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First Things First…

I can’t believe I am writing this, but we have now hit 1000 newsletter subscribers on Beehiiv!

Thank you to all who have been part of this journey since the end of July 2023.

The goal has always been to pave the way for those on their SDR leadership journey with knowledge, insights and guidance from those already on that journey.

I hope we will continue doing that for you and help you get better every week!

Fancy setting up your own Newsletter? Try it out here. We have some incredible members of this newsletter whose stories and wisdom would be incredible to read about!

So today, we will make this a packed newsletter with TWO interviews!

Enjoy!

STUFF ONLINE
Content of the week

• What to measure at an early stage GTM

• Someone had their crystal ball out on the SalesLoft/Drift acquisition

• Create a sales process from scratch

FEATURE
Conversation with Rinat Khatipov of SallyAI

Today, we chatted about AI and spoke with Rinat Khatipov, founder of SallyAI. Rinat will discuss how he sees the future of the SDR role being transformed and enriched by the use of AI tools for their day-to-day work.

Thanks for coming on, Rinat! You have a very non-traditional background; how come you got involved in SDRs?

With a backend/ML development background, I quickly transitioned from development to Product Management and eventually launched my own business.

I co-founded insquad.com, a platform dedicated to connecting developers from my network with US startups. My role primarily focused on client acquisition, mastering everything from outreach and working with SDRs to closing deals over two years.

However, I found existing sales tech tools inadequate, prompting us to develop our system for generating sales leads. This experience and my encounter with GPTs inspired me to create SallyAI - an AI-driven SDR.

In your opinion, what skills does the SDR of the future need to have?

I want to add something they need to focus on in the next years to be highly competitive in the market:

• This market is changing very fast, and to maintain current conversion rates, you need to integrate something new every quarter. So, testing of new tools, approaches, and hypotheses.

• Basics of computer science to understand how all these tools work under the hood and their limitations.

• Prompt engineering to write high-quality prompts to generate personalized messages for prospects.

• Analytics to make data-informed decisions in marketing campaigns.

So, over the next 48 months, How do you see the SDR role evolving?

I think in 48 months, there will be two divisions:

• SDRs are managing fully AI-automated outreach campaigns. They will target small and mid-size businesses, where the number of companies is huge, and you can compensate for the conversion rate with the number of prospects you are reaching.

• SDRs work with big accounts or a very limited number of companies on the market. In that case, you can’t afford low conversion rates, and SDRs will use another type of AI tool that automates research for SDR and gives all the details about companies, prospects, news, and so on.

So, as an SDR, you need to understand your trajectory. There will be nothing in the middle.

What was the reason for developing SallyAI?

SallyAI is an AI SDR that searches for prospects who need your product and writes deeply personalized Emails and LinkedIn messages.

We first created this tool for our lead generation department and realized that any B2B business would need it.

With SallyAI, you can send 1000+ emails like these and increase your cold outreach conversion rates or make your sales team 2X more productive.

THOUGHTS
What am I seeing this Week: Have inbound and Outbound AEs

Inbound and outbound leads need to be treated differently by sales organisations and have stand-alone Inbound and outbound AE's.

Both encounter different skill sets. Both encounter different pains from the prospect.

Inbound leads will provide you with more context earlier in the sales process, while outbound leads will mean you need to dig deeper to discover and implicate that pain.

Some sellers are naturally better at one or the other, and that's fine!

We need to set up our sellers to be successful, so doing something like this is a win-win

However, the problem many companies face is a need for more resources to execute a plan like that. Having standalone Inbound and Outbound AEs is a large cost.

So, what do you think can be done in the short term?

Coaching and development of the sales organisation is crucial: it cannot be just blamed on marketing or SDRs for giving the sales org 'Sh*t leads*.

Give your sales organisations clear coaching and enablement to differentiate and deliver differing discovery calls.

This will see an immediate increase in win rates.

What do you think? Is this plausible?

Let me know in the comments below!

INTERVIEW
Five Questions of the Week: Dale Thorn

This week, we are joined by Dale Thorn. As well as being a brilliant SDR Leader, many of you have seen Dale has been on a mission to connect and speak with as many SDR leaders as possible over the last few months. He has now had conversations with over 200 people, and today, he will share his insights and learnings

Why did you decide to move into SDR leadership?

I moved into SDR leadership through a bit of a roundabout path, similar to why many others moved into SDR Leadership.

