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Sales development reps (SDRs) are the often unsung heroes of sales. They're tasked with prospecting, qualifying and closing big deals.
But it's not easy: they have to make hundreds of calls per week while working within tight budgets and on a tight deadline.
The good news is that there are plenty of high-tech tools available to simplify and amplify this process.
Prospecting
Locating great leads is the most important part of an SDR’s job. If you can't find the right people to talk to, then all the closing techniques in the world won't help.
Here’s a handful of the many tools out there that can help you track down prospects via phone, email and social media. Chances are good you’ll find at least one that suits both your goals and your budget.
Outreach Automation
Outreach automation tools are used to help sales development representatives find prospects, connect with them and schedule meetings. They do this by automating the process of looking for new leads, learning about them, qualifying the lead and then setting up a meeting with the prospect.
Since it’s a best practice not to cold call (or email) people who aren't interested in your product or service, outreach automation helps prevent you from wasting time reaching out to dead ends. When implemented properly, it also enhances your efficiency so that you can focus more on closing sales deals instead of chasing down potential clients.
Examples of outreach automation platforms:
Scheduling Software
Scheduling software is a great way to stay organized and track your time.
- When scheduling meetings with prospects, you can use the software to check their availability and set up the meeting at the right time.
- You can also use scheduling software to schedule meetings with other salespeople, so that everyone involved knows when they have to be present in order to accomplish their goals.
This kind of organization will help you feel less overwhelmed by your workload and more clear on what's expected of you at any given time.
Examples of scheduling software:
CRM/Pipeline Management
Your CRM (customer relationship management) tool is the place where you keep track of your sales pipeline, which is a list of your opportunities. You can see what stage each opportunity is in, who the decision maker is and whether they’ve started using your product or service yet.
You can also use it to track activities that happened as part of your deal cycle: emails sent and responses received, phone calls made and notes taken during those calls, meetings set up and then attended by both parties — all these details get stored in one central location so that you don't have to spend time searching through multiple email accounts or spreadsheets when you need to find a specific piece of information.
Examples of CRMs:
A Virtual Salesfloor
We’re listing this last but it’s definitely not least. A virtual sales floor provides a gathering place for SDRs to make cold calls together, learn by osmosis, get coached by their managers in real time and celebrate as a team. The best ones integrate with the most widely used dialers, are super intuitive and easy to navigate.
All of these tools and many others like them are used to great effect by the most successful SDRs in the world. That’s why we're so confident they'll help you be more efficient, track your progress more effectively and crush quota on a regular basis as you head toward that mountaintop.
Ok, now it’s time to stop reading and start selling!
