From SDR to Sales: how does it work?
Offering employees the opportunity to develop internally, what better way is there to retain their talents? At PayFit, each of our employee is not only an A-player, but also a talent in the making. And because we are convinced that a professional career path must above all allow everyone to grow and develop, internal movements are to be favored. It is with this in mind that we met Laura Williamson: after 1 year as a SDR, she recently decided to take up new challenges by joining the Sales team.
“The key is to know what you want and show that you can do it. There are so many more opportunities to drop out than you can imagine!”
What was your background before joining PayFit?
After two years of advanced technician’s certificate with several internships in commercial real estate, I joined INSEEC Paris. My choice to go to a business school was based on my desire to have a slightly “Swiss Army knife” profile but also to have an overview of business issues. During these 3 years of business school, I was able to strengthen my commercial skills through experiences as a business developer and account manager. It was at the end of my studies that I got my very first permanent contract with PayFit as a SDR.
What was your first SDR position like at PayFit?
My job was about prospecting and qualifying as many prospects as possible to generate a lot of demos and feed the Sales team. Beyond hunting leads, I was also able to take part in various diverse projects : 20% of my work was devoted to “ancillary” tasks such as finding best practices, onboarding new SDR, improving our nurturing contents, etc.
What is your new position like as a Sales?
Analyse customer needs and advise them as accurately as possible. What I liked as a SDR was to understand the flaws in each prospect’s payroll management in order to tailor my speech according to their needs. It was very natural for me to go through Sales because I really wanted to convince, adapt and become a true product expert.
As Sales we really become project managers because a customer wants to have a contact with the product team, ask questions about payroll points, have a look at onboarding and the rest of the processes, etc. Beyond the consulting aspect, we really work with all the teams: the SDRs in all logic but also the marketing for the content, the onboarding at the time of the “handover”, the product managers for the future product evolutions… It is therefore a transversal function.
What made you want to change jobs?
After nine months during which I was able to see a lot of things as a SDR, I felt ready to take the next step and I really wanted to discover something else. If I wanted to take it to the next level, my attachment to the product was the same and I knew that beyond this simple desire for challenge, my reorientation was finally legitimate. Over time, I therefore had several options: a horizontal or vertical evolution. After hesitating between a managerial position and a sales position, it was finally this desire to close a deal and to continually surpass oneself that took over.
What elements have enabled you to access this position?
The most important thing is the mindset: open, motivated and super involved. But that’s not all, we have to find a good balance between this mindset and our performance. I achieved my objectives on a regular basis and this necessarily attested, on one hand, to a good level of mastery, and on the other hand, to a certain rigour that I imposed on myself and to my desire to always surpass myself.
What were the steps that marked this change?
After discussing the different options available to me with Mathieu, our Head of Sales, I was able to join the SDR One team, which brings together all the SDR with a fairly senior profile. At this moment I had to prove myself with very large prospects, or more complex cases that the more junior SDRs do not manage.
From this point on, we can consider an internal movement in different teams (Customer Success, Partnership) and sometimes at different levels (by becoming manager for example). As I moved to the Sales team, I had a transition period of about a month. I really had a hybrid workstation at that time. I had to multitask: make a good transmission of all my files, my leads, expand my customer portfolio, attend fake demos and external meetings, be intensively trained on the product and all the new tools I was going to have to use…
Then I closed my first client in two days. It was just so natural.
How was the transition?
It was really smooth.
On one hand, because I was well accompanied and surrounded.
On the other hand, because I knew where I was going: I had time to settle down, reflect, but also observe and compare the different options available to me. Beyond the fact that I was working directly with the Sales, I was able to do some shadowing to really immerse myself in their daily life and make sure that my choice was the right one. I really took stock of everything I had learned at all levels (payroll, product, sales) and everything I had accomplished.
What are your next challenges as a Sales?
I will have to acquire even more credibility to be able to touch everything: get on any deal and be able to close it, participate in recruitment, be very comfortable on my job in order to become a reference in a way, for those who would like to follow the same path as me. It means to become a real expert in business issues. I must be able to identify problems upstream while becoming a payroll expert!
What were the most difficult things during the change?
I would talk about challenges rather than real difficulties, but getting a little more skilled on payroll has definitely been a big job. I really had to acquire extra knowledge to be as close as possible to customer needs, to reorient my discourse and my attitude.
Do you have any advice to share?
Several in fact! First of all, I think we must remain hyper-ambitious and not stop at what is written in your job description. The key is to know what you want and show that you can do it. There are so many more opportunities to drop out than you can imagine! We must also communicate our desires and objectives because we do not necessarily realise all the possibilities that can be offered to us. At PayFit, my change of job position was very natural because we are constantly communicating, but this is not always the case in other companies. We must therefore not hesitate to clearly formulate our needs and desires.
In hindsight today, if I had to choose between a small business or a growing one like PayFit, I would choose PayFit. We often have the impression, and sometimes wrongly, that it is only in smaller structures that internal evolutions are possible or facilitated, but the growing companies within which we can prove ourselves also give us the opportunity to evolve after one year.
