‘Sales Development Representative’ Job Description — Master Guide

If you are looking for a sales development representative and don’t know where to start, this post is for you! The first step in the process of finding your ideal employee is to create a detailed job description.

This article will give tips on what companies are looking for and how to determine the most qualified candidate for your team. In this article, we also will go through what tasks are expected of the position. And, we’ll walk through how a job description should be written so that it grabs the attention of the best in the talent pool.

In this article, we’ll cover:

• What exactly is a sales development representative?
• Developing a good SDR job description
• Example SDR job description / template
• Why use virtual assistants for sales development?
• Traits of an ideal SDR
• How virtual assistants can help in sales development

What exactly is a sales development representative?

A sales development representative, also called an SDR, is someone who focuses on creating new business opportunities and managing accounts within an organization. An SDR reports to the team about potential leads or prospects in order to determine their worthiness as potential customers. They also manage customer relations once the initial sales process has been initiated.

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Developing a Good SDR Job Description

The Title

The first step in putting together a job description for this position is to create a title. This will set the tone for the rest of the document and help you get an idea of what to include in its pages. The title should be easy to understand and make it clear what is expected of this position. Depending on whether your company has created a job description before, this can be fairly basic or very extensive. The most important thing is that you cover all the main points in your post. A sales development representative is someone who is fairly new to the industry. According to estimates, there are well over 100,000 people employed in this position. The majority of them are making less than $50,000 per year. In other words, your candidate pool is highly competitive. This is where your job description becomes important.

The Position

The next step in creating a sales development representative job description is to write about what the position encompasses. What tasks will the person do on a daily basis? You must define the most fundamental aspects of the position and what it takes to be successful in this role from day-to-day. What are the main responsibilities of an SDR? How many leads should be generated each day and what quality are they? What does success look like for this person? All of these factors must be put down on paper for your company to consider in their search.

The section should be compelling but not too long and boring. Make sure that you define the basics. This assures that anyone who reads your job description can tell that this role is right for them.

If you feel like you have gone into too much detail, consider this. It might be better to create another position and break this up job into different responsibilities. The main point here is to make certain your candidate will know whether this job is a good fit before they apply.

The Skills and Requirements

After you have defined the basics of what is expected of your candidates, you should consider including skills and requirements. This will help to ensure that your candidates are qualified for the position. When it comes to an SDR, you are looking for someone who has experience with people and a knack for selling. The most important thing is that they are competent in contacting leads in order to determine whether they will become customers. An SDR has interaction with many kinds of people throughout their day. They need to be good at reading people’s personalities to determine whether or not they are a good fit for the deal.

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The Hours

The next step in writing a sales development representative job description involves detailing what the schedule is like for this position. Different companies have different needs, but some common expectations may include:

• Weekdays: 8 AM-6 PM or 9 AM-5 PM (with one hour lunch)
• Weekends: No weekend work is expected, but some special events may require attendance throughout the day

These are just general guidelines you can use when determining how much time your prospects will need to spend working each day. In order to be successful, however, you must define what you think success looks like for this role. This will help to ensure that you get the very best prospects for your company. It will also make it easier to justify hiring only the most qualified people. The information in this section is important since your candidates will want to know exactly what they are signing up for. They do not want to assume anything about the schedule or workload. The document should also include a short description of how time off is accrued and whether there are opportunities for growth in the future.

The Pay and Benefits

After you have covered the schedule, it is time to talk about compensation. You should include information regarding what you pay your employees in this section of your SDR job description. This will give your candidates an idea of whether this is a high-paying position. There can be a lot of differences in wages between sales development representatives. This can depend on a variety of factors. Factors include where you are located in the country, how many hours people work, and even what part of the industry they are targeting. Some companies can afford to pay their sales development representatives $100k a year while others can afford only $50k per year. This will all depend on the type of product or service you are selling and the market that you are targeting.

The next question that candidates will ask themselves is whether the salary is negotiable. You should include this information, along with other details regarding benefits, in your job description. This information should allow employees to know what to expect before they even start working for you. This includes information on the amount of PTO offered and if there are opportunities for growth down the road. If your company offers other perks like health insurance and 401(k) plans, be sure to include them in this section as well.

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The Company Bio

In order to make your job description more enticing, be sure to include a resume template and a short bio with the document. These bits of information are going to include some of the most important details about your company and its working environment. It is better to err on the side of over-communication than under-communication in this situation.

