They’re the engine that puts fuel in your sales pipeline – day in and day out.

This is why it is crucial to understand and know the structure of sales development, the specific activities for pipeline generation and above all, the people and what they do to guarantee the health of your pipeline

In an effort to understand the sales development role, XANT Labs commissioned a study in partnership with SalesForLife, BridgeGroup, Drift, Datanyze, OneMob, and Tenbound.

The study includes 900 companies and reviews the four elements of a successful sales development team: structure, systems, people and pipeline.

The findings were very telling of where we are today with SDR and where there is a gap in their activity.

Inside vs Outside Sales Development

The lines between inside sales and outside sales keep blurring, shows the research. More and more customers are empowered and contacting companies, rather than waiting to be contacted.

According to the study, there are an estimated 677,479 sales development reps in the U.S.

About 17 percent of sales development reps are inbound sales, while 28% are outbound sales. More than half – 54 percent self-report as doing both inside and outside sales.

Sales Technology Systems

Sales technology has become an extremely important part of every sales development team’s makeup and organization. Companies spend overall on sales development technology is $1.4 billion. This is just a small part of the overall 14.9 billion spent in total on sales technology industry.

In the research, companies reported the average annual spend on sales technology was $3,894 per rep/year.

That’s around 17% less than what they spend on account executives, who seem to get the lion’s share of the budget. Companies have around one sales development rep for every three account executives.

The $3,894 covers an average of 4.8 categories of sales tools per rep. The most popular categories were (excluding CRM):

• Social prospecting (30.3%)
• Data/list services (21.6%)
• Email engagement (20.7%)
• Phone (16.0%)
• Sales Cadence (12.8%)
• Lead/Account Scoring (10.7%)

Sales Development – The People

Companies need to pay market value to retain their top people. The Sales of Sales Development offers a benchmark on sales development compensation.

According to the XANT research, the average base salary for sales development reps is $41,675, with an average on-target-earnings (OTE) of &80,774. While earnings will vary based on the region, there is one aspect which remains constant – and that is variable income.

A section of sales representatives’ incomes are variable to ensure performance and quota attainment. The mix between base and variable was a 60/40 split, with 59.7% for the base and 40.03% for the variable.

Pipeline Generation Activities

As far activities go, sales development reps are certainly not idle – they place dozens of calls and send a host of emails and voicemails every day to generate qualified pipeline.

Sales development reps did an average of 94.4 daily activities including an average of 36.2 emails (38.4%), 35.9 phone calls (38.0%), 15.3 voicemail messages (16.2%), and 7.0 social media touches (7.4%).

They reps had an average of 14.1 meaningful conversations a day, which was around 15 percent of their daily activities.

For all their effort, not all sales development reps are able to reach 100% of their quota.

Why Sales Development Reps Only Report 63% Quota Attainment

The quota for pipeline generated was $658,692, however companies report only 63.5% quota attainment for SDRs.

The report is an eye-opener for sales leaders interested in increasing their team’s performance.

For high-performing teams, the combination of sales training, self-motivated sales reps and AI-recommended lead prioritization can mean the difference between failure and success.

Sales leaders need to see this as an opportunity to make changes – and act on it. We need to enable sales reps to work smarter, rather than harder.

You can read the executive summary of the State of Sales Development 2017 here.

How The Sales Industry is Changing

The recent XANT research, “State of Sales 2017” polled 1,151 companies. The study paints a clear picture of the sales structure, sales technology systems and sales people and compensation today.

The study shows 47 percent of sales reps working as outside sales. Around 43 percent are inside sales representatives, while sales development representatives make up 10 percent of this workforce.

Sales Technology Spend is Increasing

Companies are spending more today on the sales technology stack than they did three years ago, shows the study. Companies reported that, on average, they spend $4,581 on sales technology per rep each year. Compared to 2014, there has been a 22 percent increase in technology spend.

Smart sales systems, powered by machine learning technology, have proven they can help sales professionals sell more and sell smartly.

Users of the XANT platform can see a lift in their results by up to 30 percent.

You can download the executive summary of the State of Sales study:

Or you can check out the at-a glance infographic.

