The daily routine of a sales development representative (SDR) used to be straightforward:

• Make a phone call

• Send a few emails

• Leave a few voicemails

• Wait for a response

• Move on to the next contact                

However, as sales processes have become more sophisticated over time, the SDR role has become more complicated. The primary objective remains: to close as many deals as possible. But since SDRs must now act as the intermediary between the company and the prospect, it is vital to know the best practices to improve SDR efficiency within your company. 

SDRs are the first representatives of your business. They provide your company's first impression and communicate your values. They also funnel the sales process by eliminating unqualified prospects. The entire sales process would be highly inefficient and ineffective without properly trained SDRs. Following the best practices below can increase your team's efficiency. Use these, and you'll improve the quality of conversations your SDRs have and enable them to produce more qualified leads.

Best practice 1: Manage your time wisely

A team will be able to work more sensibly with an ordered schedule. Instilling strong time management skills in your SDR staff will assist them in remaining organized and productive. Having a set of procedures that helps them in prioritizing activities and staying on track will be helpful for SDRs to manage their time.

Make sure to include regular one-on-one meetings and team standups with account executives and SDRs. Prioritizing this in their schedules allows them to sync with you, allows you to contribute to strategy, and provides input for improvement.   

Effective SDRs understand the value of time management and should be held accountable for their own. Prioritizing activities also helps them remain focused on closing business and keeps them on track of their goals.

Best practice 2: Provide constructive feedback

Keeping a close eye on productivity can assist SDRs in improving their performance and staying on track to fulfill personal and organizational goals. Performance reviews of SDRs are critical for helping SDRs in improving their efficiency. They add the most value to SDRs when managers are thorough in their scope and constructive in their feedback delivery.

You can conduct monthly pipeline assessments with your team to discuss sales development targets and ensure they are on course to success. Assign qualifying accounts to SDRs and use the prospect-to-meeting ratio to ensure their efforts are relevant and beneficial to the firm.

Best practice 3: Gain knowledge through research

SDRs should focus on accounts that can assist your organization in achieving its long-term growth objectives. SDRs perform better when they know the accounts they are attempting to target. By providing SDRs with information about businesses or decision makers, they are better equipped to generate demand, build interest, and progress deals through the sales cycle.

Correct information enables SDRs to be confident in reaching out and engaging in meaningful dialogues with potential customers. Make research part of your best practices and arm your SDRs with sales intelligence so they can concentrate on producing more qualified leads.

You don't have to waste valuable time conducting manual research. Instead, use available resources online to collect critical data such as contact information, technological stack, and social media profiles. By focusing on the correct accounts, SDRs may devote more time to bringing lucrative deals forward while spending less time on unqualified customers.  

Best practice 4: Maximize available automation

Utilize automation to assist you in improving your SDRs and in reducing the requirement for non-selling tasks, among others. SDRs benefit from automation since it enables them to be more efficient with their time. Automation also results in fewer errors. Administrative work, manual research, and an enormous to-do list may leave little time for other activities. Automate routine chores to free up SDRs to work on more strategic sales development activities. Customer relationship management (CRM) may be a tool used in automation.  

A CRM enables SDRs to stay organized and on top of their sales pipeline's daily operations. By utilizing a CRM, pipeline management becomes more efficient, causing fewer deals to fall through the cracks.

Best practice 5: Remember what’s working

Your successful SDRs earned their stripes by first pounding the phones, making errors, and improving. You cannot simply skip to the end. You can, however, assist the new members by equipping them with tools to become effective, such as using the script and the process that others have learned.

Create a sales development playbook that includes processes and workflows that will assist both new and seasoned SDRs to organize their days. Maintain a well-defined methodology for SDRs to aid in the efficiency of operations and onboarding. SDRs must follow a repeatable and scalable procedure that is aligned with your sales cycle.

If something goes wrong, determine what is obstructing their progress. Remind SDRs that each call is an opportunity for them to practice gaining access or pitching. Each call improves them.

Conclusion

A well-run SDR team can serve as the bedrock of your business's growth. Therefore, both SDRs and their managers need to invest significant time and effort when adopting best practices. Ultimately, your goal is to enhance the performance of your SDR team through the guide above.

This recent year has demonstrated that one of the best practices for SDRs is adapting to a changing environment. Conversely, individuals who are sluggish to understand the new reality will struggle in sales.  

Manage time wisely, provide constructive feedback, gain knowledge through research, maximize available automation, and remember what's working. Through these five best practices, you’ll undoubtedly increase your SDRs’ efficiency.

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