The bottom line when it comes to creating a successful SDR job description is to make sure that you are telling the truth. If you have an open position, then there should be an opening. If you have perks and benefits, then they should be included. Most importantly, just remember to have fun with this process as much as possible! There is nothing wrong with being creative and adding some fun elements into your descriptions so long as they are relevant!

Here is an example job description that you can use as a template

Job title: Senior Sales Development Representative

Purpose: Prospecting, outbound calling, lead generation and appointment setting. Builds relationships with qualified leads within assigned territory. This role is responsible for generating business by identifying prospective clients, qualifying them and developing strategic relationships.

Key responsibilities:

• Create a pipeline of business opportunities & leads for team to seize during first call.
• Develop strategic partnerships with key decision makers at target companies through a highly consultative approach.
• Listen for specific pain points and develop compelling value propositions to meet their needs.
• Maximize opportunities for new revenue growth by coordinating partnerships across the organization in sales, marketing and beyond.
• Update pipeline reports each week to ensure expectations are being met or exceeded on a regular basis.

Required Skills:

• Bachelor’s Degree
• Minimum of 5 years experience in outbound calling with demonstrated ability to create sales opportunities from cold calls.
• Excellent phone presence and conversational skills.
• Ability to build rapport with prospects & leads, and connect with decision makers at target companies.
• Ability to manage multiple strategic accounts and provide guidance for junior team members.
• Experienced, results driven, self-motivated individual that can work independently and as part of a team.

Why use virtual assistants for sales development?

The sales development function is a role that requires coordination and communication with many roles across a company. Virtual assistants can work with sales development team to coordinate calls and appointments. They can also prepare presentations for each call or appointment, manage the calendar and schedule, and provide research assistance when needed.

Traits of an ideal sales development representative

A virtual assistant who works in the sales development function needs to know certain important functions. This includes how to organize tasks, manage calendars, schedule calls or appointments, navigate scheduling systems such as Salesforce.com or Outlook Calendar, and stay organized. Virtual assistants also need to be familiar with online research tools.

Phone etiquette:

A virtual assistant in sales development should know how to use a phone for making and receiving calls. They should also be able to communicate clearly with leads. This person also needs to be able to listen well and take notes while on the phone.

Customer service:

A virtual assistant in sales development needs to have excellent customer service skills and be able to work with many people at once. They should be able to prioritize tasks. Priority is based on 1) what is most urgent, 2) what is on the calendar, and 3) what has not yet been completed.

Sales development representatives work with people who have made it through the screening process and are likely to buy something. They need to be able to project confidence, but also be friendly and approachable. These professionals also need to be highly organized, prompt with tasks, and able to multitask effectively and efficiently.

How virtual assistants can help in sales development

Virtual assistants can manage the day-to-day tasks that don’t require specialized knowledge or experience. This allows the sales team more time for their primary responsibilities. They can fill in the gaps of the team and help to make sure that all the details are covered.

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Calls:

Virtual assistants can conduct research for calls or appointments, making it easier to answer specific questions that prospects may have. They should have experience with customer service call Scripts and be able to create presentations for each call. Virtual assistants can schedule calls using online scheduling tools, such as Google Calendar or Outlook Calendar. They should be able to handle appointments with prospects via email or phone. This includes reminding them of upcoming meetings, sending directions and parking information, and organizing files that need to be reviewed ahead of time. Virtual assistants can also help in organizing and managing documents that need to be reviewed or sent to prospects during the sales development process.

Presentations:

Virtual assistants can help with organization of presentations. This includes scheduling, sending reminders, and helping with collecting information from the prospect via phone calls or e-mails. Virtual assistants can also maintain the database, or CRM, that will be used for reference during calls.

Other factors:

Companies that want to outsource their sales development team can save time and money by hiring a virtual assistant. Sales development professionals can focus on creating sales for the business while outsourcing the other details to this team member. Virtual assistants can create calls or appointments automatically, saving valuable time. They also have experience with researching useful information online. They would be able to provide research that would be relevant to the conversation during a call or appointment.

• Persuasive
• Persistent
• Excellent communicator and listener
• Good at reading/understanding people
• Prospects on a regular basis

A virtual assistant working with SDRs will make calls and send emails to prospects. This can include sending emails to companies directly and making calls to decision makers when necessary. This person should also be able to confirm appointments via phone or email and manage appointment schedules for follow-up purposes. It is also important for this person to be able to track contacts through a CRM system like Salesforce. So, they can provide updates on current status of sales leads when needed.

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