Day in the life of an SDR/BDR
In case you’re wondering what a typical day at work looks like for a Sales/Business Development Representative (SDR/BDR), this article is here to help clarify that for you.
Before we dig into the activities that an SDR/BDR does daily, let’s point out the main aim of this role which is to generate interest in a company’s product/service by identifying and reaching out to qualified leads (potential buyers) and getting them to agree to a meeting with an Account Executive (an experienced consultant who goes on to close (seal) the deal with a successful sale.
Now that we’re clear on what the role is all about, let’s take a look at the activities that an SDR/BDR would do on a typical day at work:
Prospecting (building lists and adding prospects to cadences)
This is the main and most important task in your role as an SDR/BDR. Prospecting is identifying and reaching out to leads (potential buyers) to pique their interest in wanting to learn more about the solution that your company provides.
Effective prospecting requires that you understand the things that are a major cause for concern (pain) to your potential buyers (prospects) in their role at work so that you can craft your messaging in a way that grabs their attention.
Being able to paint a clear picture of that pain and how your solution helps increases the likelihood of your prospects wanting to book a meeting to learn more about what your solution has to offer them.
Follow-up
When you prospect for potential buyers, most of them will not respond to your first contact whether it’s a phone call, an email, a LinkedIn message, etc. This is why following up becomes important. In most tech companies, you will use a software solution to set up steps that you will follow to ensure that you are keeping in touch with your prospects consistently over a period of time.
Follow up is so important because it keeps you in front of the prospect and when they are ready to make a decision to move forward with purchasing a solution for the pain they have, they are likely to remember you and your solution because you have been showing up in their inbox, leaving them voicemails, liking their social media posts, etc.
Research & Planning
This is also a very important task that SDRs/BDRs do at work. This research and planning work comes up when you have identified potential buyers that you want to target. You will need to spend a few minutes researching them and planning how best you can approach them to get the desired results of them being interested in learning more about your solution.
This research could involve looking at their business website to learn more about their work, looking them or their business up in the news to see if there have been any major events that you can mention when you’re reaching out to them.
Even though this work is so important, you are advised to make it snappy and not spend too much time researching when you should be prospecting.
A common rule of thumb is to use the 5x5x5 rule which states that you should use 5 minutes to find 5 facts about the prospect and their business and another 5 minutes to craft and send out a message to the prospect. So, that’s 10 minutes in total per prospect. Having this time limit ensures that you get your research done quickly and can get more work done very quickly.
Meetings & Training
Working within an organization usually comes with having to join company or team meetings where important information is shared and input is sought from everyone to help move things forward. These are internal meetings.
As an SDR/BDR, you may also choose to attend the meetings that you booked for prospects to meet with an Account Executive. Attending these external meetings are useful for learning how to have client conversations and will prepare you for when you become an Account Executive also.
Depending on your organization, you may also have a regular time set aside for training to grow your skills for your role as an SDR/BDR. Knowing and factoring in this time into your work plans will ensure that you are able to focus on the training while it is going on and not worry about work that you have not yet done.
Documenting
As you go about your work as an SDR/BDR, an important part of it is ensuring that you are documenting crucial information in the Customer Relationship Management software that your organization uses to keep all its data intact.
Some things you will need to document are notes from your calls, new or updated contact information, new opportunities you have created, etc.
What needs documenting may differ from company to company. What’s important is knowing that you will be expected to document your work and being ready to do this very important piece that comes with your role as an SDR/BDR.
Now that you know what a typical day at work is like for an SDR/BDR, how are you feeling about stepping into this role? Let us know in the comments below.
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