Sales roles provide many opportunities regarding professional and personal growth. In this blog we will dive deep into what it means to be a Sales Development Representative (SDR) by hearing from Kenadee Dekko and Cole Wright, two people who have worked as an SDR at GreatAmerica.
This position plays a key role in interacting with customers in the beginning stages of the sales cycle. As an SDR, you play a critical role in driving new business opportunities. This role sort of acts as a hybrid between marketing and sales because not only are you navigating the sales process, sitting in on calls, and attending sales meetings; but you are also working closely with the marketing team to help create campaigns and content, help with webinars, track interactions, and much more.
This position is a great way to get a well-rounded experience in sales and learn how marketing and sales are aligned. In this position, you are encouraged to be eager and consistent when it comes to customer outreach, and you have an abundance of freedom to implement your ideas for lead generation.
No day in this role will look the exact same. Cole shares that at the beginning of each quarter he creates an outreach plan that maps out what activities he will do on a day-to-day basis for the entire quarter. Day-to-day activities may include making phone calls, sending emails, creating video messages, sending physical mailing, originating social media content, and more. The goal of Cole’s outreach is to set up a needs assessment meeting for the sales team and help generate leads.
SDR’s have the freedom to create their own outreach cadence and implement a schedule that works best for them. Kenadee shares that much of her day has been spent on prospecting. For Kenadee, prospecting looks like researching, cold calling, emailing, and scouting social media for potential contacts and reach outs.
This position is wonderful for anyone wondering whether sales is the right fit for them, or if they are looking for experience in both sales and marketing. But it does take the right mindset in order to be successful in this position.
Both Kenadee and Cole shared that this role has given them many opportunities and exposure to the different parts of technology sales. They both enjoy the freedom to try new ideas when it comes to lead generation, and the ability to be creative in their prospecting efforts. The alignment this role provides between marketing and sales has benefited both as they now have a very well-rounded understanding of how marketing and sales can efficiently work together.
Cole shares that there is a fair amount of rejection from prospects in this role, and to be successful in this role it is important that you can handle objections. Objection handling is an extremely important attribute to have within any sales role. Cole shares “I am incredibly grateful to build this important skill so early in my career... One ‘yes’ makes all the ‘no’s’ worth it.”
GreatAmerica is looking for tenacious go-getters in this role. If you are eager to try out sales, you’re someone who is competitive, creative, and personable, this role would be great for you. The SDR role requires patience, persistent communication, and organizational skills. It is also helpful to have great communication skills, both verbal and written. It is also imperative that you are self-motivated, fast-paced, and detail-oriented.
If any of these attributes align with your skills make sure you look into the SDR role on the GreatAmerica Careers page. To learn more about this role specifically or set up a meeting, click the link below to watch Kenadee Dekko describe what this role looks like to her.