How To Make the most of your SDR AE 1-1s

There is nothing worse than checking your calendar to see you have your weekly 1-1 with one of your AEs, only to realise you have not set up any meetings for them, again! And to make things worse, you have barely even prospected any of their accounts this week! Sound familiar?

I know this was my reality as an SDR until I learned to make the most of my AE 1-1s. And I used to dread my 1-1s as a result. 1-1s are a key opportunity to increase your chance of success as an SDR. They are not something to be feared but instead you should leverage them to your advantage. If done right, they increase the chance of success for you and your AE. Everyone wins. But how?

Today, we are sharing tips on how to make the most of your SDR AE 1-1. Let’s dive in!

1. Create Monthly Goals & Check In Each 1-1

An SDR AE relationship should be mutually beneficial. When it works well the relationship increases success for both parties. In order to achieve success, it is best to agree on monthly goals in the first 1-1 of a new month.

These goals should be based on what you both consider as success for yourselves for that month. Throughout the month during each 1-1, you can then check in on your progress and update your weekly goal accordingly.

Keep it simple and follow the S.M.A.R.T formula for goal setting. Below are some very simple examples of SDR AE Goals:

Source x6 initial meetings for this AE this month
Secure x2 meetings (with stakeholders for different departments) in X Strategic Account
Create $40k of qualified pipeline (2 opportunities at $20K each approx.)

Creating shared goals keeps you accountable and focused on task. If you are struggling to meet these goals, you can use your 1-1s to discuss strategies to be successful with your AE.

2. Create A Brief Agenda For Each 1-1

Have you ever showed up to a 1-1 with an AE where you have no plan and the meeting ends up being a general chat about the weekend and/or moaning about some aspect of your company. Followed by a loose agreement to ‘try to book some meetings next week’ and the meeting ends early? Or worse still one of you cancels before it even begins? Me too.

And whilst in the moment, we are relieved that we didn’t have to meet or at least we didn’t have to explain why we haven’t managed to book enough meetings. In the long run, we’re missing out. 1-1s are an opportunity to learn. But only if we have a plan.

AEs are busy and you are most likely to benefit. So take control and create a brief agenda. It keeps things on track and avoids wasting time for both of you. But most of all, it increases your chance of a valuable meeting and a learning opportunity.

It can be so simple. Here is an example:

Agenda 14th August 1-1

Discuss meetings from last week – Opps accepted/rejected & why
Plan for next week – any specific accounts to target?
Progress so far this month – achievements & gaps to fill
Learning – questions for AEs, requests to shadow meetings etc

It seems like hassle and effort but you will be glad you did it when you are more successful and promote much faster!

3. Create a short summary for your AE

Send your AEs a very short weekly update via slack, email or whatever works for you. It will include a brief overview of your previous week. I recommend using the following format:

Progress: Any progress you have made towards your monthly/quarterly goals including opportunities accepted, pipeline generated etc
Plan: What you have planned for the upcoming week specifically for that AE including what accounts you plan to prospect, goal for how many meetings you expect to set and so on.
Problems: You can use this section to highlight any challenges you are having, where your AE may be able to assist and also to call out things that are out of your control. I would always highlight the gap I had to fill to get to my target. E.g. $37K pipeline to achieve by end of the week to achieve monthly SDR target.

Are you thinking ‘why would I send an update to my AE, he/she doesn’t care that much about my results?’. You are not wrong. However this short summary is not only valuable to you, but also to your AE. And they will reward you for the clarity.

Your short summary makes the AE’s life much easier as it keeps you both aligned and focused. You are reminding them of what you previously discussed in your 1-1. This means they don’t have to remember anything and they are more likely to actually help you with the things you’ve previously discussed.

Trust me when I say most AEs are absolutely happy and willing to help an SDR provided it does not take away too much of their valuable time. They have high targets and lots of sales pressure so anything that saves them time is appreciated.

4. Aim To Provide Value

As an SDR you should be showing up to every 1-1 with your AE with something that is valuable to them. All too often SDRs are asking for help, asking for opportunities, asking for AEs to take calls. Don’t fall into the trap of being like most SDRs!

Yes, you will need to ask for help at certain times but you can balance that by also offering help and value. Have you every heard of the rule of reciprocity? Basically, if you give something to someone they feel compelled to return the favour. Offer your AEs value and watch them recipriocate it!

By adopting this approach you will help yourself to stand out as an SDR. I promise you, most SDRs are not doing this consistently. And by showing that you have an interest in learning and going the extra mile, you will be improving your relationship with your AE but also developing your personal brand within your company. People talk so you best believe your AEs’ managers will hear about you if you are good.

So how can we add value every single 1-1? This could be sharing a useful article, providing a nugget of information you’ve learned from one of the target accounts or even updating them on a prospecting technique which is proving successful. You can be creative with the value that you offer.

But I urge you to make it a golden rule for yourself that you do not show up to an AE SDR 1-1 without having something valuable to offer your AE.

5. Ask For Specific Help/Guidance

As I said before, most AEs want to help. But they don’t always know what you need help with and they are too busy with their own targets to investigate it for themselves.

However, if you do the heavy lifting, make it clear and easy how they can help, you are much more likely to get help, to learn, to be successful and to promote to AE yourself. The trick here is to be specific, come prepared and make it easy for them.

There are a number of different ways that you can do this. For example, you want to improve your discovery skills and think shadowing some calls will help. Instead of asking ‘can I shadow some discovery calls?’, check your AEs calendar ahead of your 1-1 to see what he/she has coming up next week. Be prepared to request that you can join any specific interesting calls they have that week. Just ask, the worst they can say is no and you have lost nothing.

Take advantage of your AEs’ knowledge by asking them for tips or advice on specific areas that you are working on. Although you will be constantly learning as an SDR you may not have specific questions for every single 1-1 and that is okay but you should be aiming to ask for tips/advice at least once per month. If not, maybe you are not focused enough on your own development.

In Conclusion

We’ve covered 5 simple yet very effective ways to make the most of your SDR AE 1-1. The key to all of this is to keep it brief and specific in order to make it as easy as possible for your AE. The last thing you want to do is to add more work to their plate. Instead you want to simply take advantage of knowledge they already have, readily available.

There is a lot that we can learn from AEs, but we do need to take control of our own development and ask. If you can also find ways to add value to your AE, you won’t feel as bad always asking for help and the relationship becomes beneficial for everyone.

AEs can make or break SDRs and BDRs so make it as easy as possible for them to make you. Do you have any other strategies to make the most of your AE 1-1s? If so, let us know in the comments!