The State of Sales report studied 1,151 companies to find what they do to win sales and close more deals. In addition, the study examined the sales market in which these companies operate and completed a benchmarking exercise.

The study is built around three major categories – structure, systems and people. It offers a unique perspective on how sales professionals run their companies to produce the best possible results.

Sales Organization Structure

Often, outside sales and inside sales appear to be at odds with one another. Inside sales offers a leaner and more automated approach. Outside sales capitalizes on the in-person interaction and the power of face-to-face communication. Instead of trying to find “which is better,” the study details industry trends that dictate the structure of sales organizations in 2017.

Across the market, companies reported that 44.4% of their sales teams were inside sales while 55.6% were outside sales. In addition, the average number of sales related functions per company was 3.9.

Large organizations (revenue > $500M) are dominated by field sales reps (71.2%). They also capitalize more than any other size organization on the benefit of the channel program (69.4% higher than the average).

Midsize organizations (revenue $50M-$499M) have the highest number of roles with 4.4 (12% higher than the average). This occurs with the introduction of the specialized roles. These are account management (16.9% higher than the average) and renewals (19.2% higher than the average).

Small organizations (revenue <$50M) have the highest percentage of inside sales reps (47%). However, they leverage the outbound sales development role more than any other size of company. A majority of small companies (67.1%) say they use this role.

Download the State of Sales 2017

The State of Sales report was built in partnership with the American Association of Inside Sales Professionals (AA-ISP), Top Sales World, and the Association of Professional Sales (APS).

The benchmarks shows you how you compare to top players in the industry and how you can up your game to be one of the best.

To download an executive summary of the report, click below:

AI is here to stay and it’s not just changing the market, it’s shaping the way we live and work. In the sales industry, the growing sophistication and accuracy of predictive analytics is creating significant advances. However, inbound marketing and sales (along with many other functions and sectors) must continue to advance their use of AI in ways that they can build consumer trust.

State of Artificial Intelligence 2017

The study shows that even as AI continue to become more widespread, consumers continue to feel trepidation around the technology.

41 Percent Do Not Trust AI

When presented with a list of popular AI services, 41.5 percent of respondents could not cite a single example of AI that they trust. 

• As with many technological advancements, acceptance is growing most quickly on the East and West Coasts;
• In New England, only 36.6 percent of consumers reported a lack of trust for AI;
• Only 38.0 percent of West Coast respondents report lack of trust;

Nearly half (49.2 percent) of consumers in the Middle Atlantic region (NY, PA, NJ) report a lack of trust in AI.

Respondents in this area are especially wary of its use in industries that have historically required a human touch (such as financial planning, hiring or medical diagnosis). Only nine percent of respondents trust AI with their financials, and only four percent trust AI in the HR hiring process.

How to Build Consumer Trust for AI

So what do these results mean? For vendors whose offerings are centralized on AI implementation, you have your work cut out for you to demonstrate safety and reliability and to generate trust. For industries that are indirectly impacted by AI (especially sales), the message should be clear: always be respectful of privacy.

Artificial Intelligence can bring fantastic results to sales teams, both in revenue as well as productivity.

We must continue, as sales professionals, to use AI for the benefit of our customers, in way that they will consider useful and welcome, as opposed to invasive or “creepy.”

You can find the executive summary of the “State of AI 2017” study here.

• How many times should I attempt contact?
• How long should I wait between attempts?
• What methods are most likely to result in a conversation?
• What messaging will resonate with my potential buyer?
• When I should I give up?

These are only a few of the many questions sales reps consider when creating their optimal cadence. Because these cadences are built purely on intuition, the answers to the above questions introduce a variety of answers – many of which limit a sales rep’s ability to effectively turn prospects into potential buyers.

Place one call too many, and you tick off your lead.

Give up too soon on someone, and you will turn up short on quota.

So, what is the right cadence and how should companies begin building them?

Sales Cadence, Defined

I asked our Labs team — the research and best practice arm of XANT to see if they could crack the code. In analyzing 14,000+ cadences, made up of 144,000+ total activities, across nearly 9,000 companies, the team determined a more clear definition of sales cadence and uncovered five critical components for a successful cadence.

