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First things first…

I’m publishing a book!

I’ve been thinking about the problem of SDR and AE alignment and wanted to do something about it!

More to come over the coming weeks!

Content of the week: ChatGPT Edition

• Write a killer cover letter using ChatGPT

• Automate your prospecting using ChatGPT

What am I seeing this week: Revenue Generation must be the focus of SDRs

SDR needs to do revenue-generating activities only.

But organisations are doing a disservice to their SDR teams by making them do too much.

As an SDR, there is so much being thrown at them:

Calling

Emailing

Prospecting

Driving attendance to events

List building

Internal meetings

External events

Enablement

1:1s

The list goes on and on!

This is way too many things to take on. How can you prioritise your day to focus on the most important thing: making money?

A simple but effective tool is to control your calender, by adding time blocks.

What are they?

Pretty simple: when is the best time to call, block that time off as a reoccurring time in your diary to call, no exceptions/excuses, you must call at set time at the start of each day and at the end of each day to prepare your leads to be called.

Make sure your 1:1 are added at times that are not within those key calling hours try it out for a few weeks, people respect you if you have time blocked out, they understand that your role is about getting on the phone and making dials.

As leaders, we also need to do a better job in pushing back on other business units so that our teams sole focus is on making money.

For those new to the newsletter and like what you are seeing, please click on the subscribe button, and you’ll receive this top-quality newsletter in your inbox every Friday morning!

Five Questions of the week: Mike Hamberg

Mike Hamberg joins Mastering Sales Development this week to discuss why he leads ‘firm but fair’ and how he is motivated by helping others develop to the best version of themselves!

What is it about the Sales Development function that inspires you? 

In my mind, there are three pillars to sales development: revenue pipeline, talent pipeline, and market feedback. What inspires me is the impact I can have on our talent pipeline. I’ve been very fortunate in my career thus far to have had incredible mentors who’ve helped me develop my personal and professional skills. Now it's my responsibility to pay it forward to others through sales training, consistent coaching and career-pathing. In the past 18 months, 100% of the Account Executives we’ve hired at Awin have come from my team, I'm proud of that one.

What would your team consider your leadership methodology to be?

We’ve been talking about this a lot recently given the amount of hiring we have been doing. It would be described as ‘firm but fair’, meaning I ask people to be accountable for their attitude and actions, but I promise the same in return. I encourage my team to speak truth to power, without fear of retribution i.e. if they have constructive feedback they’d like to share, I’m absolutely here for it. The other phrase is ‘I trust but verify’. I hire smart people and I trust them to operate at the level of autonomy they choose, but I verify the direction of their work to make sure it’s in alignment with our wider departmental objectives.

How have you evolved as a leader from TripActions to now at Awin Global?

This is important to me. I’ve evolved by understanding that culture is tested in times of crisis, and as a leader, it’s on me to set the finest example and deliver a duty of care to my department and wider business. In this period, I’d gone through global redundancies as a byproduct of selling travel software during the COVID pandemic and the economic fallout of everything that followed. As I moved company mid-pandemic, this meant rallying the troops in times of uncertainty and being radically accountable. That transition was a great opportunity for me and the team to step up, and we’ve gone on to overachieve targets for the past three and a half years despite all the challenges. This was achieved by eight cohorts of new graduates, completely remote, working a 4-day week. I take my hat off to them and carry a strong positive opinion about remote SDR teams. 

What was the motivation to start the Lead Well newsletter? 

52% of Sales Development leaders did not hit target in 2022, and this number is growing. For the past couple of years, outside of my main role, I’ve been coaching others in sales development leadership. It was a coachee who first suggested that I should share some of my knowledge and experience in an approachable format, and by the time I was asked by a third person, I committed to starting a weekly newsletter called ‘Lead Well’. Each week leaders received a new tactic, methodology, or framework to help tackle their biggest challenges; hiring, onboarding, coaching, career-pathing, and so on. It’s all free, the more the merrier.

If you could provide one piece of advice to someone who wants to move into Sales Development leadership, what would it be? 

Don’t do it. At least, not until you’ve asked yourself why. Leadership is often one of those paths that people walk to pursue seniority, but there is a big trade-off. As a leader, if you do well it’s about the team, and if you do badly it's about you. Not everyone is comfortable with that. However, if you are motivated by developing others, leading as a steadfast example, and are comfortable taking full accountability for a revenue machine that is constantly trying to self-destruct - it can be the most rewarding decision you’ll ever make in your career. Thanks for reading and I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts – my door’s always open, lead well!

Book of the week

And Finally!

If you want to reserve a copy of my book, drop me a message and I’ll get you on the list!

No-Fluff Marketing Industry News & Insights

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