10 Things Every New SDR Must Do

It’s your first day in your new role. Maybe you’re totally new to B2B sales, or you’ve worked as an SDR before.

But the big question is, what does it take to succeed?

There are many skills you need to master to be great at sales. Below are some tips from B2B sales professionals for you to work on as you advance in your SDR career.  📈

1. Know your 'why'

Why did you get into sales? 🤔

Did you love the idea of speaking to lots of different people every day? Was it the challenge and satisfaction of hitting (and exceeding) your quota?

All of these are great motivators for building a career in sales. But having a ‘why’ is key for staying in sales for the long haul.

Having motivation will help you get through those difficult days when you hear more ‘no’s’ than ‘yeses’.

Rachel Goldstone sums it up below:

2. Understand your ICP and how to appeal to them

An ideal customer profile (ICP) is a description of the perfect company or customer you want to target for your business. Companies that fit your ICP are vital for your business as they’re more likely to buy, stay loyal to your product, and refer you to others.

What should you look for in an ideal customer?

In most cases, they should be able to use your product to boost their bottom line, as well as:

• Reduce costs.
• Drive efficiency.
• Improve the productivity/well-being of staff.

When your team is creating your ICP, you need to keep your customers' pain points in mind. Set up a face-to-face meeting (or via Zoom) and ask your product’s super-users about it.

• Their buying processes.
• How they found you.
• Why they purchased.
• How they're benefitting from your product.

Below are six traits to consider when developing your ICP. 👇

Once you know your ICP, you need to understand how to appeal to them!

Jimmy Phan, Head of Sales at HARO Guy, explains that qualifying your leads is key to turning prospects into future customers.

“Prioritise your time and effort on the leads that are most likely to become customers, based on their fit and interest in your product or service.”

Alvin Wei, the CMO and Head of Strategy at SEOAnt, agrees; he says:

“After learning all you can about your ICP, the next step is to beef up your prospecting game. Consistently prospecting is the best approach to ensure you’re constantly getting new leads that you can qualify and drive to buy what you are selling.”

3. Refine your research skills

Before you pick up the phone to speak to a prospect, you must do your research. The more information you gather before your call, the better you’ll be able to approach your prospect with an appealing value prop.

Robert Johnson, Senior Director of Merchandising at Coast Appliances, says:

“To succeed as a new SDR, you must hone your prospecting and market research skills. Because the job of an SDR is to connect to new leads and qualify them, these skills are critical in successfully pushing leads further in the bottom of the sales funnel.”

“Continuous learning through SDR leadership seminars and consulting can help SDRs set KPIs in qualifying leads for outbound and sales prospecting.”

“You must understand your prospects’ profiles, needs, and problems to earn their trust upon initial contact. And this is when prospecting, market research skills, and advanced tools come into play.”

Research can be made easier by using a sales intelligence tool like Cognism.

Joining groups on LinkedIn where your ICP might hang out is a great way to break the ice when you do connect. Research by Gong found that a rep’s success in booking a meeting went up by 70% when they mentioned they were in the same group as a prospect.

4. A 'no' isn't necessarily forever

SaaS sales is a tough profession, especially for new starters working on the SDR frontline.

They play a key role in the lead generation efforts of their company. Typically, SDRs are on the phone for most of the day, which can get repetitive. They also face a great deal of rejection, more than they face success. 📞

Ryan Reisert had this to say about handling cold call rejection:

“Part of the role of an SDR is to go out on a fact-finding mission, learn about the prospect's pain points and see if they might have a solution to help.”

“So a rejection, in reality, is data to inform you on their situation and circumstances at that moment in time.”

“It isn’t permanent. Things change. You can follow up another day. Sometimes it’s just an issue of timing.”

Objection handling is a big part of understanding why you’re getting a ‘no’ from your prospect. Are they not currently in the market for your product or service? Could it be another pain point you’re not seeing?

Kandace Banks, Senior Enterprise BDR at SetSail, agrees. She says:

“No doesn’t mean, ‘I’m not interested’. It just means, ‘I need more information’. Maybe you didn’t explain the value as well as you could have.”

