How marketing SDRs can 6x marketing’s time-to-revenue

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In the realm of marketing and sales, the placement of sales development representatives (SDRs) has always been a lively topic of discussion.

In a market where the alignment between marketing and sales is often the linchpin of sustainable growth, understanding and strategically deploying SDRs can be the pivotal factor that propels a company forward.

I’m Anton Belo, and recently, I embraced a new chapter in my career as the VP of Growth Marketing at Kochava. With 15 years of marketing experience under my belt, spanning various company types from startups to upstarts, I’ve spearheaded company growth in the zero to 80 million range across different organizations. 

In this article, I’m going to delve into the multifaceted world of SDRs within the marketing sphere, exploring strategies, sharing experiences, and providing insights into how effectively aligning SDRs with marketing initiatives can not only enhance lead generation and pipeline creation, but also significantly impact time-to-revenue. 

SDR: A critical role with varied placement

The perpetual debate in numerous companies revolves around the optimal placement of SDRs. Should they be nestled in the “fluffy world of awesomeness” that is marketing, or should they be positioned firmly within the sales realm? 

Sales development representatives, business development representatives, and market development representatives, often individuals early in their career, are tasked with “dialing for dollars” and securing meetings, typically following up on marketing inbound leads within an organization.

We’ve all encountered the arguments: SDRs should be situated in marketing to bolster the sales pipeline and enable more precise marketing since their roles align more closely with marketing functions. 

Conversely, some argue that SDRs should reside under the sales umbrella as their contributions are more pivotal to the sales pipeline, and their goals, such as transitioning to Account Executives (AEs), are more sales-oriented.

In my journey, having managed hundreds of SDRs, I’ve observed that not every SDR follows the conventional path to becoming an AE.

For instance, my last SDR was promoted to an HR representative role, transitioning from dialing for dollars and calling prospects to recruiting - showcasing a unique synergy in their skill set. This exemplifies one of the myriad reasons why I am passionate about and love to own the role of managing SDRs.

Experiences and insights into SDR management

Throughout my career, I've witnessed SDRs reporting into various departments: demand generation, sales, revenue operations, and even outsource teams. My experiences have shaped a firm belief: for growth-phase companies, SDRs absolutely need to report into marketing. 

This isn’t merely a preference but a strategic standpoint, especially when the company is scaling, growing, and where marketing isn’t necessarily the forefront of the organization anymore. The pivotal point here is to optimize for opportunity, ensuring that every step taken is one that propels the opportunity to pipeline conversion.

In my view, there’s only one funnel in a company, not segregated into a marketing funnel or a sales funnel, but a unified funnel leading to revenue. SDRs, whose measure of pipeline aligns more with marketing, play a crucial role in this. 

Marketing’s primary role within an organization is to identify and engage prospects, while sales quantify, qualify the deal, and seal it. The SDR’s role, therefore, is to locate prospects, identify their pain points, and then present these to sales.

SDR and marketing: A synergistic relationship

The ever-changing lead funnel is owned by marketing. Consider how often marketers alter the persona, change the charge, and modify the go-to-market strategy.

How frequently have you asked your SDR team to reach out to new leads following a fresh project? My SDR team, despite occasional grumbles, embraces new experiments, which is fantastic. 

If you’ve ever built SDR outreach campaigns in tools like Outreach, you’ll notice the striking similarity to campaigns in Marketo or HubSpot. So, why not let marketing manage that? They’re already adept at it.

Better training and enablement are crucial. Who controls the persona in a company? Marketing. Who is better positioned to educate SDRs on the persona they are dialing out to? Again, marketing.

Upon joining my new company, I communicated to my team of 29 that our new North Star metric is the pipeline and revenue. Every action, every project in marketing must be scrutinized with the question: “Is this contributing to revenue?” Accountability is paramount.

