What is the SDR Role in Sales Development?

Sales development representatives (SDRs) play a crucial role within a B2B sales team, as they’re responsible for finding new leads through prospecting. 

They directly impact the number of leads in a sales pipeline. They also often help the sales team find higher-quality leads that align with a business’s ideal customer profile (ICP), increasing the number of high-value deals closed. 

The business development representative (BDR) role has evolved into a much more strategic role in SDRs, because outbound marketing isn’t just about cold calling and pounding pavement to try to book meetings anymore. 

Instead, SDRs educate prospects about the problem a business solves, help them think differently, and get them to internalize a brand message. 

As a result, they’re working in alignment with the B2B advertising team, which is responsible for outbound marketing. Alignment on messaging, content, and targeting is essential for the success of both teams and compounded success for the business itself.  

Career Options for SDRs 

Working as an SDR opens up plenty of career paths in the future. SDRs can become Account Executives after they’ve accrued extensive experience and training. And when working in tech sales, they can also make a lateral move into marketing or sales operations. 

Ultimately, some SDRs may want to go on to become sales leaders. However, at the enterprise level, many reps would rather remain individual contributors to max out on commission earnings while avoiding the “big company slog” as they move up the food chain. 

The Importance of In-Depth SDR Training

Even if you’re a naturally persuasive person, in-depth SDR training is still essential to a successful sales career. 

Sales development representatives should have soft skills, strategic sales techniques, and knowledge about identifying and nurturing high-value prospects. SDR training can help with that, giving you the skills and tools needed to excel in the position no matter what you’re selling. 

Since SDRs are responsible for finding and connecting with potential high-value prospects, they give your sales team an enormous advantage. They can pursue prospects that align with your ICP without waiting for them to find your business, taking control of your entire sales pipeline. Successful SDRs can create a thriving sales function, and that’s worth investing in. 

Top 5 SDR Training Programs and Bootcamps

Whether you’re new to sales or a seasoned pro, these six SDR training programs will help you learn the skills and techniques needed to become a top performer. 

They’re each designed to provide in-depth SDR education to reps at all points of their sales careers to help them level up their prospecting skills. 

1. Pclub

Pclub’s courses are created with sales professionals in mind, and their Conquer the Cold Call and Cold Email Conversion Machine courses are strong choices for sales development reps. 

The Platinum Passport is also a great choice for SaaS SDRs, as it’s an extensive SaaS training program that goes deep into SaaS sales fundamentals, and it includes all of Pclub’s courses. 

This is a must-take course for students wanting expansive knowledge about everything from the SaaS business model to SaaS-specific sales techniques. It’s consistently regarded as one of the best SaaS sales training programs online. 

Each course is delivered through a combination of live webinars, interactive exercises, and peer-to-peer coaching, so you’re getting actionable strategies and actual feedback instead of just reading about sales techniques in theory. The diverse and engagement-focused learning experience also accommodates all student learning styles. 

Pclub is also backed by a strong community of sales professionals who are committed to helping each other succeed, providing support and advice based on their own professional experiences. 

And unlike many courses, which are created once and sit stagnant online, this curriculum is consistently and regularly updated to reflect the latest trends in sales so that you’re always ahead of the curve.

Meet your coach: Chris Orlob.

The entire curriculum is designed by Chris Orlob, former VP of Sales at Gong and a leading SaaS sales expert.

During his time at Gong, Chris grew the company from $200k to $200+ APR and a whopping $7.2B valuation. 

Pricing

The Platinum Passport is an annual subscription that allows you to unlock every single course Pclub has to offer. It’s valued at over $30,000 but is available for just $997 per year. 

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Individual courses vary in cost; the Cold Calling course is $103, and the Cold Email Conversion course is currently $297. 

2. SDR Nation

SDR Nation is a membership community of sales development representatives that offers training courses, workshops, and personalized career coaching. 

SDR Nation requires an application and acceptance to join the community, ensuring that it stays a high-quality community. Membership includes:

• 24/7 access to the private community
• Unlimited 1:1 coaching sessions
• Access to SDR training content and live practice sessions 
• Weekly events 
• Members-only newsletter for SDRs 

Because this is an application-only membership with limited acceptance, you want to be actively pursuing an SDR career to join this program. 

Meet Your Coaches.

SDR Nation isn’t run (or led by) by a single big name like some of the other courses on this list. Instead, there are a variety of different coaches that you might work with, including in 1-on-1 personalized career coaching.

