As a result, many sales technologies saw rapid growth, and sales teams shifted their priorities and strategies. We recently surveyed 450 top sales dev leaders to evaluate their teams and technologies and learn what’s changed in the sales development world.

Here’s what we learned about the top sales organizations and what they’re doing to drive success.

Lead Quality and Account-Focused Strategies Dominate

The goal for any sales rep is to have a full calendar of highly qualified prospects to speak with each day. Sales development is the critical link between marketing and sales to develop and pass leads to sales reps.

Since our last State of Sales Development study in 2017, we’ve seen a significant shift in the ratio of account executives (AE) to sales development reps (SDR). In 2017, 2018, and 2020, the ratio has declined from 3.0 to 2.5 to 2.0, with 2020 marking an average of 2 account executives for every 1 supporting SDR.

As more sales teams adopt account-focused strategies and improve their lead quality, we expect to see this number continue to decrease. Implementing targeted programs that qualify leads quickly, efficiently, and with a standardized process will cut down on the amount of time SDRs spend with leads that aren’t driving pipeline. CRM and sales engagement (like Playbooks)  will better guide SD reps’ time and activities.

A lower AE/SDR ratio has other benefits. When this ratio is too high, SDRs can get too many irons in the fire and find it more difficult to operate efficiently. AEs benefit from having more interaction with their SDRs and SDRs get mentorship and coaching more consistently.

SD Teams Under Sales More Likely to Hit Quotas

One of the most important implications for an SDR team is where they report: marketing or sales. This decision is based on several factors, including which team has the budget and resources to hire, train, and develop SDRs; the qualification strategy; lead management; and more.

From 2017 to now, we saw a significant increase in the number of SDRs rolling up into the sales organization and away from marketing. In 2020, 75% of SD teams now report to sales, 15% report to marketing, and 10% report to revenue or sales ops.

Many factors are driving this shift, but as the handoff from marketing to sales improves, SDRs in most organizations have found better alignment within sales. And in some organizations, SDRs are an important recruiting pool for future AEs, so the more SDRs understand the needs and priorities of AEs, the better prepared they’ll be for that next role.

Our data also shows that when SDRs report to sales, they are more likely to hit their quota. In 2020, these teams were 15.2% more likely to hit their quota than those that reported to marketing—62.5% of SDRs who reported to sales hit their quotas, as opposed to only 47.3% for marketing reports. That 15.2% difference is a major contributing factor in revenue for any organization.

What makes the difference in performance for SDR teams? Even though the lines between sales and marketing increasingly overlap, the SDR position is rooted in sales-centric principles. Sales leaders build a culture of measurable revenue outcomes that envelop SDRs while marketing leaders tend to drive more leading revenue indicators (lead to contact conversion, stage 1 to stage 2 conversion, pipeline creation, etc). This small shift makes a significant difference in the outcomes of your SDR teams.

Account-Based and High-Velocity Sales

The composition of sales development teams has changed as many sales organizations implement tools and technology to understand more about their customers. Thanks to innovations related to digital and data technology, SD teams have more information now than ever before about their customers’ buying behaviors and communication preferences, and now have automated processes to match.

Between 2017 and 2018, the industry rotated towards exclusively account-based models (47.7% of respondents indicated it was their only model). However, since 2018, sales organizations have realized the mistake of turning away from speed-to-lead and the high-velocity that support them. Today, a majority of teams use a hybrid model to find a balance based on the types of leads and accounts they’re engaging.

As teams become more sophisticated and precise in how they generate and nurture their leads, create and refine their processes, and keep a watchful eye on their metrics, they’ll be able to incorporate more high-velocity techniques into their teams. 

How you structure and manage your sales development team has a significant impact on your entire sales organization. Sales intelligence is driving significant changes in sales teams and allowing sales development teams to spend less time on rote manual tasks and more time developing leads and their skills to improve the handoff to AEs.

Sales leaders who implement these changes quickly are seeing large gains in their attainment and can do more with less budget. Playbooks by XANT includes the tools sales development teams need to be successful in 2021. Schedule a demo here. 

Related: WHAT C-SUITE EXECS REALLY THINK WHEN CONTACTED BY INSIDE SALES REPS

In This Article;

1. The History of Marketing Funnels
2. Examples of Traditional V’s Digital Sales
3. What’s Changed in Digital Marketing Funnels?
4. The Bounce Rate
5. Voice Technology
6. Do Likes and Followers Equal Sales?
7. Content is King in 2020
8. Is it Circular or Funnel Shaped?

Understanding Marketing in the Digital Age

The History of Marketing Funnels

Converting to a digital marketing funnel may seem an intimidating prospect, so let’s look back at the history of marketing funnels.
There has been a significant shift in the past 20 years in how consumers shop and how they locate their preferred products. The pre-internet pattern was;

Awareness of a product – customer considers purchase – the customer buys a product.

Examples of Marketing Funnels

Example A:

It’s 1998, and I need to buy a book as a gift for my golfing enthusiast father. I find the address of two local bookstores in my local newspaper.

I drive to the two local bookstores; one has signage in the storefront offering ‘buy one get a second half off.’ I browse the sports section for a book on golf and find two I like. A natural choice, I bought the two books, and I was pleased that I got a bargain!

The counter staff gift wrapped the books for me for free. I decide on impulse to browse further and buy two more books the staff recommend.

Marketing funnels worked to a predictable pattern before the digital age.
The funnel moved prospective buyers from awareness-interest-to desire, and finally to action.

Mass marketing – advertise in local papers.

Interest – Sales Offers in Store.

Desire – Customer Considers a Purchase.

Action – Customer Buys Products.

Example B:

Now it’s 2020, and I need to buy another gift for my golf enthusiast father.

I open my smartphone and search ‘golf gifts for dads.’ I’m presented with 1000’s of options. I browse the first few websites, and then I see a golf store Golfwithus.com with 50% off golf putters. That seems like a good deal, so I click Buy and leave them in the Cart while I go check out the product.

I open a second browser window, search the golf club’s brand, and read the online reviews. I check the brand’s Facebook page, see lots of good reviews, and link it to a special offer in another online golf store. I also copy and share one of the funny videos on the Facebook page with my friends. I canceled the original golfwithus.com order.

I open the link from Facebook to a second website and find it has 60% off the same golf putter and free next day delivery. I quickly buy the putter for my Dad in the online store.

What I did not do was leave the comfort of my house to browse at the local golf store. I didn’t see the company website or any social media presence. That local store also had 50% off the same golf club.

What’s Changed in Digital Marketing Funnels?

Prospects are walking themselves through the funnel, then walking in the door ready to buy. In both B2B and B2C businesses, customers are doing their own research online.

Everyone has the internet in their pocket.

In 2019 1.37 Billion smartphones were sold worldwide.

A 2016 USA study showed that 88.5% of the population used the internet.

The speed of internet connections has increased year on year since fiber broadband arrived. The world is connected by 3G, 4G, and now 5G. This speed eliminates wait times for a website to load; it also allows you to open as many websites or social media platforms as you want.

Caroline Donahue, CMO at Intuit, oversees numerous web-based products. Donahue says the funnel changes because “with cross-sell and up-sell, you move from awareness to action instantaneously.”

The Bounce Rate

A ‘bounce’ happens when someone visits your website and leaves without interacting further with your site. This is tied into Google’s analytics of your website.

It is very important to keep the bounce rate low. How you keep people interested in your site long enough for them to purchase is the key to a successful digital market funnel.

Your website needs to be fool-proof for sales. It needs to look and feel contemporary. Your marketing team should be making constant small adjustments to keep it up to date and user friendly.

The days of expecting clients to navigate a complicated sales website are over.

Voice Technology

Sales through voice-activated software (Alexa / Siri / Hey Google) are likely to be + 20% in 2020 and growing year on year.

This will require monitoring as voice-activated software requires additional information. Adding words such as ‘near me’ is something that businesses will have to address.

Google can handle two keywords, but voice-activated searches will ‘listen’ to a full sentence.

Do Likes and Followers Equal Sales?

One of the most challenging aspects of digital marketing sales is finding the balance between content marketing costs and sales revenue.

Luxury brands will often have millions of followers, but not millions of customers. However, without that brand awareness, they will fall out of fashion with those who can afford the products.

A good example of a successful digital marketing strategy is the Oreo cookies brand. Oreos have over 40million online followers—more than fashion behemoth H&M.

Oreo grew in popularity as they produce daily video content, including how you can make a fun dessert or drink using Oreo cookies.

This requires a large marketing team, but it also translates into worldwide sales of an affordable product. In New York or Tokyo, you can buy a pack of Oreo Cookies.

In 2019 the Oreo brand reached $3.1 Billion in net sales globally.
Its standard cookie sells twice as much as the nearest competitor in the USA.

This success is down to an aggressive marketing strategy online. Understanding who their consumer is and what life stage they are at.

