How to Build a Strong Relationship as an SDR with your Sales Rep
1. Building a Robust Relationship with Your Sales Reps: A Gateway to Success
Maintaining a robust and constructive relationship with the Sales Representatives for whom you book meetings is crucial for hitting targets and ascending the promotional ladder. But why does this connection hold such significance?
Becoming an Internal Champion: When you book stellar meetings for your Sales Rep, they're likely to vocalize your efforts, becoming an advocate for your work within the company.
Learning Opportunity: A seasoned Sales Rep provides a rich source of knowledge and experience from which you can learn.
Building Trust through Feedback: Embracing their feedback not only helps you grow but also establishes trust, potentially leading to them passing on valuable leads to you.
Inclusion in the Wider Process: You’ll grasp the broader commercial process and understand the aftermath of the meetings you schedule, imparting a sense of belonging and contribution to the bigger picture.
So, how do you forge this crucial relationship with your Sales Rep?
Initiate Informal Interactions: Whether it’s a coffee or a virtual beer session over Zoom, start by understanding their work preferences, personal sales style, and how they envision you complementing their methods.
Establish Regular Check-ins: Schedule a recurring weekly meeting and devise a template that guides the discussion, ensuring consistency and comprehensiveness in your interactions.
This template should address not only YOUR activities but also provide insights into the meetings and opportunities you’ve secured for them. But is having a template and regular meetings enough? Unfortunately, it’s not always smooth sailing. Challenges in building a constructive relationship with your Sales Rep may include:
Busy Schedules: Both you and the Sales Reps have packed agendas.
Differing Communication Styles: There might be a variance in communication and expectation management between the Sales Rep and your Manager.
Multiple Reps: Managing relationships with more than one Sales Rep can stretch your availability and focus.
Here’s how you might navigate through these challenges:
Empathy and Firmness: Recognize the Sales Rep’s bustling schedule, but affirm the necessity of regular meetings, even if it means starting earlier or finishing later than your usual working hours.
Develop Resilience: Sales Reps may be brutally honest or straightforward with feedback due to their deal-closing orientation. Develop resilience and ensure any tasks they ask you to undertake align with your role and have your Manager's approval.
Adjust Meeting Frequencies: If you're juggling relationships with multiple Reps, consider adjusting the frequency of your check-ins to balance your workload.
In Conclusion:
Fostering internal relationships is as pivotal as nurturing external customer relations. Treating colleagues and superiors with the same attentive care, understanding their needs, offering assistance, and expressing gratitude for their time, creates an environment where your efforts are noticed and appreciated. Although your internal brand may not always receive the same time investment as your external brand, going the extra mile outside of standard working hours will cast you in a favorable light during promotional considerations. And remember: a healthy, symbiotic relationship with your Sales Reps isn’t just beneficial – it’s foundational to your success.
