Photo by Cytonn Photography on Unsplash
How was your week?
Mine?
Long.
But for good reasons! This was my most successful week as an SDR to date!
Here are the details:
6 calls booked (4 expansion opportunities using last week’s upselling strategy, 2 hot leads)
More engagement with customers via email/phone
Understanding the value we bring to customers
We have a lot to get to, so let’s get straight to it!
Agenda
How I book a call with an AE
How I take valuable notes during a sales call
Career Update!
Quote of the week:
“The enduring mantra of the fanatical prospector is: One more call.”
~Jeb Blount
My Process for Booking Meetings
Qualifying leads can be a daunting task for an SDR and a nuisance for the lead.
Question after question after question.
It sucks because you have to ask the questions to qualify the lead.
Lately, I’ve been asking myself “how do I ask an appropriate amount of questions to get enough information while not annoying my lead?”
Recently, I read Fanatical Prospecting by Jeb Blount. In the book, there’s a chapter called Telephone Prospecting Excellence in which he answers my question.
It turns out that the issue lies in my script. My script needed to be less robotic, fluffy, and more to the point.
Here’s the framework that he provides:
5-Step Prospecting Framework
Get their attention
Identify Yourself
Tell them what you want
Bridge it to a because
Ask for what you want
Here’s what it looks like in practice:
“Hi {name}, this is Pete Medina with Packagecloud.
I'm calling you because you created a trial with Packagecloud and I'm interested in what triggered your interest.
Can you tell me a little more about your situation?”
That’s it.
This works for several reasons:
Implies that you respect your leads time
Tells the lead you have a reason you’re calling
You’re upfront about your intentions, leads hate when you beat around the bush
Since you’ve put your best foot forward in the initial 10 seconds of the call, leads will be more likely to answer your one question completely.
When this isn’t enough, I simply ask a couple of clarifying questions. After they share their story, I ask if they’d be open to a meeting.
This has booked me 2 calls with an AE.
How to take notes on a sales call
Sounds stupid simple right?
Jot down the keynotes from the conversation.
Sure.
But there are levels to note-taking. The better you get at taking notes, the greater you become as an SDR.
Why?
A few reasons:
You identify the needs/pains of your lead
You demonstrate to your lead that you’re listening to them
If your sales process requires multiple conversations, you can refer back to them at any time to stay in sync with your lead
Notes help get/keep everyone in your sales org on the same page
This all helps close deals!
Here are some notes from an expansion call with my AE:
They’re unorganized, confusing, and missing parts.
Now here are the notes my AE took from the same conversation:
As you can see, much cleaner, organized and paints a complete picture of where we’re at and where we’re going.
Here’s the framework you can copy and paste into your notes:
Summary
Situation
Use Case
Lead Quality
Next Steps
You don’t have to copy the lead verbatim. Use this framework to get the gist of your lead’s needs and if your product/service is a good fit and justifies a conversation moving forward.
Career Update
I’ve been given the nod to do outbound work! I start prospecting next week.
I have zero outbound experience, but that’s never stopped me from trying to learn!
This means I will begin posting outbound experimentation that’s been successful.
Thanks for reading this week’s edition! Catch ya next week 🤙🏽
~Pete