🎙️Transcript: 11 High Growth Sales Development Strategies

TOPO
11 High Growth Sales Development Strategies
Ralph Barsi, Craig Rosenberg
February 11, 2015

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Summary

This TOPO webinar features Craig Rosenberg (Chief Analyst at TOPO and author of thefunnelholic.com blog) and Ralph Barsi (Achievers) presenting 11 high-growth sales development strategies based on TOPO's benchmark study of the world's fastest-growing companies (average 60% year-over-year growth, plus $500M+ companies still in high-growth mode).

Throughout, Craig emphasizes optimizing SQL definitions quarterly based on quantitative and qualitative data, while Ralph stresses LinkedIn profile quality, avoiding "check-in" voicemails, and email-first then call approach for outbound.

BIG Takeaways

Evolve Your SQL Definition From BANT to ANUM or AN Based on Your Market
The majority of high-growth companies have moved away from strict BANT (Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline) to ANUM (Authority, Need, Urgency, Money) or AN (Authority, Need).

One billion-dollar company discovered 30% of leads that failed BANT were actually viable opportunities with relevant buying triggers but couldn't answer strict budget/timeline questions.

BANT works for project-centric markets (phone systems, accounting systems) with high inbound volume, but for new markets requiring evangelization, sales needs to engage before prospects have defined projects. Optimize your SQL definition every three months based on conversion data and qualitative feedback from sales.

Specialize SDR Roles When You Have 200+ Inbound Leads Per Month
If marketing delivers 200 or more inbound leads monthly, create a dedicated inbound-only SDR, even with only 2-3 total reps. Inbound (speed-focused, responding to engagement) and outbound (research-driven, stakeholder identification) require fundamentally different skills and approaches.

Specialized teams see significantly higher conversion rates because reps do the same activities repeatedly and develop deep expertise. Beyond inbound/outbound, advanced companies also specialize by company size (SMB/mid-market/enterprise) and verticals (healthcare, government) when executives demand more opportunities in specific segments.

Respond to Inbound Leads Within 5 Minutes Using Process and Technology
Data shows highest conversion when responding within 30 seconds to 5 minutes, with drop-offs at 20 minutes, yet only 31% of companies achieve sub-5-minute response. Enable this through: instant form-to-CRM flow, zero-second emails (triggered by marketing automation but from SDR's name), and intelligent routing that automatically pushes leads to the right SDR.

The "reforward" technique works surprisingly well: send zero-second email immediately, SDR follows up within 5 minutes with call + voicemail, then reforwards that same email.

In high-volume SMB markets with BANT-like leads, automated responses convert adequately, but personalized outreach (spending under 1 minute finding relevant context) always performs better.

Execute the "High-Low Play" on Inbound Leads to Reach Decision Makers
Most inbound leads aren't the key buyers sales needs - CEOs and executives don't download white papers, managers do. Advanced teams use the "high-low play": when a manager-level contact engages, immediately identify and message decision makers higher in the organization (VP, C-suite), mentioning their colleague's engagement as social proof.

One company's workflow: Marketing Manager attends webinar → SDR immediately messages CMO and VP Marketing using the manager's engagement as relevance builder. For enterprise sales, inbound reps should absolutely "go wide" in organizations both to navigate effectively and to learn complex organizational dynamics essential before becoming outbound SDRs and AEs.

Execute 8-12 Meaningful Touches Per Lead Over 2-3 Weeks, Not Months
High-growth companies deliver 8-12 "meaningful" touches (messages delivered to prospect - dials without voicemails don't count) within 2-3 weeks, not spread over months. The same number of touches over 5 months yields dramatically lower conversion than concentrated 2-week execution.

Organize touches in bundles (voicemail + email, email + voicemail + social) with clear purpose: what are we asking for, how are we adding value, what's in it for them. This requires planning and templates SDRs can customize - avoid "check-in" or "touch base" voicemails and only leave messages when you have a real reason.

