First things first…

This week was short; I was with our Snowflake marketing leadership team in Paris to discuss FY25 planning. It’s always great to sit with strong leaders on how we plot the course forward.

I’m excited to have our first event announcement in this week's newsletter!

What am I seeing this week: Why SDR Leadership?

That is me as I started my SaaS journey. (Yes, I know I’ve not aged well!!)

But why am I in SDR leadership? Here is my quick story…

Growing up as a teenager, I started coaching Rugby. I got joy from assisting people to develop and seeing that 'a-ha' moment that comes from learning a skill.

My first job out of university was coaching kids' Rugby in the Netherlands, and I loved it. It made me realise that helping people was something I wanted to do, but I couldn't figure out what form that would be in.

So when I got into the world of Sales development, I saw a coming together of two things: working in a fast-paced environment and being able to help develop people.

Fast forward ten years later, with a lot of trial and error along the way, and I'm a coach, leader and innovator at one of the largest companies in the world.

What was your ‘why’ for choosing SDR leadership? Add to the comments section below!

Five questions of the week

This week, we have Antonio Duarte, Director of Business Development EMEA & APAC at Onestream Software, here to share a special announcement!

So Antonio, What is your leadership methodology?

I don’t have one in concrete, but I think a couple of thoughts, ways and principles from different methodologies are essential to be a successful leader.

Some of these thoughts/ways/principles that I have in mind (almost) all the time to lead my teams are: be consistent on your work, show up every day with a great attitude towards the job and life in general. Understand the vision and goals of your company and from your direct manager. Practice empathy every day with everyone you meet. Make sure you understand people's backgrounds/cultures. Listen before you talk. Respect others. Having a great culture, like OneStream has, for example, and maintaining it is also crucial for me as a leader.

Another critical aspect of leading teams for me is to know the job your team does. For example, I always try to be updated with the latest cold call trends, successful e-mail templates, how other companies are doing social selling, etc. Keeping myself resourceful, from internal and external relevant info, is very important for the success of my teams.

What significant differences have you overcome to lead APAC and EMEA successfully?

A significant difference and one of the challenges leading the APAC team from the Amsterdam office is the obvious one: the time difference. My calls with this region happen between 6/7 a.m. and 3/4 p.m.

There are minimal differences, but the way to work is similar to what the BDRs do in the EMEA or American regions.

For example, our onboarding at OneStream, when someone joins the company, is the same in every region. We focus on our value proposition, the role itself, our tech stack and how to be successful.

We just doubled the number of BDRs in the region, and we see that preparation before calling, cold e-mail/call and face-to-face events/meetings are as crucial as in any part of the world.

So, at the moment, I focus on finding ways to support the team best during the different time zones. For example, by leaving recorded video messages or e-mails the day before so they have it first thing in the morning. Ensure they keep in contact with the EMEA BDRs and feel part of the team. I manage my calendar well and prepare well when meeting with them.

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

I have a couple. Try to understand if it is really what you want to do.

Managing expectations that ‘trust’ from your team is something that you need to build, something you will gain, and sometimes happens on the first day, most of the time, and sometimes it takes time.

Make sure you know and understand your understand your manager's vision.

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

Yellow pages changed how sales do prospecting, and e-mail & social media changed how we do outreach. In the same way these two things disrupt the sales roles, AI will change how SDRs do prospecting and outreach. But I believe these changes will be for the better and will make our lives easier.

We will use AI to do faster research on our prospects, create better content for our LinkedIn messages, and better understand prospect answers and how we can reply. AI will be another tool that will make us successful.

However, jumping into this AI train right now would be best, or you will be behind the competition. You need to embrace AI and educate yourself about it. You need to test it, be familiar with it and become an expert.

So, for me, the significant changes in the following years will be using AI to succeed in the SDR daily tasks.

Tell us more about the BDR summit and what you want to achieve with this great initiative!

We are about to launch The BDR Summit. This is the first time it has become public.

The BDR/SDR role is vital for me, not only because I was one BDR a few years ago and I now oversee a team with more than 20 BDRs at OneStream but because I believe this role is crucial for company development and growth.

However, I feel that not everyone sees it this way; sometimes, this role doesn’t have the proper recognition.

With these thoughts in mind, I decided to create an event dedicated to (and just to) BDRs/SDRs. An event where we could bring relevant speakers & relevant topics to this role (career progression, tips & tricks to be successful, trends for 2024 and other relevant issues).

This event will happen on November 16th, and we will be pleased to have you, David, as our speaker. We will have the fun of having Mick Van Der Leij, Global Director of Business Development at OneStream Software, André Bressel, VP of Sales at Channable, Yannick Kok, Senior Business Development Manager at OneStream Software, and many more to be presented soon.

We will be launching everything in the coming days, from location to agenda to who are our speakers, sponsors and partners. Partners like OneStream and BlueBird allow us to do this event cost-free for our attendees. 

One of our primary goals is that the BDR/SDR who attends this event leaves the event empowered to be successful in their daily job and their careers.

And Finally!

I’m excited about speaking with many great leaders at the BDR Summit on November 16th. I think it’s a great initiative and a gap for SDR’s in Amsterdam. I will be sharing the registration link in next week’s edition!