"Our prospects get hammered with a qualification call from an SDR. Then they complain about getting asked the same questions again by the AE."
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I'm still hearing this from sales leaders. In 2024!
Here’s my issue with SDRs running a separate qualification call:
It’s a TERRIBLE customer experience.
Here’s what you’re doing to the buyer:
1) I take a cold call and agree to meet
2) I take a 15-20 min. call and get hammered with qualifying questions
3) I take a 30-45 min. call with an AE and don’t see the product
4) I take a second call where I actually get to see the product
And you’re wondering why execs won’t take meetings with your reps?
This nonsense has got to stop.
There’s something fundamentally wrong in your outbound approach if the only meetings your AEs will take from SDRs are the ones that have been BANT-qualified first.
🚫 Budget
Selling to prospects who already have a budget is table stakes. Any decent sales professional can land those deals.
True sales professionals help prospects FIND budget, especially in today’s economy. You show them a perspective on their problem that is so big and impactful that they cannot ignore it.
✅ Authority
This one I get. There should be some guidelines around sales conversations vs. research conversations.
Talking to an end-user to gain insights is research. A great activity for an SDR/BDR to do. But that’s not a sales conversation.
🚫 Need
Let me get this right…
SDR cold calls the prospect. There’s interest. In a few minutes, or on a separate 15-minute qualification call, you’re supposed to figure out if there’s an urgent need.
How can you possibly do enough discovery in that time to know this? You’re lucky if you find a prospect with an urgent need.
Great sales professionals help prospects find/prioritize problems.
And you need proper discovery to do that.
🚫 Timing
Again, this assumes the prospect knows exactly what they need and has already thought about the timeline to implement.
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So what am I suggesting? Unless your sales team is so busy that you're turning down business, your AEs should take calls with ANY prospect who meets your ICP requirements.
It doesn’t matter if they’re ready to pull the trigger right now or not. Who knows, you may not even be talking to the right person.
Start the relationship and SELL. Nurture if the timing isn't right.