales cadences themselves should fall within the purview of the SDR role, but working on improving pitches and messaging should be more of a team effort involving management.

That way, you ensure consistency in a company’s messaging across marketing, sales, and customer success, and can update playbooks and training materials accordingly so that multiple SDRs on the same team can stay apprised of company best practices.

Or, even better, you can build those sales playbooks directly into your sales engagement platform.

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