Some coaches include:

• Meagan Suckling, Senior Director, Global Sales Development at Shutterstock 
• Ross Van Wyk, Strategic Account Executive at Integrate 
• Nicole Martin, BDR Manager (Healthcare and Life Sciences) at Salesforce 

Pricing 

The yearly cost of an SDR Nation membership is $540, billed annually. Only a limited number of cohorts are accepted each year, so apply early.

3. JB Sales

JB Sales is a comprehensive sales training program that covers everything from prospecting and lead generation to closing deals. This SDR training program may be a fit if you want to learn about the entire prospecting process from the ground up.

Their annual membership includes the following:

• Live monthly training and two Signature Programs
• Live monthly workshops on sales topics, with a focus on executing techniques 
• Monthly AMA sessions with John Barrows
• Access to the entire OnDemand training catalog with additional courses and resources

The two Signature Programs (“Filling the Funnel” and “Driving to Close”) come with optional certification programs, which give you something concrete to add to your resume. 

Meet your coach: John Barrows. 

John Barrows has worked in sales for over 25 years in various roles. He’s gone from cold-calling roles to the VP of Sales, and now runs his own sales training company while working with organizations like Salesforce, LinkedIn, Amazon, and Google. 

Pricing 

Program membership— which includes everything discussed above— is $420 annually. 

4. SaaStr Academy

SaaStr Academy is a sales training program designed specifically for SaaS companies. It covers topics like product-led growth, customer acquisition, and customer success. 

While the courses available are focused heavily on SaaS sales, they aren’t necessarily created with SDRs in mind. That said, much of the content is directly relevant to SDRs working in the SaaS industry. 

The SaaStr Academy’s University has relevant courses for SDRs, like SaaStrU: Idea (0 to 10 Customers) and Bridging the Gap: Ideas for Tougher Times. 

Meet your coach: Jason M. Lemkin. 

Jason M. Lemkin has an impressive resume, with executive positions like Vice President, Co-Founder, and CEO. He’s the Founder Champion at SaaStr Academy and hosts some of the University’s most valuable lessons. 

Pricing 

The SaaStr University is completely free; you just need to sign up for a free membership. 

5. HubSpot Sales Academy

HubSpot Sales Academy is a sales training program from HubSpot, a leading CRM provider. There is a long list of  courses, which cover topics like inbound sales, lead nurturing, and sales enablement. 

Some courses are short, and can be completed easily in under two hours or less. Others— especially certification courses— may take over six hours. 

All of the courses offer written and audio versions of the lessons, which focus on actionable strategies SDRs can use to improve their prospecting right away. 

The courses are all straightforward and useful, though there isn’t individual coaching, private communities, or live workshops available with this program. 

Meet your coach: HubSpot. 

Unlike some of the other SDR training programs on this list, HubSpot’s courses don’t come with a featured coach. That being said, you are getting high-quality courses straight from HubSpot’s expert team of content creators who know sales and marketing inside and out.  

Pricing 

All of HubSpot’s courses are completely free, you just need to sign in to access them. 

Key Components of an SDR Training Program

Considering which SDR training program is best for you? We strongly recommend choosing programs that offer the four following key components. 

Essential Sales Skills for SDRs to Learn

Some sales skills are invaluable for SDRs; without them, you’ll struggle to perform well in your job. As a result, any good SDR program should offer lessons or coaching on the following: 

• Cold calling techniques
• Prospect research and outreach
• Objection handling
• Time management
• Personas understanding and messaging

Role-playing in SDR Training

Role-playing is one of the most effective methods for developing sales skills in a low-risk environment. You can practice different sales techniques in “real-world scenarios” in a hypothetical setting. 

Practice makes perfect, and role-playing can help you get comfortable with prospecting while fine-tuning the perfect cold call, learning how to effectively overcome objections, and practicing lead generation techniques. 

Understanding and Using CRM Software

CRM software is the lifeblood of SDRs, and so it’s important to know how to leverage it to improve the sales process and effectively prospect. 

Your CRM will store all prospect information and track every interaction as they move through the pipeline. Knowing how to use CRM software properly can help you identify high-value prospects, track key metrics during the prospecting process, and manage the sales pipeline.

LinkedIn and its Role in SDR Training

LinkedIn is more than just a social media site; it’s a powerful prospecting and outreach tool for SDRs. 

Find an SDR program (or a specialized course) that teaches you how to utilize LinkedIn Sales Navigator. It can help you search for and find new prospects, qualify leads, and prioritize high-value opportunities. 

The Role of Sales Managers in SDR Training

While SDR training focuses on the sales development reps themselves, sales managers play a vital role in SDR training, too. They may be responsible for selecting training programs for new employees or an entire team. 

