For sales development reps (SDRs), leads are everything. Responsible for finding potential customers and setting up meetings for the sales team, they sit at the top of the sales funnel, starting conversations, building strong relationships and qualifying leads. They’re the ones that open the doors to a sale, by ensuring prospects are a good fit and primed for conversion.
SDRs are revenue drivers, essential for business growth – yet they face multiple challenges that can impact their performance and results. The daily demands of prospecting large volumes of leads is real – as it takes time to research and personalise outreach. This then impacts the pipeline, conversion rates and create friction between sales and marketing. In this blog, we’ll examine some of these challenges and explore solutions that can help SDRs work smarter.
The key challenges facing SDRs
SDRs face a number of challenges, which often change according to the stage of growth a business is in. However, as with any challenge, the first step to overcoming them is greater understanding, so let’s take a closer look.
1. Constantly navigating multiple data sources and tools
Digital advances mean SDRs now have access to multiple platforms to gather information and manage customer interactions, from CRM systems to sales intelligence tools. But while the data they generate can inform strategies and help optimise performance, the volume of information can be overwhelming. Especially when systems aren’t integrated, switching between them is time-consuming and inefficient, and can lead to inaccurate data input and analysis.
2. Unclear view of prior outreach for each lead
When multiple tools are used to track interactions, data can become fragmented, making it difficult to get a clear picture of past outreach activity. Without this overview, SDRs can struggle: making informed, strategic decisions becomes harder and mistakes such as missed follow-up opportunities or repeated contact frustrate prospects. As companies scale and volumes of information increase, the need for a clear view becomes even more important, to ensure outreach is efficient and tailored effectively.
3. Pressure to quickly research, understand and identify the lead, company and hook
SDRs are under constant pressure to quickly grasp a lead’s company, role and pain points in order to craft a personalised and compelling message – but it’s a balancing act. On one side: a need for rapid outreach so opportunities aren’t missed; on the other: a requirement for thorough research so messaging can be tailored to a prospect’s unique situation. Gathering the meaningful insights needed in the short time available is a significant challenge.
4. Need more experience to craft a relevant message
Successful outreach takes all of the above and combines it to create a message that resonates. But doing so requires experience. Without it, SDRs for ease may over-rely on generic templates or spend too much time on research, delaying outreach. Inexperienced SDRs can also find it difficult to identify key pain points or establish the right hook.
5. Struggles with personalisation at scale
We already recognise the importance of personalisation when it comes to outreach, but SDRs can struggle to deliver on this, and again, it comes down to balance. A hyper-personalised approach can be time-consuming to execute, slowing down the pipeline, yet sending more generic messages in bulk results in poor engagement and missed opportunities. SDRs must, therefore, find a way to personalise at scale to connect with potential clients.
The impact of these challenges
The potential result of these challenges? If marketing teams are generating quality leads but SDRs aren’t taking the right approach, those leads will fail to convert, leading to poor return on investment and misalignment between sales and marketing.
If not addressed, these challenges can have a direct impact on the entire sales pipeline and overall business growth.
How to overcome the challenges
Despite the challenges faced, SDRs remain crucial. Although research from Gartner suggests that 75% of buyers say they prefer a rep-free sales experience, when they take a rep-assisted route to purchase, buyer regret is halved, making it clear that SDRs still add plenty of value.
So, how can businesses ensure their SDRs maximise their impact?
1. Structured research
Use a research checklist to keep research on track while still gathering valuable insights. Allocate 10-15 minutes to investigate things such as company size, industry trends, key decision-makers, recent LinkedIn posts, news announcements or other relevant information. Set a timer so you stick to your allotted time.
2. Develop a prospecting record log
Track interactions, insights and follow-up actions on one document so everything can be seen without switching between platforms. This prevents duplicate outreach, ensures warm leads receive the right level of engagement and provides a clear history of conversations to tailor messaging.
3. Encourage internal collaboration
By working together with other sales reps, account managers and marketing teams, SDRs can gain sight of knowledge, insights and past interactions to help them craft more relevant messaging and ensure outreach aligns with broader marketing activity.
4. Create industry-specific messaging
Creating industry-specific messaging frameworks help SDRs to manage personalise outreach at scale. Rather than crafting every message from scratch, templates that address common pain points in a particular sector can be developed and tweaked as needed to be relevant to each prospect.
5. Master the art of storytelling
Storytelling is a powerful tool, and training SDRs in storytelling techniques helps them develop more engaging sales scripts that encourage connection.
Innovation in the future
Overcoming the challenges that SDRs face is just one of the adaptations that businesses must make if they are to stay ahead. The B2B sales landscape is undergoing a significant transformation, with a significant increase in interactions via digital channels, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.
As a result, sales teams must adapt to meet these new buying preferences and expectations – and that means embracing advanced technologies.
At Interlink, we’re already using the latest tech to help SDRs home in on the most relevant prospects. By using AI-driven insights and data analytics, we ensure that outreach efforts are more targeted, making it easier for SDRs to convert leads into meetings and build meaningful relationships.
But we’re always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve sales and marketing performance for our clients. So, we’ve been working hard to develop a new product that goes further, addressing more of the common challenges faced by SDRs.
In multiple pilots, the new technology has been very well received so far, and we can’t wait to unveil it fully.
Watch this space for more information, or get in touch to make sure you’re the first to receive our updates.
