Solving the pain of SDR inefficiency

Here at SaaSLeads.io we strongly believe that SDRs working at the top of your sales funnel are essential for a successful SaaS sales team. They start the conversations that eventually end in deals, qualify leads in and out and while they’re in the role, learn the sales skills that will ultimately make them successful closers. 

A 2019 Gartner study looked at two tech sales teams selling similar solutions to the same type of buyers. One had an SDR team; the other had quota-carrying reps making the initial calls:

• The SDR team achieved a 40% conversion rate from their leads
• The company without an SDR team converted less than 5% of their leads 

However, there is a problem. Shock! In many sales teams, SDRs do not spend as much time in their day talking to prospects as they should. It means organisations could be missing out on valuable revenue. 

So why is this? 

 

SDR inefficiency

Research by InsideSales.com in 2017 found that:

• Only 37% of a rep’s time is spent on activities that generate revenue, such as talking to prospects
• 18% of their time is spent on tasks in their CRM
• If a rep works a 40-hour-week, that’s only 15 hours spent bringing in new business

25 hours is a worryingly long time for a salesperson to spend each week on activities that do not generate revenue. 

What are they doing instead? There is CRM administration – logging interactions with prospects, ensuring data is current for forecasting and reporting purposes, setting up new client profiles. 

SDRs also spend time navigating company culture, attending team meetings, training and coaching. It’s not that these things aren’t necessary, essential even. It’s just that they do not add to the bottom line.

 

Why it matters

SDR inefficiency has an impact on the revenue you generate. If you could just get the proportion of time that they can spend with prospects up slightly, it could make a big difference. 

If you could get your SDRs all spending one hour per day that they were previously doing admin on the phone with prospects, knowing the number of dials it takes to reach a prospect and the number of noes it takes to get to a yes, how would it affect the number of sales-qualified leads (SQLs) generated? It could give you a significant edge over your competitors.

There is also the mindset of your SDRs to think about. If they spend too much time on low-value activities and not enough on high-value, revenue-generating tasks, they begin to lose energy and enthusiasm for the job. After all, they have targets to reach. Getting your SDRs out of the CRM and back on the phone could make all the difference to your staff churn rates.

 

How to make your SDRs more productive

Your mission is to reduce the friction that slows your SDR team down by as much as possible. The key? Technology. There is a vast range of tools out there that can potentially increase your SDR team’s time servicing prospects. However, before you rush into the marketplace, you need to be clear on the exact problem you want to solve.

• Audit your SDRs’ day
  • To begin, carry out an audit of how your SDRs spend their time through the day. Where are the low-value activities that you can remove or reduce?
• Investigate tech options
  • Once you are clear on the problems you are trying to solve, investigate what tools are available to help you. The site G2 is excellent for weighing up the pros and cons of various solutions, with detailed descriptions and user reviews.
• Look beyond tech
  • Train or coach your SDRs to manage their time better
  • Audit the cadences your SDRs use to follow up with customers. Are there steps that are not working well and can be removed?
  • Hold fewer meetings. Do you really need all of them?

 

How we can help

At SaaSLeads.io, we recruit, develop and deliver SDRs to your organisation, ready to produce excellent results in your sales team. Contact us below.