The concept of sales development is usually untouched by most companies, but gradually the emphasis has been shifting towards sales development which would allow companies to initiate the sales in the right way. The focus of sales development team is very much like business development where sales reps work hand in glove with those who are responsible for closing deals.

However, the biggest challenge for most companies is to find the right sales development reps that have the right SDR traits that they can exploit. Here we focus on how you can look out for the right individuals that have SDR characteristics that can boost your company’s sales.

Creativity

Sales development may sound like an easy task, but it needs more than just skills to make things happen. When it comes to collecting new accounts, companies need to look for creative individuals that come up with ideas that are never tried before.

Creative individuals who think outside the box have ideas when it comes to harvesting new accounts. While they might challenge the traditional sales process and concepts, but they certainly have the potential to create personalized emails and engaging the prospects in a better way which would eventually lead to more sales in the company.

Passion

Sales development is a challenging job and to make things happen you need passionate individuals that stop at nothing. If the individual is not completely involved in the business you are not hiring the right person. Passion is the key to drive interest and motivation and if you have a candidate that has a passion to sell or to succeed then you can surely have him on your sales development team.

A good thing about a passionate individual is that they are really excited about their passion and that makes their job easier and far more convincing than those who are just trying to sell for the sake of doing it. A passionate SDR is also willing to work for longer hours as and when required to forward hot deals that matter to your business, while just-another-SDR will not be interested in sitting in for long hours.

Integrity

When you are hiring SDR you also need to look out for individuals that have integrity. This is really important because you want to make sure that your individuals have moral principles and standards that can make a difference. You cannot really motivate someone that does not have integrity and that can backfire and lead to financial loss.

We all make decisions which resonate with our personality and beliefs. Most often the choices a solution development rep makes may seem insignificant, but this doesn’t mean they’re not important to the business or our customers. Hence, always look out for candidates that have integrity that will allow you to have employees that can make a difference to your company.

Curiosity

Don’t hire an SDR who does not ask questions. Sales development reps need to know more about different things happening around the world and what your industry is doing and how it can affect sales. This is really important because SDRs have to talk to various buyers and, therefore, they should be well prepared to understand the state of mind of their buyers.

SDRs that have the curiosity to know more about different industries can have a nice conversation with their buyers too. Candidates who are not really interested in knowing much about other industries will feel bored talking to different buyers and will not be able to learn more from their conversations with their buyers.

A curious SDR’s should push all limits to ask the right questions to the prospects. Pertaining to this, an SDR should be well aligned to their company’s as well as customers goals. Being well informed about the industry as well as the products ensures good conversations with customers.

Additionally, an SDR should not be hesitant to demand more information about clients business. This showcases the SDR’s passion to know more and hence add more value. The questions should be paced well to suits to client response.

Comprehension Skills

SDRs not just have to be curious about different industries, but should also have great comprehension skills. They should be active listeners and that would allow them to provide better sales for your company. Buyers always do mention about their grievances and their problems to SDRs directly or indirectly and SDRs have to pick up those signals that would allow them to provide buyers with perfect solutions to their problems.

When you hire candidates for SDRs they have to demonstrate that they have the capacity to not just talk to the buyers, but also comprehend and process the information back to the company which then can be used by marketing and product teams to make their pitch.

Resilience

When you are hiring an SDR you must make sure that the candidate is optimistic and resilient. In sales, even the best candidates can get a negative feedback or response, but that should not deter the hopes of the candidate.

Best performing SDRs are optimistic by nature and they always see good even in bad situations and that is what makes them valuable. They understand that they need to be competitive and ensure that they take positive and negative response in their stride and focus on their performance rather than competing with the team. They also understand that the trick is in generating the right interest and getting the information and not selling.

Coachability

SDRs need to understand that they are not working alone, but in a team. Hence, they have to be open to suggestions and must have a teachable attitude. Sales development reps must be open to various suggestions and feedback that they receive in terms of how they work and what they are doing wrong.

If individuals are not taking the feedback in the right spirit, it can lead to various scenarios that can lead to a clash of ideas and disputes. If you sense that the candidate is not flexible and does not take feedback in the right spirit it is better not to hire such a candidate.

To conclude, sales development reps should be picked wisely. These individuals must have a combination of traits that help you close more deals. They need to be creative to think out of the box and passionate enough to work hard as and when required. SDRs must also have an integrity which is essential to your business ethics and should be curious enough to know and learn about different businesses around the world which makes the entire conversation with the buyers easier.

With the right kind of curiosity SDRs can evaluate the needs of the buyers and comprehend them in the right way. They should also be optimistic, resilient and adaptable and coachable as per the feedback and suggestions provided. By hiring ones that possess such qualities businesses can be sure that their account executives always have new opportunities and accounts they need to generate better revenue and profit.