Bundle Multiple Channels Including LinkedIn for Higher Email Conversion
50% of companies use LinkedIn in outreach, typically as part of first touch, and while most don't get LinkedIn responses, adding that channel increases email conversion rates. Never send blind connection invitations - use InMail or messaging with a version of your email, and don't hide your profile since viewing someone's profile is itself a touch.

Ensure reps have polished LinkedIn profiles that establish credibility because prospects will look them up. Advanced technique from LinkedIn's SDR group: share prospects' content, give thumbs up, write comments - seeing responses from people who ignored them for 12 months after implementing this approach.

Deliver 95+ Touches Per Day Through Technology-Enabled Efficiency
Despite claims that "it's not a numbers game," high-growth companies prove it absolutely is by finding ways to deliver requisite touches to reach buyers.

The 95+ daily touches (combining inbound and outbound) become achievable through bundling (voicemail + email = two touches), sales email applications for faster composition, emerging touch management automation, and dialer technology enabling rapid organized calling.

Email significantly lifts daily numbers because of speed advantages. Tool SDRs properly so they can execute the volume your conversion math requires without burning out.

Keep Live Calls Under 10 Minutes for BANT, Under 5 for AN/ANUM
Most companies average 11-15 minutes per live call with leads, but Craig believes this is unnecessary and inefficient in most cases. For BANT or deep discovery SQLs, calls should be under 10 minutes; for AN or ANUM definitions, under 5 minutes.

Companies with highest SQL volume are in the sub-10-minute category because they've trained SDRs on efficient, programmatic qualification conversations where everyone knows exactly what to ask. The vast majority of longer calls stem from lack of structure, not intentional strategy.

Sub-$25M Companies Run 1:1 SDR:Sales Ratios (Some Even 2:1 SDRs Per AE)
An unprecedented 50% of companies under $25 million have 1:1 SDR to salesperson ratios, with another 23.5% at 2:1, and some running more SDRs than AEs. This demonstrates that executives now "get it" and use sales development as a strategic lever for high growth, with teams "pumping sales with SQLs all day."

For comparison, $25M+ companies average 4.4:1 ratios due to natural optimization at scale. Craig's reflection: 15 years ago he pitched companies on sales development with decks; now 50% of young companies start at 1:1 from day one.

Compensate on SQL Achievement, Overachievement, Plus Closed Deal Kickers
TOPO's recommended compensation structure: (1) Tell reps how many SQLs they need monthly and pay them for hitting that number; (2) Pay bonuses for exceeding SQL targets; (3) Give kicker bonuses when deals close from SQLs they passed. This creates alignment across the revenue chain while maintaining focus on the SDR's primary job (SQL production, not closing).

The "opportunities created" metric measures SQLs that sales accepts into their pipeline, ensuring quality beyond just handoffs.

Plan for 14-Month Average Tenure But Build Systems for Continuous Turnover
Average SDR tenure is 14 months, though sub-6-month departures often represent promotions to AE roles at high-growth companies, not attrition. Craig recommends 12-14 months; Ralph advocates 24 months structured as 8 months inbound (mastering volume) then 16 months outbound (learning prospecting fundamentals).

Ralph warns SDRs who jump to AE roles prematurely suffer long-term: they make plan initially, hit performance plans 18 months later, jump companies repeatedly every 18-24 months because they never learned fundamentals. Sales development leaders must maintain healthy bench strength and interview candidates year-round regardless of target tenure.

Transcript

OPENING (00:00:00 - 00:07:41)

Moderator: All attendees are in listen only mode.

Ralph Barsi: Hello everybody. Thanks for joining us today. Welcome to today's webinar. We are going to take the next 45 minutes to an hour to talk about 11 high growth sales development strategies that you can apply right now. Fortunately for you, if you are attending, you're receiving a free copy of the TOPO Sales Development Benchmark report. Feel free to interrupt us. It's about asking questions. It's about challenging what you're learning. There is a Twitter handle for today's event: #TopoSDR. My name is Ralph Barsi. I oversee the sales development organization at Achievers here in San Francisco. I'm very pleased to join Craig Rosenberg today.

