David Gimbel knows Sales Development. He’s the Sales Manager at RigUp, the energy industry’s largest marketplace for on-demand services and skilled labor. He has also headed up Sales and Sales Development teams at Trendalytics, Impact, and Yotpo. David graciously agreed to share his thoughts on outsourced sales, how to train your Sales Development team, and who your real competition is.
Outsourced Sales Development
Sales Development is the first line of communication between your business and your potential clients. If you’re relying on outsourced teams with random people dialing for dollars, rather than giving your prospects a top-class experience, that’s a definite misstep.
Sure, you might get some opportunities come in, but if that opportunity has been set up poorly and the handoff is poor, that’s not going to be a great experience for your client. If you’re trying to sell something in this day and age, you need good communication. You have to be fully informed on what you offer and be able to answer questions intelligently. You never want to bring in a prospect who isn’t going to benefit from your solution. They’re just going to churn.
That’s not to say outsourced SDRs don’t have a market. However, if you’re offering any kind of SaaS solution or partnership, you want to start that relationship off in the best way possible, which means having an in-house team.
Training your Sales Development team
Getting the right Sales Development Reps in the seat involves putting together an expansive training program—not something that only happens during onboarding. You should train your SDRs the entire time they’re in that seat, with the long-term goal of helping them advance their career with your company, with your Sales Development team acting as a feeder system for your future Account Executives.
What should your training involve? As a minimum, your SDRs need to understand your talk tracks, your value proposition, your total addressable market, and who your ideal customer is. Your SDRs need to be comfortable doing pre-call research and understand if your product is even viable to the person they’re reaching out to. Otherwise, they’re just reading off a script.
Your real competition
The last thing you want to do is waste people’s time. Our prospects are busy people, and time is a precious commodity. David tells his reps that they’re not competing with the company’s direct competitors—they’re competing with every other salesperson that wants the prospect’s time.
This affects your whole sales conversation. Your messaging needs to be on point and your product has to offer great value that’s worth the prospect’s time. If you realize they’re not a good fit, don’t keep dragging them along and wasting both your time. Ultimately, make sure you’re giving them the information they need to make the right decision.
Quickfire round
David’s 2020 Challenges:
- Setting up the team to hit future goals
- Ongoing training for new and existing reps
- Optimizing messaging and value propositions
- Aligning total addressable market with current prospects
- Keeping data collection clean and effective
Top 5 Tech Tools:
- CRM software (David recommends Salesforce)
- Sales Enablement software (such as Outreach or SalesLoft)
- Contact Information databases (such as Zoominfo)
- Sales Analysis software(such as Gong.io)
- Presentation software (such as Zoom)
Conclusion
Your SDRs have an important job and will be the first contact most prospects have with your company. By keeping your Sales Development team in-house, training them properly, and making sure they communicate effectively, you’ll be able to secure high-quality leads who get the most out of your product.
If you’re looking for more ways to improve your Sales Development program, contact us at Tenbound today for a no-obligation exploratory call.
