SDRs: How to Double Your Reply Rates
6/24/2022
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 We all know how difficult it can be to elicit a response from a potential prospect.
Regardless of experience level, the universal struggle of getting that sought-after reply is why there are so many tactics, guides, and strategies detailed from countless sources. But while those delve into philosophy and theory, they aren’t grounded by data-driven results. That’s why we sat down with Becc Holland, CEO & founder of Flip the Script, and Jeremey Donovan, former SVP for Sales Strategy at SalesLoft, for a conversation on what works and what doesn’t for sales-prospecting in today’s market. Holland has spent years researching the most effective methods of outreach and she has developed a modern, data-driven approach that provides a clear framework for success. While the entire approach can’t be contained in one webinar, the foundation of it is built from the very first contact. That’s why Holland outlines the three hooks designed to double reply rates: 1) The Problem-Centric Personalization Your hook is your opening line, and a Problem-Centric, personalized hook is a 1:1 approach. It means you choose one problem, one person, and you craft your pitch directly to them. There’s no 1:2 or 1:20; this is a fundamental plan, either defined as public-facing or customer-persona, that means interacting and selling into a company that directly relates to the services you provide. Problem-Centric Personalization hooks are all about problem-solving: setting up a scenario, giving insight to shortcomings, and providing a tangible, practical solution. It lets you identify and relate with a client, highly-personalize your approach, and clearly communicate the path forward. The only downside of this is that it requires the company you are selling into to offer a client-side service that you can access. That’s why the other two hooks are available: to ensure you stay adaptive: 2) The Strong Hook Strong and light hooks are two sides of a similar approach. A strong hook is the forward approach. It’s using information available to you (for example, researching someone’s LinkedIn); you identify an interest or need, and sell your service specifically to meet that. The benefit of a strong hook is that it’s no longer 1:1; it’s 1 to the company at-large. It’s a problem-solving solution not limited to companies with client-side services, but companies and individuals that might be part of larger networks. 3) The Light Hook By comparison, a light hook is a bit harder to land, but can be extremely effective for the right person. It requires you to draw a more conceptual tie between a prospect’s interests and your services. Holland gives the following example, “Jeremy played basketball at Sandford…and I am likening that to software like SalesLoft. What if you could turn all of your bench players into your starting lineup by enabling them with the techniques they should be practicing on and off the court…” The light-hook, in that way, connects a tangential problem to a general solution. It may not be enough to land the sale, but it’s plenty to get the conversation started. Pattern Interruptions & Transactional Ego States Beyond the hooks, Holland and Donovan also discussed the importance of Pattern Interruption and its relation to the three ego states conceptualized by Eric Berne in his famous book, Games People Play. Pattern Interruption, Holland says, is your key to breaking free from the stigma and awkwardness of the “salesperson/buyer” relationship. This can take the form of an understanding and candid demeanor, or simply emphasize listening and conversing over aggressively pushing your services. Knowing how to tailor your Pattern Interruption is important, because it can help you to properly understand and react to a person's “Objection Matrix.” To do that, Holland says you ask two questions regarding someone’s objection: Is it real or shallow? Is it valid or invalid? A real objection is something a prospect fundamentally believes, while a shallow objection is an initial distrust in you. The key takeaway is that you can wade through the shallows, and an objection can be both real and invalid. For instance, a prospect may sincerely believe they are correct in their objection but may be factually wrong. Holland makes the important note that all shallow objections are invalid, and are a prime opportunity to counter with pattern interruption. Understanding the theory and principles of modern sales outreach is critical to doubling response rates – and that all starts with knowing Hooks and Pattern Interruptions. If you found this summary interesting, the full discussion between Becc Holland and Jeremey Donovan can be found in this YouTube video. And for all things, Tenbound, keep an eye out for our Newsletter and take a look at our other helpful videos on YouTube.  There’s something to be said for chemistry.Arbitrarily throw people together and the results will be mixed. But actively seek out like-minded and complementary individuals, and you're launching from a place of success. Shared values, beliefs, and goals are the cornerstone of any strong organization, and that’s equally true for a romantic partnership, sports team, business endeavor…
Or Sales Development program. Start with core values and behavior. That’s your team culture, and it will literally determine and influence everything else. “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” ~Peter Drucker It’s easier to find employees and build processes that align with your culture than it is to force existing ones that just don’t fit. Round hole, square peg. Work smarter and start with culture. Craft Your CultureToo often, corporate culture is implied rather than explicitly defined. We need to change that. We need to identify it, write it down, and share it with every stakeholder within your company, department, or team. Aside from making your job easier, an established culture can account for up to 20-30% of the differential in performance when compared to your competitors with no clear culture. Can you afford to ignore that? Your first job as a Sales Development leader is to create and drive a strong culture. The Building BlocksAsk yourself and your team:
Make a list together, either in person or collaboratively online. Distill it down to no more than 4-6 with a one sentence description for each. Write them out. You might list collaborative, for example, adding that you work together to reach team goals irrespective of personal accolades. Next, consider your ideal employee. What attributes do you see in your existing team members, and want in your future hires? Write them out. Finally, think about your leadership style. How would the team describe it? Does it align with the culture you’re building? What do great leaders do on a daily basis? Write it out. You now have the necessary building blocks. Draft Your Culture StatementA culture statement is similar to — and may even include — your mission statement. It is a summary of your core values, beliefs, traditions, and mission. A good one will guide your team’s behavior, priorities, and decisions. It is thoughtful and explicit. It uses the active voice — “we believe…” and “our team is…” — positive attributes, and clear goals. Keep it to a paragraph or less. Review it together. Post it around the office and shared digital spaces. Revisit and revise as necessary. Draft Your Ideal Team Member StatementLook at the list you created for your ideal employee. Zero in on the 2-3 most important qualities you need and want in a team member. Write it out with either “The ideal member of the team is…” or “Our ideal team member…” or something similar. Use it to identify not only the most talented candidates when hiring, but also those most suited to your evolving team culture. Draft a Leadership Commitment StatementWhat values do you bring as leader? What culture do you hope to cultivate with your team? What does that look like on a day-to-day basis? Write it out. “As a leader, I commit to…” Draft a One-Page SummaryPut it all together on a single page that includes your culture, ideal team member, and leadership commitment statements. Add team goals and desired results for the next 90 days. Post it. Share it. Review it every three months. Consistency builds culture. The Three TenetsYour culture should reflect your team, and vice versa. To build an SDR team that mirrors the culture, you need to prioritize three main tenets:
Build strong processes that align with your people and culture. Identify and fix those that don’t. Analyze and maximize. Provide the best technical support you can afford. Make sure every team member is getting the most out of it via workflow reviews. At Tenbound, we’ve created an eight-part Sales Development management operating system that starts with culture for a reason. It’s the foundation and blueprint for everything that follows it. To learn more, purchase The Sales Development Framework: How to Build and Scale a Highly Productive Sales Development Program the book on Amazon  Observations on Version 9 - Download here
The Sales Development tech space is growing leaps and bounds. The challenge of connecting Marketing and Sales, and driving predictable pipeline, is insatiable. Every B2B company needs predictable sales pipeline. With over 70 new companies added to the map, this clearly signals that the Sales Development tech space is as strong as ever. The Data category increased the most with nearly 20 new additions. The Sales Enablement and Sales Engagement categories were runner-ups. More M&A activity across the market as compared to our previous (v8) update. We'll see more of this Download High Res PDF -> Tenbound-SalesDevLandscape-V9v3_05_28_2022  Need to crush your Q2 quota? Check out this tried and true method for inbound engagement. It's all about layers of contact to make a big impact.
Phase One The Task: Visit the person's LinkedIn profile The Why: Every time you visit someone's page your name will show up on the prospects page under Analytics. Phase Two The Task: Call them for the first time at 10-15 minutes before the top of the hour. The Why: Most people have meetings that start at the top of the hour. This increases your chance of getting them on the phone. The Script: If they answer, your script could look like this: “Good morning {{first name}}, how are you doing? This is _____from _____. We received your inquiry for_____ on _____, and I am reaching out to learn how I can help.” Phase Three The Task: Suppose they don't answer, hang up and try back 10 minutes later or leave a voicemail. The Script: VM script could look like: Hello Pete, This is David from xyz. I am responding to your inquiry for more information. Tim, I will send you an email, but if you prefer to reach out via phone my number is 555-555-555. Again, this is David, from xyz, and my number is 555-555-555. Looking forward to hearing from you Pete! Phase Four The Task: Email Them - Send them an email following up on your VM. Hello Pete, Just left you a voicemail in response to your request. Let me know how I can help. You can hit reply or call me back at 555-555-555. I look forward to hearing from you Pete. If it's easier, feel free to book time on my Chili Piper link here P.S- How about those Blue Jay's 10-6 start (If you see that your prospect is a die-hard fan, try and build rapport with them early on. Your engagement rates will skyrocket ). Not sure if you're familiar with gambling, but I was in Vegas last week and bet $100 to win $900. It's a lock, right? (VEGAS ODDS +900) Email Must-Have: Make sure your signature includes your company name, phone number, LinkedIn, Instagram, links. Your prospects will be able to learn more about your company even if they don't respond. Sometimes the win is the prospect opening up your email. So don't be discouraged if you don't get a response right away! Key Takeaways Open the call immediately by addressing, "Why are you calling/emailing me?" Let them know you sent a voicemail, signaling that you are persistent. {{Call-to-action}} in the close - "Looking forward" - tells Pete he needs to take action. The P.S is used to build rapport with your prospect. #BlueJay'sExample Email signature tells Pete "who is calling" - If they are busy executives, it's crucial that you give them an option to book on your Chili Piper or calendar link that your company is using.  Tenbound, the leading Sales Development Research & Advisory firm, today announced their virtual and in-person Sales Development conference series schedule for 2022.