Craig Rosenberg: I'm doing great, Ralph. I just want to tell everyone that we specifically chose Ralph because he is a true student of the game. I am the chief analyst here at TOPO. I'm also known for my blog, thefunnelholic.com. TOPO studies and benchmarks the world's fastest growing companies. For this study, average year over year growth was 60%. We focused on high growth companies and $500M+ incumbents still growing 8-15%. Ralph is not on mute and wants to take part in the conversation.

STRATEGY 1: SQL DEFINITIONS - BANT VS ANUM VS AN (00:11:03 - 00:16:39)

Craig: [Shows data on SQL definitions] BANT is Budget, Authority, Need, Timeline. ANUM is Authority, Need, Urgency, Money. AN is simply Authority and Need. The vast majority of companies are doing some version of ANUM and AN today. Is BANT dead? It's smaller than before, but there are markets where BANT is relevant - project-centric buying like phone systems, accounting systems where it's a waste of time to convince them to rip out systems. These have massive volume of BANT leads. Conversely, if you're in a new market evangelizing new product, BANT is not right. You need to look at target market and where sales wants to talk to them.

Ralph: We're a combination of ANUM and AN. Buyers may not know budget early in buying cycle. More important to ask "if this was ideal fit, where would budget come from?" versus "how much budget is there?" Too early most of the time to talk dollars. The job of sales development is to lead the horse to water, hand off viable vetted companies to AEs. SDRs don't need to walk the horse into the water - that's the AE's job.

Craig: One company called hundreds of leads not qualified as SQLs using BANT. They asked: did you end up buying anything? What drove you to talk to us? What are your challenges? They found 30% were actually potential opportunities with relevant buying triggers, but couldn't answer strict BANT questions. For a billion dollar company, that's huge. You have to find the right definition for you. Every three months, optimize the SQL definition based on what you're seeing quantitatively and qualitatively.

STRATEGY 2: SPECIALIZATION - INBOUND VS OUTBOUND (00:16:39 - 00:21:14)

Craig: Significant movement is specialization. Companies set up SDR teams as either hybrid (follow up on inbound leads AND do outbound) or specialized (specific inbound or outbound role). If there's significant number of inbound leads - 200 or more per SDR - you need to specialize. Activities, approaches, and conversations are fundamentally different between inbound and outbound. Outbound is longer slog - research, stakeholder identification. Inbound is about speed - getting to leads quickly, talking about their engagement. With inbound-only team, conversion rates for MQLs improve significantly. Specialized outbound teams see better results because they're focused.

Exception: Enterprise-focused companies where marketing can't get high volume of leads. If it's very specific target market, SDRs have touched accounts that come in as MQLs, so hybrid makes sense. Not enough volume to have inbound team.

Ralph: Question from audience - if we have small number of SDRs, should we specialize?

Craig: If you have small team and marketing's creating high volume of inbound leads, yes. We see companies with two reps doing inbound and outbound. If you get 200 or more inbound leads per month, you should have an inbound focused rep, even if you only have two or three reps. Inbound person following up on leads early in company lifecycle learns so much. Feedback and learnings on how to convert inbound leads only comes when someone's dedicated to it. Same on outbound - hard to learn if you're doing something 50/50.

Beyond inbound/outbound, we see specialization across company size (SMB, mid-market, enterprise), and vertically focused SDRs (healthcare, government). Executives ask "Why don't we have more healthcare opportunities?" Fix is make someone get paid if they drive healthcare opportunities.

STRATEGY 3: GO WIDE ON INBOUND LEADS (00:23:39 - 00:27:01)

Ralph: [Audience question] For inbound rep, do you recommend they take responsibility for going wide within the organization? Absolutely. Let's say a generalist inquired - inbound rep follows up fast but also gets acquainted with organization, have them broker introductions to people of influence and decision makers. It's a give to get game. Second reason: most organizations want inbound reps to ultimately become outbound reps then AEs. What better way to learn how to navigate organization than by gutting the account when you follow up on inbound lead.

