Build a Winning Sales Development Attainment Strategy and Actually Hit Your Quota
Sales organizations are struggling to align their objectives and quotas with their strategy. While organizations continue to grow, sales attainment is slipping. According to Forrester’s research, “From 2011 to 2019, the average revenue for the companies in the S&P 500 has grown over 24%, but average sales quota attainment has dropped from 63% to 43% by some estimates.” Our own research shows that SDR quota attainment has fallen 6.6% since 2018.
High-performing SDR teams focus on the fundamentals — rapid lead follow-up, better lead quality, proper automation implementation, and optimization of processes. Instead of constantly doing more of the same motions to build pipe, they’re focused on building systems that utilize data and their SDRs’ productivity to its full potential.
The Variables of Successful SDR Teams
SDR organizations spent 2020 adjusting to remote and digital selling. Equipping and supporting a remote workforce quickly took time and effort. Many SDR organizations have adapted to these changes and are focused on understanding their new normal.
Understanding the activities that matter most to your business and your sales cycle can help guide your strategic plan. Our research found that the top 50% of the attainment group prioritized dials, emails, and some social selling techniques. These variables should be taken in context with other data like customer needs and buying cycles.
The benefit of analyzing this data is to understand which activities provide the best outcome and then push your SDR teams to prioritize the tasks that matter and stop wasting time on the tasks that underperform.
Less Hunting, More Targeted Outreach
An SDR’s time is valuable. Putting their skills to the best use means nurturing contacts that are most interested and most likely to want to continue a conversation with sales rather than hounding uninterested leads.
Automation tools and honing in on lead scoring to identify the best contacts is one way SDR teams can make sure their activities yield the best result. Our research found that when it comes to sales types, quota attainment remains fairly consistent. However, marketing SDR teams succeed best when they’re in lead/contact-based teams.
Regardless of team focus, SDRs achieve attainment when they’re talking to interested prospects. Doing the work ahead of the first contact by scoring leads properly, generating interest through marketing, and building automation allows SDRs the time they need to focus on the contacts most likely to close.
Replace Guessing with Guided Sales Engagement
The first step to a successful SDR team is knowing your unknowns: which actions garner the best results, what do your teams need to be successful, how do you find and nurture the contacts that want to hear from you? To answer these questions, you need data to counteract gut instincts and insights where your SDRs and reps can use them the most. Then your SDRs can move from haphazard and indiscriminate sales activities to the ones that work.
Playbooks by XANT gives your sales leaders the visibility, accountability, reporting, and guidance they need to make reps their most effective. Instead of spamming contacts with email or endless cold calling prospects that aren’t interested, SDRs can spend time on the most important tasks and be more creative and targeted in their outreach. Automation takes onerous manual tasks off their plate and lets them do more with less effort and better results.
Building a successful SDR team relies on good strategy, structure, and data. Reaching attainment in the new sales landscape will take creativity, experimentation, and a robust system that can support your team no matter where or how they work.