As the name implies, Inbound Sales Development is on the opposite side of the sales prospecting gamut from Outbound Sales Development. Whether it be downloading a piece of content, signing up for a free trial, or calling into the sales line to learn more, inbound prospects are typically considered “warmer” leads, having expressed interest on their end in your company or product, rather than leads reached through cold sales activities.
That’s why the goal of an Inbound SDR is to play prospect cupid — to determine whether or not the inbound prospects are a good match for the product, and vice versa. If it’s a match on both ends, that’s when it’s time to set an appointment for the prospect to continue the conversation with an Account Executive.
But what do the sales activities of a day in the life of a Salesloft Inbound SDR look like?
8:30 – 9:30 AM: There are 4 Inbound SDRs here at Salesloft, and divided amongst us each morning are around 10 new assigned leads. These leads typically need to be scrubbed, so, to start, we fill in any additional information based off of the prospect’s LinkedIn profile, or company website.
9:30 – 10:30 AM: Next, our team uses a tiered approach when it comes to reaching out to prospects. So, after a lead is scrubbed, it’s then imported into the cadence that fits best with its lead source and tier:
Tier 1 – The prospect fits the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP).
Tier 2 – The prospect fits the ICP, but we may need more information.
Tier 3 – The prospect does not necessarily match the ICP however we will reach out a few times to continue adding value.
Then, once we’ve identified where each prospect falls, the next step is to add them to the appropriate cadence.
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Sales activities for Tier 1 & 2 are very similar, but Tier 1 cadences should include more hyper-personalization in every email or social touch. Tier 1 or 2 prospects who are not the decision maker are added to a Discovery Cadence, designed to learn more about the prospect’s team, their process, and ultimately determine the decision maker at the company.
Tier 3 cadences are fully automated, with only email touches, allowing the SDR to spend more time crafting personalized messages for Tier 1 & 2 prospects. This process still adds value to the Tier 3 prospect, though, attaching content for a possible relationship in the future.
10:30 AM – 12:00 PM: We spend this time working to personalize our sales activities even further by mentioning prospects’ tweets, blog posts, or anything else we can find to establish a common bond with them. Now is also a great time to get in touch with anyone who is in the office, especially international prospects, and if there are any prospects who’ve asked to be contacted, they should be reached out to as quickly as possible during this time.
1:00 – 2:00 PM: Review and scrub any new leads that have come in throughout the morning, and reach out to them by, again, adding them to the appropriate tiered cadence.
2:00 – 5:00 PM: Throughout the rest of the afternoon, we’re focused on making outbound calls and emails to qualify our inbound prospects. If qualified, we do our best to move them to the next step by setting up a meeting with an Account Executive and providing the AE as much info about the prospect as possible.
While this might seem like a typical organization of sales activities, when it comes to Inbound Sales Development, there’s always more factors to consider. From live chats to incoming sales inquiries, there are a number of incoming distractions to be cognizant of throughout the day. That’s why our team of 4 uses a buddy system to trade off days and shifts to ensure that not just one person is responsible for the additional incoming leads.
The phrase teamwork makes the dreamwork may apply cross-functionally to a degree, but in the Inbound SDR’s case, it’s everything. From a pre-planned daily structure, to team-wide collaboration, a day in the life of an Inbound SDR is ever-flowing, but the ultimate goal is to create the most efficient lead home base for the sales organization.
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