Craig: You have enterprise point of view and I think you're correct. For high volume SMB with massive inbound flow, you may not want to make extra move. But advanced teams do really cool things with inbound leads. We call it the "high low play." The CEO, John Chambers does not download white papers. People sales really wants to talk to don't download white papers. Companies use opportunity that someone came in as launch point to go wider, particularly higher in organization.

High low play: lead comes in (manager of something), immediately identify decision makers and high-level stakeholders, immediately message them. You can mention that person came in and use as launch point. Do it immediately. One advanced company: marketing ops manager comes in, they immediately message VP of marketing and CMO out of the gate. That person attends webinar, they immediately message the VP and CMO. So use that as opportunity to find right people in organization.

STRATEGY 4: SPEED TO LEAD - RESPOND WITHIN 5 MINUTES (00:27:06 - 00:28:55)

Craig: Lot of data on effects of conversion rate when you respond 30 seconds to 5 minutes from when they come in. If you respond within 30 seconds, highest conversion. Another ledge after 5 minutes, another after 20 minutes. 31% are getting to leads within 5 minutes - that's great because typically you go in and say "we can't really get to them." People have set up processes and technologies to optimize: web form to CRM flow instantaneously, zero second/zero minute emails (marketing automation triggers but it's from the SDR, gets to them within seconds), intelligent routing from dialer technologies automatically pushing leads to right SDR. It's a process thing with tools and technology to help.

STRATEGY 5: 8-12 TOUCHES OVER 2-3 WEEKS (00:29:58 - 00:32:44)

Craig: Average is 8-12 touches. High impact set of touches within two weeks. Higher conversion rates when instead of metering touches over long periods of time. Eight to 12 touches over five months will not yield same results as 8 to 12 touches within two weeks. Even for enterprise - if you're pursuing big company with 50 stakeholders and pursuing one of them, you're not a marketing drip campaign. You don't send something every month hoping they respond. You got to let them know "we really want to talk to you." Lots of touches in contained period of time.

Ralph: [Question] What's your take on automated email? In most cases you can tell email is automated and it gets impersonal.

Craig: Classic analyst response: it depends. High volume markets with BANT-like inbound leads, you can send automated response within seconds and they will respond. Payroll systems, high volume SMB - works really well. But in general, very best highest converting way is within 5 minutes to call and email, spend less than minute finding something to mention that creates instantaneous relationship. Nobody would tell you automated is better than personalized. But sometimes volume is really high and it makes sense.

Zero second email common play - comes out of Marketo or Eloqua. Companies that send zero second email, even when SDRs follow up within minutes, they reforward the email they just sent after leaving voicemail. Sounds unsavory but converts really well. In general, highest priority is customization. For instantaneous response, fine. For touches over time in 8-12 pattern, I definitely do not like them to be automated.

Gmail insight: marketing automation emails end up in Updates tab, but emails from sales email app or directly from application end up in inbox. If you're in update box, you are a marketer. If in inbox, we want to talk to them.

STRATEGY 6: MEANINGFUL VS UNMEANINGFUL TOUCHES (00:36:22 - 00:40:28)

Ralph: [Question] Definition of meaningful versus unmeaningful? Do you have breakdown across touch types - what percentage of dials are meaningful?

Craig: Great question. Meaningful means message has been delivered to prospect. You're not going to have unmeaningful email. You dial - something not meaningful but part of many SDRs day is dial and don't leave voicemail. That's simple version of something not meaningful.

Ralph: [Question] When do you recommend leaving voicemails and not? You have to have reason to leave voicemail. I discourage leaving voicemail to "touch base" or "check in" - it's ridiculous. Unless you've got real reason, don't leave one. Most effective on my team: send email first then do phone call, especially outbound. Email first and earn the right to make that phone call.

