What is an SDR?

If you work in sales, you’ve probably heard of SDR, but do you know what this acronym means and what role this professional plays in your operation? In this article, we’ll explain what an SDR is, what their advantages, responsibilities, types and routines are, and how they can help increase your sales. Stay tuned!

What is an SDR?

The SDR is a professional whose main function is to qualify leads generated by marketing or prospecting, and forward them to salespeople, who are responsible for closing the sale.

What doesn’t an SDR do?

An SDR is not a salesperson, meaning they do not negotiate prices, terms or contracts with leads. They are also not a customer service representative who simply answers customer questions.

The advantages of having an SDR in sales operations

Having an SDR on your sales team can bring several benefits to your business, such as:

Lead qualification

By having a professional dedicated to qualifying leads, you ensure that salespeople will only receive those who are genuinely interested and fit with your product or service, avoiding wasting time ivory coast phone number list and resources on leads that are not ready or are not suitable for your solution.

Increase in conversion rate

The increase is noticeable currently being discussed because leads are already educated about your product or service, and already recognize the value of your solution to solve their problems.

What are the responsibilities of an SDR?

An SDR has several responsibilities within the sales operation, such as:

Improve response time for generated leads

Contacting leads as soon as possible after they show interest in your product or service, whether through a landing page, a form, an email or a phone taiwan lists call, is essential in your sales process. This way, you take advantage of the moment when the lead is most likely to talk and advance in the purchasing journey.

Check if the lead profile is compatible with your ICP

Apply objective criteria to assess whether the lead fits your ICP (Ideal Customer Profile). These criteria may be related to the segment, size, location, revenue, number of employees, among other aspects relevant to your solution.

Send more qualified leads to salespeople

After checking the lead’s fit with your ICP, the SDR should ask a series of questions to understand the lead’s pain points, needs, challenges, and expectations regarding your product or service. With this information, the SDR can classify leads into different qualification levels (such as MQL – Marketing Qualified Lead or SQL – Sales Qualified Lead), and send only the most qualified ones to the salespeople.

Schedule meetings

One of the SDR’s main goals is to schedule meetings between qualified leads and salespeople. To do this, they must use persuasion techniques and mental triggers to convince leads to accept the value proposition of their solution and commit to the next stage of the sales process.

Active prospecting

In addition to receiving leads generated by marketing (inbound), the SDR can also do active prospecting (outbound), that is, look for leads that are not yet familiar with your product or service but have the potential to purchase. To do this, the SDR must use tools and strategies to find and approach these leads, such as social media, email, telephone, WhatsApp, among other channels.

The types of SDR

There are two main types of SDR, which differ in the level of complexity of the sale and the type of approach they take to leads:

SDR low touch

operates in simple, low-value, short-cycle sales. It takes a faster, more direct approach to leads, seeking to identify the fit and interest in your product or service in just a few minutes.