How to Succeed as a New BDR
It’s day one of your new job as a Business Development Representative. You sit down at your desk, take out your laptop… and have no idea what to do. After all, how does anyone know where to start? What’s the best way to get in touch with the right contacts?
Now, take a deep breath, relax, and read on, because you’ve come to the right place. During my time as a new BDR at Spiro, I’ve learned some of the more important aspects of the job. There are plenty of ways to go above and beyond, and almost none of them involve humiliation or embarrassment!
Here are 6 tips on how to succeed as a new BDR.
1. Get to Know your Team, Especially the Account Executives
At any new job, it’s important to establish connections. This allows you to ask for help when you need it and to feel more comfortable in your work environment, which in turn increases your focus and productivity. But, as a BDR, you’re responsible for passing on leads to your team’s Account Executives, so the more you communicate with them, the better.
This will prevent you from stumbling around like a headless chicken, and helps you to learn what kind of leads to pursue. Ask them to sit in on the demos that you help book, and listen to the way they deal with customer objections and pitch the product to different prospects. Making it a team effort and learning from the people around you will help you succeed in your new role as a new BDR.
2. Stay Organized
This tip might sound obvious, but while we all know being physically organized is important, BDRs need to be digitally organized too. In the current day and age, prospecting is done online. Having a system in which you can easily find, sort and add leads means less time wasted chasing after that perfect company whose name you can’t quite remember.
Being a BDR is not a guessing game, and by organizing your accounts and notes, the path to success will open in front of you. Of course, this is a breeze with an AI-Powered sales automation CRM such as Spiro, which automatically handles data entry and reduces clutter from the hectic life of a BDR. That way, you have more free time to spend browsing for the best way to spend your next commission!
3. Do Your Research
Just as there’s a perfect shoe size for every person, certain prospects will fit your company’s vision better than others. I mean, as cool as partnering with Google sounds, it’s probably not going to happen for most companies. Instead of hopping on the phone without any set course, focus on reaching out to the right companies. Study your company’s ideal customer profile. Learn how to build a look-a-like list that mirrors the demographics of these current customers.
Then take it one step further and ask the AEs for a fuller picture on who they are winning deals with. Take all of this information and do some research into that prospect list you built. Can you identify any similarities with other current customers that show this may be a good prospect? For instance, if you usually win deals when a new head of sales is brought on, contact companies that recently made a VP of sales hire. Taking time to do your research will pay off!
4. Call, then email, then do it again (x10)
The frequency and order in which you do things matters, and in this case, you should always call your prospects before emailing them. Yes, it’s much less stressful to deal with second-hand interaction such as emails, but come on, have you checked your spam folder recently? You can bet that most of your beautifully crafted, thoughtfully written masterpieces go unread.
The best strategy is to call a prospect, then follow-up with an email. And of course, do it again the next day if they don’t respond. Being a good BDR involves tenacious communication. Reaching out every day drastically increases your chance of booking a demo. However, if you’ve called and emailed someone more than 10 times, they’re clearly not interested, and your resources are better spent elsewhere. There’s a fine line between persistence and annoyance.
5. Listen to your Prospects
If you want to be a good BDR, you need great listening skills. And by “listen” I don’t mean “zone out and say yes a lot!” One of the best ways to connect with a prospect is to make them feel not only heard, but also understood. This means asking clarifying questions, quickly summarizing what they’ve said, and making intelligent suggestions devoted to solving their pain points.
By listening to your prospects, they’re much more likely to do the same in return. Speaking from experience, this makes selling your value proposition miles easier. It’s easy to space out when communicating with strangers, but actively listening can help push you over the edge and score an otherwise impossible sale.
6. Stay Positive
Every new BDR will, at some point in time, talk with a jerk. You know the type: the busy VP of Sales who yells at you for wasting his or her time, but seems to have plenty of time to tell you exactly how they feel. Even though it’s to be expected, rage-fueled refusal is always an unpleasant experience. However, by keeping your attitude in check, it becomes much easier to bounce back and laugh at these flustered executives.
If you stay positive, you are not only more likely to continue calling after rejection, but also to stay friendly with the next prospect. Everyone responds better to a friendly salesperson. Remember, you didn’t like that jerk, and your prospects won’t like you if you let negativity get the best of you!
In Conclusion
Starting out as a new BDR might seem like a stressful experience, but it doesn’t have to be. There are lots of ways to get ahead in the job, and who knows: if you follow these tips, one day you could be that top account executive!
To get there faster, try using a great sales automation CRM, like Spiro!