Craig: From strategic perspective, you want to map out the touch pattern. You get check-ins when you don't tell SDRs what to do. We're hiring bright SDRs but you don't want to say "just do these calls" without giving ideas of what to do. Map the touch pattern - if doing 12 touches over 3 weeks, give them templates and ideas they can modify that allow them to add value. Identify touches in bunches (voicemail to email, or email to voicemail to social). In combination of touches, what are we asking for, how can we add value, what's in it for prospect. Help them think about plan. Not old days of "here's phone book, smile and dial." Today's world: email fatigue, Coca-Cola canceling voicemail systems. We have to think about 8-12 touches as campaign and help SDRs add value along the way.

STRATEGY 7: MULTI-CHANNEL OUTREACH INCLUDING LINKEDIN (00:40:28 - 00:43:16)

Craig: 50% use LinkedIn. Three tidbits: (1) LinkedIn typically part of first touch. Really good companies do not send blind invitations to connect. They're using InMail or messaging, doing version of email in the InMail or message. Bundle of channels increases conversion to email. People aren't getting responses back on LinkedIn, but when they add that extra channel touch, they're getting buyer to respond to email. Same with voicemail - people don't call back, but voicemail and email combined gets higher conversion on email.

(2) Have reps not hide their profile. Looking at profile is a touch too - if they have good profile, you want that.

(3) Advanced technique LinkedIn has been testing in their SDR group: sharing and giving thumbs up on content. Seeing really great results where people they've been trying to call/email for 12 months, they do content share, write comment, do thumbs up, and they're getting response. That's advanced - don't start with that, but bundle LinkedIn social touch into mix of channels.

Ralph: If reps are going anonymous, they're losing opportunity to engage prospects. God help those reps if they do not have LinkedIn profile that is buttoned up. Needs to complement resume and highlight expertise so they come off as trusted advisor. If you're good enough, prospect is going to look you up and immediately see credibility and rapport. They're going to call you back and write back if you're adding value to marketplace. Make that priority.

STRATEGY 8: 95+ TOUCHES PER DAY (00:43:16 - 00:45:21)

Craig: Despite blogosphere saying it's not a numbers game, it is. High growth companies are finding ways to deliver requisite amount of touches. Email lifts this number quite a bit - sales email applications allow SDRs to be quicker. People are bundling touches - best practice to do voicemail and email together, so instead of one touch, that's two. Many people have sales email apps, emerging touch management market helping reps decide who to call in automated fashion, dialing technology vendors allow people to dial quickly and are organized to allow reps to go down line and call right people in large numbers.

Ralph: [Question] The 95 per day, that's combination of inbound and outbound correct?

Craig: That is correct.

STRATEGY 9: CALL DURATION - UNDER 10 MINUTES (00:45:21 - 00:47:32)

Craig: Highest pillar is 11-15 minutes for live call. This chart is about how long SDR spends on call with lead. I don't believe 11-15 is necessary in most cases. For efficiency, BANT or deep discovery SQL should be under 10 minutes. If it's AN or ANUM, call should be under 5 minutes. Simple math. Companies under 10 minutes are companies with highest volume of SQLs passed to team.

Some organizations have big enterprise deals and want to spend more time in discovery - they pass less SQLs, might be more valuable, might be case to move to 11-15 minutes or more. But what we find: companies doing 11-20+ minutes, it's because SDRs don't know what to talk about. They don't have efficient way to look at qualification call and manage it to get information needed and get person over to sales within 10 minutes. There are companies with good use case for going longer, but those are few and far between. Vast majority is because we didn't tell SDRs how to tackle qual call. Under 10 minutes: very efficient, everyone knows what they need to ask, know when to move to next question, very programmatic and optimized over time.

