Darryl Praill (VanillaSoft), Julianne Thompson (Drift), Manuel Rietzsch (XANT), and Charles Knauft (ZoomInfo), explain why SDR Playbooks are crucial now more than ever. Whether SDRs are rookies or veterans, customization with customer engagement as well as alignment between SDRs and SDMs is necessary to succeed.
Playbooks
– A process to get the most out of the Sales
Development team and ensure their success
through planning out the right activities
across the right channels
– Who to target
When to engage
What Messaging (what the cadences look
like and how to personalize different
touches)
– Multi-channel outreach across a set number
of touches to fill up the pipeline
The Bad Reputation of Playbooks
– All automation and no personalization
– Activities with no thought about what
needs to be accomplished
– No strategic differences between handling
inbound and outbound prospects
Example: Did they come to your first asking
for help? Bunch the touches toward the
front end of the prospect’s engagement.
Cold outreach? Spread out touches over
weeks.
SDRs spamming? The SDRs aren’t to blame—it’s the leadership.
Automation vs. Personalization
– Do both
– Plan time spent personalizing vs. time spent
automating
– To be relevant with the conversations that
already started, personalize.
Tactical advice to implement: Have a couple of personalized emails at the top of the sequence and automate towards the bottom
– Large accounts, heavy personalization.
Named accounts, personalize towards the
organization.
Industry accounts, less personalized.
– Provide SDRs guidelines on how the
personalization should look like at the same
time providing some freedom to customize
as they see fit.
– Trust SDRs to implement their own flavor of
personalization
Common Mistakes SDRs Make When Reaching Out to Prospects
– Selling similar products to competitors
– Reaching out to the wrong title
– Obviously templated emails with no
personalization
– Incorrect messaging for the buyer
Who Owns the Creation of the Playbook?
Not one specific organization owns the playbook. Mindshare. May be owned by a collection of stakeholders (Sales Development, Sales Operations, Sales Enablement, Marketing, etc.) coordinated to gain the best, most valuable insights to pull off the best possible applications.
Leading by Activity vs. Leading by Outcome
– Activities are what lead to outcomes but
look at what the math says to determine how
much activity is needed to arrive at the
desired outcome
– Double down on what works and cut off
what doesn’t
Messaging Experts: Should You or Should You Not Invest in Someone to Write Your Playbooks for You?
– If you have the skills in-house, leverage that
because your in-house resources would know
both the company and the customers more
intimately.
– Look internally and leverage people who
design their own successfully cadences.
What are they doing differently?
– Your top performing SDRs are a better
resource for you. At the same time, you’re
giving them an opportunity for professional
development.
– On the other hand, outsource companies can
help get you started with structures and
guidelines on some key aspects like plays
that generally work, email lengths,
appropriate calls to action, etc.