Content is King in 2020

You need to speculate to accumulate and grow your output.

Spread across multiple social media sites and produce regular content.

Keep them interested, understand what your target audience likes; sport, art or cooking, etc.

Reacting to trends is vital. What’s everybody talking about on social media?

B2B email sales need to be 1:1 and personal. No more generic mass marketing.

Is it Circular or Funnel Shaped?

While the marketing world tries to keep ahead of the game, new maps of marketing techniques are cropping up. The fast-paced changes are creating difficulty for companies.

The circular ‘Customer Decision Journey’ is the connection between purchase and advocacy. Where the CDJ fails for some experts, is that advocates do not equal sales.

You may have a lot of advocates for your company online, but it’s not guaranteed revenue streams.

In 2020, round, funnel, or spiral, one truth that’s universal and cannot be ignored is that it’s no longer a linear market funnel, it’s ever-changing and evolving.

Engaging potential buyers to garner interest in your sales website long enough for them to purchase is the key to a successful digital market funnel.

If you enter a website and search for an item, and it’s not visible in a few clicks, you will leave and move on to the next site in approximately 2 minutes.

Imagine a Sales Rep. trying to sell a product to a new client in 2 minutes.
This is why a strong marketing team is essential to a successful business

Do you think the Digital Marketing Funnel is the best option for marketing teams?

Let us know and Comment Below :

Up Next;

• SALES IS NEVER GOING BACK
• 8 TIPS TO AVOID SALES SLUMPS
• COLD MESSAGING: HOW TO EMAIL SOMEONE YOU DON’T KNOW

RELATED:  THE SEVEN RULES OF COLD CALLING [INFOGRAPHIC]

In this article:

1. Understand Why Prospects Stall
2. Preparation is Key
3. Start with a Clear Objective
4. Needs Analysis
5. Qualify a Stall or a Delay
6. Be Strong but Not Pushy
7. Time is Precious
8. Teach Your Customers
9. Know How to Handle Difficult Prospects
   1. If they refuse to answer your questions
   2. If they have many objections
   3. If the prospect delays
10. Know When to Walk Away

Stalling Tactics Tips and How to Handle Difficult Calls

Around 80% of business is lost to no decision at all, and customers have become increasingly risk-averse. This could imply that salespeople need to get better at leading conversations and gaining a definite yes or no decision.

Successful sales reps must challenge their customers and use their unique abilities to gain business during the sales call.

The Corporate Executive Board (CEB) led a survey of more than 6,000 sales representatives around the world and in numerous industries.

The ‘challenging’ sales reps were much more successful at handling stalling tactics and closing deals using teaching, tailoring, and taking control strategies.

But how can that be done? Read on to find out 10 tactics you can use.

Understand Why Prospects Stall

Michael Pedone is the founder of Salesbuzz.com, an online training company for B2B sales teams that need to overcome call reluctance.

Michael has been a straight commission sales rep for over 25 years. “He launched an internet marketing company during the dot com meltdown and defied the odds by turning it into a massively successful venture. A large factor in its success was Michael’s ability to teach his proven phone sales techniques to his ever-expanding staff, creating swift growth for the company”.

Stalling is a reality of sales. But why do prospects stall? One of the main reasons is because salespeople have not given their prospects a good enough reason to buy now.

Prospects could be stalling because of anxieties or uncertainties to buy, or they are torn between different products or services.

When the desire to buy is enough, your prospect will go ahead with the sale.

Preparation is Key stalling tactics

Salespeople need to be ready for objections and prepare to negotiate using tactics to handle each issue. Preparation is key to handling a stall, and a good closer should be able to anticipate stumbling blocks and challenge stalls.

Start with a Clear Objective

Having a clear, set out goal prior to any call is the key to controlling the call.

Your mindset before the call quite often determines the outcome before you pick up the phone.

Look at the 5 Ws and 1 H (or, in this case, 4 Ws). Establish who you are calling, why you are calling, what you need to accomplish when you need to accomplish it by, and how you will achieve it.

Why you are calling isn’t just because your prospect is in your pipeline, it should be about why you want to achieve success. Visualize your goal and then determine how you will get it done step by step.

Empowering yourself will lead to a better call and a more positive outcome.

Needs Analysis stalling tactics

Qualifying a prospect and asking questions to establish needs will determine if the prospect can or wants to buy the product. A needs analysis task must be carried out on each customer.

Allowing the prospect to talk as much as possible will enable the salesperson to learn a lot about their business and what they want to accomplish.

Getting permission to ask questions in the first instance will bring down defenses when you start to question your prospect.

Many salespeople don’t realize their low responses could be due to their message being off.

The opening value statement when contacting prospects by phone has two objectives:

• Piquing interest
• Gaining permission to ask questions/continue with the call

Ask astute questions to control the call, actively listen to responses to uncover needs, and then find solutions. Establish pain points, challenge their thinking, and discuss product resolutions.

Establishing the real reason for the stall will allow the salesperson to eliminate it. Uncover what exactly is making the prospect uncomfortable and how to get them off the fence.

Qualify a Stall or a Delay

Understand if the objection is an actual stall or a delay. A stall might be an objection around choosing a product variable, but a delay, for example, could be about not having enough funds to make the purchase for a few months.

Knowing which is necessary to find solutions.

Be Strong but Not Pushy

Take charge by using ‘friendly strength’ and expertise to lead the call. No one wants a pushy salesperson, but also no one wants an ‘impartial doormat,’ so find the balance.

Call your prospects when you have the most energy in the day; this is typically in the morning. Your tone and enthusiasm will then resonate through the phone.

Time is Precious stalling tactics

Mentioning that time is valuable, for both parties, is a respectful way to determine if the prospect is genuine about the purchase, but this needs to be done delicately so as not to annoy your customer.

Teach Your Customers

Challenging your prospect and teaching them something is more likely to drive their purchase decision. By testing their thinking, they will be curious about your product or service and buy into it.

Offering suggestions can sometimes help move stalling prospects on, even if not directly related to the product or service. This promotes better relationships and shows that you care about their success.

Know How to Handle Difficult Prospects

What should you say to control a call with difficult prospects?

If they refuse to answer your questions.

Make sure the customer recognizes that they have a problem, even if that problem is with their existing product. When they know this, they should open up and let you find a solution.

Your goal is to demonstrate that answering your questions will benefit them.

Tell your customer it will be quicker if you can ask questions because you would have to be generic otherwise and possibly talk about unnecessary points.

Turn their questions around to present a qualifying question secretly. For example, if they ask for a price, ask them if they have a budget, why the price is important, what price means to them, etc.

If they continue to refuse, and the sale is that vital to you, then make the sale the way they want but let them know they could be missing out on something, including a discount.

If they have many objections

Let your prospect talk until they have no more objections, but actively listen to what they are saying.

Prioritize objections. Ask them – of all their points, which is the most pertinent, or which one is the deal-breaker. Then define which issues are still relevant and which ones are the nice-to-haves. Then focus your conversation on the deal-breaking points.

Ask – if all the points could be resolved, “would you allow us to be your solution”? If no, clarify what still needs to be done.

Keep the call on track. If your prospect starts talking about issues other than the deal-breakers, bring them back to focus on what matters.

If the prospect delays

Once you’ve established there is a genuine delay, ask your prospect if anything could threaten your partnership or sale. This will help you further identify obstacles, confirm their commitments, and close the deal quicker.

Go back and resolve any issues, if you can, and state the next steps in the sales process.

Know When to Walk Away stalling tactics

Knowing when to walk away from the stall will save wasting time in the long run.

If you have done everything in your power correctly, yet the customer is still stalling, suggest they get back to you when they are ready, or arrange a follow-up call at a later date.

What time of day do you do your first-time calls? What sales mistakes have you made in the past? Please share your sales mistakes and thoughts in the comments section below.

Up Next:

• THE #1 MISTAKE SALES REPS ARE MAKING RIGHT NOW
• 14 SKILLS SALES DEVELOPMENT REPRESENTATIVE HAVE MASTERED
• HOW TO SOUND MORE CONFIDENT ON THE PHONE

RELATED: WHAT 3 TOP SDR LEADERS ARE DOING RIGHT NOW

In this article:

1. Meet the Speaker
2. Sales Mistakes – the #1 Mistake
3. How to Fix the Problem
4. When’s the Right Call Block Time and How Can I Accelerate Performance?
5. How to Deal with Negative Pushback
6. Don’t Waste Time on the Wrong Activities
7. How do You Lock Down the Next Steps?

Sales Mistakes and Tips for Getting the Most from Your Sales Team

Meet the Speaker

Michael Pedone is the founder of Salesbuzz.com, an online training company for B2B sales teams that need to overcome call reluctance.

Michael has been a straight commission sales rep for over 25 years. “He launched an internet marketing company during the dot com meltdown and defied the odds by turning it into a massively successful venture. A large factor in its success was Michael’s ability to teach his proven phone sales techniques to his ever-expanding staff, creating swift growth for the company”.

