Guest Speaker Series – Bethan Hope-Bell – Client Success – Social Division at Meltwater

“Get excited about the journey beyond being an SDR, but don’t forget to enjoy the ride!” – Bethan Hope-Bell

 

During her time studying Politics at the University of Leeds, Bethan Hope-Bell, became Rowing Captain and since graduating she has had a full career. Starting off as a Buyer at Wayfair, going on to become SDR Team Lead at Tessian and now making her mark in Client Success – Social Division at Meltwater. In a sentence, Bethan is a great example of what it means to be a leader. Our academy students benefited from her engaging approach, took learnings from her career challenges and related to her anecdotes. 

 

Takeaways to Client Success 

Bethan reminisced on how each one of her Tessian team members came from a different background that led them to being SDRs. She recalls before she entered the world of sales she loved chinese cuisine, but was always terrified to call and order a takeaway. Jump forward a few years Bethan mastered the art of cold calling and smashed sales goals. So, how did she get there?

One of the ways she built up her confidence when interacting with people was she spoke on behalf of her team and gave feedback to management, even when it was a difficult relationship to manage. At first she was nervous to do so, but her intention that it would help her team to be successful reminded her why she was doing it and helped her to push forward. Soon she realised she enjoyed being social and part of a competitive team. 

Bethan encourages you to step up and be the bridge between management and your team. 

 

SDR Interpersonal Skills for Life 

Bethan highlighted that the interpersonal skills you gain as an SDR can take you countless places and many of her previous colleagues have taken the skills they learnt as SDRs into completely different career paths, including studying medicine.

The skills that you learn as an SDR aren’t rigid or only applicable at work, they help in all aspects of your life and set you up for life. You learn to self evaluate and that’s something you don’t learn at school. Some other skills include emotional intelligence and resilience. 

 

Sales Call Tips 

• Bethan always preferred warm conversations over cold and advises to find the common ground between you and the person on the other side of the call. 
• Find an industry that excites you, so that you light up when you speak about the product. 

 

How to hit Targets

It’s always great to focus on the things that we’re good at, but try to steer your focus away from what you enjoy and look at what you need to improve to reach your target. 

 

The Importance of Team 

When Bethan asked our students why they believe being a team is important as SDRs and they offered some great reasons, such as, you learn better in a collaborative environment, there’s healthy competition and unwavering optimism.  

Bethan believes that to become a good leader you need to become the best at knowledge sharing and feedback, while having the best time. Don’t neglect supporting your team and celebrating. Your team helps you to achieve goals, as you share tips and learn quicker. 

Being an SDR can be mentally challenging. Your team picks you up when you don’t succeed and you can laugh it off and celebrate the small and big wins together. This helps when things get tough, especially during the pandemic.

Bethan spoke of a time she felt low in confidence and secluded herself. A team member heard one of her Gong calls and it was extremely encouraging. This gave her a confidence boost and solidified her belief that it’s your team that gets you through the rough patches and when your confidence dips. 

 

Hacks for building team connection during remote working

Remote working makes connection harder, but there’s always Zoom. 

• Zoom team building games 
• After work virtual socials 
• MTV Cribs – a tour of where you live

 

What makes a great SDR Leader?

When reflecting on what makes a great SDR leader, our CEO, Will Konning, offered empathy as a suggestion. While our COO, Chris Ritson finds terrible jokes and investing in outside of work objectives and everyone’s development important. 

Bethan believes the point of being a leader is not to tell people what to do, but instead to support them on their journey and give direction. Being honest and transparent and saying if you’re finding something tough can be a challenge, but people tend to respect that. Don’t neglect yourself. Focus on your own results first and then focus on others and remember you can’t be an agony aunt and try to fix everything for everyone. 

 

Bethan’s Final Words

Have your goal in mind and be excited for what’s to come. Focus on the fun parts and be consistent. Anyone can be a leader! You don’t need a title. You can be a leader in your life now. I’m excited to see where your journey takes you.

 

How is SaasLeads.io supporting future leaders?

The SaaSLeads.io Academy is launching our very first SDR leadership training course in August. It will be the UK’s most comprehensive SDR Manager training course and led by our very own Chris Ritson, who knows a thing or two about building hyper-growth global SDR teams. 

 

Key Takeaways 

• The skills you learn as an SDR can be transferred outside of sales
• Building good team relationships is vital on your journey 
• Have goals, but remember to enjoy the present moment 
• SaasLeads.io is launching a SDR leadership training course