The pros and cons of SDRs reporting to sales are nuanced. While I haven’t worked extensively in sales, I’ve worked closely with VPs of sales and regional CEOs. SDRs reporting into sales can over-qualify leads and align with the sales methodology, whether it’s MEDDIC, Selling Through Curiosity, or another strategy. 

However, the career path isn’t always linear from SDR to salesperson, as I’ve demonstrated through my management of various SDRs.

I’ve implemented a strategy where all marketing organizations try “dialing for dollars” like an SDR once a quarter. Every marketer learns sales methodology, which not only enhances their understanding but also potentially aids content creation. 

Regarding compensation, I pay SDRs for meetings held, with an additional spiff on revenue when a deal closes. This strategy has proven successful, with some SDRs, eager for that extra revenue spiff, closing substantial revenue.

One exemplary SDR closed 2.2 million in revenue in her first year for a high-tech sales product, earning an extra $80,000 in her paycheck from the revenue spiff. That’s your future salesperson. She was an A+ player, fully aware of her path.

Therefore, it’s vital to move that goal line and experiment with it, always aligning strategies with the overarching goal of revenue generation and pipeline enhancement.

Refining the marketing process with strategic SDR involvement

The conventional marketing process often involves a degree of speculation: we hypothesize what the persona is, conjecture the messaging, create content, launch campaigns, invest a substantial budget, and then we wait.

When a lead finally trickles in, we evaluate the cost and impact. However, I prefer a slightly different approach, one that actively involves SDRs in validating messaging and understanding personas.

Here’s a process I often employ: I formulate a persona and hypothesize messaging, then deploy this through SDR sequences. If the SDRs secure a meeting, it’s a positive indicator that the messaging resonates.

Further, by listening to call recordings, I gain insights into whether the persona is accurate and what pain points are being discussed. This information then informs content creation.

At my previous company Embrace, where we dealt with mobile backend monitoring targeting mobile engineers, I discovered through SDR interactions and a tool called Gong that “ANR” (Application Not Responding) was a significant pain point for engineering organizations. 

This insight, which I would not have uncovered without the SDRs, led to a webinar that attracted 500 registrants and 350 live attendees, indicating a direct hit with the content. Initially, I was inclined towards iOS content, but the SDRs helped pivot our focus and accelerate our path effectively.

It’s crucial to establish a feedback loop where every step forward also loops back, prompting us to evaluate and adjust our strategy. While I seek control as a marketer, especially over the SDRs' messaging, it’s to decipher what content to produce and how to align it closely with the funnel.

Implementing this program, I witnessed an immediate impact on the pipeline. In the first quarter, we generated 1.5 million in revenue from a startup standpoint, starting from zero. 

Does it work? Comparing two companies with similar stats, product lines, and price points, where I implemented traditional marketing in one (Company A) and rearranged the methodology in the other, the latter experienced revenue growth from 2.2 million to 6 million in 18 months, even amidst the challenging market conditions presented by COVID.

SDRs can technically be placed anywhere within an organization. However, it’s our responsibility to optimize their position and, if necessary, advocate for why they need to report to your department.

While this does usher in a greater degree of accountability (which can be daunting), the resultant paychecks and revenue figures are likely to be far more gratifying.

Ensuring quality and nurturing relationships

When managing the persona with a dedicated research team exploring the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and Persona, theoretically, quality should not be a concern. However, it’s not uncommon to encounter debates with sales regarding lead quality. 

The argument often boils down to whether a lead is deemed ‘bad’ simply because they didn’t convert. So, it prompts the question: Why didn’t they buy? Was it genuinely due to targeting the wrong person?

If so, I adjust my persona accordingly. But this process often fosters a healthy relationship and dialogue between marketing and sales. If a deal isn’t closed, we delve into understanding why, document it, and marketing sets new nurture streams based on that information.

We implemented a program called "The Pirate Ship," aimed at lost opportunities where we had identified the right buyer, company, and persona.

