Sales Development

The total cost for an outsourced SDR team will largely depend on what you want to achieve, as well as the scale of operations. There are a number of factors to take into account including:

Your ultimate sales revenue/leads target, your number of sales people internally to support, the size of your total addressable market (TAM), the regions you wish to target, and the number of qualified opportunities required vs your average win ratio. GCL have created a costing guide to give you estimated costs of an outsourced SDR agency against an inhouse alternative.

Many consider TM (telemarketing) and an SDR to be one and the same thing, however we believe there is a distinct difference between the functions. B2B telemarketing is often solely phone based and operates on a basis of making cold calls to generate leads, qualify prospects and focus on volume that goes into the top of the sales funnel.

An SDR specialises in outbound prospecting across a multi-channel approach (including phone, email, and LinkedIn) which involves the pre-identification of potential customers, understanding their challenges and later booking warm, qualified leads which are further progressed down the sales funnel. B2B telemarketers are often measured by call volumes, conversion rates, and sometimes direct sales revenue. A B2B SDR is generally measured by meetings booked, qualified leads generated, and sales opportunities generated.

The success of an SDR can be measured in different ways depending on the outcome desired.

If you’re looking for mass volume and a higher number of opportunities in the top of the funnel, then an SDR success would be measured on the volume of demand created, but If the outcome desired is more focused on qualified opportunities, then the success of an SDR would be based around the quality and warmth of leads and appointments generated and their progression down the sales funnel.

If the nature of your business is more suited to high volume, low value, transactional selling, the SDR is likely to be measured by the volume of demand. If the nature of your business is more suited to lower volume, big ticket selling, then the SDR is likely measured by the quality of leads being passed to the sales team. Ultimately the goal of an SDR is to drive revenue so the final measures of success are sales created opportunities.

In any SDR function there is an initial ramp up period which includes prospect identification, warming, tailoring of messaging, and understanding the challenges and decision making process of an organisation.

Results can be seen from day one in some cases, however it is typical for an SDR team to reach maximum effectiveness within a three month period and for results to incrementally increase over time as the process is refined and reaches greatest efficiency.

SDR teams should have strong research skills, relationship-building, knowledge to effectively execute a multi-touch, and multi-channel outreach (email, LinkedIn, cold calls), and knowledge of sales technologies like CRM tools, Sales Navigator and plug-ins such as Cognism or 6Sense. An SDR needs to be able to be self-sufficient but also able to work within the broader sales and marketing team, and to think outside of the box in generating qualified opportunities. This is very different to reading off a script and aimlessly calling!

Short answer, yes! GCL’s SDRs can either work in our own contact centre system, or native in your own CRM. From some of the more well-known systems such as Salesforce, Microsoft, or Hubspot, to the lesser known or custom-built CRMs, our team can adapt and work in any environment – whichever suits you!

Training an outsourced SDR team can be as hands-on or flexible as per your own wants and needs. Most clients opt for a hybrid approach of client-led hands-on training initially, coupled with GCL’s dedicated training function – a consistent resource which is ever present throughout any campaign.

This process is designed to get the team up to speed for product or services specifics. We’ll ask for access to assets / PDFs / white papers / playbooks and slide decks of your proposition for us to crunch through and become as familiar as possible with your brand. The reality is that the training in-house at GCL will continue throughout the whole campaign as we always focus on continuous improvement.