{"id":13315,"date":"2022-05-02T10:22:06","date_gmt":"2022-05-02T17:22:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/somametrics.com\/clone\/?p=13315"},"modified":"2022-06-22T12:44:09","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T19:44:09","slug":"appointment-setting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/somametrics.com\/clone\/appointment-setting\/","title":{"rendered":"How Difficult Is It to Generate a Meeting? Common Misuses of SDR Teams in Appointment Setting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In my book, The Radical Pipeline Strategy<\/a><\/em>, I discuss the strategies and best practices I have used to build effective Sales Development organizations with regards to appointment setting. These teams, commonly known as Business Development (BDRs); Account Development (ADRs); and Sales Development (SDRs), consistently help your sales teams to achieve pipeline and revenue targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How difficult is it to set a meeting?<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, Sales Development has come a long way. It is no longer disparagingly thought of as \u201cTelemarketing\u201d\u2014a group of junior people whose primary role is appointment setting, or register people for seminars and events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SDR role is, however, still considered an entry-level position: their job is to generate a sales qualified meeting otherwise known as an SQL. The reason why companies hire junior-level people is because they think, \u201chow difficult is it to set a meeting<\/strong>\u201d? This is a pivotal question that I explore fully in my book.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this blog, I will outline common misuses of SDR teams as appointment setters that I have encountered while retooling client SDR teams at over 65 companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Role of SDRs<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

To start, consider this: companies hire junior SDRs as their first line of defense. Their job is to call valued prospects who have 10 or more years of experience in their field. However, most junior-level SDR\u2019s haven\u2019t acquired the skills to speak to these seasoned professionals in a meaningful way, nor have they been given the tools to support their qualification efforts. In other words, \u201cjunior\u201d SDR\u2019s are the first point of contact with the most valued prospects of your company. This is an ineffective strategy for appointment setting that simply doesn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Junior SDRs don\u2019t know how to speak to executives, and executives\u2014who receive hundreds of calls from the same type of people\u2014will tune them out. As a result, few qualified meetings are set and pipeline goals simply aren\u2019t achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To make up for the lack of quality meetings<\/a>, companies hire more SDRs to help them squeeze out more appointments needed to meet their qualified meetings quota. In doing so, companies just build larger, more unsuccessful teams. This, in turn, costs companies a lot of money and frustration as they continue to miss pipeline targets month after month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, consider this: billions of robocalls (over 50 billion in 2021<\/a>) are made to the same seasoned professionals which lowers your SDRs chances of getting the target to answer their calls. And when they do actually answer, SDRs aren\u2019t prepared to talk to the potential prospect. SDR\u2019s need extensive training\u2014in B2B appointment setting\u2014to have conversations that provide prospects with the \u201cvalued\u201d information for making informed decisions. Without this training, no one (prospects or sales) gets what they want or need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Below are some examples of how SDRs are misused.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SDRs are NOT:<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n