The Pirate Ship was designed to create campaigns that were triggered during the renewal date of their chosen vendor (that wasn’t us). Six months out, marketing would initiate widespread campaigns, and at the T-minus three-month mark, SDR engagement would commence.

Adjusting compensation strategies, especially in terms of how SDRs are paid, can be a delicate matter. While I’ve experimented with paying out at different funnel stages, such as Proof of Concept (POC) in progress or demo completion, it’s crucial to note that this can sometimes dampen morale if the desired outcomes don’t materialize. 

Even with increased payouts to compensate for the shift, it can still be demoralizing for SDRs if they feel their efforts, which may have been of high quality, did not yield the anticipated opportunities.

Experimentation is key here. I won’t claim that every strategy I’ve implemented has been flawless. I’ve had to navigate through various approaches, trying different methods depending on the product line. 

A colleague once opted to pay SDRs a larger percentage, equivalent to what a sales revenue payout would be for the first year. This approach also has its challenges, especially when dealing with large, multi-year, $25 million deals, where you might find an SDR deciding to take it easy for the remainder of the year after securing a hefty payout.

Ensuring that the quality of leads and opportunities is maintained, nurturing relationships between marketing and sales, and balancing compensation to maintain SDR morale are pivotal aspects to consider.

While the strategies and approaches may vary, the underlying principle remains: it’s imperative to continually evaluate, adjust, and optimize processes to ensure alignment with overarching goals and maintain a motivated, productive team.

Navigating quality, content, and SDR collaboration

Ensuring quality in leads and opportunities is paramount, and this often involves an intricate dance between content marketing teams and SDRs. For instance, when new content is pushed out, SDRs can prioritize it, possibly adding it to their signature lines to upsell or showcase it during interactions. 

This not only provides the content team with almost instantaneous feedback and gratification but also fosters a sense of ownership among them. At Embrace, for example, the content team would follow up with SDRs to understand how outbound messaging worked and take ownership to make necessary adjustments.

Moreover, I introduced a spiff for my content team: if the content created hit the OKRs we planned together, they received a financial kickback.

This approach was extended to the whole marketing organization at Chava, not by reducing their salary, but by adding a little extra to motivate them to put in that additional work and communicate with an SDR. It does require extra effort, but in most cases, they are happy for it.

SDR roles, naming conventions, and collaboration

The role of SDRs within the organization is primarily to create revenue and pipeline. They serve as an asset that can assist or be utilized to test hypotheses. While they have their priorities, these can be augmented as long as the ultimate goal of generating pipeline and revenue is met. 

SDRs are not necessarily there to help create and curate content but act as a valuable feedback loop or sounding board on the quality of the content written and whether it created the desired emotional impact.

In terms of naming conventions for SDRs, I always say: read the room. If a sales organization is adamant about having the SDR title, I’ll change it.

Whether it’s an MDR, SDR, or BDR, in most cases, most SDR leaders know that they cannot manage an SDR team and produce what they want to produce. So, SDRs often get handed to me, like at Chava, where they were handed to me on golden chariots.

Call recordings were primarily listened to by the content team. Using recording tools like Gong, we could pick up on keywords and “aha” moments, which were crucial for the content team. 

We listened to hundreds of calls in the first few weeks to decipher the content and then gradually tailored it back. As more team members were hired, we had a dedicated content team whose job was to listen to call recordings to extract valuable nuggets that could be transformed into new blog pieces.

In another company, Cocconi, with about 1800 employees and established growth, they had their own BDR team (their version of an SDR team) reporting to sales. I requested my own two marketers to be hired as an SDR, with their role being to call out. 

They had no KPIs for driving the pipeline, but their goal was to get butts in seats and follow up on every lead, adhering to a 'no lead left behind' mentality.

You can always iterate and be creative in how you utilize SDRs. Always ask for one or two and then see how it goes. It brings me joy when I hear that someone now owns the SDR function after hearing that I did.