The goal for these virtual & live conferences is to empower all participants to take control of their ability to produce Sales Development success in 2022 and beyond. Through the knowledge acquired from top Sales Development speakers at each event, attendees go forward with the tools and confidence to meet and exceed their professional goals. Furthermore, conference attendees can partner with our sponsors, providing them visibility and creative interaction with a targeted audience of decision-makers and influencers who are in the process of evaluating Sales Development products and services. Tenbound’s conferences will provide sponsors with virtual breakout rooms for the virtual events and a conference expo area for its live event (subject to any applicable public health order) that will enable sponsors the opportunity to interact with attendees in a collaborative and synergistic environment with qualified Go-to-Market professionals. “The Sales Development Pipeline industry continues to expand, fulfilling a critical need in B2B Saas Companies and beyond: a predictable sales and talent pipeline. The people, processes and technology stack to support the SDR function continues to mature, and the Tenbound Sales Development Conference series brings together the top minds in the industry to focus on strategy, tactics and technology to help our community achieve its goals”, said David Dulany, Tenbound Founder & CEO. “By continuing to gather the top minds in Sales Development and focusing on the strategies and tactics that are working now, while also looking to the future, we aim to push the practice of Sales Development forward and help guide leaders through this challenging time. Tenbound created the 2022 Conference Series to help Sales Development leaders reach their goals through high-quality content and actionable presentations in both virtual and in-person settings.” Tenbound’s 2022 Conference Calendar:
For more information about the Tenbound conferences for attendees or for sponsorship, please visit https://tenbound.com/conference/ About Tenbound Tenbound helps B2B SaaS companies build multi-billion-dollar Sales and Talent pipelines through Value-as-a-Service. We help identify our clients’ top sales and talent pipeline growth priorities and partner to achieve those priorities through our innovative research, advisory, and events. As the only firm focused on sales pipeline achievement, we bring a unique perspective to the market. For more information, including a free Sales Development consultation from our expert team, visit our website to learn more: https://tenbound.com/  Video Prospecting - now generally accepted in the SDR tool stack
We have seen the development of prospecting beyond phone and email to include physical mailings and now, video prospecting is becoming ubiquitous. In the era of Zoom meetings, prospects have become accustomed to video so it’s no surprise that SDRs are finding success using it in their outreach sequences. More providers are entering the space, and the delivery of the videos and metrics sounding its effectiveness continues to improve. Look for a move to the metaverse as prospects become more accustomed to that channel. Revenue Operations - gaining momentum as the ultimate dashboard for SDR team success Combining the disciplines of Sales Operations and Marketing Operations into a cohesive Revenue unit has become a common practice to support Sales Development teams, and managing applications to drive Sales Development success continues to rise in sophistication. Key players are emerging with heavy venture capital investment. Look out for more consolidation in this space and greater sophistication and adaption as Sales Development matures as a practice. Sales Enablement - Bridging The Work-from-home gap in SDR sales skills With Sales Development Reps working at home, the usual office learning, tribal knowledge, and banter are now missing to support their development. Companies are struggling to find new ways to keep SDRs engaged, trained and motivated. As a result, we’re seeing the Sales Enablement category continue to evolve in new and more advanced ways to meet that need. Look for growth in this area as companies move to use AI and machine learning to understand how voice tone, timing, word choice, and other factors affect pipeline production. Once Again - Zoominfo (ZI) Eating the World Zoominfo continues to lead on many fronts and is essentially becoming the overall Sales Development Operating System. Its strategy is clear; to become a one-stop-shop for your Pipeline and Sales needs, from Data to Enrichment, to Targeting, to Execution, and beyond. They call it the Total Platform, and according to ZI it “Aligns Your Marketing and Sales Tech tack into a unified platform” including Contact Data, Company Data, Technographics, Intent, Conversation INtallentce, Sales Intelligence, Prioritized Targeting, Conversational Marketing, Enrichment, and Audience solutions (AMB). At an (as of today) $23B Market cap and legendary Henry Schuck at the helm, we expect continued success and an overall trend of market consolidation in the SDR tech space. Email Deliverability - The next Market Map quadrant? SDRs are spending a lot of time personalizing emails to fit their prospect’s pain points hitting send, and hoping for the best. Alas, the email goes straight to spam or some other purgatory where it never even reaches the inbox of the prospect. How much time is wasted? In response, a whole new crop of tools is being developed to ensure this specific problem is solved. On the flip side, we’ve seen one tool which requires you to donate to charity in order to get your email delivered. Revenge of the Prospects! Ready to learn more? Attend the upcoming Tenbound Virtual Sales Development Conference to meet the key people and tech providers in our industry. Register here. All the major players in Sales Development are represented at Tenbound Conferences and can be available to demo. What did we miss? What would make the Map and Directory more useful? Leave a comment!  Download the full Case Study here!
