Qualities of a Good SDR

Qualities of a Good SDR

Lauren Newalani

Lauren Newalani

Content Writer for Whistle with multidisciplinary experience spanning over a decade.

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Table of Contents

Looking to engage the services of a top-notch SDR? What should you be looking for in terms of that SDR’s qualities and work ethic? How can you tell if the individual you are considering has what it takes to make a tangible difference in your sales numbers? Having a reliable SDR or SDR team means that the organization’s client-facing interactions are being handled by competent professionals. What makes an SDR good at what they do? We examine some of the attributes and behaviors of top-performing SDRs.

 

Qualities to Look For

A good SDR has meaningful, genuine conversations with ideal clients to confirm who is in market, out of market and unqualified. This is all about determining the facts of the clients’ situations prior to any further engagement with them. This allows the company to better target prospects and allocate resources in the most effective way.

Good SDRs set meetings with qualified prospects, take the time to nurture out of market prospects and eliminate unqualified prospects from the sales process. Meetings lead to sales by way of open conversations. Experienced SDRs know what questions to ask prospects and more importantly, know what to listen for when having discovery conversations. They know how to spot prospects’ pain points and know their solutions well enough to offer exactly what the prospect needs.

 

Are You Taking Notes?

A very useful habit that separates the really great SDRs from the average ones is the ability to keep detailed and copious records and pointers from conversations with qualified prospects which are always helpful in terms of guiding the sale. These notes are priceless when creating customer profiles and more importantly, when building relationships. Prospects appreciate when the small details are remembered. Those small details make prospects who they are and if an SDR remembers them, the prospect will know that they are valued and appreciated. 

 

Put Yourself Out There – Prospects Appreciate It

Sharing your business and personal values ahead of meetings encourages prospects to attend. If a prospect can relate to who you are as a person and appreciates all or some of your values, you immediately become more human, more relatable and goes a long way to forging a genuine connection with them. Prospects are more likely to share their thoughts, concerns and pain points with you if you have already shared something with them. Communication becomes a transactional exchange that spans social, relational, and cultural contexts.

 

Be Polite in the Little Things Too

This is a given in any professional context. People (not just prospects) appreciate it when others value their time. Part of assigning value to anyone’s time is giving the appropriate level of importance to meetings and respecting the timeframes of those meetings. Again, it’s the little things that count. Confirming attendance prior to the meeting, being on time, sticking to the time allocated and sending a thank you email after the meeting are just some of the ways to make prospects realize that you value their time. Checking in with prospects post-meeting to see how it went and what was discovered during the meeting is an excellent method of cementing the relationship and building up to future interactions.

 

What Makes a Whistle SDR Different:

Whistle SDRs are not your average Joe. Apart from continuous and ongoing training, our SDRs are skilled with a minimum of 2 years of experience in the sales world, have undergone training and certification via HubSpot Sales and the Whistle SDR Training Academy and are fluent in a range of languages including German, French, Spanish, English, Portuguese and more. Our SDRs are also very adept at understanding clients’ needs through the art of actively listening.

 

Being a successful SDR in today’s sales world goes beyond doing the ordinary, average day-to-day tasks. It requires talented individuals to go the extra mile in the pursuit of client satisfaction. These SDRs are the difference between success and failure of marketing endeavors.