STRATEGY 10: SDR TO SALES RATIOS (00:47:32 - 00:52:06)

Craig: This was amazing. For companies under $25M, we saw SDR to sales ratio I've never seen before. 50% were one to one. Another 23.5% were two to one. That's because there is sales development movement happening. Executives get it. When building team and going in high growth mode, sales development is strategic lever they pull to drive high growth. We saw ratios of more than one SDR per salesperson - some teams had two to one, some had 1.5, pumping sales with SQLs all day. For over $25M, ratio was 4.4 - that's reality, as you get bigger you optimize and it's hard to maintain 1:1 with 475 sales reps. But this is incredible. 15 years ago I had deck trying to convince people to do sales development. Now 50% are one to one.

COMPENSATION (00:52:06 - 00:52:59)

Ralph: What do you think about sales leaders offering kicker if revenue is generated and deal closes that SDR sourced?

Craig: Recommended comp plan: tell reps how many SQLs they need every month and pay them for that. They should know what SQL is worth. Pay them if they go over that number, then give them bonus for any deal that closes from SQL they pass. Simple comp plan. Do that.

STRATEGY 11: TENURE AND TURNOVER (00:52:59 - 00:56:31)

Craig: Turnover is hot button for Ralph. Six month and below doesn't necessarily represent SDRs leaving - we were benchmarking high growth companies, so many are getting promoted into inside sales. But that's different problem - hard to run business if people going in and out in 6 months. For us, we like 12-14 months. I know you like longer. Reality at high growth company: you want people to get promoted because allows you to hire even better people, but you don't want them promoted too early because that hurts ability to be effective. Average was 14 months for SDR tenure.

Ralph: Sales development leaders always have to maintain healthy bench. You're interviewing candidates throughout the year - reality of the role. Most statistics don't highlight SDRs bailing altogether - most getting promoted. In my experience, what has worked best is 2 year tenure. In organizations with inbound and outbound team: inbound team 8 months (total grind, same conversation every day, they get antsy), if effective and hitting quota consistently and leaders on team, promote to outbound. Now you're in year two - critical they master outbound prospecting craft because when they become AEs or customer success managers, they'll need to be good at prospecting.

Reps that get bored or want to go to company that'll hire them as AE when not ready will suffer. I've seen too many cases where SDRs jump to AE spot when not ready. They make plan, 18 months later on performance plan, they jump ship to another company, same cycle starts. They've created careers jumping company to company every 18-24 months because they didn't learn fundamentals as SDRs. Two year tenure is essential and critical to their success throughout career.

TECHNOLOGY STACK (00:56:31 - 00:59:14)

Craig: Sales development technology stack has emerged. Sales development is one of most automated parts of revenue chain. Think of it as level 1, 2, and 3. Level 1 is start with this. Level 2 is next step up. Well managed teams can get to level 2 in month, month and a half. Level 3 is really big groups, been around a while - when you need to optimize who they're calling with predictive analytics and gamification. Don't wait 5 years - get foundation set then move to level 3.

In our stack, there's new touch management applications - biggest problem for sales development leaders and SDRs is managing number of touches. Now applications can do that. This will be one of biggest markets in sales development industry in next 6-7 months - last pain left. We want them to do all these touches, but do you want them creating open activities and tracking? No. Make it easy for them to get touches and organize themselves to be efficient.

The email/auto dialer/dialing technology applications - think about how to get to amount of touches needed, definitely think about using technology stack to make reps more efficient. By level 3, you are fully functioning, highly automated sales development team.

CLOSING (00:59:14 - 00:59:46)

Ralph: We're at top of hour. It was recorded. If you were on call today, you're going to get free copy of benchmark report. Thank you for asking questions throughout. There are ton remaining - we're going to get to all of them in follow-up email. Really excited I got to join you today, Craig.

Craig: Thank you everyone for joining us today. I had a lot of fun. We dug in on couple areas where you were asking questions. There's lot of questions out there - we will tackle them. You will get free copy. If you want to learn more, email is Becky@topohq.com. You can follow all of us on Twitter. Thanks everyone.