Work & Win that Promotion from SDR to Sales Rep.
The hope for many SDRs is to join a firm, prove their worth, and earn a promotion. I met online with Brian Goldaber, recently promoted from SDR to AE (congratulations!), to learn and share how he achieved his growth.
Meet Brian Goldaber
Brian is a dedicated and driven individual with the mindset to achieve what he wants. He joined Sisense, a very successful company and competitive environment to work in, with the goal of becoming a Sales Rep. He describes himself as an extrovert that loves to pick up the phone. It’s clear he has the right personality for Sales. As part of his interview process he had to present how he would pitch Sisense’s solution. Brian sat down with family members to pick their brains and learn their thoughts as to who would be a good prospect, which shows how seriously he took the process.
When it comes to achieving a promotion, continuously hitting target is the most important thing to do. But getting to that place of repeat success doesn’t just magically happen. It’s a journey with a lot of self-assessment, grit and determination. This article looks at the details behind the scenes of achieving growth, and will leave you with inspiration, and actionable steps to follow.
From onboarding to promotion, what’s a realistic timeline?
It took Brian 18 months to achieve his promotion, and this is how it breaks down:
4-month ramp up period
6-month concentrated learning period
8-month building on success & advanced learning
To achieve personal growth, work on: Mindset, Phone Skills & Put Yourself Forward.
Mindset. Be honest with yourself about the changes you need to make to perform at the highest standard.
In the early days Brian realised he should be getting better results. And although many factors affect success, he told himself he would not fail based on work ethic and took active steps to up his game and be more professional. He booked time on the calendar of successful reps, listened back to their calls and asked for tips, which he then incorporated into his outreach.
Appreciate how valuable your time is. As an SDR a large proportion of the day is spent listening to dial tones & gatekeepers, this can reduce how important your time feels. But it’s crucial to remember there are only 8-9 hours in the day to hit quota. This means working urgently and prioritising appointment booking tasks. You should be able to stop what you’re doing at any point and ask yourself if it’ll get you to target. If the answer is No, do something else.
Phone Skills. Continuously develop your approach until you get the right results.
Brian worked a finite number of accounts, which meant he had to bring real value to each pitch. He worked hard on his opener and found an improved response rate when he referenced a blog from his prospect’s website to start the conversation.
Objection Handling. It’s easy to allow emotions to affect the response to an objection and rush out a defensive comment, which destroys the conversation. Brian found that conducting research prior to the call, arming himself with knowledge, gave him the confidence to slow down and remain composed when responding to objections. He started using a more consultative tone and this resonated well with prospects, lengthening the time he was on the phone with them.
Find a Sales Rep to be your mentor. It makes a huge difference. Brian was lucky and worked with a great AE who listened back to his phone calls and gave advice. By taking onboard his AE’s feedback Brian demonstrated his trustworthiness and earned responsibility to run his own discovery calls (which he also received feedback on).
Put Yourself Forward. At the right time, build relationships and learn the philosophy of those senior to you.
Once you have established credibility as an SDR, with good numbers behind you, it’s vital to take the initiative and approach senior people. Before he applied for the Sales Rep position, Brian’s goal was to be ‘more than a name on a piece of paper.’ He started fostering relationships and did his homework, asking people what they look for in a Sales Rep. At every opportunity he did his best to demonstrate what they asked and showed he took their feedback seriously. When it came to his interview, he was in front of people he already knew and could reference their previous conversations. That’s a fantastic way to conduct yourself in an interview.
Key learnings, inspired by Brian, to help get you promoted from SDR to Sales Rep:
Enjoy the job. Sales is for people that are happy to pick up the phone and talk to strangers.
Networking is a vital part of your success, it may not give immediate visible results, but it pays off in the long term.
Be honest with yourself about your performance, take responsibility for it and create actions to improve it.
Get to know people senior to you and their philosophy for success.
In conclusion
I’m really excited for Brian, and his next steps as a Sales Rep. It’s clear he’s worked consistently hard, and managed himself through the challenging times, as much as through the good times. Because he is self-aware and happy to share with others, he’ll continue to grow and is definitely one to watch in the future.
