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Anxiety as a SDR Leader
Insights and resources to fuel your sales development journey
Dave Wilkins
September 13, 2024
BERLIN
First Things First…
Welcome from Berlin! I'm currently here with Andy Laws, working with a client of ours for his consulting company. This newsletter has opened the doors to so many new people and new experiences. It took me out of my comfort zone. It helped me write more about the topic I’m so passionate about. It gave me the confidence that I could create a community of SDR Leaders, and so on.
My advice to you? Try out the newsletter, the podcast, and the LinkedIn posting. It will open doors that you didn’t realise were there for you!
POWERLEAD
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STUFF ONLINE
Content of the week
THOUGHTS
What am I seeing this Week: Anxiety as a leader
In May, I spoke about Mental Health Awareness Month and the importance of sharing. This week, I wanted to share something I experienced and how I overcame it.
The worst thing to do when you’re tired is to skim through social media (I add Linkedin now to that bucket of social media), and see so many people who you perceive are doing ‘better’ than you.
You start to see all their 'success,’ and it makes you feel like what you are doing is just not good enough.
And I admit it. I had that experience on Sunday. I felt that what I've done is nothing in comparison to all the flash and excitement I see on other people’s social media.
But many of us fall into the trap of aspiring to be someone else or something else. However, we have all succeeded in our own different ways and experiences. You need to take a step away from the moment, from the intensity and brain stimulation, and take stock of what you have been achieving.
This is something i really struggle with, that i should be doing more, being better than what i am currently doing. I also thought it was just me who had these feelings, but being able to speak to other leaders, showed me that i wasn’t the only one dealing with this kind of anxiety, that its something we all deal with.
The best cure for it is to talk about it and assess your situation rather than keep it internal and let it fester in your mind.
Don't forget to talk to someone when those (totally natural moments) happen!
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STAKKI
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INTERVIEW
Four Questions of the Week: Dan Reynolds
This week, we are joined by Dan Reynolds, who is currently the Head of Sales at Powerlead. His b2b contact data goes back to 2017 when he started as employee 19 at Lusha. After taking a break from B2B Contact data, Dan saw the landscape of prospecting continuing to change, and when the opportunity to address the changes presented itself, he jumped at the chance to lead the Sales organization at Powerlead - a startup with a chance of making an immediate impact with SDR teams building their pipelines.
Great to have you on the newsletter this week, Dan! Firstly, tell me a little bit about your journey:
My last ten years have been spent riding the wave of startup tech sales, selling to everyone from solopreneurs to Fortune 100 companies
The beauty of early-stage start-up life is that you are involved in all parts of the customer journey. So, I've been able to touch every part of the sales process, from prospecting to driving revenue growth through new business and account growth. All of this experience has been crucial for me to take on my current challenge of helping to launch Powerlead.
Why did you come back to the B2B Contact data space?
With all the changes in Sales & technology enhanced with AI, the one thing that hasn’t changed is the most effective way to communicate: speaking with somebody.
When I started in tech sales, we wrote an email and sent it, then picked up the phone and called. Fast-forward to now, and people are sending thousands of emails from an alias domain with a nonexistent web page attached to it in a single click.
This might work for some, but not SAAS. Now, I truly believe email still has a place in structured sequences of outbound motion to ignite a spark, but ultimately, opportunities are only created after a conversation starts the fire. By the way, you won’t have any conversations if the data is not good.
What’s changed since you started in the industry?
During the last decade, companies overbought (tech stack indigestion). When the money flowed, companies did not hesitate to add tech stack that they felt helped increase revenue.
What happened is the following:
All the sales-tech products that back then had one focus evolved into full-product suits, right? Consistent price increases over the years have potentially created the situation we face now: overcomplicated and overlapping products.
In addition to the above, we have experienced financial market challenges in the last few years, resulting in budget and headcount cutbacks. These factors have a major impact on our landscape.
What could be an effective solution that companies can adopt?
I believe it’s all about going back to basics because we’re all being asked to do more with less, specifically, more pipeline coverage. I heard Salesforce say they raised their pipeline coverage for the first time in 20 years from 2X to 3X just to hit the same number. You can’t meet these expectations with sub-par data. You need full data coverage at scale without compromising quality.
Setting your team up for success is more important than ever.
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LASTLY
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