Sales Mistakes – the #1 Mistake

The main sales mistake reps make is probably the same mistake they were making pre-COVID-19.

When reps are making outbound sales calls, they are making the ‘follow-up call’ first. When sales reps try to close those deals, they are spending a lot of energy on those calls and pushing back the ‘first-time’ calls in the afternoon.

This means reps have a lot less energy and don’t make as many calls as they should. They then tell themselves they will do the calls the next day but the cycle repeats, a bit like a farmer that wants to keep reaping but never planting seeds.

This is how sales slumps happen. The bigger issue is that when reps feel the effects of the sales slump, they change their sales process because nothing’s working.

The pipeline disappears because of the lack of first-time calls and desperation kicks in causing reps to make ineffective changes. Usually what’s getting changed is what was working when reps were putting in the energy.

How to Fix the Problem

When sales slumps happen the best way to get through them is to get disciplined and create some call blocks in the morning between 9am-10:30am for first-time calls. The follow-up calls should be done in the afternoon.

Following that simple step, be disciplined in that area, and you’ll see your numbers take off; possibly not in the first few days or week, but eventually you will see a solid pipeline and you’ll eliminate and minimize those drastic sales slumps.

When’s the Right Call Block Time and How Can I Accelerate Performance?

There are more segmented sales roles and more things on our plate now than before than ever before which means there’s no ‘one size fits all’ approach, but with people working from home, one common thread is reps are having a hard time getting the ‘first-time’ call done first.

There’s no right or wrong, there’s only what’s better for you.

If you know that you have to do your prospecting, get up early if you have to and get it done before the day starts, build that list, and always have a list ready to go when you start your working day.

Have a list of people that are prospects/suspects and make a commitment to do nothing else until you knock out 10/20/30 ‘first-time calls’. Then go to your follow-up calls but your day’s tasks should be broken down in that order.

The reason sales reps do follow-up calls first is because it’s easier, less stressful, and they want to close a sale or book an appointment as soon as they can.

Here’s the problem – people typically have more energy in the morning, so why do the easy task when you have the most energy? Do the harder task when you have the most amount of energy and in the afternoon do the easier jobs.

If you commit to taking that ‘cold shower’ at the start of your day, and do all of your first-time calls before noon, you can come back after lunch and the rest of the day is cake! The pressure is off!

Schedule your follow-up calls from 1-5pm, and maybe take a 30-minute break around 3pm to build your prospect/suspect list for the following day. Then finish the day strong, have a power hour for the last hour of the day, and complete any calls that you haven’t done.

Discipline yourself to do that enough and you will have a great pipeline, and you won’t have to worry about a sales slump, due to not ‘planting any crops’.

How to Deal with Negative Pushback

A lot of people get negative pushback from making sales calls because they are disrupting people at home, for example, while people are home-schooling their children.

What’s bothering them is that it’s not that they’re getting the call but that the message isn’t resonating, and the opening statement is the problem. Many salespeople don’t realize their low responses could be due to their message being off.

The opening value statement when contacting prospects by phone has 2 objectives:

• Piquing interest
• Gaining permission to ask questions/continue with the call

If you have a solution to specific problems, you need to know how to ‘pick your zebra out of the herd’ (who have that problem) and how to contact them – whether phone, email, LinkedIn or a combination, etc, to pique their interest.

Be tactful and empathetic but go straight to the question and target the pain.

If you learn how to agitate that pain, scratch that itch, pique curiosity in the first 5-15 seconds, your customer will be responsive. Make sure you’re ready for that response and be prepared for the next stage of the sales process. Once you learn how to master that process, you’ll start making money and sales becomes fun again!

Don’t Waste Time on the Wrong Activities

Salespeople have been oversold on the need and value of research. Although important, there should be a two minute cap on researching to determine if your customer qualifies as a prospect/suspect. If you get to know your ICP (ideal customer profile) you will reduce research time.

Spending longer researching could be down to call reluctance which comes back to sales skills, which if you fix, the call reluctance will go away.

Again, there’s no one size fits all approach, consider outsourcing that part, or get an intern or junior sales rep to build the list.

If you’re not satisfied with the results you’re getting, break the mold and think outside the box and make things work for you.

How do You Lock Down the Next Steps?

Whether a cold call or a warm lead, the process is the same and actually hasn’t changed since sales began.

There are four phases to getting a sale.

1. The opening value statement. openers have a specific job and must pique interest and ask permission to continue with the call.
2. Qualifying (3 steps)
   • Problem recognition – the customer needs to recognize they have a problem even if that is with their current product which they believe is the solution.
   • Identify the person’s real role in the decision-making process.
   • Provide pricing options so the customer can clarify if the product is within budget. One of the biggest objections that sales reps have is that the customer can’t afford the product, so qualifying this at the early stages eliminates that objection early on and shoots the closing numbers up after the presentation.
     Presentation
3. Closing

Watch the full webinar to learn more sales mistakes and tips from Michael Pedone

For more free info on inside sales, go to the SalesBuzz.com blog and use the search function to find anything you need.

If you have any questions about Playbooks or XANT, go to xant.ai/playbooks where you can watch a great ‘day in the life’ video and get a flavor of how reps and managers connect to customers quickly.

What time of day do you do your first-time calls? What sales mistakes have you made in the past? Please share your sales mistakes and thoughts in the comments section below.

Up Next:

• 14 SKILLS SALES DEVELOPMENT REPRESENTATIVE HAVE MASTERED
• 9 SALES TOOLS TO INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY
• HOW TO RADICALLY REORDER SALES IN A CRISIS [WEBINAR]

RELATED: WHAT 3 TOP SDR LEADERS ARE DOING RIGHT NOW

In this article:

SDR vs. BDR

1. What Importance do SDRs and BDRs Hold?
2. How are the Roles Defined?
3. The General Consensus
4. What is a Business Development Rep?
5. What is a Sales Development Rep?
6. Reordering Sales
7. Summary

SDR vs. BDR

What Importance do SDRs and BDRs Hold?

Together the SDR and BDR roles entail building a business’s prospect database with leads. Differentiating between jobs is crucial when building a robust sales force. Each department has a specific task taking care of different aspects of prospect development.

Both jobs ensure an organization delivers an efficient revenue machine by making the sales cycle streamlined, and they position within the inside sales team.

It’s inefficient and expensive to employ account executives to call prospects all day. Hence, a dedicated inside sales team who does this work is much more successful, particularly when aligned with your customer’s buying cycle.

Both positions take much of the time-consuming and administrative work away from other salespeople, specifically the pitchers and closers. Without SDRs and BDRs, sales teams’ production is 40% less in reference to lead conversion.

How are the Roles Defined?

According to LinkedIn “business development is the process of finding the match between a product (or solution) and a segment in the market. Sales development is the process of systematically generating revenue with the product (solution) in the chosen market segment in the race for market leadership”.

The roles of SDR and BDR can be confused with each other, but clarity can only really be found within individual companies as everyone does it differently. There seems to be no official definition, with some organizations having conflicting definitions.

The general consensus

• BDR is focussed on outbound lead prospecting
• SDR is focussed on qualifying inbound leads
• Neither are responsible for closing business
• Both move leads through the sales pipeline
• The roles will normally only be separated in larger companies

That said, here’s our explanation of SDR vs. BDR.

What is a Business Development Rep?

A BDR’s responsibility is to focus on generating qualified marketing leads. They convert cold leads into warm leads, and effectively they pass the baton from marketing to sales.

BDRs have a difficult job when it comes to research, and leads can potentially come from anywhere. They network, research on Google, use social media, make calls, and email to generate leads to fill their pipeline with new contacts.

Engagement is aggressive (in the sense of targeting cold prospects), and there is less automation than in the SDR role. The BDR usually has to make more attempts to get a response. The BDRs pipeline isn’t so much a funnel, so they have to track down leads, which changes communication somewhat.

What is a Sales Development Rep?

An SDR’s responsibility is to focus on inbound lead qualification, and process leads through the sales cycle by qualifying prospects and setting sales appointments.

Traditionally phone-based, SDRs now connect with organizations using a variety of methods.

SDRs get their leads from a variety of sources:

• Advertising and marketing, for example, on social media.
• Leads generated by BDRs
• Inbound
• SEO
• Referrals

SDRs must quickly respond and contact inbound leads within minutes.

They use tools such as social media, phone, and email, as well as mastering lead generation software and other CRM platforms.

At the qualifying stage, the SDR ensures that the lead is interested and labeled as acceptable. This is done through lead scoring. The customer hits a pre-set score and is then called, and hopefully, an appointment is booked.

SDRs engage with leads through nurturing and monitoring behaviors. They identify who is a prospect, i.e., who is a potential going to buy, and who is a suspect, i.e., who is not going to buy. The leads are funneled through automated platforms, and the SDR sets out to book appointments.

