5 Questions with Jason Tissera & Tommy Jenkins 

Co-Founder & Product Owner, NLP @ Upmarket

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Good SDRs get a “yes” response ~3% of the time.  

And more often than not, leaders only care about that 3%.  

We’re not math majors, but 97% seems like too big of a slice to ignore. 

The data that SDRs gather when the answer is a “no” or a “maybe later” (or some variation of that) is valuable. We’re talking competitive intelligence, market sentiment, message feedback…things that sales and marketing leaders (should) care about.  

The problem is that SDRs aren’t expected to or trained to capture that data effectively, and even when they do there isn’t a system in place to relay it to the people who need it.  

That’s where feedback loops come in.  

Building a process where SDRs can relay feedback to their leaders and have them make actual change is difficult, but important.  

We sit down with Jason Tissera and Tommy Jenkins of Upmarket to talk about the logistics of setting up and implementing feedback loops, the impact they can have, and why you should consider it for your own organization.

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Welcome to a special episode of UNSUBSCRIBE! Today, Alex sits down with one of the co-founders and President of demandDrive, Lindsay Frey, to ask her anything!

We gathered questions from...

and asked Lindsay to give her authentic responses (she didn't see any of the questions beforehand). The result is a casual, but informative, conversation between her and Alex!

We’re releasing this during BDR appreciation week in an effort to help everyone in sales development level up their skillset. Thanks to 6Sense for putting it all together!

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https://bit.ly/dD-Team 👉 Learn more about dD

https://bit.ly/Contact-dD 👉 Wanna work with us?

https://bit.ly/dD-Careers 👉 Wanna work for us?

Co-Founder, Sybill.ai

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At any given time, 98% of your audience is “out of market.” That means even if you find the right person and deliver the right message, they won’t always be ready to take next steps.

And that means pipeline management is that much more important. Knowing what buttons to push and levers to pull when the timing is right can make or break an SDRs comp.

Realistically, the biggest impact SDRs can have on the business (from an outbound perspective) is pushing prospects from their personal pipeline (as we call it, the ISQL) into the company's pipeline (aka, a sales opportunity).

The more efficient they are at that process, the better.

Be it through productivity hacks, building compelling nurture campaigns, or leveraging sales technology, your SDRs can (and should) methodically convert their prospects into pipeline, and pipeline into sales opportunities.

We grabbed Nishit Asnani to talk about the technology portion of that equation. What insight can these tools derive? Can they help reps pull more relevant information on their prospects?  What can they do during and after the conversation to help move prospects down the funnel?

Let’s find out.

🎯 Actionable Core Values for the C-Suite

Bonus Content with Scott Levy | CEO, ResultMaps

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We’ve been talking a lot about the impact that core values can have on an individual contributor. Identifying and building those values can have a significant impact on your current success and future career trajectory.

Companies are no different. They build values that help rally the team around common beliefs, reducing friction in the workplace and building a success story together.

The big difference here is individuals find their own core values, while company values are identified and built by a CEO and/or executive team.

These executives build values based on past experience, their own core values, and any existing company culture.

Are they always perfect? No. We can’t all have an enduring credo like Johnson & Johnson.

But they’re not permanent, either. As companies grow and change, the values they live by have to as well. Like our guest, Scott Levy said:

“Maybe your values are set in stone, but you're a sculptor. You’re chiseling away. You don’t have to keep swapping them out, but you can iterate.”

Your values are your values for a reason, and as a CEO or executive team, it’s on you to make sure they still serve the function they were built to serve - a blueprint that encourages the right actions.

We cover a lot of best practices, advice, and examples of executive-level value-setting and how to nail that process right the first time.

✨ There's Value in Knowing Your Values

5 Questions with Alex Ellison | Marketing Communications Manager @ demandDrive

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Succeeding as an SDR is more than just actioning tips, advice, and best practices.

There’s a human element to the role that transcends all of that.

SDRs are people. And people, whether we know it or not, operate by a set of values.

These values drive your actions and reactions. They’re the reason you express identical tips and advice in your own unique way compared to your colleagues.

Understanding your values can illuminate:

And this isn’t just reserved for individuals - companies have values as well. And when senior leadership can accurately articulate and operationalize a company’s values, it trickles down to the employee level.

You see it in the types of people they hire, the strategies they use to approach challenges, and the methods they use to communicate with current employees.

