Being an SDR or BDR is one thing but cracking the code to become a successful SDR is something else entirely. And it is not easy. I know because I have lived through the trials and tribulations of navigating SDR/BDR Life, eventually finding success. These days I dedicate my time to providing training and enablement to up and coming SDRs who are learning the ropes so hopefully I can save you some of the effort and heartache I endured by sharing some tips on how you can be a successful SDR. Firstly, for simplicity, for the remainder of this article I will use “SDR” to refer more broadly to the journey as a Sales Development rep through to Business Development rep before becoming an Account Executive.
Everything I am about to share with you is simple in theory and it is possible for every single person to make improvements but be warned, none of it is easy to do and it will take time and effort. You will require a unique set of skills and characteristics to be a successful SDR. Maybe you are aware that these are two very different things but to avoid any confusion, skills are something that you learn and develop over time with practice. Characteristics exist within you and form part of your personality. Typically, it does take a certain type of person to be successful as an SDR. However, although you cannot learn new characteristics, I believe you can become aware of them and then dial them up (or down) depending on your situation. Both skills and characteristics play a big role in your ability to find success as an SDR but we are going to start by focusing on the characteristics of a successful SDR and how you can lean into what you’ve got to find success.
#1 Driven/Ambitious
Sales is not for everyone. Sales Development is the first step on the ladder to a sales career and I would argue that sales development is even more difficult than sales. Make no mistake, anyone can be a mediocre sales or sales development rep however that is not what you aspire to be. Whether you already are an SDR searching for success or you are simply researching a career in sales, I assume you have ambitions to be wildly successful beyond belief. Or at least I hope you do because in order to be a successful sales development rep you will need to be driven by success. The best and worst thing about this role is you can always do more. You can always make one more call, send one more email, set one more meeting. The targets you are trying to achieve are ambitious and the possibilities are endless. If you are the type of person who wants to do only the bare minimum, it will not bode well for you in the interview or in the job itself. The thing is I highly doubt that you truthfully consider yourself to be unambitious. However you might feel that motivation can be a challenge for you. In such a case, considering what drives you will help you to uncover your ambition. I enjoy my job and want to do the best job I can because I feel fulfilled when I can help people and I feel a sense of personal achievement when I am successful in my job. I chase that feeling and it is what drives me. If you feel like you want to dial up your ambition, consider what drives you to make an effort even when times are tough and go after that. As Simon Sinek puts it ‘Find your why’ and doing so will help you to find your drive to do more.
#2 Resilient
I don’t want to labour the point but Sales Development and Sales are tough. There are many lows and a few really big highs. We live for the highs and we endure the lows. There is quite a bit of rejection, there is a constant need for delayed gratification as very often you will not see reward for your efforts for weeks or even months. It may not be quite as cut throat as the Wolf of Wallstreet (at least not where I work) but it is mentally challenging, particularly at the beginning as you may wonder if you will ever be successful. It is at times like these that you need to find the resilience deep within you to keep going even when it’s tough. In the most challenging times you need to be able to block out the negatives and focus on the things you can do to improve your situation. And if you are anything like I was when I started, you are probably reading this thinking “I am resilient, and it doesn’t matter anyway because I am going to be one of the top performers, I won’t have terrible times like this”. I promise you, at some point, you will need to flex your resilience muscle. Some people are naturally more resilient than others but you can develop it too. If you still want the sales career, then be intentional about improving your resilience. You can do this by seeking out situations where you are out of your comfort zone. You can intentionally dial up your resilience by focusing on it and by making the choice to challenge yourself to keep going when you feel like giving up, by challenging yourself to focus on what you can control rather than what you cannot, in any situation in life.