Reordering Sales

The fastest-growing companies are investing money into their sales development, and where the roles originally began in marketing teams, the growing trend is shifting them towards the sales teams. Looking back further, over 20 years, there were only sales reps who were responsible for every stage of the sales process.

Lead generation is a critical factor for many organizations. The nature of a sales force has undergone many changes in recent years, which have sculpted the process of obtaining prospects.

Lead generation practices are evolving, and traditional methods have significantly changed. Digital interactions and telecommunications are equally as important as calls and emails.

Kraig Kleeman, a world-leading growth advisor and sales strategist, says we should radically reorder the way we think about sales. His view is that you should load your BDR & SDR team balance to a minimum of 5:1 ratio, i.e., five BDRs/SDRs minimum per seller.

Those BDRs/SDRs need to be equipped with messaging and content that’s been highly customized, and that’s rooted in hermeneutics (the science of language) and sales proposal writing.

The SDRs should take part in demo meetings and do all the administrative tasks relating to CRM. Kraig believes the SDR should carry all motions and follow the customer meetings until close, freeing up the seller to sell/pitch and close the sale.

Summary

The different nature of these two sales roles means both are useful within a company to grow sales. Both are there to provide sales qualified appointments (SQAs) – the SDR from warm leads and prospects who have heard about your product and the BDR from new sources.

What’s your view on SDR vs BDR? Do you think the line is too fine or a necessary development? Share your ideas in the comments section below.

Up Next:

• ARE YOU A LEADER OR MANAGER OF YOUR TEAM?
• POSITIVE WAYS COMPANIES ARE REACTING TO CORONAVIRUS

RELATED: WHAT 3 TOP SDR LEADERS ARE DOING RIGHT NOW

In this article:

1. Why do you want a career in sales?
2. Why did you apply for the role with (company name)?
3. Can you do a demo call with a colleague right now?
4. Do you have any questions?
5. Curveball question.
6. Rate this interview and tell us how you could improve it?
7. What hobbies do you invest time and money into?
8. What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
9. What’s a recent thing you’ve learned?

SDR Interview Questions Techniques Explained

SDR interview questions should be focused around prospecting and other SDR functions, but typically to get candidates to provide detailed responses to tough questions. Segregated sales teams call on SDRs to source revenue in a bespoke manner, and candidates need to show their energy, confidence, team-player skills, and coachability.

SDR Interview Questions

Why do you want a career in sales?

Although a classic and straightforward question, asking your interviewee why they want (or why they chose) a career in sales is a great opener, which should get them talking broadly. There are a variety of answers to this question, and you’ll get a good idea of how passionate your candidate is about sales. If they are instinctive, they will be able to talk about the current climate of the industry and possibly relate it to your organization.

Why did you apply for the role with (company name)?

TThis next question leads on from the first very naturally. Your candidate has said why they love sales, but now they need to tell you why they want to work in your organization. Interviewees should be well prepared for this one and have done their homework and research. Candidates who’ve done a basic check of your company’s website might likely fall through the cracks for a role that is based on personalized communication. What you’re trying to glean from them is something original and something which really tells you they would be a good fit for your organization. You’ll be able to gauge how they perceive your company, and again, their passion should come through about your product or service.

Can you do a demo call with a colleague right now?

Arrange for a demo call, whichever style suits the role; it would entail a colleague from another office or a second interviewer in the room. Get your candidate to prospect, and if they can pitch your product, even better. This will clearly show you who has done research on your organization’s product, and who has all the ‘sales’ characteristics you’re looking for. If your potential candidate is unable to do this comfortably, then it’s unlikely they will have the confidence to make calls on the job or will be able to handle pressure and show poise.

Do you have any questions?

This is another classic SDR interview question possibly used in every interview. What you want to be demonstrated is how much ‘homework’ your candidate has done. Answering a question that isn’t about the role, product, or culture might put you off your interviewee. Ideally, you want to hear several well-planned questions that will reveal a lot about what your candidate finds important in their job. Asking this question early in the interview negates the chance for your candidate to say something like ‘no, I think you covered it all.’

Curveball question.

Throwing in a curveball question is a fun way to liven an interview and to see how your candidate reacts. It’s unlikely your interviewee is a bag of nerves because of the role they are applying for, but breaking the ice always helps to build rapport and relaxed people will often talk more and give you a better insight into their character. The whimsical question also lets you see how quickly your potential rep can respond, and how they think on their feet.

Examples might be: –

• If you had to be a kitchen utensil, what would you be and why?
• If you had $1,000 and you had to double it in a day, how would you do this?

Rate this interview and tell us how you could improve it?

This could be a telling question – will the candidate talk about how they think they have failed or what they can do to improve their side of the interview, or will they talk about how they think you could improve your questions, etc. Uncomfortable questions like this one force the candidate to sell themselves. Hiring someone who sounds self-entitled could be a headache for the team, but someone who sees strengths in others but can also elaborate on their own strengths is a winner.

What hobbies do you invest time and money into?

Asking what hobbies someone invests time and money into, and why, is an interesting alternative to the original ‘what hobbies do you have’ question. You will be able to evaluate the cultural fit of your candidate with your organization and team and open a discussion about the values of money and time. Sales reps are usually proactive and energetic, so this is likely to reflect on their hobbies.

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever done?

Or a spin on this question; what is your greatest achievement? Ideally, your candidate will tell you something that meant a lot to them, show you their passion, and indicate what qualifies as hard work. They should detail what they had to do to achieve their goal, and hopefully, they will give an SDR work-related answer and a personal goal.

What’s a recent thing you’ve learned?

Part of an SDRs job is to ask insightful questions or make personalized communications with prospects. So, they often have to learn new tools, platforms, or techniques to get the best responses. By asking this question, they will hopefully tell you a great trick they incorporated into their role. They shouldn’t have any problems being enthusiastic and demonstrating their curiosity at work.

What time of day do you do your first-time calls? What sales mistakes have you made in the past? Please share your sales mistakes and thoughts in the comments section below.

Up Next:

• 7 SALES HIRING QUESTIONS TO IDENTIFY TOP TALENT
• HOW TO BECOME A TOP PERFORMER IN SALES (7 QUALITIES)

RELATED: 11 TIPS TO BUILD A SUCCESSFUL SALES STRATEGY PLAN

In this article:

1. 1. 1. Recruit Well
      2. Offer Extensive Onboarding, Training & Coaching
      3. Build an Excellent Sales Culture

Simple Steps to a First-Rate Sales Team

Recruit Well build sales team

Skillful and accomplished salespeople are a crucial asset for all organizations; their primary role is to build value for the business. Often the first main contact for your customers, salespeople must have a certain set of skills and traits to succeed. Recruiting for a high-quality sales force is not always easy, and significant investment is required.

Recruitment referral programs work well in an already established sales team. People connect in various jobs and roles, and a salesperson will know what kind of person is needed for the job.

Establish a continual recruitment process that doesn’t lie dormant when there are no vacancies within the business. We all know that recruiting someone can take months, and hiring to fill the shoes of a great salesperson can mean decisions can be rushed. Don’t compromise on talent and attract salespeople on an ongoing basis.

This can be done by promoting your organization’s values and cultures on your website or social media. Looking at your competitors can result in head-hunting great salespeople whom you know are already well experienced.

If you have specific ideas for the types of salespeople you want to hire, take a hands-on approach to recruitment. Outsourcing to a recruitment agency can be costly, and they don’t always get it right.

Scrutinize resumes and weed out the people who don’t fit your company. Your job description should reflect precisely what you want from a candidate. The recruitment process should involve multiple stages, including, for example, a phone interview to qualify candidates, a video call, personality test, aptitude test, face to face interview (possibly a two-stage process involving a panel of recruiters), demo presentation, etc. Ensure you ask for proof of past performance and set various tests to confirm figures.

Also, look at what transferable skills the candidate has. Not all great salespeople come from an obvious ‘sales’ background.

Offer Extensive Onboarding, Training & Coaching

It’s paramount to get a salesperson up to speed as quickly as possible, and top-performing organizations do this well by providing the best in class onboarding and training processes. Retention rates can be high for businesses that don’t immediately look after their staff.

Consider starting your onboarding process before the salesperson’s first day, in fact, to a certain degree; this would already have begun because of the recruitment process. You want your salespeople to hit the ground running and to send out welcome packages are an excellent way to enable this. Content should include your company’s values, mission, offerings, and relevant information, such as background, hierarchy, and leadership.

A formal onboarding and training program should give a solid framework with clear milestones that need to be achieved. Salespeople should have regular 1:1’s, which communicate progress and expectations but ultimately provide support.

Success must be defined so employees can strive to achieve SMART goals. Quality online training programs should be relevant and up to date with the organization’s methods and processes. If you have the luxury of established sales reps, use them to mentor new starters.

