Every experienced marketer would commit on the synthesis that should exist between Sales and Marketing to build a dynamic performing revenue generating business. And to accomplish this, one of the important role to play is that of a Sales development rep; also known as business development, inside sales or lead qualification.
Sales Development Representatives role is to identify new business opportunities, develop new leads and make high quality sales appointments for our Account Executives.
Reason to go for Sales Development Representative:
It’s prudent to evaluate why an inside sales team is required and where do they actually fit in:
Increase revenue:
Sales Development Reps (SDRs) can reach many more decision makers per day than field reps making in-person calls as they are experts at researching companies and making targeted cold calls.
Reduced cost of sales:
Use less-expensive resources to initiate opportunities and more expensive field reps to manage campaigns and close deals increases productivity and drives down the cost of sales.
Shorten the sales cycle:
Expertise in their field allows SDR to diligently qualify new sales opportunities and passing on to the field only those with a high probability of closing.
Accelerate marketing effectiveness:
A combination of telephone follow-up with direct mail or email campaigns, marketers can increase response rates by 2 to 15% over direct marketing alone.
Go Vertical:
Unlike reps assigned to geographic territories, SDRs can focus on specific vertical markets and become experts in the needs, terminology and competitors in that industry segment.
New role of B2B Sales Dev Rep:
Changing demands of B2B customers from generic to personalize has led to an emergence of a new breed of sales rep:
More people oriented:
Customers demand contact with individual people within organization and a corporate backdrop does not seem to help here. Therefore, social media comes to the rescue, where sales people build extensive network across all channels to get connected at a personal level with the customers.
Two factors that can help this make possible would be:
1. Social Sales professionals:
Sales reps can conquer a lot if they are able to connect with the customers at a more personal level and what better way to do it than social media. As platform it gives perfect opportunity for having an informal conversation to get inside scoop of your customers, resulting in a more personalized and timely engagement.
2. Allow autonomy:
Companies, especially large organizations should start thinking beyond corporate barriers and allow autonomy of employees. It requires extreme support from higher management level to get engaged with customers using social media as a tool.
A thing, to evolve:
New technologies that make their road inward would always see a change in customer’s behavior and expectation pattern and accordingly the methods to approach them. However, in nutshell, integrating a Sales Development function into the sales process provides benefits that will positively impact your bottom line.
