Introduction

Sales is at the core of any successful business.

You could boast of having a stellar product, but without focused sales machinery, it would be challenging to scale your topline. Recruiting great sales performers is a herculean task. Hence, most sales leaders prefer to build learning systems, value-driven processes constantly, and performance-driven incentive plans to motivate and retain their sales force.

Sales Development Reps (SDRs) are normally at the start of their careers.

When they join the workforce, they are young, energetic, and eager to learn. It is up to the sales leadership to maintain their motivational levels. Well-trained and knowledgeable SDRs are the future of a successful sales team. 

While sales leaders could help solve a few challenges – most of the time, SDRs will need to do some heavy lifting themselves if they are looking at a long-term career in sales..

The job of an SDR is not easy, and you are bound to face different challenges while accomplishing your goals. You will often have to deal with rejection like, “Not interested,” “I’m out of town,” “no way,” or “Maybe later” from prospects when pitching your brand or products. Struggles like task repetitions and rejections cause burnout. SDRs are humans, after all.

Since most SDRs are judged based on their capabilities of converting cold leads into sales-qualified leads (SQL), they primarily concentrate on meetings booked instead of the process i.e., proper prospecting and lead nurturing. This could affect their performance in sales later.

As an SDR, you need to be able to handle pressure effectively. Awareness of all your challenges will help you avoid them or quickly find solutions.

SDR Challenges and Solutions 

Most of the time, SDRs find it difficult to achieve their sales quotas. It could be meetings booked or a number of sales-qualified leads. 

This eventually leads to their burnout and prejudice toward sales. Although now, most companies are trying to create the best working environment for their employees, specific problems persist. Thus, after hours of research, we have listed SDRs’ challenges and ways to overcome them.

1. Expectations of Unachievable Quotas

One of the biggest mistakes an organization makes is overloading its sales team with high sales quotas without a proper plan.

When these sales targets are not hit, sales representatives feel like they aren’t a good fit for the job. If you are a newbie in this industry, this can lead to an annoying and stressful experience.

Not hitting sales quotas can also lower your self-confidence while doing your job.

Solution

Increasing your monthly quotas doesn’t necessarily mean getting better outcomes. SDRs require proper training and goal setting.

An SDR should know the steps to reach its goal.

This includes –

• Knowing how many prospects to reach out to daily
• Analyzing the replies you’ve received. 
• Scheduling X number of emails daily
• Following up diligently

Ask your manager to help you segregate these metrics into daily targets to achieve them hassle-free. If you cannot meet these targets, analyze what needs improvement or revise your targets accordingly. Always adopt a measured, thoughtful, and targeted approach that will keep you on your toes as a sales rep.

Lastly, feel free to ask your managers for guidance on achieving your targets efficiently.

2. Absence of Time-Saving Tools

SDRs spent maximum time (nearly 30 to 40%) on prospecting.

Prospecting is a vital aspect of the sales outbound procedure, as, through this, you have to find potential leads who are interested in purchasing your service or product. The right tools will help your time spent in prospecting – making this task more efficient.

Solution

Tools like ProspectDaddy help with prospecting from Linkedin searches and multichannel outreach tools like SmartReach help you create and send personalized cold emails, schedule follow-ups and automation of outreach via channels like Linkedin, WhatsApp, SMS & Calls – thus accelerating the prospecting process, ensuring higher response rates and helping you do an efficient job.

3. Improper Training

Proper training drives better results.

Improper or no training is another challenge most sales representatives encounter in this field. SDRs are human beings and cannot be automated to achieve higher outcomes. Despite knowing what they should do to meet a particular quota, they fail miserably.

Most companies never teach their sales development reps on playbooks to be followed to achieve their sales quotas as they find training as time-consuming and expensive.

Thus many SDRs may get demotivated and leave this field. Most companies perform bulk outreach through telemarketing or email marketing by providing them with contacts and the script. However, this creates stress and complications for the SDRs. They sound impersonal and robotic while making a sales call without deep knowledge of the client’s personality or the products they are selling. 

Solution

Training sales development representatives are necessary for the company’s progress.

It is a good sign if your management is monitoring your sales performance and discussing your mistakes or areas of improvement. You, too, can ask your manager for feedback on your work and places you should focus on improving. Getting regular or at least bi-weekly input from your manager can help you understand where you might be lacking and, in turn, help you become more relatable to your prospects – thus having meaningful business conversations.

If you have not been introduced to a sales playbook to be followed then ask your manager if you could build one for the team. Research on the steps involved and create a document for others to follow. This kind of action will showcase leadership skills.

4. Identifying High-Quality Prospects

Identifying high-quality prospects is one of the biggest SDR challenges faced.

As an SDR, you’ll spend much time prospecting as the success of a  sales process solely depends on getting high-quality leads. But where do you find the best prospects?

Solution

Getting high-quality prospects are difficult but not impossible. You can try the strategies below to discover prospects who will eventually convert.

Account-centric marketing: Concentrate more on the prospects who might be interested in your brand. You can target them directly with content targeting them – an excellent way of getting organic leads.

Refine the lead scoring method: If you have several low-quality leads, it is high time you redefine your lead scoring procedure. Check out for clear interest indications and purchasing intent among the client. 