RELATED: MAPPING THE SALES PROCESS: 7 STEPS FOR SUCCESS

Build an Excellent Sales Culture build sales team

Culture is the foundation of every sales team and is intrinsic to your company’s longevity and profitability. It reflects what you aspire to achieve and reflects the personality of the organization. It keeps momentum, motivates employees, and engages a positive environment.

Hire the right people to fit your culture. There’s no point hiring the most experienced salesperson when their character will be completely out of place, and they won’t respect your mission. Look for people who are team players, who can adapt to change and have a great work ethic.

Ensure staff are motivated through recognition but don’t encourage negative competition. You can build a strong team who are driven but be cautious when competition causes rivalry. Communicate standards, targets, and revenues, but facilitate knowledge sharing so colleagues can work together to achieve personal and group objectives.

Each employee will want to know their worth, so understand their motivational forces and let staff know their contribution really matters.

Promote good rapport and trust within your team through fun activities. Content staff will always work their hardest for the business and be less distracted by adverse events.

Move on from failure quickly; it will happen; you will get rejections, so get tactical. Share experiences and allow staff to learn from mistakes. Allow staff to implement new practices, methods, or equipment to increase sales.

Communication is essential to build trust in leadership. Establish excellent communication channels and use good platforms for communicating include a reliable CRM system and company intranet. Share goals and visions but involve employees to collectively contribute to the success of your business.

Invest in Good Technology; more so than ever, we are seeing what technology can do for us. As much of the nation work in a remote environment, salespeople are adapting the way they pitch and close deals.

Summary build sales team

Always assess your organization and continuously improve standards. Business culture changes so often, it would almost be impossible not to change with the times and continually improve your processes. Successful sales teams will already have a mindset of continuous improvement and will adapt well to changes.

As a leader, you must always lead from the front, understand your employees, and be an exemplary example.

Have you built a sales team from scratch before? What tips can you share? Please comment in the section below.

Up Next:

• • • HOW TO COMP SALES TEAMS IN A CRISIS
    • PRACTICAL ADJUSTMENTS TO REMOTE SELLING IN A COVID AND POST-COVID WORLD
    • HOW TO SELL WELL WHILE YOU WORK FROM HOME
      

In this Sales Secrets episode, you’ll learn how the right sales development program can produce the three skills a sales development representative must possess to succeed.

RELATED: Sales Development Action Plan For 2019

In this article:

1. Sales Development Rep Skill #1: Conversation Starter
   1. Sales Development Program: How to Start a Conversation
   2. Respect Your Prospect’s Time
2. Sales Development Rep Skill #2: Lead Management
   1. Sales Development Program: Ways How to Exhaust Your Leads
3. Sales Development Rep Skill #3: Warm Transfer
   1. Sales Development Program: How to Execute a Warm Transfer
4. Final Advice

The Sales Development Program for Successful SDRs

Tyler Wicks is the North American Sales Enablement Instructor of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). He’s been a part of the organization for three years. He started out as an inside sales representative for new business before moving into sales management.

Realizing he wanted to make a larger impact on the culture and the people within his organization, he assumed the role of Sales Enablement Instructor.

Now, Wicks instructs HPE’s inside sellers and onboards their field sales teams and solutions architects. HPE believes SDRs have an important role to play, so they’ve been building up their numbers.

Currently, they have around 60 SDRs, and their end goal is to increase their number to between 80 and 100.

Sales Development Rep Skill #1: Conversation Starter

Sales Development Representatives need to find the right conversation starter to engage prospects successfully.

The first skill a sales development representative has to have to win is the ability to start conversations.

Wicks shared that many of their SDRs are in the early stage of their careers. They either had one job prior, or their first job is being an SDR for Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Being new to the industry, they’re prone to become overwhelmed with the available technology. They find themselves asking, “How can I have a good conversation if I don’t know all about this technology?”

That’s why Wicks often reminds them that the first thing they need to do is to pick up the phone and just jump right into it.

As an SDR, you need to start somewhere. Moreover, selling is about relationships.

You need to catch your prospect’s attention early on in the conversation. You also need to quickly find a common denominator with the person you’re speaking to.

A common denominator is a very relevant topic you and your prospect can both relate to. It may have nothing to do with your business, but it can help you establish a relationship with someone new.

Sales Development Program: How to Start a Conversation

When it comes to starting conversations, Wicks shared with us the acronym he uses — A.C.T. This stands for authenticity, connection, and topic, which he teaches his sales development program trainees to apply.

SDRs should genuinely want to find mutual ground with their prospects. They have to understand the people they’re talking to, so they can figure out how they fit within their organization.

That genuine rapport-building eventually leads to something more meaningful, no matter how long it takes.

To get to know prospects better, SDRs should be willing to lend a listening ear. One conversation starter that Wicks shared was:

“I’ve got a basic understanding of your organization, but I’d love to hear it from your perspective.

I also have a fair idea of what you do as a [prospect’s position]. Would you please help me understand what your role means to you and how you influence your organization?”

When you start your conversation with these types of questions, you’ll get your prospect talking about themselves. They’ll also share with you what kind of involvement they have in their organization.

Through that, you can begin developing common ground with them.

Respect Your Prospect’s Time

Wicks is a big believer in asking a prospect first if you caught them at a good time. Yet, here’s what we know to be true: it’s never a good time.

Sometimes, people immediately agree to talk to you. Other times, they reluctantly agree.

Some people find excuses to not talk to you, or even outright say, “Now is not a good time.”

As an SDR, you’d want to set the tone upfront that you respect your prospect’s time. If you didn’t catch them at a good time, don’t force it.

Yet there’s a flip side to that, Wicks said. You also have to be aggressive.

Those who undergo training in his sales development program know that getting rejected is their first opportunity to set an appointment.

Wicks shared this response you can use: “I totally understand. When would be the next best time for me to get in touch with you?”

Then you can guide them to that next best time. Follow up your response with, “I’ve got an opening tomorrow. Would tomorrow work for you? Maybe I can catch you early in the morning or in the afternoon?”

Wicks advised not to leave the appointment setting up to your prospect. If you do, it may take you a long time to get ahold of them, or you may never even have the chance.

RELATED: The Five Sales Development Plays To Nail In 2019 w/Dan Gottlieb @TOPO

Sales Development Rep Skill #2: Lead Management

SDRs should make it a point to reach out to all qualified leads.

The second skill that successful SDRs have is the ability to manage leads well.

One of the pain points of SDRs is the quality of leads they receive. Sometimes, they feel like the leads are junk, and they don’t have the right contacts.

There are different tools available for you to get the right contacts. You could be using helpful tools like DiscoverOrg, Zoom Info, and Hoovers in your business.

As Wicks said, if you know your sales organization is paying good money for these tools, quit griping about bad-quality leads.

Even if not all the information is accurate, you’re still getting qualified leads. That’s why Wicks advises SDRs to take the initiative to find the right contact within the account.

Leverage one of your tools and exhaust the lead.

As a sales leader, Wicks shared that closed out leads due to bad contact information bother him. What’s more, the SDR touched the lead only once and didn’t make an effort to exhaust it.

He encourages SDRs to dig deeper into the leads to find the right information and exhaust them. This typically means making eight to eleven touches on a single lead.

Sales Development Program: Ways How to Exhaust Your Leads

As Wicks shared with us, they found that eight to eleven touches are their optimal numbers when it comes to exhausting leads. After that, they believe it’s time to close out the lead and tell Marketing that they’ve already tried all options but didn’t get any traction.

Wicks admitted he hadn’t decided yet on the optimal order of communication. He tells his reps to switch it up between phone calls and emails but to always indicate their next step.

For instance, the SDR calls someone first. In the voicemail they leave, they tell the prospect they’ll follow up with an email.

If they email someone first, they’ll mention within the email that they’ll follow up with a phone call.

Wicks shared that they manage a large portion of their enterprise large accounts via email, but he’ll still instruct their enterprise reps to utilize phone calls.

As he said, they can’t just be “transactional and reactive” to the business. They need to get in touch with the people they’re dealing with as it creates a more personal touch.

Another tip that Wicks shared is to ask the prospect what their preferred method of communication is. It’s a big deal when you get someone to agree to text, call, or email you.

Sales Development Rep Skill #3: Warm Transfer

The warm transfer or introduction is crucial in keeping a prospect interested.

The third skill is being able to execute a warm transfer. Wicks believes that the disconnection happens when it’s time for the SDR to pass the lead along to the Account Manager.

SDRs need to create an appropriate talk track instead of dryly passing the lead to the next person in the sales process.

There has to be a warm introduction. The SDR should set the tone, and the second call should not be a complete rehash of what happened during the first call.

Sales Development Program: How to Execute a Warm Transfer

Wicks said the key is to have the SDR get on the line to make warm introductions. This eliminates a lot of confusion for the customer.

SDRs are the front-liners who initially engage with the customer. If they fail to mention they’re going to introduce the customer to an Account Representative, odds are, the customer forgets the name and gets confused.

