One of the most important things you can do is learn how to manage your time as an SDR. The most successful, least stressed SDRs and BDRs that I have seen all have one thing in common. They have mastered time management and efficiency. They have a process and whether they are top of the leaderboard or bottom, whether it is the first day of the month or the last, they trust that process. They never let the day run them.
New or struggling reps on the other hand are often, in reactive, panic mode. They are so desperate to find success that they can be pulled in many directions and they don’t really know where to spend their time. This leads to allowing the day to run them. The good news is, it is relatively easy to manage our time as an SDR if we follow 3 simple rules:
Identify High Value Vs Low Value Activities
As SDRs or BDRs we have a lot of things to do. It is quite likely that there are many people who want our help. We may have multiple AEs expecting us to prospect for them, we may also have marketing teams and product managers asking us to execute on campaigns. Not to mention all of our own administrative tasks that we need to do. There are only 8 working hours in the day. In order to be able to manage our time properly, we must take stock of all of our activities and prioritise them into either high value or low value activities. For me, high value activities are those that:
- Help me to make my target
- Help me to develop my sales skills
- Give me the opportunity to add value to others around me
Low value activities are usually anything else. However to expand on that a little, low value activities are usually things that won’t move the dial on anything for me. A simple example might be following up on old leads just because someone asked me to, when I know, I have a batch of fresh leads, that are much more likely to respond. Sometimes we have to do low value activities however we need to keep them to a minimum and avoid spending too much time here.
Know The Numbers
At this point we have identified our high value activities. Prospecting is one of your high value activities as it leads directly to target. The next thing we need to do is figure out how much time we should spend on it. Remember that sales and business development is to a large degree a numbers game. We know we must deliver a certain volume of prospecting activities to even be in with a chance of hitting our target. There is more to it than just volume but without some level of volume, no matter how good you are, you will not be successful. The question is though, how much volume is enough? Instead of guessing or choosing an arbitrary number of activities to aim for, we can use the data.
If you are brand new and haven’t tasted success yet, know the numbers of those who are successful around you. Take a more established rep working in a similar market and/or region with a similar target to you and find out what volume activities they need to do, on average to hit the target.
If you have had success in the past, review your own numbers and figure out what volume you need to repeat that success. For this, I recommend erring on the side of caution. It is better to aim for higher volume than you think you need and smash through your number than to aim too low and just miss out. As you improve you wil be able to achieve more with less volume. The quality of your activities will increase, therefore so too will your conversion. However at the beginning, it is all about volume so know the numbers you need to hit to give yourself a chance to be successful.
Create Your Calendar
Once we have identified which high value activities we will focus on and the targets that we will need to hit within those in order to be successful, it is time to create the plan to execute. We must write this down, it is not enough to have it in our heads. We do this by creating a calendar where we map out how we will approach each day down to the hour. This may seem a bit extreme but I promise you, as an SDR or BDR, we cannot afford to waste time. Targets are high, expectations are high and there are always more prospects to go after.
The exact plan we create will depend on a few factors such as the details or our role and how we like to work. For example the calendar we will create if we are focused on inbound will be different than that of an outbound rep. If we feel most productive in the morning, it may be better to plan the most important and mentally taxing activities in the morning. Or perhaps the afternoon is our time to shine, in which case we would reverse the plan. We also need to take into consideration any internal meetings that we cannot avoid and also our market. For example if we work a market that is 3 hours ahead of our timezone, we have no choice but to be extra productive in the morning whilst our prospects are still online. We may leave some lesser admin tasks until the afternoon.
Example
Below I have shared an example of a comprehensive Outbound Calendar:
Time | Tasks | Notes |
8.30 – 9am | Plan your day | Consider urgent items, activites & meetings to prepare for |
9 – 11am | Cold Calling | Make 30 calls |
11- 12pm | Follow Up Emails | Send to those who didn’t answer |
12 – 1pm | Lunch | Don’t forget to schedule |
1 – 2.30pm | Lead Mining Emails | Adding new prospects to your funnel |
2.30 – 3pm | Meeting Preparation | For any prospect meetings you have coming up |
3 – 4pm | Cold Calling | Complete 10 more calls |
4 – 5pm | Internal Meetings | Push to end of day where possible |
5 – 5.30pm | Prepare for tomorrow | Make a plan to set your day |
Once we become acquainted with the role, it is relatively easy to follow these steps. However, making the plan is only half the battle. The real challenge here is to have the discipline to stick to our plan. Being able to do this, really allows us to differentiate ourselves. It provides us with a process that we can follow which massively increases our chance of success. Consistent effort leads to consistent results. Give this a try and let us know how you get on. If you have another approach to time management, we’d love to hear it in the comments below.
Until Next Time