Last month, I had an opportunity to attend Sales Kickoff Summit 2016 organized by amazing HireVue people! It proved to be a very valuable experience. Sometimes it is surprising how much value could be found for free on the internet when you know where to look at.

However, one presentation really stuck to me. Personally, I adore practical application when it’s possible and this really hit the nail on its head. The presentation that stood out to me was by Juliana Crispo, Founder & CEO at Startup Sales Bootcamp and was called “3 questions to find the pain”. As of today, 19th March 2016, the video is still available here.

Before we start, I should let you know that the whole talk is applicable to B2B and doesn’t really work in B2C, unless you’re selling a complex product. A car, let’s say. If it’s pens & pencils – this article & the talk isn’t for you.

Anyway, the whole idea behind finding pain is asking questions to find the main problem of the customer. And it is done, so product demo would only reflect the features that are relevant to the buyer. Therefore, this enhances the likelihood of closing the deal. By the way, have I told you that Juliana kept the consistent 40% close rate over 5 years! I hope now you will start taking notes!

Why would you need to discover the pain of the customer? To be able to eliminate it with your product! And generally at these times, a majority of buyers are numb to their pain. Meaning that things could be better, but they are good enough the way they are. 80% of deals turn out to be to buyers who are numb to their pain. These are the ones you’re after. And they require skill to be able to close them.

The cornerstone of the closing these deals would be asking the right questions to reveal those pain points. Even if the customer is not aware of them.

In total, there are 3 types of questions according to Juliana: pain openers, pain inducers and digging questions. If you follow these questions and select the ones that are relevant to you, you will receive a pretty well image of what the person is looking for and you would be able to decide if your solution is right for a customer.

Pain Openers – Great Conversation Initiators

If you’ve done your homework and know what the type of business or customer you’re dealing, you could start with: “Typically these business work with us because of pain x, pain y etc. – are these the same challenges that you face?”

From this point, it can go both ways: “Yes! This salesman knows what he’s doing!” Or it can go “No… They have no clue what I’m looking for”. That is why preparation so relevant. You can literally make or break the deal with one sentence.

The whole array of questions could be built around this practice. It is the matter of knowing your target audience and researching before qualifying for a demo or even a phone call. Just don’t forget the formula:

However, do not worry if the answer is “no”. You can admit that this customer is different from others and ask for their challenges. Just beware! Ask them to prioritize the main challenge. That is where the money goes. Because solution-to-all might appear inefficient and you might lose a potential customer, because he might decide to look for cheaper alternatives that fix just 1 issue. And don’t forget, there is the reason why the customer is taking his time to attend a meeting with you. He is already interested in your product.

Pain Inducers – Sell to Numb Buyers

These set of questions are there to emphasize the pain. To make a customer think of what would happen if I don’t take the action now. However, the main point is to make the customer admit that it would happen. This is what makes them so keen on purchasing your solution. If they admit something bad could happen – they would automatically want to prevent it from happening. You have to help them portrait the future. And show how daunting it is if they don’t have your product.

The basic formula for pain inducers:

“What? How? Let’s image that? If?” + “Future” = “Pain Inducers”

But to really make them shine, you would have to design your own questions:

1. Your solution to a problem (your unique value proposition)
2. Offer your value proposition and get denied by prospect (not worth the investment)
3. Prove them wrong (with pain inducer question).

The whole list by Juliana is present here:

Digging questions – Find more about customer

Now, if your customer appears to have a problem that your product solves – don’t jump around and get all excited. Do not underestimate the deal!

That is where the digging questions come. They are there to make you seem thoughtful and keep you cool. Ask for details, examples – just make them talk. Even if you’re extroverted – keep yourself quiet on this one and look for details.

And, there is not much a formula for making a digging question, but remember: the goal is to make them talk. Avoid questions that you can answer only by “yes” or “no”. Ask why? How? Ask for exact examples of their problems.

Juliana offered some of the examples in her presentation, you can use those.

If you are really stuck. Just use an up-tone. Everything in an up-tone sounds like a question. If you’re interested how it should be said – watch the presentation.

What if they start asking questions? Good news, everyone! These are the masked pain-points. They care about those and want to know if you can really help them. But instead of start bragging about your helpful support and fancy solutions. Ask them what is the reason that they’re asking? You will be able to extract more information and answer it the way they want to hear it.

So this was a brief overlook of 3 types of questions to find pain, but if you’re looking for more. Be sure, to check Juliana’s Crispo Buy-in method on StartupSalesBootcamp. These techniques are used by many successful startups and I’m sure you can find something relevant there. However, let me know in the comments if you already had a chance to use these techniques. Also, don’t forget to share if you find this article worth reading.