The handoff will be way more effective if the SDR makes the warm introductions. They shouldn’t expect the next person in the process to establish a connection with the customer immediately.

If there’s a common ground between everyone, utilize that. You can start the warm introduction with something personalized:

“[Account Manager’s name] and I were on the phone the other day. Would you believe he’s also a die-hard Yankees fan like you and me?”

That kind of introduction gives you an opening to connect and involve the next person in the sales process.

Final Advice

Wicks firmly believes that everything starts with initiating a conversation. It’s awkward, and you get anxious, but you need to start building your confidence somewhere.

Failing at the beginning is normal, and if you do, make sure to fail forward.

Wicks advised to document and listen to your phone calls as well as your peers’. Then, figure out how you can better streamline and articulate your message because you only have a short window to do it.

Like other industries, sales development continuously changes to meet different needs. If you want to become an SDR who is able to roll with the punches, learn from the sales development program, Tyler Wicks shared.

Acquire the top three skills that successful sales reps possess. Make sure to practice them with every chance you get, so you can become an expert.

Which of the three skills are you good at, and which do you need to improve on? Share them with us in the comments section below.

Up Next: 

• Top Tips For Sales Development
• How To Win At Sales Development – 27 Tips From The Experts
• 3 Salesforce Email Template Tips For Effective Sales Emails

RELATED: How To Make A Discovery Call To Assist In A Sales Handoff

In this article:

1. How Sales Development Reps Can Hand Off Clients More Seamlessly
   1. Lead Qualification
   2. Adding Notes to SalesForce
   3. Lead Qualification Criteria
   4. Account/Persona Minimum Matrix
2. What Makes a Sales Qualified Lead?
3. Sales Executive Responsibility
4. Other Tips With the Lead Set Up Hand Off Process
   1. Don’t Forget the Value of a Follow-Up
   2. Optimize Your Established Lead Hand-Off Process
   3. Hand-Off Communication Should Be Constant
5. The Importance of a Seamless Lead Hand-Off Process

How to Hand Off a Client | 4 Steps to Have a Seamless Lead Hand-Off Process

How Sales Development Reps Can Hand Off Clients More Seamlessly

Sales development is a tough job, and success is hard to come by. If you managed to set an appointment for a sales demo, congrats, you can do a little victory dance.

But your job doesn’t end there.

Sales development representatives need to have a perfectly smooth process to hand-off qualified leads to the account executives after they have set an appointment.

The key to success is having the heads of both departments in the same room to hammer out the compromise. Open dialogue and transparent communication are integral to ensure the needs of both parties are met.

I’ve mapped out below the lead qualification and lead hand-off process, with easy steps to follow and templates included.

What is the Lead Hand-Off Process? This is the part of the process where a lead or prospect moves further through the sales funnel, usually between the sales rep who prospected them to a sales professional who will manage their account.

1. Lead Qualification

First, sales development reps (SDRs) need to hand off information about the prospect. They also need to provide an easy way to know where the information is held.

Below we have an email template example to an account executive for appointment hand-off. It has all the details the account executive needs before jumping in on a demo call:

• Company name
• Person name and title
• Link to event in Salesforce where notes will be stored

Example:

Ari,

Hope you are doing well. I just set up an appointment for you with Robb Young who is the Director of Business Development at XANT.

Here is the link that will take you to the event in salesforce where you can find my notes from the call:  (include CRM Link)

Best,

Alex J

2. Adding Notes to SalesForce

Now, whether you are working with Salesforce, Microsoft Dynamics CRM, SAP, or any other customer relationship management software, you need to leave notes for your account executive about the prospect.

Here is the list of details you must enter in the CRM notes. Now, there are obviously some details which are specific to SaaS sales here, and you might customize this list based on your industry and sales goals :

• Source of the meeting (eBook download, webinar, demo request, cold outreach or target persona, etc.)
• What sparked their interest initially?
• What did you discuss that led them to agree to a discovery call?
• Structure of their company/team
• What types of systems are they using?
• *Optional – What product would best fit their needs?

Below you have an example of how we do this at XANT:

Example:

• Robb filled out a web form to receive our “Time management for sales” infographic
• We started talking about his sales team, and he opened up about how his SDRs could be better with their time management. He wanted to check out the infographic to see what it was about.
  I explained to Robb that we have a platform that helps make SDRs be a lot more efficient with their time. Robb was interested to learn more, so we set up a time for a discovery call next week.
• They have 20 SDRs and 40 AEs in their team and two managers
• All SDR’s and account executives use Salesforce
• Didn’t go into detail about if they are calling on cold leads, or if they get more inbound leads. No information on what product they might need.

3. Lead Qualification Criteria

The lead qualification criteria will depend on your go-to market strategy, target audience, and personas. Make sure you have these buttoned up and come up with a list of minimum criteria for lead qualification. Here is an example below:

4. Account/Persona Minimum Matrix

• The annual contract paid upfront – Does the prospect have the funds needed?
• Technology requirements OR other requirements based on industry (Are they able to implement your solution, service, or product?)
• Title minimum – What is the minimum title level for a prospect to be able to close the deal or become an executive sponsor for your product (manager, director, or other?)

You might add or remove some of these criteria based on the specifics of your business or product. Some companies work only with local clients, others will do national or international shipping. Or, you might have other lead qualification criteria you care about.

Sales development representatives qualify prospects based on the first two sets of the ANUM model, Authority and Need. If the prospect does not have authority (can they sign? were they asked to look into this solution by their manager? do they hold the credit card?), or need (the need will vary based on your industry or product), then the sales development rep will not receive credit or commission for the demo.

RELATED: Nailing the Sales Handoff: How to Ensure Sales Appointments Hold 

What Makes a Sales Qualified Lead?

What is a sales qualified lead? Well, this will vary with each company and each product or service.

Often, the difference between a marketing qualified lead and a sales qualified lead is the intent to purchase.

If you find prospects that are ready to become a client, congratulations! However, your work is not done yet.

The key to success is having the heads of both Sales Development and Accounts in the same room to hammer out details. Open dialogue and transparent communication are integral to ensuring the needs of both parties are met, and buy-in from both sides is achieved.

Make sure you set criteria for both inbound leads and outbound lead qualification.

Sales Executive Responsibility

Once the lead has been qualified, the sales executive will assume that the prospect/lead falls under the first two sets of the ANUM model, Authority and Need. The Sales Executive will dig further into the prospects’ situation with specific questions to identify problems and gaps in their strategies and create a sense of Urgency.

Once Urgency is created through various questions, pricing is presented, and the budget is identified.

The account executives are responsible for the demo, allowing the prospect a window of ownership (if running late), follow-up Demos, meeting with additional members from the team, as well as coordinating the next steps.

If the lead doesn’t show up,  it is the Sales Executives’ responsibility to either continue to re-engage or pass it back to the SDR lead pool to prospect into.

Other Tips With the Lead Set Up Hand Off Process

Performing a perfect lead hand-off for a successful sale

Given these steps listed above, you should know how to properly execute the hand-off. To supplement the information above, here are some tips to keep in mind as well:

1. Don’t Forget the Value of a Follow-Up

When it comes to the handover process, the responsibility of the SDR doesn’t end once you’ve finalized the process. Instead, there’s one last thing you should do as well: follow-ups.

To ensure that the handoff process went well, you should look at what happened to them after you’ve handed them off.

Some questions to ask include:

• Were the leads receptive to the account executive after the hand-off process?
• Did the leads contribute to the achievement of goals for both the SDR and the AE?
• How long did the on-boarding for the lead take?

Asking these questions can help you better understand what happens to the lead after you’ve handed them off.

Speaking of a follow-up, make sure that you follow-up immediately to your AE so they can get in contact with your lead while they’re still hot. This will ensure that your AEs don’t lose the lead because they weren’t able to contact them soon enough.

2. Optimize Your Established Lead Hand-Off Process

The best way to improve your hand-off process is by making a playbook for it. That way, you can keep track of any issues that prop up.

It can help you figure out the tasks that usually come with the hand-off. However, make sure that only one person is dealing with each task so you know who’s responsible for it.

A playbook is vital in optimizing your lead hand-off process because you know which key metrics are essential in your process design. These are what you’ll tweak to create your best practices to help you achieve your goals.

The critical parts of your playbook for the hand-off process should include:

1. 1. The pre-handoff
   2. The lead qualification
   3. Internal hand-off
   4. The hand-Off
   5. Follow-Ups

3. Hand-Off Communication Should Be Constant

Effective communication is essential to the success of the hand-off process. It’s the glue that binds everything together.

As the person leading the process, you should continuously update the lead about the process.

Prior to the hand-off, give them an idea of when it’ll actually happen. Inform the lead who’s going to become their AE and what’s going to happen moving forward.

Next, you should make sure that your AE has a solid understanding of your lead. Excellent communication is essential to the hand-off, so don’t neglect your emails and calls during this point.

