Does the SDR always have to find leads? The two workflows for the most effective sales
There is this myth that an SDR’s main goal is to find new leads. While this is partly true for some companies, the modern optimized sales workflow doesn’t imply that at all.
At Kommune Agency, we specialize in B2B sales in the IT industry. We help businesses create or improve their Sales departments to boost their business. And we are convinced that optimization of the routine and smart shortcuts are keys to building a system that is the most beneficial for the business.
In a word, we know a thing or two about creating the most efficient and effective workflows for sales.
The modern 2-person sales model: a quick recap
So, in the B2B world Sales have moved from a one-person model, where an SDR covers the whole funnel, to a two-person model consisting of an SDR and the Account Executive (AE).
In this mode, the SDR works in the upper part of the funnel — finds leads (optional), reaches out to them, sends them cold emails, and schedules demo meetings.
“Sometimes, SDRs also make qualifying calls to ensure that a lead is a good fit for the product. We recommend our clients to introduce this practice in cases when they get in contact with two or more leads per day or when there are too many demo meetings with the AE than the project budget can cover” — Alex Muntyan, CEO of Kommune Agency.
Eventually, the SDR hands over the prospect to an Account Executive who leads the demo meeting and then communicates with the prospect until the closure of the deal.
Typically, before hiring an AE, their duties are partly carried out by an SDR in conjunction with the startup’s founder. This step is vital not only for saving costs but also because it provides the business owner with the easiest and quickest way to comprehend how the market responds to their product.
The actual requirement for hiring an AE arises only when the Sales team generates more than three demo calls per week. Once an Account Executive joins the team and has all the necessary qualifications, the results improve considerably and rapidly.
“This occurs because, with an AE in place, everyone begins to focus exclusively on what they do best. The founder returns to enhancing the product, the SDR generates leads without the need to interact with prospects, and the AE handles the deals,” said Alex Muntyan, CEO of Kommune Agency.
Now, that we cleared up how the Sales team is formed, the question is what takes place at the outset of the funnel? Does the SDR always have to locate leads?
The two workflows for an SDR and which one to choose
Finding leads is not the main purpose of SDR. Basically, it’s an optional feature that they might or might not have to execute depending on the specifics of your product or service.
When an SDR doesn’t need to find leads? In most cases, actually.
If your niche is not very small and especially if your product or service has a few competitors, there’s a good chance you can find ready-to-use leads databases in platforms like Apollo, Seamless.AI, and Snov.io.
This is a great opportunity to optimize the time of your SDR. Instead of spending most of their working time googling target companies and searching for decision-makers, they can start contacting them right away and generating leads.
“For instance, we have multiple partners whose target audience is game dev companies — for them, it is really easy to find leads databases on different platforms and it just doesn’t make any sense to do that manually, ” — Alex Muntyan.
When an SDR does have to find leads? Only when there are no available leads databases for your project.
“This is a fairly rare case and happens only if you’re opening a new niche to a market. For instance, once we had a client that created an IT product for car rental services, Cardoo.finance. No one in the region they were expanding in has ever attempted to gather the contacts of car rentals before, so we had to assign this massive task to the SDR on the project” — Alex Muntyan, CEO of Kommune Agency.
Aside from that, the SDR might have to find leads manually, when the traditional outreach model is not applicable at all.
“For instance, we know that sending cold emails and cold calling would not be effective in reaching out to developers and programmers. If they form the product’s target audience, the SDR would need to explore alternative lead-generation methods. For instance, introducing the product through marketplaces, data centers, and partnerships with platforms such as Zappier, AWS, and Ajur could be more efficient”
This extra step in the workflow adds a lot of work for the SDR. On the other hand, this gives you an opportunity to create a database tailored to your business specifically.
Does automating lead generation result in poorer performance? While conversion rates may decrease because the leads are not personally selected, automation can significantly increase the number of leads generated, resulting in a final number of demo calls that is more or less the same.
To sum up, there is no right or wrong way — finding new leads can be but doesn’t have to be optimized. Taking that weight off your SDR’s shoulders can save you a great deal of time, but, unfortunately, you can’t always find a suitable database of contacts.