Their research revealed that an optimal sales cadence is a sequence of activities that increases contact and qualification rates. When cadences are performed correctly, they not only increase a rep’s ability to engage with a prospect, but they also educate them on how to become potential buyers.

Key Elements of an Optimal Cadence

Most sales leaders measure their sales teams’ productivity by the number of contact attempts per lead. While volume is an important part to a sales rep’s success, when it comes to effective cadence, the number of attempts is only one piece of the puzzle. Here are the five key elements:

1. Attempts: The total number of touch points made
2. Media: The type of communication methods used
3. Duration: The time between the first and last attempt
4. Spacing: The time gap between contact attempts
5. Content: The messaging used

For organizations to build optimal cadences, all five elements need to be studied and implemented. Unfortunately, this is where most sales teams go wrong. Oftentimes, reps think they have a strong sales cadence when in fact, the numbers tell a different story.

According to a research report by TOPO(1), sales development representatives believe they perform:

• An average of 15.5 touches per lead
• An average of a 20-day duration for their cadence

When we examined the actual data, we compared the TOPO averages versus our medians to eliminate the effect of outliers and the numbers were significantly different(2).

• 4.05 total attempts(3) – 26.1% versus the actual number
• 4.89-day duration(4) – 24.5% versus the actual number

Is it a wonder they’re all missing their numbers?

Surprised? I’m not. Most of us think we’re better than we are and more often than not, we judge ourselves as better than average in most traits.

What’s the best way to overcome this attitude? Have a professional point out that you suck. So, that’s what I’m doing. I’m calling your sales teams’ bluff and telling you not to believe everything you hear.

XANT’s Sales Cadence Audit Report

The “Cadence Audit – 2017” research report from XANT also showed that:

• The most common outreach practice is a single email (32 percent of respondents use this method)
• 61 percent of first contacts happen via email
• The second most utilized cadence is a single call and a voicemail (6 percent)

When cadences are performed correctly, they increase a rep’s ability to interact with a prospect, educate them to become a potential buyer and prevent deals from falling through, the research report shows.

Perfecting cadence is a core component of both the art and science of effective inside sales. When sales reps lead with an unstructured cadence, they put potential sales at risk. Optimal cadences can boost results by up to 110 percent. These are not trivial improvements.

It’s crucial not to leave your sales cadence to chance.

Email Prospecting vs Cold Calling

Most commonly, sales cadence is picked subjectively by sales representatives in companies. They will simply cherry pick the method they find most convenient for contacting their leads or prospects.

And right now, the preferred method of sales communication is email.

However, much is lost in an email exchange –  a pause on the phone, or a subtle sigh, can offer you valuable input into a prospect’s situation.

Furthermore, in the later stages of the sales cycle, phone calls are much more valuable then emails for progressing a deal.

First, sales leaders need to establish the winning sales cadence strategy that works for their company. They also need to educate sales representatives to make sure sales cadence best practices are implemented.

XANT Sales Cadence Strategy

Building your sales cadence purely on intuition can limit a sales rep’s ability to effectively turn prospects into potential buyers. This is why we’ve created a research study. Using this research, you will be able to figure out how sales representatives contact their leads and how they follow up, and determine what are the best ways to improve your organization’s performance.

Download the executive summary of the Sales Cadence Audit to learn more.

· The five components of a cadence
· What are the baselines and benchmarks by industry for each component
· How to successfully implement cadence best practices in your organization

(1) TOPO’s 2016 Sales Development Benchmark Report. A summary can be found at https://blog.topohq.com/emergence-strategic-sales-development-2016-topo-sales-development-benchmark-report/

(2) The average attempts per lead was 6.60, still significantly lower than the TOPO data

(3) 4.05 represents the median and only includes calls and emails not social touches

(4) 4.89 is the median

Among these is Labs’ recent study on the evolution of business communications, which you need to read if you want to see where these technologies are headed.

Jamie Herzlich at Newsday took a look at the study and followed up with an interview of our president and founder Ken Krogue. The resulting piece is really solid and serves as a perfect entree to the subject.