The Importance of a Seamless Lead Hand-Off Process

Once again, success for your lead hand-off process — and ultimately for your sale, will depend on excellent communication between your sales development rep and account executive teams. Research from XANT Labs shows that sales teams with good coordination between sales development reps and account executives show higher rates of appointments holding and opportunities successfully passing.

The appointment hold rate for SDRs and AEs who meet daily is 17.7% higher than for those who only meet once a week. More importantly, quota attainment is 7.2% higher for those companies with daily communication between SDRs and AEs, shows the “State of Sales Development 2017” study.

That should surely motivate you to become best friends with your account executive. Happy selling!

What are some of the issues or difficulties you’ve encountered with the hand-off process? Share them with us in the comments section below. 

Up Next: 

• How To Align Sales and Marketing
• Sales and Marketing Alignment Seen as Solution to Pipeline Problem, Shows Survey
• How To Support Frontline Sales Managers w/Natalie Bering @ServiceNow

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on August 23, 2018, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.

RELATED: The Selling Formula W/ Brian Robinson

In this article:

1. Cross-Selling Definition – What Is Cross-Selling?
2. Best Cross-Selling Sales Tips for Retailers
3. The Ultimate Guide to Sales Data Analysis for Successful Cross-Selling
4. 7 Tips Your Sales Reps Can Use to Master Cross-Selling and Upselling
5. What Are the Advantages of Cross-Selling and Up-Selling?
6. How to Sell More – Cross-Selling and Upselling Examples
7. 6 Cross-Selling Techniques That Will Make Your Customers Spend More on Your E-Commerce
8. The Dark Side of Cross-Selling
9. Avoiding the Pitfalls of Cross-Selling
10. 5 Advantages of Cross-Selling to Existing Customers
11. What Is Cross-Selling? – Salesforce EMEA
12. 8 Strategies for Cross-Selling and Upselling Your Current Clients
13. 12 Useful Tips for Successful Cross-Selling
14. The Importance of Cross-Selling and Up-Selling for Banks and Non-Bank Financial Institutions
15. Why Your Team Can’t Cross Sell (and How To Fix It)

Cross-Selling: Will It Help Drive Growth And Profitability to Your Business?

1. Cross-Selling Definition – What Is Cross-Selling?

Before you begin training yourself, it’s vital to answer the question, “what does cross-selling mean?” No salesman will ever master this sales technique if they don’t at least know its textbook definition.

Also, many salesmen confuse themselves between cross-selling and upselling. The former involves offering an additional service or product that complements their initial purchase.

Meanwhile, upselling is a strategy where you tell your customer to make an upgrade.

• Cross-selling: “Would you like fries with your meal?”
• Upselling: “Would you want to upgrade your meal to a large?”

It’s important to understand the basics before moving on to more advanced tips and techniques. Plus, knowing the difference between what is cross-selling and what is upselling will make it easier to strategize in the future.

Click to read Cross-Selling.

2. Best Cross-Selling Sales Tips for Retailers

In the retail industry, we want to make the most out of the foot traffic that walks through our doors. An example, if a customer orders a slice of apple pie, a good cross-selling strategy is to offer an extra scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Cross-selling isn’t about deceiving your customers into making unnecessary purchases. Rather, it’s about offering the right items that may boost their satisfaction.

At the same time, we want to increase our revenue. The goal of cross-selling should be to find a mutually beneficial deal for both the seller and consumer.

By getting to know just what cross-selling is in retail context, it makes it much easier to incorporate it into retail sales strategy.

Learn more about how retailers can boost their profits through cross-selling.

Click here to read Best Cross-Selling Tips for Retailers.

3. The Ultimate Guide to Sales Data Analysis for Successful Cross-Selling

Cross-selling isn’t a technique you can learn overnight. It takes years of trial and error to develop your own brand of sales.

Plus, it’s important to know that there’s no all-year-round, high-converting sales pitch. It takes intimate knowledge of the customer journey to be able to find the sweet spot that offers both a structure and flexibility in selling.

For example, it might be effective to offer customers an extra cup of cocoa in the winter. However, it won’t be nearly as effective if you do it in the summertime.

However, it doesn’t have to be difficult.

Through sales data analysis, you can generate the exact numbers you need to determine the market trend. It’s much easier to create a sales pitch when you know what your target market wants.

Remember: Always strive to create a specific, audience-related sales pitch. Otherwise, it’ll just be another generic pitch customers will ignore.

When you’re selling to everyone, you’re selling to no one. Thus, you should always personalize your pitches based on the niche.

Create a profitable cross-selling sales program by analyzing your sales reports and basing your strategies off data.

Click to read The Ultimate Guide to Sales Data Analysis for Successful Cross-Selling.

4.  7 Tips Your Sales Reps Can Use to Master Cross-Selling and Upselling

The chances of a prospect making a first-time purchase range around 5% to 20%. Meanwhile, it increases to about 60% to 70% if they’re repeat customers.

Cross-selling is a great way to potentially increase your revenue while making your clients happy. However, keep in mind that it’s not some shortcut to make a sale.

Whether you’re looking for some cross-sell or upsell opportunities, the timing is crucial. You and your team need to determine the right time to cross-sell products.

Cross-sell opportunities don’t just happen. Rather, you make them happen.

Perhaps the number one problem sales managers have is training their reps to understand what cross-selling is and how to properly apply it. Every agent has a different style and it can be very time-consuming to allot dozens of seminars for every rep.

While nobody can instantly master it, there is a way to quickly understand the basics of cross-selling. From there, your agents can develop their own cross-selling strategies and find out which works best for them.

Click to read 7 Tips Your Sales Reps Can Use to Master Cross-Selling and Upselling.

5. What Are the Advantages of Cross-Selling and Up-Selling?

Both cross-selling and upselling are great sales techniques to boost your revenue. But which among the two should you apply?

The main trick is to strike a balance between them. You have to understand whether your customer wants an upgrade, or if they want an additional service/product to complement their initial purchase.

If you can’t differentiate between these instances, you might simply come off as just another pushy salesman who needs to meet their quarterly quota. That’s why it’s important to ask the right questions.

Instead of bombarding the client with random chunks of information, get to know who they are and what they came for.

There’s a reason why your customer is talking to you. It’s your job to find out what that is.

Click to read What are the advantages of Cross-Selling and Up-Selling?

6. How to Sell More – Cross-Selling and Upselling Examples

There are basically two ways to boost your revenue: grow your customer base or increase each customer’s transaction value. You don’t necessarily need to pick between the two.

In fact, you should strive to apply both of them through effective marketing tactics.

If you want to increase each customer’s transaction value, you can apply cross-selling. It’s a technique where you entice the customer to make additional purchase on top of their original one.

Another way to increase a customer’s transactional value is by enticing them to upsell.

However, salesmen should know how and when to effectively apply a cross-sell or an upsell. Otherwise, they may just be wasting their time, money, and effort, among other resources.

Plus, a pushy sales pitch might drive the customer away.

It’s vital to understand how and what the consumer audience thinks. From there, you can create industry-specific cross-selling and upselling techniques for your brand.

Click to read How to Sell More – Cross-Selling and Upselling Examples.

7. 6 Cross-Selling Techniques That Will Make Your Customers Spend More on Your E-Commerce

The main reason cross-selling doesn’t work is if a customer doesn’t want to spend any more money than what they’ve already spent. Some don’t have the cash for it, while others just don’t see the value of your offer.

Most salespeople make up for this by showing customers how they’ll benefit from an additional purchase. However, this won’t be as easy if you’re running an online store.

E-commerce marketing is difficult since you can’t personally coax the customer into making a purchase. Plus, it’s difficult to ask probing questions since you can’t talk to them face-to-face.

If you want, you can try sending a bunch of emails where you ask about the customer. After that, analyze the results to see how many of them actually responded.

But if you’re like most sales reps, you probably don’t have the time in your day to conduct that experiment. You should go straight to online entrepreneurs and study what marketing tactics work for them instead.

Take a step back to analyze how your shop is doing.

How much traffic does it generate and are you making the most of it? Apply cross-selling examples that work and ditch the ones that don’t.

Click to read 6 Cross-Selling Techniques That Will Make Your Customers Spend More on Your E-Commerce.

8. The Dark Side of Cross-Selling

Cross-selling is a quick, effective way to increase your revenue, but keep in mind that it’s not some magic spell to instantly increase your profits. If not managed properly, cross-selling may have adverse effects on your business.

Most businesses cross-sell to all their customers, regardless of who they are. The logic behind this is the revenue you generate from sales will offset the amount you lost in marketing.

It might seem perfect, but it’s actually a flawed strategy. If you’re not careful, this strategy might affect you and your customer relationships.

Contrary to popular belief, sending out multiple emails to every single one of your customers is not the best way to cross-sell.

