Sales Development Teams across enterprise-level sales organisations are increasingly reporting to Marketing rather than Sales (50% of SDRs in 2015 and rising). That often makes sense… but it can lead to blurred lines – organisations where SDRs are more of a third wheel than a valuable Sales – Marketing lock-in.
SDRs share key objectives, metrics and working cultures with Marketing… because they’re really doing Marketing’s job. A marketing department that sources leads and pushes them to SDRs to qualify and move through the funnel towards quota-holding closers could be qualifying those leads as they’re sourced, doing away with SDRs and clarifying the sales process – couldn’t it?
Especially as more large-scale sales organisations take an Account-Based Marketing approach. In a world where Forrester found that only 1% of leads result in a sale, ABM attempts to do away with top-loaded funnels and self-congratulatory marketing metrics (stacked but weak pipes, MQL), ignoring lead volume in favour of lead quality.
It feels like an approach that champions recognising nurturing genuine, mutually valuable relationships with the most valuable client and prospect accounts should be accommodating the SDR role as part of Marketing…
Then Sales could align with the buyer’s journey by engaging further through the buying process. The emphasis could be on arming and empowering salespeople with content for engaging prospects mid-late funnel, assets that add real value for buyers shortlisting and selecting vendors – white papers, case studies, and visual content that helps front line salespeople socialize and share their value in a concise, persuasive and powerful way.
Or have I got this one completely wrong?
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