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What am I seeing this week: It’s back to the future for SDR Orgs!

This week, something on my mind has been how SDR organisations are set up for success or failure.

We need to reimagine the SDR org to what it was ten years ago.

Here is my take:

Current SDR org: Generic email messaging that results in low conversion rates and runs the risk of domain integrity issues.

SDR org of the future: Embrace AI to create personalisation at scale, increasing conversion rates to email messaging.

Current SDR org: Call hesitancy means SDRs don't pick up the phone, reducing the likelihood of testing prospects.

SDR org of the future: Calling is the main avenue of revenue generation, as humans want to buy from humans.

Current SDR org: Remote work is very in fashion.

SDR org of the future: SDRs in the office, allowing live training and real-time opportunities for collaboration and talent identification by the corporate sales team.

To sum up, we need to reassess how we are building our SDR orgs, learn from our past, to create a modern-day engine.

Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments below!

Five questions of the week

This week, we have the impressive Stephnie Margull, who will talk to Mastering Sales Development about her leadership journey and how she rose quickly!

What is your leadership methodology?

I don’t follow a specific model or methodology in my leadership approach. Successful leadership is grounded in transparency, vulnerability, self-awareness, self-reflection, and adaptability. Understanding the team's dynamics and resonating with individuals' needs is vital. Ultimately, you cannot be successful without your team!
What resonated with me when I started my journey in leadership was the book by Simon Sinek – ‘’Leaders Eat Last’’. Some food for thought: ‘’ When we take care of our people, our people will take care of us. They will help see that our cause becomes a reality.’’.

Who are some leaders you admire, and whose leadership styles have you replicated?

This might sound a bit cheesy, but I still admire my mother as an inspiring leader. My mother is currently the COO of a luxury eco-tourism organization operating in over 8 African countries, and she is the first and currently the only female on the board. She exemplifies that female leadership thrives even in traditionally male-dominated environments like Namibia.

Of course, it would be easy for me to replicate her leadership style and aim for success, but I truly believe there isn’t one successful style/methodology, which is mostly individually based. We all have strengths and weaknesses; what works for one person won’t work for another. What I have taken from her and often remind myself of is always to try and be mindful of oneself and the impact you can have on others.

The jump from an SDR to director in just 30 months is impressive! What were the main factors that made this accelerated progression possible?

I find this a very tricky question to answer as I wouldn’t say there were main factors that made the progression possible but a combination of many different learnings, self-reflection moments, and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.

To summarize, the past 30 months were absolute chaos fueled by a combination of always trying to achieve consistent performance whilst being acquired by Siemens and then restructuring our Sales Organisation (3 times!!). I always tried to understand and see how I could contribute to the business's overall success and understand what goal we were trying to achieve (besides just $). Each quarter, I set ambitious goals outside of hitting my target (i.e., increase team performance, attend three networking events, etc.). I communicated these goals with my manager and tried to showcase my determination and leadership skills by trying to achieve them. It was also important to me to take moments of self-reflection and try and adapt to the feedback from my stakeholders and wider team. Ultimately, I focused on the 4 points I summarized in the following question throughout the past 30 months.

I won’t lie; part of my accelerated progression was that I was at the right place and time, as timing is everything! However, I had positioned myself accordingly to be the ideal candidate for the role when the timing was right.

What would be your advice to someone wanting to move into SDR leadership?

Transitioning from an SDR to an SDR leader requires dedication. You're not just hitting targets but nurturing your team's growth and development. It is not for the faint-hearted, but can be one of the most rewarding roles when you see someone go from a fresh newbie to being promoted to an Account Executive and knowing you had some form of impact on that individual’s success!

My advice to achieve such a transition is to focus on the following aspects right now;

1. Develop Leadership Skills – through mentorship, workshops, and even trying to lead team campaigns/initiatives.

2. Communication IS EVERYTHING – enhance your communication skills across diverse teams and personalities

3. See the bigger picture – it’s not only about hitting your targets – start leading by example, care about the team’s success, and provide constructive plans to your managers on how you can achieve success as a team

4. Create a brand for yourself – think of positive feedback from direct colleagues and indirect stakeholders (i.e. Sales Opps, Enablement, Channel Team, Pre-Sales, etc.). Show them you are willing to go the extra mile!

How do you see the SDR role changing in the next two years?

Looking back at when I was an SDR myself nearly four years ago, I think so much has changed already, for better and for, well, more frustrating (stricter GDPR regulations)!

Looking towards the next two years, I think we’ll be focusing much more on:
(1) data-driven personalization with our marketing teams as well as with our outreach (analyze prospects' online behaviour and social media profiles to craft highly personalized messages)
(2) leveraging AI technologies and or automation tools to make our work even more efficient (calling times, better, more targeted dials, lead list building, research, etc.)

Ultimately, a shift I am already seeing within my team today is that we are the experts in lead generation, outreach, and understanding what the customer wants. We are teaching and onboarding newer AEs and enabling our channel partners to deliver a qualified pipeline.
I still strongly believe that a successful SDR's core values and attributes (perseverance, adaptability, willingness to learn, and a customer-centric mindset) will never change, regardless of the field's advancements.

Book of the week

And Finally!

I have some exciting speaking engagements coming up, which I’m excited to share with you. Check back in the coming weeks to see what and where they are!