Some of you asked how to leverage data to improve your performance as a BDR/SDR.
*BDR = business development representative, SDR = sales development representative
🙋🏻♀️ As someone doing tech sales → data analytics and operations at a B2B sales company, I wanted to write this to help BDRs and SDRs who want to leverage data to improve performances.
Assuming your responsibility is to book intro/qualification meetings, qualify leads, and pass them to AEs, here are some metrics you can track & actions you can take to improve your performance (and hopefully get paid💰!)
*Those metrics are focused on cold emails
*My experiences are in B2B sales, although some parts may be applicable to B2C
Here are some examples of the numbers you can (hopefully) track as a BDR/SDR using sales tools and CRMs
emails you send out
emails successfully delivered without getting blocked or bounced
emails your prospects opened
positive and negative responses you received
intro meetings/appointments you booked by sending cold emails
intro calls you held
sales-qualified leads you generated
We’ll go into more details about the metrics below!
The ultimate goal is to increase the # meeting booked and # sales-qualified leads you can generate. To achieve that, you can increase both quantity (#emails you can send in a limited time) and quality (how many of those turn into qualified leads). Improving each metric helps you achieve the qualitative side of your performance.
How to calculate: # emails successfully delivered (without bouncing) divided by # emails you sent
… the likelihood of your emails successfully going into prospects’ inboxes without bouncing or getting flagged as spam.
How to improve this metric:
If the emails are bouncing due to inaccurate mailing addresses, review how you’re sourcing those emails & implement tools and methods that can get you more accurate emails
If your domain is getting flagged as spam, you may want to reduce emails sent per minute, remove file attachments, and install tools/systems to check if your email may be flagged as a spam
How to calculate: # emails opened divided by # emails successfully delivered
… the likelihood of prospects opening your emails when successfully delivered.
How to improve this metric:
Review your subject lines & first few words of the email body (ie. any correlations between keywords you use in subject lines & high/low open rates?)
Reconsider if your subject lines are attractive to the (group/type of) prospects you’re targeting
Review your sequence/cadence …don’t send too many emails in the same day or two because that may appear too spammy and lower your open rates
If you can, monitor which days of the week and which time slots you’re getting more # open, and schedule your emails around those times
How to calculate: # positive and negative responses you received divided by # emails opened
… the likelihood of getting responses when emails are opened.
How to increase positive reply rate:
Make it easy to respond (ie. clear ‘call to action’)
Review if you’re reaching out to the right targets with the right messages that are interesting to them
Show that you researched the company and the prospect, and that it’s not an automated scaled email (i.e. the first email is personalized while the follow-ups are automated)
How to calculate: # intro meetings you booked from cold emails divided by # positive responses you received (i.e. “I’m interested”)
… the likelihood of those who are interested accepting to book a discovery call with you.
How to increase this metric:
Don’t forget to follow up with those who showed interest
Try to book a placeholder if they suggest meeting in the future
How to calculate: # intro calls that happened divided by # intro calls you booked
… the likelihood of your intro meetings not being canceled or ghosted.
How to increase this metric:
Send a reminder a day before the meeting
Communicate how you might be able to help the prospects (their benefits)
How to calculate: # leads qualified for sales divided by # intro meetings being held
… the likelihood of leads being qualified after having a discovery call.
How to increase this metric:
Try to (dis)qualify while interacting with prospects before booking a discovery call
Research thoroughly prior to reaching out
Please see above for my suggestions on how to improve each metric.
Find out which groups are performing better. You can group prospects by i.e.
Company profile (industry, headquarters location, # employees, # revenue, tech stack, etc.)
Prospect profile (persona/occupation, seniority, location, # steps in a sequence if you have it automated, etc.)
A/B testing your sequences (day and time you send emails, different call-to-actions, tones and phrasing of the emails, types of subject line, etc.)
High open rate + low reply rate → Prospects read your email but decided not to respond. You may consider this as a sign of targeting the wrong (group of ) prospects or the wrong message/approach
High reply rate + low positive reply rates or meeting booking rates → This specific group is giving you many objections. You may want to further analyze to figure out what are the reasons for them not taking meetings
# difference between positive responses and meeting bookings shows the opportunities for you to convert ‘low-hanging fruits’ … those prospects already showed interest in your offerings or having a chat with you, so they’re a great place to allocate your time and effort
Earlier I wrote the section “✉️ What Can You Track?”. You can compare each of those metrics against # emails you sent. This will help you find how many new emails you should be sending & if you’re on the right track to hit your quota.
For example, for 100 emails you send, you get 3 bounces (=97 delivered successfully), 60 opens, 30 responses, 10 of them being positive/interested, 7 meetings booked and 5 of them show up, 3 of them being sales-qualified leads.
If your quota is 15 sales-qualified leads in a month, how many emails should you plan to send /month?
Your sales-qualified lead rate to # emails sent is 3%, so 15/0.03 = 500 emails that you should send (at least) to achieve your quota.
And how many responses should you be getting to attain your quota? If you’re getting 150 responses or more by the end of the month, you’re on the right track.
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Do you have feedback/opinions on the contents? Did I miss anything? Please feel free to comment below or reach out to me! I’d always appreciate a healthy discussion🤗