“Learn from rejection and apply your learnings on the next call. Don’t take it personally. Use your ‘no's’ to perfect your pitch.”

Reframing rejection is an essential skill you’ll need to learn as a new SDR. Particularly if you want to keep progressing in sales. If you can not take it personally and become resilient in the face of rejection, you’ll become a much more effective salesperson.

Cognism’s Director of Sales, David Bentham, says it best in his LinkedIn post below:

5. Listen and be coachable

Have you heard of the 70/30 rule?

If you’re a newbie SDR, it’s the number one communication rule when making sales calls. The rule states that a prospect lead should do 70% of the talking and the rep only 30%.

Of course, getting a prospect to open up and do all that talking is a challenge. But there’s one major benefit of doing this.

The more the prospect feels like they’re being heard and understood, the more likely they are to buy. So, by simply listening to their objections, you’re taking the first step in turning a prospect into a lead.

This technique is called active listening. By talking less and tuning into what your prospect is saying, you’ll be able to work out what might be blocking them from saying ‘yes’ to a demo.

As you listen, ask open-ended questions. This keeps the conversation customer-centric and will help you answer questions and overcome any objections.

Coachability is one of the five Cs that David Bentham is super-passionate about.

Hiring SDRs that are aware of their strengths (as well as their weaknesses) is key. That way, they’ll be able to reach out and ask for help when they’re learning a new skill.

It doesn’t matter if you’re naturally good at selling if you can’t take on feedback. Because you’ll never be able to develop as a salesperson.

Kathleen Quinn, Senior Enterprise SDR at SetSail, says:

“Be present. Be open to joining a meeting and be ready to learn. Listen to information, learn from peers, and gain experience. You don’t know what you don’t know.”

Are you a sales leader? Hit play for Ryan Reisert’s tips for effectively coaching SDRs.

6. Nail your sales admin process

Sales admin is undoubtedly the unsung hero of a successful SDR. Don’t just take our word for it. Toria Penhale, Senior Enterprise SDR, is a rising star at Cognism. She says:

“I've never worked in sales beforehand; this is my first sales role. One thing I recommend is blocking off your calendar. This stops you from getting too overwhelmed.”

“It's so easy to chase your tail, especially as an SDR. But if you block your calendar out and you have 30 minutes in the morning to do admin and two hours to cold call, and you follow that structure. You'll feel so much more relaxed at the end of the day.”

Kandace Banks from SetSail agrees:

“Use your calendar. Live by it. Don't depend on your memory to follow up with people. You can easily forget things and miss opportunities.”

Another important way to nail your sales admin is to have a solid CRM management system.

Shanel Mouat from Napta says:

“Master your CRM. Being a great SDR means learning how to monitor your performance and analyse where you’re most efficient (i.e. the ratio of time spent to results) and capitalise on areas where this ratio is optimal, whether it’s calls, emails or social selling.”

Sales admin might not be sexy, but with it, as David says in the post below, you’ll achieve incredible long-term wins.

7. Collaborate with co-workers

As an SDR, you’ll be set personal targets to hit. So you might think that sales is an individual sport. But you’d be wrong.

Jimmy Phan, Head of Sales at HARO Guy, sums it up:

“Sales is a team sport, so work closely with your fellow SDRs, Account Executives, and other sales team members to share insights and support each other's success.”

Don’t forget you’ll need to collaborate with your co-workers to get deals across the line. Starting out as an SDR, you’re responsible for booking meetings with prospects for AEs to demo your product to. You’ll have to work together to get deals over the line.

While sales is a hierarchical structure, it’s important to push through the discomfort of being new and learn from your co-workers.

Kathleen Quinn says:

“Learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable. Understand that people are there to help you. Your AEs have more experience – be comfortable reaching out one on one. Don’t look at them as a higher-up. They want you to succeed, and they're usually willing to help you.”

At Cognism, many of our AEs initially joined the company as SDRs. So they know what the role involves and how daunting it can be. It also means they’re in a perfect position to give advice and mentor newbie SDRs.

Are you a sales manager/leader? Hit play to hear David Bentham’s tips for structuring a successful sales team. ▶️

8. Understand your product 

Product knowledge should be one of your SDR superpowers.