Implement different prospecting tools: Prospecting tools like ProspectDaddy, offer invaluable data to help you convert leads. You could use ProspectDaddy to find business emails of prospects for free and then move them to a sales outreach campaign.

5.No Follow-up Communication

Regular feedback from the account executives is essential for the SDRs to know how well they are doing their job.

• What is the outcome of your hard work? 
• How did the scheduled demos go?

Following up is needed to understand how you can improve your performance and efficiency. But most of the time, SDRs need to communicate with their colleagues and get an idea about their campaign. It leads to complexities and burnout in them.

Solution

Communication is key!

Proper communication will help you know whether you facilitated the sale of a product or service. It will help you to customize your messaging approach or adjust the targeted audience. Thus, it is essential to establish a follow-up communication channel between the account executives and sales representatives. The absence of this regular communication will affect the sales conversion ratio.

6. Burnout

Almost 75% of sales development representatives experience burnout.

In certain situations, SDRs burn out swiftly due to high expectations, challenges, and expectations. Also, monotonous jobs like sales could be responsible for burnout since they are target-centric jobs.

There is tremendous pressure for high performance to deliver results continuously. As a result of burnout, a sales team’s productivity and contentment decrease. There should be direct communication with the SDR and the supervisor to reduce burnout.

Solution

Always connects with your managers and sales coaches to discuss why you might be unable to give your best.

There are several reasons why you may feel burned out. This includes

• Routine/mundane work
• Personal crises
• Poor self-care
• Lack of support

Your managers should be made aware of the challenges you face as they are in a better position to help you identify and tackle the things that are bothering you. 

If you are uncomfortable talking to your manager, try getting a sales mentor or if you could speak to someone from HR. Make sure you speak with them about what you’re going through. Reaching out for help when needed is key to survival.

7. Uncertainty of Growth Opportunities

Is being a Sales Development Representative the end of your career?

Absolutely not!

One of the old myths about being an SDR is that there is no absolute career path after this – that it is a temporary way with no growth or promotions. But it is incorrect, as selecting SDR as a career can be rewarding and fulfilling. Several companies pay attention to SDRs’ learning different skills and promoting them for their roles. 

Solution

Seek guidance.

Ensure that you seek guidance from the right sales mentors to help you see the bigger picture. See if there is a person within (or outside) your organization who is five to ten steps ahead of you in their career and ask them or if they or could mentor you.

Sales mentors help you not only understand your career in sales but also help you envision your career five to ten years from now. They can also help you create a practical path to achieving your goal.

You are only at the beginning of your journey as a salesperson. You’ve got a long way to slay!

8. Non-Alignment of Marketing-Sales Team

Sales and Marketing teams when working together can bring huge success to the organization. Unfortunately, the lack of communication between the sales and marketing teams causes harm to the organization as well as the individual teams. In spite of having the same goal i.e. acquiring new customers, it becomes hard for the sales and marketing team to work collaboratively.

Solution

Encourage the sales and marketing team to work together towards nurturing the leads. Assigning separate tasks in the sales to funnel like which team is responsible for leads screening, who would decide when the leads convert to sales-qualified leads etc, would help to initiate communication between the teams. 

9. Unable to handle Rejection or Criticism

Salespeople generally get demoralized when they face rejection or any kind of criticism. This can affect the next sales pitch. The fear of getting rejected again would hold them back and giving their best. The whole thing can be frustrating and can affect their overall performance. 

Solution

Getting mentally prepared that any sales pitch comes along with rejection. Rejection should not be taken personally, it is part of the sales. Keeping a good response ready in case of rejection would help in maintaining the confidence level. Having mock call sessions with seniors so as to practice how to face rejection. Creating sufficient opportunities so that few rejections would not affect your sales quota and your confidence. 

Wrapping it Up!

As an SDR, you’ll inevitably face some – or all of the above challenges.

Reaching your sales quota should be your top priority, and SmartReach can assist you. 

In other words, SmartReach will help you easily discover and reach out to the right prospects. 

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Why does SDR require an excellent managerial team?

The average working tenure of an SDR is nearly 15 months.

New sales reps need training for a minimum of one year with continuous learning for efficiency. Thus, the senior management has to offer them better training, analyze their metrics, and update their day-to-day tasks to get the maximum output from an SDR. Also, higher management measures their performance and gives feedback about where they are lacking or in which segment they can improve. 

2. How can SDRs improve their performance?

The SDRs’ efficiency determines the lead generation capability, sales health, and ability to complete the quota. SDRs can improve their performance and efficiency in the following ways.

• Collaborating with the Account Executives
• Time management
• Implementing the Prospect-to-Meeting ratio
• Finding out the appropriate prospects
• Maximizing the sales intel
• Automating the tasks by using accurate tools
• Creating a scalable sales development procedure.

3. What are the primary responsibilities of an SDR?

As a sales development representative, you will play a critical role in the company’s success. The responsibilities of an SDR include the following:

• Identifying and researching new customers
• Reaching out to potential leads through emails and cold calls.
• Moving solid leads through marketing funnels for driving sales.
• Setting up quality appointments and meetings
• Creating a long-term relationship with the clients
• Regular follow-up and communication with the current customers to identify new leads and assess their satisfaction.
• Building a solid sales procedure for meaningful conversations with prospects.
• Collaborating with the sales team to meet the targets.