How to Create Your Remote SDR Team

How to enable your sales team to sell without the busy work.

Key Takeaways:

• An SDR team finds and qualifies leads for salespeople so they can focus on closing deals.
• SDR teams keep a loaded funnel by prospecting and qualifying leads for sales teams.
• Starting an SDR team begins like hiring any other job function, but you also need to have processes and metrics in place to set them up for success on Day 1.

No business can thrive without sales. In an era where attention spans are short, budgets are being cut, and competition is fierce, it’s essential for businesses to build predictable, scalable ways to keep their sales wheels turning.

Brian Tracy shares the ideal situation for sales teams: “Keep your sales pipeline full by prospecting continuously. Always have more people to see than you have time to see them.” A sales development representative (SDR) team can do just that.

If you’re serious about scaling your business, improving conversions, and staying ahead of competitors, an SDR team should be the backbone of your strategy. Let’s explore further.

The Complexities of the Sales Process

Establishing a sales pipeline can be complex. To keep a loaded funnel, you need to account for prospecting, outbound and inbound lead generation, cold and warm outreach, and referral engines.

Each of these takes time to establish, manage, and monitor. Without an SDR team, this usually falls on your sales or marketing teams (or both). Neither has the time or all of the required skills to handle this area. When this happens, sales development is usually inefficient, ineffective, and costly since sales teams don’t have adequate leads or support.

One-Size-Fits-All Doesn’t Work

Prospects are becoming harder to reach, with SDRs engaging in an average of 104 outreach activities per day. Of these, they have just 3.6 “quality conversations” after an astounding 11+ attempts to reach a prospect. It takes time and effort to get in front of the right people—time that could be better spent by your salespeople.

Seasoned sales or account veterans with proven track records will underperform when they are left to account for every aspect of the sales process. You can end up burning out your proven closers when they have to make 50 cold calls a day and manage leads in every stage of the buyer journey.

This is where a sales development rep proves critical. They learn your product offering and warm up leads so your sales team can close them.

What Is a Remote Sales Development Rep?

Imagine having a whole team of relentless prospect hunters, constantly identifying and qualifying leads so your sales team can focus on what they do best—closing deals.

A sales development rep (also called a business development rep) is an entry-level position that moves the sales process forward. Reps handle the upstream tasks of cold calling, prospecting, setting appointments, and pitching leads so your sales team can prioritize outcomes and success.

This is also a position that is ideal for remote work. Having the SDRs in-office is not a common requirement. Because the metrics and KPIs for this role are very concrete, it makes management of these positions much easier.

Why Is the SDR Position Critical and What Are the Benefits?

SDRs serve as a bridge connecting marketing and sales. Leads don’t necessarily move directly from marketing materials to sales-ready conversations. There’s often a middle area where leads are on a quest for more information or need to do some thinking before they’re ready to pull the trigger.

Sales and marketing teams often mingle in this middle area. Neither are the most effective here; they’re not able to play to their greatest strengths.

Having a dedicated SDR team can keep your teams specialized. This niche middle area role allows your sales and marketing to deploy their best skills and focus on their own responsibilities and key performance indicators (KPIs).

Your sales team can be successful because they have a funnel of new qualified leads coming in regularly. Marketing can focus on branding and messaging that will attract leads for the SDR team. And SDRs can enjoy a launch pad where they show sales potential that may help them get promoted to the sales team.

Everybody wins.

“Everyone has got the will to win; it’s only those with the will to prepare that do win.”

― Mark Cuban

How to Start a Remote SDR Team

Building your remote SDR team starts before you make your first hire. Follow these best practices to help successfully create this role.

Hiring Candidates

Hiring an SDR team will start like hiring any other position. You’ll begin by posting job openings and hiring ads to get a pipeline of candidates.

To spot high-potential candidates, look for hungry entry-level workers who are interested in a sales career and very money-motivated.

This can be hard to determine on paper, so consider asking candidates to submit a video where they pitch themselves. This eliminates people who are not serious about the job opportunity or might not be suited for sales.

Creating a Team

As you bring candidates on board, you can set them up for success by developing streamlined processes. This means aligning internal communications, training your SDR team to vet and qualify leads, and having a fluid way to hand off leads to your sales team.

Create scripts for cold calling and emailing, and have your reps practice them. This removes some of the guesswork so they can jump right into prospecting. You can also use power dialing software so they can make consecutive calls and reduce downtime.

List-building tools like LinkedIn Sales Navigator, Apollo, and ZoomInfo can help you identify contacts that fit your target customer. Your SDR team can’t prospect and nurture without leads, so create predictable, repeatable ways for them to fill their pipelines.

Metrics to Track

Tracking SDR metrics not only shows you the value this position brings to your business but also helps the employee compare their efforts with their outcomes. You will want to track activity like the number of calls, connects, and conversations per day. Record every call so reps can train themselves on what makes a good conversation.

Remote monitoring software also lets you measure productivity data, which you can compare against other metrics like leads and sales. Programs like HubStaff can track hours, take screenshots, and monitor the apps your SDRs use to improve efficiency. You can also analyze what time of day reps are having the most and least success.

Last but not least, create 30, 60, and 90-day milestones and KPIs that your SDRs need to meet. For example, new reps can be expected to book at least one demo within their first 30 days. Track their weekly stats and share wins with the whole team to keep them motivated.

Building a successful SDR team from the ground up takes careful consideration, but its benefits are too great to ignore. When your sales and marketing teams can each focus on what they do best without allowing the sales pipeline to become neglected, there’s nowhere to go but up.

About the Author

Dan Hickey is the Director of Operations for Halo Recruiting. Dan has placed dozens of sales development reps into roles across the United States and runs and operates the SDR team at Halo Recruiting.