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In February, I will celebrate my two-year anniversary at Letsignit as a Team Leader SDR. This testimony is an opportunity to share the reality of SDRs: the reality we live, the challenges we face… I wanted to share the daily life of this job, which I still feel is misunderstood and sometimes, wrongly judged.
Most people think that this job is simple. You just need to contact a few people and that's it.
The reality is not that simple.
We face countless no-responses and rejections; simply put, we experience more failure than success.
The prospects of Letsignit often face the issue of email signatures without realizing the need that arises from it. They are over-prospected and our outreach is often met lukewarmly, if not coldly.
Some of you might say that our prospects' reactions are quite normal because they don’t want to be contacted. I understand that. However, you’ll agree, it’s hard to imagine a company without a sales team and without prospecting.
Without commercial action on our part, customer acquisition and company growth would be impacted in the medium term.
So, we dare. We innovate in our approaches.
The questions that guide our thinking are:
This is where one of Letsignit’s values, "Dare", comes into play.
The research phase, essential but time-consuming, allows our message to align as closely as possible with the reality of our prospects. What interests one prospect may not resonate with another. Our “obsession”: to make sure that our prospect is certain this message was written just for them, and not for someone else.
These are responses we almost get every day.
Sometimes, non-decision-makers say "no" while the decision-maker says "yes". The key is not to give up.
Due to the lack of understanding of the job, people may not realize that there are days when our morale can be affected and when the phase drags on too long, leading to demotivation.
To digress briefly: we organized quick prospecting sessions with our colleagues from the marketing and customer service departments.
While the initial goal was to make them more aware of the day-to-day reality of our job, some of them later leveraged their personal networks to approach certain accounts. Some of them mentioned that the exercise was interesting but “thankless.” They realized that every bit of help we get is precious.
It’s also important to take all of this with detachment, like an actor in a role. Despite its thankless side, this job also has a fair side, as the work is always rewarded in the end, and how proud we feel at that moment!
It’s simply about being patient and continuing.
Our sales director, Anthony POYAC discusses this in his testimony.
In the context of selling to large accounts, we handle complex deals that require a certain level of patience.
To illustrate my point, the analogy with sports is quite relevant.
To succeed in this role, you need daily discipline in your activity, preparation, and especially mental toughness.
Unsurprisingly, the team members are all athletic. Sports serve as a catharsis to release stress, intrinsic frustrations, and to work on our mentality.
The “golden boy” commercial cliché, the “chatty” salesperson is a thing of the past. We need to face these challenges with the right mindset to succeed as an SDR.
Of course, there are other success factors to consider.
Individuality has no place in the SDR role.
We need to collaborate with one another to move in the same direction.
The digitization of companies and, more broadly, the market, has contributed to the interdependence of services. The buying journey has changed drastically and demands real adaptation from companies to generate sales.
A few years ago at Letsignit, the sales department didn’t work hand in hand with the marketing department. Today, this collaboration is essential to support the acquisition of new customers. All the actions carried out by the marketing department support the actions of SDRs: working on ICPs, writing customer testimonials, enhancing brand awareness…
This help is indispensable to reduce our prospects’ response time and accelerate the sales cycle.
Of course, other departments also contribute to our success.
Whether it’s customer service, the product team, or IT, everyone considers the needs of others:
All these actions help us move forward more confidently in our work.
We can build sales pitches tailored to the needs of our prospects and overcome potential objections.
Most prospects start with the assumption that they have no need.
Our customers' testimonials help our prospects realize their need and understand the benefits of the solution.
While synergy between departments is important, the relationship between the SDR and their Inside Sales / Account Executive (AE) partner is crucial. The human aspect is one of the most important things.
An SDR may suffer from a lack of leads, but they won’t recover from a shaky relationship with their AE. This relationship must be mutual, based on cooperation and with aligned personalities and working methods.
I would advise against pairing a more cautious personality with a bolder one. Working methods and approaches must be compatible.
The AE must also have a clear vision and explain the approach to take with an account in the context of an Account-Based Marketing (ABM) approach or sector.
They are the ones who will assign accounts to work on and the approaches to take: they play a vital role in ensuring the SDR’s success.
If this is not the case, it’s hard to envision a long-lasting collaboration between the two and meeting the set goals.
Given that the SDR role is challenging, they must be able to work in a healthy and trusting environment with their partner.
And of course, the manager is there to support their team. Growth should never come at the expense of kindness.
Anthony POYAC, mentions this in his testimony:
Whether you’re a team manager or a leader within an organization, everyone must face a major challenge: learning how to balance performance and kindness toward their teams.
To be honest, becoming a manager was a real-life test. I had never managed a team before. I created the SDR team at Letsignit.
We had to put everything in place:
Everything was new to me.
I was able to rely on the help of Anthony and my sales colleagues who knew the company’s history.
The starting point for a good onboarding is key. The metaphor with building a building is accurate. If the foundations aren’t solid enough to support the structure, it won’t hold. The same applies to SDR training.
If they don’t have the right foundation, their success will be compromised.
I drew from my past experiences and thought about how I would have liked to be supported. When the SDR team was formed, I tried to pass on good working methods to them: where to look for information, which concrete cases to use to catch their attention, what would make them book appointments and what’s unnecessary.
The data analysis is also crucial to guide my teams and pinpoint where to focus or not.
The challenge as a manager is to help your teams grow in an environment that combines efficiency, autonomy, and proximity. Our weekly check-ins allow me to go over individual points, answer questions, and adapt to each person.
I try to be as consistent as possible and anticipate requests to maintain stability and peace of mind and not stress my team unnecessarily.
I also make sure they receive a sufficient number of leads, benefit from each other's networks, and have all the information they need to personalize their approaches.
We also think about which parts of the job can be delegated or automated. Of course, it’s about finding the balance to allow them space for creativity and reflection. They need to bring their “touch” while optimizing their work time.
We have rituals to celebrate our successes and give ourselves motivation boosts: the mark on the board as soon as an appointment is set, or more recently, the gong sound. It helps us visualize our progress and achievements.
As a manager, I must defend my team’s interests and help them in all areas. The value “Care” makes sense in my role.
I will conclude by saying that, as a manager, you must also be open to the growth of your team members. I have never understood managers who "take it badly" when their employees want to evolve. On the contrary, it seems rather healthy to me.
This echoes the testimony of Gaspard Roche Account Executive. To retain salespeople, you need to offer much more than a variable compensation.
You need to give them the opportunity to grow and evolve with the company.
Through this testimony, I wanted to raise awareness of the challenges faced by SDRs and the kindness we must show as managers or colleagues.
This requires a constant effort and mental and emotional involvement from the teams to provide our sales partners with new opportunities.
We must keep in mind that we are all interdependent.
Each department contributes to the company's growth. The synergy between teams is essential if we want to move in the same direction. We must work with a shared intelligence – all together – to foster everyone's success.
I will conclude this testimony by emphasizing that SDRs are not sharks.
Our goal is to bring value to clients and build long-term partnerships with them.
Big shoutout to my team Marie-Floriscia ADA, Samuel Hadida, Eléanor Camus La Guérinière, Youssef El Bakri, Thibaut Stath!
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