There are huge benefits to having deep product knowledge. Here are just a few:

• You can confidently explain to prospects why your solution would be a good fit for their company.
• Product knowledge helps with objection handling.
• Deeper product knowledge will help you solve any additional pain points a prospect may not have been aware of before your call.

Robert Hoffman, Marketing Manager at CashbackHero, says:

“Having a deep understanding of the company's product offering and explaining it effectively enables SDRs to quickly identify opportunities for customers who may not even know what solution best fits their problem.”

If you’re unsure where to start when learning about your product, speak to your company’s product marketing team. Or ask your manager for more in-depth training about your solution’s capabilities.

Press play to hear Verche Karafiloska, Head of Product Marketing explain how to use Cognism for sales.

9. Celebrate your losses (not just your wins)

Sales is a tough job. There’s no getting away from it. And you’re bound to have some bad days. So as a new SDR, it’s key to celebrate your losses as well as your wins.

That might sound counter-intuitive but hear us out…

You’ll learn just as much from your unsuccessful cold calls as you can from the meetings you manage to book.

What could you improve about your approach? Using tools like Gong to listen to your calls with your manager is a great way to drill down into where you might be going wrong.

Listen to feedback and keep honing your skills. Before you know it, you’ll be celebrating far more wins than losses. 🎉

For Shanel Mouat, it’s important to be micro-goal driven. She explains:

“Ensure that you create your own indicators that allow you to celebrate the smaller victories that pave the way to your overarching goal. Whether that’s demos booked or revenue generated.”

“Create checkpoints [for yourself to hit] during the quarter, like ten demos by March or a total of 120 cold calls.”

These micro-goals will keep you on track to meet your longer-term goals. These might be achievements like winning top performer of the quarter or going for that AE promotion.

Let your manager know what your goals are; this is a great way to stay accountable and show them you’re motivated to succeed.

Kandace Banks says:

“Your first goal is to be a really good rep, but you have long-term goals too. No one’s goal is to be an SDR forever.”

“Tell your manager what your goals are so they can help you get there.”

At Cognism, we have a very active Slack channel dedicated to shouting out team members who put in the extra effort to help others. These can be big project wins or tiny day-to-day successes.

David says it best in his LinkedIn post below:

10. Be adaptable to changes in your market/industry

The best way to learn anything, especially in sales, is to ask questions. Some people are reluctant to put their hand up and ask because they fear they will come across as under-prepared.

Never be afraid to ask about anything in your role if you’re unsure.

Nigel Dunand, Director at Sandler Training, said:

“Sales is a fast-moving job, and things can change on the ground very quickly. The best salespeople always keep up-to-date with everything around their product, business and industry. Try to achieve that level of knowledge, but until you do, ask!”

B2B sales is a rapidly changing industry;to thrive as an SDR, you must be a lifelong student and keep pushing the boundaries of what you know. That might include attending events to hear from other sales leaders or exploring new channels to reach prospects.

Vaibhav Kakkar, CEO of Digital Web Solutions, says:

“Always be learning and adapting. The sales landscape is constantly changing, and it's important to stay informed and flexible. I would tell anyone just starting their career in sales to focus on building relationships, developing their skills, and being persistent.”

“Don't be afraid to ask questions and seek feedback from your peers and mentors. Always be looking for ways to improve. With the right mindset and approach, anyone can succeed in sales.”

Want more insights for sales success? Listen to Cognism’s podcast Revenue Champions below! 🏆

Key takeaways

Wow, that was a lot!

Your sales career won’t always be linear. But if you surround yourself with motivated, successful people and you’ll progress much faster.

Let’s recap what our sales experts said about what new SDRs should be doing to succeed.

1. Know your ‘why’. This will keep you hungry and motivated.
2. Understand your ICP and how to reach them.
3. Refine your research skills.
4. A ‘no’ isn’t necessarily forever.
5. Practise active listening and be coachable.
6. Get on top of your sales admin before it gets on top of you!
7. Reach out and collaborate with your co-workers.
8. Understand your product.
9. Celebrate your losses (as well as your wins!)
10. Be adaptable to industry changes.