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About This Episode
Sales tech has come a long way from simple CRM tools.
When leveraged correctly, SDRs can use technology to automatically map out their day–saying when to call, who to email, and even what to say.
In this episode, Dan Gottlieb tells us how technology helps SDRs save time, save effort, and fulfill tedious administrative tasks.
Dan wishes it were like that back when he was slinging sales.
There was Salesforce, but that was about it. Some reps had their own “high tech” system using an Excel spreadsheet and a checklist.
Sales tech has definitely come a long way, and Dan’s been there for the entire process. He worked his way through sales from an early-stage startup, to regional sales director, to sales consultant.
In his current position at TOPO, he’s an analyst helping newer companies (like Twilio & Nutanix) use technology to scale their sales teams at twice the pace of their competition.
Dan’s seen the evolution of sales.
Now, he’s leading the evolution of sales.
Technology Can Eliminate the Most Time-Consuming SDR Tasks
If you were an SDR 10 years ago:
You start your day by logging into your Salesforce account.
Likely, there are a hundred red lights screaming at you telling you they’re overdue, which is probably because you’ve spent half your life trying to find the right accounts in your region. From here, some reps leave Salesforce to create their own system of daily activities, others go to Excel, and then some just pull their hair out.
Here’s the reality:
SDRs are sophisticated assets–they’re well-spoken, have the skills to engage with a variety of clientele, and understand pain points. Why waste their time, which is company money, on menial tasks?
Smart companies are leveraging modern sales tech and changing their approach. Managers preselect a stack of the best-fit accounts for their SDRs, who then use their CRM, LinkedIn, and data solution to identify the appropriate contacts.
From there, they map those contacts to the appropriate touch pattern using sales engagement technology, and then, it’s game time.
Day in the life of a modern SDR using tech well:
If an SDR is following the above approach, when they come into work, their day is largely mapped out for them.
The touch patterns will have mapped out the various contacts, telling the SDR the next move with each contact–which ones need a call, which ones need an email, which ones need follow-up, and which ones to hold off on.
SDRs can prioritize and plan their day by, perhaps, spending an hour calling only those within their “high priority” high-touch pattern. Next, they’ll spend a half hour adding in 10 new contacts into new cycles, and then the next hour emailing the low-priority accounts within that touch pattern.
The best news is, this can all be in one dashboard, from which the SDR can make the call, send the email, and load the contacts.
The amount of cognitive brain power used for administrative responsibilities is nearly evaporated, and your SDRs have a more productive day.
Templatized Messaging: You Can Double Your Effectiveness By Automating 80%
Further, even the messaging can often be templatized. Dan pointed to research that shows 80% of your messaging can be templatized, and you can double your results. I had to make sure he said that right. He did.
The job of the SDR becomes to find that other 20%, and personalize the messages correctly.
By saving the SDR energy for that 20%, and streamlining the rest, you again have saved valuable mental resources and time.
Takeaway Advice
Dan left us with two pieces of advice to take away for your sales team.
- Examine how much time and effort your reps are spending on choosing which accounts to work and finding the contacts for those accounts.
- Take a hard look at what your touch pattern playbook is. Simplify your patterns as much as possible and ensure your messaging allow your reps opportunity to personalize when it fits.
This post is based on a podcast interview with Dan Gottlieb from TOPO. To hear this episode, and many more like it, you can subscribe to The Sales Engagement Podcast.
If you don’t use iTunes, you can listen to every episode here.
About The Podcast
The Sales Engagement podcast is the #1 podcast focused on engaging your customers and prospects in the modern sales era. This show features real-life stories and best practices from revenue leaders doing the job day in and day out, in a casual, radio-like talk show.
Each episode features modern tactics, strategies, hacks, and tips to get the most out of your sales engagement strategy and help you navigate the next generation of sales. You’ll find energetic talks that will provide you with real actionable value around building meaningful connections and creating a better selling experience through authentic conversations that you can measure.
The Sales Engagement podcast is here to help B2B sales leaders, customer success leaders, and marketing leaders innovate and usher in the next era of modern sales by building pipeline, up-selling customers, and ultimately generating more revenue with more efficiency.
Hosted by Joe Vignolo, Senior Content Managing Editor at Outreach, and Mark Kosoglow, Vice President of Sales at Outreach.