Nitro was growing fast. Their business productivity software was being used by over 13,000 companies worldwide, and it was time to adjust their SDR playbook to keep up. Up to this point, Nitro’s SDRs had focused exclusively on inbound leads; that would have to change in order to scale at the pace that Nitro was at. In a perfect world, the SDRs would have a leader in place to help adapt. That deft hand would help train the team and add to their playbook. Of course, things rarely ever happen perfectly. As it turned out, right when Nitro was at this inflection point, their Global SDR Director resigned. With no qualified prospects on the market to replace him, VP of Growth & Enablement Nellie Aube took over the SDR team. She was passionate about developing sales talent, but already had her hands full juggling multiple roles. “While we were looking for a Global SDR Director, we were also growing our enablement team and preparing a new manager to take over that group. In the interim, I was running both teams, leading the upsegment development plans, and building our cross-functional strategy with marketing,” she explains. Although Nellie had an impressive handle on the big-picture for the growing teams, there just weren’t enough hours in the day for her to deliver direct training to the SDRs: “Our SDR reps needed individual attention to develop outbound selling skills. But with me having essentially three different jobs, there was no way I could coach them all one-on-one.” The team needed support, and there were no qualified candidates to fill the SDR Director role on the horizon. Things were still growing at a rapid place, and Nellie needed three things as soon as possible:
If you’re curious about Pete’s strategy, you can read the full case study here. If you want to know how that strategy worked, well, the results speak for themselves. In six short months, Nitro’s SDR team mastered telephone outreach and delivered an astonishing 113% YOY increase in opportunities for the sales team. Their efforts helped grow the total outbound pipeline by 70%, and drove a 20% increase in SDR-sourced revenue in H2. It might be months before Nitro finds a new Global SDR Leader, but – thanks to Pete’s work – Nellie isn’t worried about the wait. Her partnership with Tenbound is meeting her company’s needs and it continues to elevate performance and morale among the SDRs. “Without Tenbound, I’d be getting no sleep. I would have dropped high-priority items while we struggled to find a new SDR Director. We wouldn’t have this level of trust and engagement on the SDR team, and we wouldn’t have a thriving outbound pipeline.” Download the full case study here.  It’s hard to stay focused these days. Especially working from home. It takes a lot of discipline.
There’s so much information out there on the various social networks and so much uncertainty in daily life, it’s very easy to become confused and disoriented. If you lose your focus and start scrolling, millions of online gurus will soon be giving you advice (much of it very good advice, some not-so-good) - advice that you could implement into your life, and your business, to get it back on track or take it to the next level. The amount of advice and information available today is truly unprecedented. It’s coming at you like an information firehose. That’s all good, but there are two sides to the coin. It’s easy to fall into the trap of "information overload". At this point, adding more information into our already flooded brains just causes more confusion. That in turn causes you to go back online looking for more information, which in turn gives you more information and contributes to more information overload and confusion. At some point, you need to stop scrolling, close the social networks, look at the actual operating system for your life that you have in place, and see if it's any good. By operating system, I mean the process you’re following day-in and day-out of positive habits, mindsets, and actions that will eventually lead to achieving your goals. And if you have an operating system, are you following it a little bit each day, and is it taking you in the right direction that you're trying to go with your life? Is your system building your business, improving your prospecting, your health, your life, your relationships... or are you just drifting, seeking more advice. Have you established an operating system to integrate all that great advice into your life? If not sketch it out today, and start following it. Promise yourself not to add any more advice or information to the system until you at least have some sort of system that you're repeatedly doing. I’ve used a version of Darren Hardy’s Best Year Ever system for many years and it works great. There are a lot of them, try one and see what works for you. Watch out for the information overload loop, or spiral. After you get good information, get a good system and stick to it. Need help? Contact Tenbound for a free coaching session with a Tenbound Certified Coach. |