SDR stories from hell

Ever found yourself trapped in an SDR horror story (and you’re the SDR?)? If so, what did you screw up? 

Did you come down with word vomit instead of actual communication?

Like this 👇

Or did you try to turn your cold email into an unpublished Stephen King novel? 

Like this 👇

Yes – those are real-life scenarios where SDRs jumped out the window trying to entice prospects to buy their products. 

Here’s 5 tips on how you can avoid becoming a real-life SDR horror story 😨

#1 Quality over Quantity

When starting in sales, it’s easy to think the more leads you grab, the better your chances at success. In reality, you want to focus on the quality of your leads, not necessarily the number. Would you prefer to book 10 weekly meetings and close a single sale? Or six weekly meetings with half of them fattening that commission check at the end of the month?

#2 Researching Your Prospects

There are some unconventional approaches to prospecting that work well. But at the end of the day, a little bit of research still goes a long way. The main thing is to make it count. And remember to keep it simple:

• Check out your prospect’s LinkedIn page. 

• Find a link to additional information about them. 

• Find something they are passionate about. 

• Then (appropriately) center your pitch around this thing, OR use it as the ultimate icebreaker.

Essentially you turn what should have been a cold email into a warm email and you don’t end up in their junk.

#3 Be Creative

Reaching out to prospects is serious business. Still, that doesn’t mean you can’t have some fun with what you do. Why send the same kind of cold email that prospects get 1000 times a day when you can tap into what makes you or your product unique? Are you known for your humor? Throw some humor in the mix and make your well-researched pitch that more powerful.

Here’s an example of a cool email we found on HubSpot. It was written by Daniel Andersen, an SDR at the time, who reached out to a prospect whose webinar he had checked out, and he was sure to include something about her favorite food (a fact she shared during the webinar):

#4 Measure Your Results

You can collect all the best advice in the industry and improve your knowledge, but until you put things into action, you’ll never know for sure what’s working and what’s not. That means you can’t just execute and leave it to chance, but you have to revisit your efforts and determine what’s working, what’s not, and what you’re going to keep or toss. This goes for your sales calls, cold emails, you name it. Record and revisit them, measure your results, and grow over time. 

#5 Measure Yourself a Master

The late Phillip Seymour Hoffman starred alongside Joaquin Phoenix in Paul Thomas Anderson’s The Master back in 2012. Seymour’s character Lancaster Dodd had a very interesting quote in that film: 

“If you figure out a way to live without serving a master, any master, then let the rest of us know, will you? For you’d be the first in the world.”  This film was heavily focused on the vices of a weird cult leader (Lancaster Dodd) and a PTSD stricken, sex-addicted alcoholic (to whom he was speaking) buuuuut never mind all that.

How does this relate to sales? A huge part of how you’ll become successful will rely on the people in your circle. Particularly, the people you choose to learn from. Have you found yourself a mentor? Are you surrounding yourself with people you can learn from? Take from them and implement it in your day-to-day to fine-tune your skills.

Here’s the full breakdown on how to become a great SDR.

Sales Q&A

Presales Killing My Sales

Read more here.

It’s Time For That Dream Sales Job…💼

Looking for a new job opportunity in Sales? Search for the latest and greatest jobs here.

Looking to hire someone with great Sales experience? Post your job on The Sales Jam Job Board, here.