Creating an SDR Career Path in Your Organisation

The Value of Sales Development Representatives

The demand for Sales Development Representatives (SDRs) is at an all-time high. Today’s market conditions have driven an unexpected peak in demand for this valuable resource driven by several factors:

• Demand has exceeded supply – the high growth, investment fueled scale-ups in the race to unicorn status have absorbed whatever oversupply there was in the market.
• Inbound or outbound, companies view them as an essential part of modern sales mechanics.
• Location is less relevant than ever. Since SDRs are no longer required to be in the office, companies can source them from anywhere.

This has made the role of SDR difficult and expensive to hire for. It has also naturally had an impact on tenure and retention rates. "Why would I stay in a role longer than 6 months when another company offers me 2x my salary for the same job?"

With this valuable talent on the line, how do you retain your best SDRs and make it so they want to stay?

To borrow Sir Richard Branson’s famous quote: “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to."

But regular sales development representative training is not enough. You need to address their sales career pain points.

This means driving a culture of continual improvement and developing a pathway to treating people well. This starts by your sales management committing to and nurturing a coaching first culture. With personalized coaching, SDRs can pursue specific sales skills relevant to their own goals.

But it’s not enough to train and treat them well in today’s market conditions. There’s an added dynamic here.

How do you keep SDRs engaged and motivated when there isn’t an obvious, clear, or available path to the next big promotion?

Not to oversimplify but the typical progression for sales looks something like this:

This has several flaws:

1.      It can take a long time to upskill as an SDR to be ready for an Account Executive role.

2.      The skills required as an AE are different and therefore there is often a time lag from a performance perspective

3.      You have no AE roles available when an SDR is ready to progress.

These issues cause frustration among SDRs. As a result, they often leave the organisation for a better offer somewhere else. To solve this cycle, organisations need to rely on micro progression.

What is Micro Progression?

We see micro progression as breaking down the SDR role into “what good looks like” at various milestones of development.

An SDR on day one or even month 4 of their role is very different to an SDR with a 2-year tenure. So why not define and reward on this basis? 

At the base level, we can break down the SDR role into the depth of skill and behaviour required at each level:

But doing this can be difficult to navigate and it is still open to subjective interpretation. Therefore, creating frustration on the behalf of the SDR. In fact, it can be counterintuitive (see our blog on career progression pitfalls).

Structure, Objectivity & Transparency

Here at e4enable, we have a mantra… Define, Develop, Measure. 

Firstly, we need to first define “What Good Looks Like” for each of the levels.

This starts with a high-level sales competency framework.

Next, you need to further define the depth of skill and behaviour required at each level.

If we take a couple of common competencies, this could look something like this:

To achieve maximum objectivity and transparency, we advise you give as much guidance to both rep and Manager. You should also clearly explain the expectations at each level. Note the positive indicators above. They will become invaluable when we look to assess and measure later.

The next step is to understand how we consistently develop individuals to achieve ‘what good looks like’ in each of these areas. This might look something like this:

We do two specific actions here. First, we are clarifying the formal learning pathways to support the transition from Junior SDR to SDR. Additionally, we are providing a coaching and development pathway between manager and rep.

Finally, we cannot assume that going through this process will make an SDR ready and certified for the next level. We need to ensure there are appropriate measures and performance milestones in place:

Note that the measures here include both qualitative and quantitative assessments. This mix helps support the transition and promotion effectively.

Once you’ve finished, make sure that when you enroll an SDR on a pathway, they have full visibility of the journey and the expectations. Make it completely transparent what they need to achieve and enable them to see where they are against it.

Automate to Scale

Doing the above manually on Excel is a hard hill to climb. Make sure you have a clear and preferentially automated process to cater to the above. For it to be successful it needs to be:

• Clear & concise
• Transparent
• Require no extra admin for the manager or rep

Don’t forget to add gamification into the mix. Add certifications and rewards as each SDR reaches the required level and auto unlocks their pathway to the next level promotion.

If you enable your SDRs to see their pathway to promotion and achieve micro progression, it increases motivation and reduces the temptation to look for it elsewhere.

And if you were thinking this was just limited to SDRs, think again, this applies to any career pathway across your sales teams. See how our Accelerate Sales Performance System can help you achieve this at an organisation-wide level.

As a data-driven coaching system combining sales competencies, with development and metrics, Richardson can automate this for you. Contact us today to find out how we can implement this in your organisation.