While I was an AE, I volunteered at a Tech Sales Bootcamp to help coach people looking to transition into an SDR role but also wanting to succeed. I found so much fulfilment in coaching others, helping them realize they had more potential. For me, I realized I got more satisfaction from coaching than I did from closing a deal. I wanted to give the reps the support/coaching/mentorship I wish I had when I first became an SDR. I wanted them to be better than I was. On a more practical level, I knew hiring great people and talent was extremely important for any Sales leader, so having that ability to select the best was crucial once I became an SDR Leader.

In addition, old managers, colleagues, and friends encouraged me to pursue an SDR Leadership role. They saw the potential in me, and I’ll be forever grateful!

What is your leadership methodology?

To start, my leadership style is what I would call “Transformational.” I exist as a leader only to help guide and support people to their personal and professional goals. This doesn’t just mean my SDRs; it includes everyone within an organization. The more you invest in and care about people, the more business outcomes follow. 

I start by learning the personal and professional goals of everyone on my team, and then I overlay those with the business goals of everyone else I work with. With that knowledge in place, I approach the job through the lens of a project manager. With project management, you start with the end goal and work backwards with your timeline in mind, which helps create the infrastructure and framework you will need to succeed. Collaboration is extremely important for all this to work. 

For example, I ran several ABM campaigns at Liveramp. The goal of these ABM campaigns was to generate tens of millions of dollars in pipeline over the course of 90 days. For the campaigns to be successful, collaboration was done with more than 50 different stakeholders across Marketing, Sales Operations, several Commercial teams, Field Strategy, Sales Enablement, Product, Specialist teams, Sales Development, and Executive Leadership. All stakeholders had service-level agreements on their key contributions by a specific deadline. We had required daily/weekly check-ins to share what was working and areas of potential improvement so we could make swift iterations. The result was that we achieved more than 150% against our pipeline goal. We wouldn’t have been able to accomplish this if the Sales Development team had done it independently. 

Can you give an example of when you've made an error as a leader? How did you resolve it?

It was shortening the SDR hiring process. In working with my leader and TA, we shortened the hiring process from a 4 step process (recruiter screen, hiring manager, Director, and panel with hiring manager, peer, and presentation) to a two-step process (hiring manager, Director). Within two quarters, half of the hired SDRs had left for various reasons. While this attrition rate is very high, it's better to find out sooner rather than later that the fit isn't great. Their onboarding plan was four weeks, and their ramp period was one quarter with goals, but on average, it took a new SDR nine months to fully feel confident about the product and SDR sales processes. 

The importance of vetting an SDR candidate through multiple conversations, perspectives, and potential assignment(s) is critical to learn more about prospective candidates; additionally, allowing them to get to know more about the team and company they might join helps ensure it is a great mutual fit.

You have been speaking to some of the best SDR leaders in 2023. Are there any consistent threads within them?

Having spoken with 133 SDR Leaders (as of 12/31/23), I can see two consistent threads within every conversation. 

#1 - Knowing your “Why” and how essential it is. It’s essential for the leader to know their why because it creates personal clarity, which can then be shared with their SDRs, peers, leaders, and everyone they may work with. “Why’s” also consistently vary on the leader's EQ and the level in which they are a Leader. 

2# - The need for SDR Leadership Training Programs. Most often, every first-time SDR Manager is brought into that role from knowing how to do the SDR role well. They are also generally brought on to be “people managers” for one of the hardest jobs in the company with the highest turnover. What typically happens is a long, steep learning curve when it comes to learning how to become an “operator,” effectively communicating findings, strategies, and plans to executive leadership, and finally creating close personal/professional relationships with cross-functional leaders.  All of these are extremely important to be successful in the role, but learning those skills could be expedited with a formal training program for new managers.

What do you think the SDR function will look like in 2024?

Sales Development came into existence  for two reasons: 

1. To create high-quality pipeline

2. Create a talent pipeline for the rest of the organization. 

That said, the SDR function 2024 will look very different for many reasons. The SDR function is very dynamic based on many different factors that include things like macro and micro trends, whether a business is upmarket or downmarket, whether the SDR org is aligned to Sales, Marketing, or RevOps, a business’s level of maturity (Seed to Public), a business’s goals, the SDR org goals and how they’re measured, and the introduction to new solutions like AI. 

The most important factor that will change how an SDR function will look in 2024 is modelling SDRs' time and efficiency to goals, project deadlines, and campaigns. With clarity on realistic timelines, benchmarks, and deadlines, SDR teams will be better positioned to be proactive. A reactive SDR team will always be taking time and positioned as a “cost.” A proactive SDR team will be better positioned as a “value add” org because it can give the right amount of time. Plus, “Value add” SDR orgs are more aligned with revenue. 

Long and short, the SDR function in 2024 will look different everywhere. What’s for certain is Sales Development is not going away anytime soon. 

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GOOD READS
Book of the week

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