Sales Manager's Role in the Onboarding Process

Sales managers need to ensure that their team has everything they need to identify, connect with, and convert high-value prospects successfully. And, in addition to a strong tech stack and plenty of sales-focused resources, this also means proper training.

Sales managers may choose SDR training programs for new employees to complete during onboarding. This ensures that each team member has the knowledge, skills, and techniques needed to excel in the job. And since there are different sales methodologies, choosing a single SDR training program to use during the onboarding process keeps everyone on the same page. 

To ensure successful onboarding with SDR training, sales managers should:

• Explain the value of the training
• Allow employees to complete the training during work hours
• Encourage employees to practice role-playing or discuss techniques from the training 
• Set a time limit by which the program must be completed

Enabling SDR Teams for Success

Sales managers are central in sales enablement, which is the process of supplying your sales team with all the resources and tools needed to succeed in their role.

To build a successful SDR team, these strategies and methodologies can help:

• Hire based on soft skills and personality. Sales techniques can always be taught, but soft skills take much longer to learn
• Have a documented onboarding and training plan. Having a clear and systemized approach to onboarding and training ensures no one slips between the cracks and that every team member receives the education needed to hit the ground running.
• Choose a strong tech stack. Selecting an advanced CRM and an extensive lead database tool is a good start, but call recording software like Gong and account-based marketing tools can be dead useful, too. 
• Offer killer commissions. Want to attract the best? Offering the best commissions on the market can help you find and retain some of the highest-performing SDRs.  

How to Follow-up and Nurture Potential Customers

Identifying new prospects is just one part of an SDR’s job role; they also need to know how to follow up to nurture leads, too. They may be responsible for qualifying leads before handing them off to other sales team members, or for moving prospects through the entire sales pipeline. 

Understanding the Customer Relationship

When building a relationship with prospects, remember that you’ll deal with different personas.

Different prospects fit into unique audience segments, with their own pain points, motivations, and needs. Selling to a small business owner, for example, is very different from selling to C-Level executives. 

So start by listening and asking smart questions. What concerns does the customer have? What problem do they need solved, and how can your product solve it? Ask clarifying questions and then make suggestions based on what they’re looking for and what can benefit them most. 

Follow-Up Strategies and Techniques

After you’ve made the initial contact, knowing how and when to follow-up can make the difference between an interested prospect to a formal lead, and, eventually, a paying customer.

Only a tiny fraction of deals would be closed without follow-up; in most cases, you may need to follow-up several times to move prospects through the pipeline.

These techniques can help make your follow-up process more effective:

• Watch for high-intent actions. Sending users an email once they’ve checked out a product page, signed up for a demo, or reached the upper limit of a free trial allows you to strike while the iron is hot. Send them a message based on where they are in the pipeline.
•  Personalize your messages. Generic autoresponders won’t always cut it, so reach out with personalized suggestions based on what you know about your customers. 
• Ask questions. Ask if the customer has any questions, and then ask your own questions to determine where they are in the sales process. You may find objections that can be overcome or discover new pain points you didn’t know about before. 

Sales Strategy and the Future of SDR

Wondering what your future career as an SDR may look like? Let’s look at the future of SDR training. 

Future Trends in SDR Training

SDRs are sometimes controversial in businesses. 

If you missed it, this post from Kevin Chiu shared that one of the top firms in the world— which backed 6Sense, Monday, & Qualtrics— claimed that SDRs are generating only 18% of the pipeline today, which is down from the 40% market averages. 

The bottom line is that it’s getting harder for SDRs to generate high percentages of leads, so only the top performers will do so successfully.

Upcoming methodologies in SDR training programs should account for this, offering new solutions to help SDRs succeed more often. Recent developments, for example, include leveraging AI tools to speed up their process and increase productivity. 

Your Path to Becoming a Successful SDR

While sales is an age-old profession, it’s also one that constantly evolves. Staying up to date on trends can help SDRs do their jobs faster, more effectively, and with greater success. Therefore, SDR training that’s frequently updated is imperative to help you stay ahead of the curve. 

The six training programs discussed in this post can all help you level up your skills, learn new strategies, and fine-tune prospecting techniques so that you can drive new leads into your company’s pipeline. 

Next Steps: Enrolling in an SDR Training Program

Ready to enroll in an SDR training program?

Pclub is the preferred SDR online course for salespeople early in their careers who are looking to advance their skills and impress their bosses (and their bosses’ boss). 

It’s also regularly used as continued education for sales professionals who want to learn new techniques or stay on top of SDR trends, as it’s updated continuously so it never falls out of date. 

Take your SDR career to the next level. Enroll in Pclub’s Platinum Passport today.