COMMUNITY
First Things First…

This week, we launched our SDR Leaders of EMEA Ambassador programme.

Since Jan 1st, we have grown the community to over 1200 people, and now was the perfect time to evolve the reach and scope of the community.

The ten incredible people we chose all have one thing in common: Inspiring.

What will the Ambassadors actually do? They will help shape, promote and guide our community as we move into the 2nd half of 2024. We are planning some great events, so watch out for the

Want to see what the fuss is all about, check out the post here.

Also, for our sponsor below, clicking on the ad would help the continued growth of the newsletter!

STUFF ONLINE
Content of the week

• 25 early stage start ups who are hiring now

• Go from silio’s to an integrated GTM funnel

• Future of outbound teams?

THOUGHTS
What am I seeing this Week: Look in the mirror if your team doesn’t hit quota

If half of your team misses quota…

You need to reevaluate a few things:

Quotas
Sales Process
Sales enablement
Product market fit

Ultimately, your leadership...

If a few people miss their quotas, then fair enough.

1/2 or more of the team…Time to take a long, hard look in the mirror.

However, leaders still lack enough individual responsibility to accept this. They are in an individual contributor mindset. The role of an SDR leader is to ensure that their teams have everything they need to be successful.

That means if the team doesn’t hit the number, you need to consider a few things:
1. Did I coach them up enough?
2. Did I remove the obstacles to their success with sales and marketing?
3. Was I accessible enough to my team if needed to chat through issues they are facing?

I know it's tough, but self-reflection is paramount as a leader. You need to evolve and iterate if you want to thrive.

For those new to the newsletter and like what you are seeing, please click on the subscribe button, and you’ll receive this top-quality newsletter in your inbox every Friday morning!

STAKKI
Overwhelmed by Sales Tools Options?

Sales tools often boast an alphabet soup of features.

Deciphering complicated technical jargon can be time-consuming and frustrating, leaving you confused and unsure if it will help with connection or conversion rates.

Meanwhile, researching, comparing, and evaluating sales tools can be highly time-consuming.

Diverting your focus from core business activities like closing deals and managing your team.

This is where we’ve built Stakki, your free sales tool calculator.

We mapped 176 tools and their integrations, minimum costs, feature overlaps and freemium options. 

Visit stakki.io to make the selection of sales tools easy for you. 

Or book your free consultation call and we’ll recommend the best three tools for whatever you are trying to achieve.

INTERVIEW
Five Questions of the Week: Shelley Ruddock

This week we have in the newsletter Shelley Ruddock, EMEA & APAC Sales Development Manager at Venafi! Shelley has has such an incredible background to get to where she is now. Today, she shares a little of that and where she sees the SDR role moving.

Hey Shelley, can you tell the newsletter a little bit about your journey? How did you end up at this point?

Before moving to France 21 years ago, I was an actual director; I started my own successful lead gen business, which I ran for 13 years, and then I decided to jump back into work for one company; I entered as an SDR and was promoted to manager after two years.

What is it about your role that you love?

My love of making connections with people and my passion for making a difference

When did you realise that leadership was the career path you wanted to follow, and how did you make it happen?

I have been in the IT industry for over 28 years. I have been an Account Director, Channel Manager, and business developer. I have worked for resellers, Distributors, and IT Vendors. I also ran my own successful Lead gen business for 13 years. When the opportunity arose to give back and pass on my skills and knowledge to help others in their sales careers, I jumped at it. It was a natural move for me.

Drawing on all your experiences so far, what advice would you give your younger self on their first day as a manager?

Don’t take things personally. It's important to understand that you won't always be liked in the role. Be prepared to sometimes make very hard and difficult decisions, including those that you might not agree with.

With AI looking to disrupt the SDR space, what do you see the role of the SDR evoloving in the next 36 months?

The personal touch will never be replaced; we all know when AI is trying to pull us in. AI can always help us speed things up, but you will always need human intervention. Using TechTarget AI emails as an example, you will always need to customise these; the personal touch will never go away to bring us success.  Since using Outreach, for example, at 1st, I thought it was wonderful, creating some excellent automation on activities and tasks. However, it’s an overused tool that prospects ignore; with the combination of AI, prospects now know they are being targeted by machines, but maybe ‘the sharing’ of information on our products is its sole purpose. A topic that needs further discussion.

SDR HIRE
Considering Outsourced SDRs?

If you need to hire experienced SDRs quickly and hit your numbers but don’t have the luxury of spending time on recruiting, training, and onboarding - try SDR Hire.

They’re a premium SDR outsourcing agency, giving sales leaders access to experienced and vetted SDR talent ready to start promoting your product to your ICP.

Their SDRs have experience in everything from fraud prevention and cybersecurity products to sales tech and mar-tech, HR tech, e-commerce software, AI tools, retail tech, supply chain software & hardware, and much more. 

Sales leaders usually work with them when trying to impact their P&Ls quickly, when they’ve been recently hired, when they’re testing new markets and verticals, when new product launches are being launched, or when they are simply expanding their existing SDR capacities. (explore use cases)

Talk to their founder Stefan and find your new SDRs.

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LASTLY
Whenever you’re ready, here are two ways I could help you

The new Community for European-based SDR leaders: SDR leaders of Europe

An ebook about SDR<> AE Alignment: Closing the Gap

2 Coaching slots are still available for the Spring/ Summer: Sign up here