And ultimately, when everyone’s values are aligned, teams and companies can collaborate and grow with less friction.

But all of this is easier said than done.

That’s why we’re talking with Alex Ellison.

Not only does he understand the value in knowing your values and the impact that can have, but he also has a solid grasp on the process required to identify, build, and operationalize those values.

Tune in to see how we built our values at demandDrive, and how you can do the same for yourself & your company!

🌱 Growing Up and Out of the SDR Role

5 Questions with Chelsea Leahy

Director of Training, demandDrive

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Nobody wants to be an SDR forever.

The good news? Nobody expects you to be an SDR forever.

The SDR position is a great way to build out some key foundational skills - be it around sales, marketing, operations, management, or customer success.

But honing those skills and using them to move up and out of the role isn’t always clear at every organization.

Sure, there are paths built out for AE and SDR Management roles, but what if that’s not your calling? How can you take what you’ve learned as an SDR and leverage it into a different position?

We figured there was no better person to ask than our Director of Training, Chelsea Leahy.

Not only did Chelsea make a “non-traditional” transition herself, but she’s seen countless SDRs take what she’s taught them and turn it into a career outside of sales.

⌚ Time Management

5 Questions with Henry Shapiro

Co-Founder, Reclaim.ai

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Sometimes, it feels like there aren't enough hours in the day.

And that's especially true for SDRs. Between...

📞 Making Dials

🔎 Researching New Accounts

👋 Attending Internal Meetings

✍ Crafting Messaging

💪 Upskilling

Reps are often splitting their focus on multiple tasks at the same time.

...Unless they emphasize time management.

Knowing how to structure and organize your day can make a serious impact on your results. After all, organized schedules get organized results, while sporadic schedules get sporadic results.

We sat down with Henry Shapiro, the Co-Founder of Reclaim.ai, to dive into some best practices for organizing and structuring your day as an SDR.

If you’re looking to make your calendar work for you (and not the other way around), this episode is a must-listen.

Structure & Questions:

🎥 Video Prospecting

5 Questions with Greg Cammarata

AE, demandDrive

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There are plenty of studies out there that show email and phone response rates are at all-time lows, so knowing how to get your message in front of the right prospects in a way that they’ll actually notice is becoming an increasingly valuable skill.

Alex sat down with Greg Cammarata to talk about how he approaches video prospecting. They dive into the process behind creation, how he picks his prospects, and where video sits in his prospecting toolbox.

Structure & Questions:

😂 Leveraging Humor in Sales

5 Questions with Jon Selig

Founder, Comedy Writing for Sales Teams

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Sales and humor go together like...coffee and donuts. You can have them alone, but they’re better together.

Sort of like Nick Lachey and 98 Degrees 🥁 *ba dum tiss*

OK, enough with the jokes. We’ll leave that up to our guest, Jon Selig.

Half salesguy. Half stand-up comic. All parental disappointment. Jon helps sellers create punchlines that build pipeline.

Why punchlines? Well let’s face it, prospecting can be awkward. That tension you feel when someone picks up the phone or the nervous energy you get before hitting send on your emails speaks to that.

If you can find a way to break through the noise and ice to settle both you and your prospect down, the rest of the back-and-forth will feel easier.

Tune in to see how the process behind writing jokes can yield a more well-rounded SDR team.

😎 Building Confidence as an SDR

5 Questions with Phil Gerard

Business Development Manager, demandDrive

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Do you know an SDR who just exudes confidence? Someone you could put in any sales situation and expect them to talk their way into a meeting?

They’re few and far between. And it’s not for the reasons you think.

People assume that confidence is innate. It’s something these reps are born with. And being born confident leads to success in sales.

We think it’s quite the opposite.

Confidence is a learned skill. It’s something that takes months, even years to fully develop.

And a lot of SDRs don’t stay in their role for years, they transition into full-cycle sales or out of the function completely (into management, marketing, revenue, etc.).

All of that work…*poof*

Gone.

Or is it?

SDR Managers have (in most cases) spent time as an SDR before running a team. They hold valuable insight into how SDRs can build up the confidence they need to succeed. It’s a matter of lighting the spark and transferring that knowledge to their team.

We grabbed Phil Gerard to talk about the role of confidence in sales development. As a current manager and former SDR, he knows a thing or two about the impact that confidence can have on success and how to impart his knowledge to a team.