Episode 38: [Interview] Marylou Tyler and Gabriel Padva - Role of the Sales Development Rep (SDR)

On this episode, I’m interviewed by my longtime friend and colleague Gabriel Padva. Gabriel is the founder and principal consultant at 30,000 FT Strategies, a company that focuses on helping companies communicate with their prospects. He is also a CRO at Revenue Accelerator Inc. We go in-depth into the role of the sales development rep, including how to hire them, train them, and promote them into upper management positions. We also discuss the do’s and don’ts of cold emailing, my must-have tools, and the best sales advice I’ve ever gotten.

Episode Highlights:

• Marylou’s process for identifying new prospects and driving sales
• Why is sales team specialization important?
• The evolution of the SDR
• Client metrics
• Understanding the ideal account profile
• Building your list
• Is the phone still relevant for the SDR?
• How to work the internal referral system
• Hiring the best SDR: References, interviews, and skill tests
• Critical KPI’s
• The do’s and don’ts of crafting cold messaging
• Must-have technology tools of 2016
• The best sales advice Marylou’s ever gotten

 

Resources:

Gabriel’s question checklist for checking references of potential SDRs

Tool Recommendations:

• Outreach.io
• Tout
• Sales Loft
• Marketo

Predictable Prospecting: How to Radically Increase Your B2B Sales Pipeline by Marylou Tyler

 

Quotes/Tweets:

“Always be testing, measuring, and pulling out data. Tell the truth.” - Gabriel

“Using the phone in combination with email and social selling is a great way to ‘warm up the chill’ of cold calling” - Marylou

“You are as equally important as the person that you’re trying to convince to try your product or service” - Marylou