#3 Adopting a growth mindset
Is a mindset a characteristic? I am not sure, in any case having a growth mindset will absolutely help you to become a more successful SDR. For me, a growth mindset is simply seeing a setback as an opportunity instead of a failure. A really simple SDR specific example is cold calling. Many prospects say no and some even get angry during a cold call. We have the choice to view that angry rejection as a failure, we can let it damage our confidence and worst of all we can even take it personally. Dialling up our growth mindset means that we are able to view that rejection as an opportunity to improve and do better next time. We can review the call, think about the things we did well, think about the areas we could have done better and take note so that we can implement the changes and do better on the next call, the next 10 calls, the next 100 calls and so on. If this doesn’t come naturally to you, that is okay. It can take some practice for you to really believe it but in the beginning all you have to do is actively look for opportunities where you see failures. Over time you really can train your brain to adopt a growth mindset, which not only helps to make you a successful SDR it also makes the day to day a lot more enjoyable. Again, we all endure ‘failure’ of some kind in our lives so you can literally start today to adopt that growth mindset.
#4 Coachable
Being coachable ties in very closely with adopting a growth mindset. Being coachable is really a mental attitude. Some people will possess it naturally and others will have to work a little harder but in essence if you are open to feedback, if you are able to ask for help and take advice, if you can show that you are interested in improving then you are coachable. This is a really important trait as an SDR because there is a lot to learn and there are a lot of people around you who will be willing and able to help you. However if you are unwilling or unable to accept or ask for help and advice, it is difficult to help you. As an SDR, your manager and your company know that you are new to sales and maybe even new to the world of work so there is no expectation for you to be very experienced and fully capable. However, what you lack in experience you must make up for with willingness to learn. It can be difficult to ask for help. Usually this comes from one of two places; either you are too proud to ask, or you are too shy to ask. In either case, you can develop your level of coachability by simply asking for feedback, guidance or help in any aspect in your life. And then implementing what you have been told, hopefully improving as a result. The more you do it, the easier it gets.
#5 Confident
Confidence is key in sales development, in sales and indeed in life itself. People seem to view confidence as something you either have or you don’t. I disagree. But firstly let’s quickly look at why confidence is an important characteristic if you want to be a successful SDR. It is simple, people can sense confidence or a lack of confidence. You cannot fake it. Prospects can see a lack of confidence in a face to face or Zoom meeting, they can hear it over the phone, they can always sense it. If you lack confidence, you lack credibility and prospects are reluctant to buy from or even interact with people who lack credibility. It increases the risk for them and people don’t like risk. If you are confident, you will have an easier time all round. So how we can improve confidence? Well it is simple but not easy. We can increase confidence by doing hard things well. There are many hard things that we can throw ourselves into at work as SDRs such as presenting at team meetings, cold calling, taking the lead on a discovery call with a senior prospect, interacting with senior managers within your own organisation. And I encourage you to do all of those things. You won’t do so well the first time but you will learn, and each time you will do a little better and you will grow in confidence. But you can always seek out ways to build confidence outside of work too, by doing hard things well, even something as ridiculous as learning to do a handstand. The good news is as you build confidence in one areas, it becomes easier to build it in other areas. So even if you are new to Sales Development, you will have a baseline of confidence that will get you started and then your eagerness to learn and your growth mindset will inspire you to do more hard things well and you guessed it, confidence and credibility goes up and you are more likely to be successful in your role, your career and your life.
#6 Emotionally Intelligent
The final characteristic of successful SDRs is that they show a high degree of emotional intelligence. This is a very broad topic however it is defined by Daniel Goleman, the psychologist who popularised the term “Emotional Intelligence” in the 1990s, as “understanding and managing your own emotions and influencing the emotions of others”. EQ is something that exists in all of us to varying degrees and really takes years to develop therefore, it is unlikely that any SDR has reached their EQ peak. There is always work to be done however, being more emotionally aware than most is certainly a common trait of highly successful SDRs in my opinion. This is a huge topic however broadly there are five key elements to developing our emotional intelligence and they are:
- Self Awareness
- Self Regulation
- Motivation
- Empathy
- Social Skills
In THIS POST, I have investigated each of these elements more closely and shared suggestions on how we can improve each element with a goal to improve overall emotional intelligence.
There you have it, the five characteristics of successful SDRs, let me know in the comments what other characteristics you think are prevalent in successful SDRs. Please remember even though these are characteristics, there is always an opportunity to lean into and improve upon each of them and in doing so, you are much more likely to be successful in the world of sales development and of course sales.
Until next time!
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