Rather, you need to weed out the bad apples and narrow down the prospect list. Only then can you begin cross-selling.

If you don’t want to lose thousands of dollars on cross-selling, you need to learn about its disadvantages as well. Focusing solely on its benefits will simply give you a false sense of hope.

Plus, getting to know the disadvantages of using cross-selling in your sales strategies has its perks. It can make it easier for you to take the cons into account in your sales tactics.

Click to read The Dark Side of Cross-Selling.

RELATED: Social Selling And The Law Of Reciprocity

9. Avoiding the Pitfalls of Cross-Selling

Speaking of tackling the dark side of cross-selling, there’s more you need to know about this selling strategy. After learning the pros and cons of cross-selling, it’s time to learn how you can avoid the pitfalls of this marketing strategy.

Every sales manager needs to learn the ins and outs of cross-selling — or any strategy they plan to apply. If they don’t, then who will their reps go to for help?

As a sales manager, you need to understand that the usual Monday pep talk isn’t always going to cut it. You need to actually help your reps reach the numbers.

For example, help your reps create a list of prospects to cross-sell to, then provide them with some cross-sell examples they can imitate. Afterward, you can watch them learn and grow from the lessons you taught them.

It might seem tedious and time-consuming, but it’s effective.

Sales reps hate nothing more than overbearing managers who don’t do anything to help them but expect the numbers to go beyond the quota. If you want to build an efficient, productive team that dominates goals, you should avoid being the type of boss they hate.

This is just one of the many pitfalls of cross-selling to avoid.

Click to read Avoiding the Pitfalls of Cross-Selling.

10. 5 Advantages of Cross-Selling to Existing Customers

Cross-selling is everywhere.

From online stores to fast-food chains, both small- and big-time entrepreneurs apply cross-selling techniques. Even Youtube suggests videos you might want to watch based on your viewing history.

They do these because they know the benefits of cross-selling. But perhaps one of the main reasons salespeople use cross-selling is it strengthens the customer relationship.

If done right, this marketing strategy can make the customer feel as if you sincerely care about them.

A more solid customer base might lead to better brand awareness and higher conversion rates. Plus, it’s also an effective way to generate more leads.

Before you and your team decide to try to cross-sell, take the time to understand its benefits so you know exactly what to expect. It’ll also help you create a solid strategy and pitch tailored to suit your target market.

Although cross-selling has its advantages, make sure it aligns with your business goals. Otherwise, the advantages might be lost on your business and can be used in better timing.

Click to read 5 Advantages of Cross-Selling to Existing Customers.

11. What Is Cross-Selling? – Salesforce EMEA

It’s not enough to know the difference between the different marketing tactics. You need to learn how to actually apply it.

Knowing how to define cross-selling is useless if you don’t know how to use it to promote your brand.

You should also keep in mind that mastering this marketing tactic doesn’t happen instantly.

Don’t lose heart after a few rejections. When you’re working in sales, you should learn how to deal with customers who turn you down.

After all, no marketing strategy guarantees a 100% approval rate.

Overall, the main trick to master cross-selling is to make sincere offers. Take interest in your customers and you’ll know how to sell to them.

Watch out for hints to determine exactly what the customer really needs. You also shouldn’t be afraid to ask the customers what they’re looking for.

The best way to know what your customers want is to ask them. Otherwise, you might be going in blind and losing out on both cross-selling and upsell opportunities.

You don’t have to be a master in psychology to decipher consumer behavior. All you have to do is to ask a sincere question.

Most of the time they’ll answer you right away. If they don’t, then they probably really don’t want what you’re offering.

Click here to read What is Cross-Selling?

12. 8 Strategies for Cross-Selling and Upselling Your Current Clients

We know how exciting it is to try out a new marketing strategy. The problem is that most salespeople don’t know what the best way to approach it is.

There are plenty of ways to cross-sell, but it’s not your job to go through every single one of them. Instead, you should learn exactly what marketers and salespeople do to keep customers coming back for more.

Perhaps the easiest way to cross-sell is to target the customers who are most satisfied with your business. For example, if you’re in real estate, get in touch with a client who’s always happy to see you.

You can try to cross-sell to clients who don’t necessarily like you some other time.

The logic behind this is since they are happy with the goods or services they’re receiving, it’s not unlikely for them to make another purchase. The customer loyalty and trust is already there so they are much more likely to be receptive to your suggestions.

Also, don’t be stingy.

Cross-selling is not free. You’re going to spend some money on promos, discounts, free trials, and of course, manpower.

Thus, you should make sure that you have the financial backing to support these endeavors.

You wouldn’t want to lose out on an opportunity to close a sale simply because you hadn’t committed fully into the strategy enough to finance it.

With that said, it will certainly make it much cheaper for you to cross-sell (and upsell) to your current clients. The reason being that you don’t need to spend as much on marketing since they are already aware of your brand.

Click to read 8 Strategies for Cross-Selling and Upselling Your Current Clients.

13. 12 Useful Tips for Successful Cross-Selling

The current level of competition in any industry makes it difficult to acquire new customers. Instead of solely focusing on increasing brand awareness, salespeople can try increasing the number of goods each customer purchases.

If your goal is to reach $1,000, you’ll either need 100 customers to buy $10 worth of goods or get 10 people to buy $100 worth of goods.

With this in mind, take a moment to asses your team’s performance.

Do they deliver by quantity or quality? If they deliver by quality, then cross-selling may be a great marketing strategy to try.

For example, let’s say you’re an insurance agent.

There will be months where it’s almost impossible to get new clients. Thus, you will need to find ways to fulfill your quota without needing to acquire new clients.

Instead of wasting your time prospecting, you can try contacting your current clients.

Ask them how they’re doing and what they’re up to. Your goal should be to identify their existing problem and propose a sound, viable solution — not to simply sell.

Also, try to learn more about your products.

Cross-selling only works if you offer a product that complements the initial purchase. If someone just bought perfume from you, it wouldn’t make sense if you tried to sell them another bottle right away.

Instead, suggest other items which might emphasize the benefits of the perfume they bought.

Think of product bundles or complementary items that you could partner with your products or services. This is one of many efficient tips that will make your cross-selling approach more successful.

Click to read 12 Useful Tips for Successful Cross-Selling.

14. The Importance of Cross-Selling and Up-Selling for Banks and Non-Bank Financial Institutions

No matter what industry you work in, it’s important to consider cross-selling as a marketing strategy. It helps generate leads while keeping your current client base satisfied.

Also, while you shouldn’t take rejections to heart, you do have to keep track of them. Make a simple list of clients who turned your offer down and leave a note why they said no.

Ask your entire sales team to do this. At the end of the month, analyze the data to determine what areas you can work on.

If it’s a bad season for you, perhaps you can cross-sell some promos or discounts to encourage your customers. Try to think of ways to conquer the challenges in front of you.

At the same time, make fact-based market projections to help you and your team cope with similar problems in the future.

Also, remember to cross-sell based only on relevant customer experience. Although you want to make a sale, you still need to make sure that you’re offering the right things to your clientele.

After all, any sales strategy for financial institutions should keep customer needs in mind. Otherwise, customer trust, which is crucial in this industry, might be lost.

Click to read The Importance of Cross-Selling and Up-Selling for Banks and Non-Bank Financial Institutions.

15. Why Your Team Can’t Cross Sell (and How To Fix It)

One struggle sales managers have is enticing their team to cross-sell more often.

It might be a lack of leadership, assistance, or even compensation. Whatever the case is, you need to take care of your unit if you want to achieve any real progress.

Apart from the basic education and assistance in cross-selling, make sure to reward them properly. That means the incentive shouldn’t be too high or too low.

If the compensation is too low, then your reps won’t bother cross-selling in the first place. On the other hand, if the incentive is too high, the reps might focus too much on cross-selling as a way to earn money.

Focusing on cross-selling as a revenue source instead of being a way to boost the company’s overall performance will have significant repercussions in the organization.

Hence, you need to reward your reps accordingly.

Take a moment to asses your team to determine what you should do to encourage them to perform better. Also, make sure to show them how excited you are to cross-sell as well.

As the manager, it’s your duty to set a good example for your team to follow.

These are just some of the things you can do to improve your team’s cross-selling prowess.

Click to read Why Your Team Can’t Cross Sell (and How To Fix It).

Cross-selling is an important selling strategy that can drive growth and increase the profitability of your business. It’s about maximizing the traffic your business generates through proven strategies.

At the core of all this, it’s important to understand exactly what the customer needs.

The only way your cross-selling strategy will work is if the items you offer are useful to them, so just be patient and really learn to listen to your customer.

Do you want to learn more about cross-selling? Leave your questions in the comment section below!

Up Next:

• Why Sales Reps Spend So Little Time Selling
• How To Sell To Highly Informed Customers With Ease
• 4 Bad Rep Behaviors That Lead To Inaccurate Sales Forecasting

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on November 27, 2018, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.