VERDICT
First Things First…

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So, can you click on the below poll to let me know what you think about the newsletter so far? It would help a lot!

STUFF ONLINE
Content of the week

• Improve email deliverability

• Set up your LinkedIn Sales Nav like a champion

• As a leader you have to let people know where they stand

THOUGHTS
What am I seeing this Week: 3 things to stop being stuck in spam

I avoided jumping onto the bandwagon around the new spam rules being introduced by Google, as there is a lot of scaremongering. And even now, you still see people discussing some pretty wild suggestions on what to do.

So, from what I am seeing, I wanted to share with you the 3 things you should be doing if you want to build an email limitation-proof SDR organisation. Do these 3 things:

1️⃣ ABM: You need to be running awareness campaigns into your named accounts... NOW
2️⃣ Messaging: It needs to come from a broad combination of LinkedIn voice, LinkedIn video, INmails AND THEN Emails. And most importantly, it MUST BE PERSONALISED. Based on vertical, persona and use case
3️⃣ That dusty thing on your desk? Its a phone: pick it up

I hope this helps, but please let me know if you think there should anything else we add here.

FEATURE
Website of the week: SalesHookup

Networking with people can be tough; who do you speak with? How do you do it? Do you have the time?

SalesHookup takes all the guesswork out for you and lets you plan who you network with at the start of each week.

And they have been nice to give you a chance to sign up and try it for free!

Check it out here!

INTERVIEW
Five Questions of the Week: Matt Corley

Today, we are joined by the incredibly experienced and successful Matt Corley. Matt has been in Sales development leadership for over ten years, most recently at Okta, and will share his insights into doing more with less, scaling processes and finding a good coach!

To start, Matt, why sales development? 
I work in Sales Development because it plays to my strengths. It is fast-paced, dynamic, strategic, and dirty at times. If you get it right - you get to work with and see highly talented individuals from all backgrounds and experiences start their careers in tech and progress down multiple avenues. Every day is a challenge, and every day needs a winning mentality to be successful.

What has been the most significant change as a leader for you over the last 24 months? 
The most significant change for me has been starting a family (although I have a work family); this has given me much more respect for individuals’ time and efforts that they give to work when you either know or have no clue about what other commitments they have in their life. This has accelerated my need to trust harder, delegate further across my leadership team, and ensure that review programmes are treated with time and compassion.

You lead big teams at Okta. How have you dealt with the responsibility? 
The size of the team makes no difference to me. There will still be challenges, headwinds and successes that resonate across small and large teams. Handling a larger team correctly is all about scaling those processes and ensuring clarity with the direction you want to take is adhered to across all of the leaders and ICs pushing in the same direction. A larger team makes it easier to get segmented. However, I am pretty big on frameworks and methodologies and ensuring every part of the performance is measurable so we can spot any issues early on.

What advice would you give to an aspiring SDR Leader? 
Number 1 would be "go for it" - it is a fantastic role where you impact the lives of others daily. The other bits of advice would be to surround yourself with a suitable peer network, find a coach or build a solid team (if you have this autonomy) - and the last piece would be to try new ideas and not be afraid to fail, or specifically don't just listen to senior stakeholders in other departments that think dials is the only key to success. There are plenty of thought leaders in this space, and so much research coming out daily as to what is working in this specific climate that will potentially yield you more success than just "doing it the way it has always been done".

What is the biggest impact we will see in the SDR role in 2024? Everyone is talking about AI, but we are still another couple of years away from this becoming the norm in SD - so I believe the most significant impact, unfortunately, will be the reduction of teams that were previously scaling and that productivity efficiency balance will be the key metric businesses look for - "how do we do more with less" Companies have a more remarkable ability to do their research without interacting with a human at a company so self-service motions will continue to excel, and Outbound - where done right - will be the make/break of an organisation reaching it's next milestone. The importance and credibility of an SDR should continue to accelerate as a vital member of the GTM function.

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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