Ask any sales development representative (SDR) what a “day in the life” looks like for them and they’ll all tell you it changes daily. What does stay the same is that we SDRs split our time between a ton of different channels. I focus my time on some more than others depending on the day.
I started my career here back when the company had around 100 employees. I was hired as an HR intern, then helped customers as a customer advocate on the support team, moved into a new sales support role known as a conversation development representative (CDR), and finally landed to where I am now, as an Enterprise SDR.
In every role I’ve had, Drift has transformed the way I work. From outbounding with more insight to putting the customer first in chat, I’ve completely adapted to the new way of selling (more on that later).
In my current role, my goal is to develop strategic campaigns to drive conversations and generate pipeline. But when my uncle (who thinks I work in IT) asks me what I do for the third time at Christmas, I tell him I help provide an outstanding buying experience.
Because that’s what it all boils down to. So now that you know what I do, let’s break down a day in my life so you can see how I get it done.
The Morning
I start every day with a stand up meeting. We use this meeting to celebrate wins, learn what’s working for each other, and give a quick update on where we are for the month and what our focus is for the day.
The shift in working remotely hasn’t changed my day-to-day much – but I do miss the people. So starting my day with this stand up is a great way to check in with the team and get some insight from my peers.
After my morning meeting, the first thing I do is open Drift Prospector. Drift Prospector collects all the buying signals on my contacts and accounts from across my tech stack to build an engagement score that automatically prioritizes my target accounts, so I can deliver more relevant outreach.
What I’m checking for in the morning is what my buyer’s activity looks like from the day before and overnight. I’ll follow up with good Prospector activities (e.g. viewing the pricing page, downloading a report, or chatting with our bot).
This is where I want to talk to you about the new way of selling.
In the old way of selling, I had no idea what my buyer’s interests were until they actually told me.
But with the new way of selling, I can better understand my buyer’s behavior and reach out based on intent and where they are in their journey. That’s why the new way of selling and using Drift is so critical to my morning routine, because it gives me the context to reach out with a relevant conversation starter.
The Early Afternoon
Once I’ve gone through Prospector and followed up with accounts or any bot booked meetings the Drift bot may have booked for me overnight, it’s time to identify four new accounts to go after.
As an outbound enterprise rep, I work directly with two account executives, and I meet with each of them weekly to analyze our pipeline, study our book of business, and align on our prospecting strategy.
I identify new accounts based on the strategy from that meeting. I try to loop in four new accounts per day and send a first touch to those contacts. Since I’m just introducing myself, I’ll typically pull a play from Stage 1 of the Conversational Sales Formula. That play may include a new email sequence from Outreach, chatting with a new prospect, or sending a Drift Video.
Video is especially essential to my prospecting strategy. For every priority buyer I identify in Prospector, I send three to four Drift Videos before we even speak on the phone. These videos include quick tailored introductions, brief product pitches, or lengthier custom-demos.
I like to think of these outreach cadences as mini-campaigns. For example, if there’s a CMO and CRO at a high-priority account, I’ll typically carefully craft outreach cadences for them. The easiest way for me to do that is to use a filter in Prospector, create attribute lists (like title is CMO), and develop messaging based on people that fit into that criteria.
Psst! Sign up for our sales tip of the week newsletter here if you want plays you can use while prospecting.
The Late Afternoon
In the late afternoon, I’ll spend about an hour doing LinkedIn outreach and cold calling. I’ll then catch up on contacts that have already been enrolled in cadences.
When following up with a contact that has already been enrolled in a sequence, I’ll primarily use plays in Stage 2 of our Conversational Sales Workbook.
When you reach Stage 2, it’s no longer about just opening the door and giving a warm welcome. This stage is about focusing on your target accounts, delivering a VIP buying experience, and turning introductory conversations into qualified sales opportunities.
I try to keep my approach as granular as possible and tailor my communication to my buyer’s specific needs.
But the real secret weapon to my selling routine is live chat.
Live chat lives in the background all day while I’m working. I couldn’t imagine my day without it. Real-time notifications and chat give you a way to engage with your buyers when their intent is at its highest.
When you get the opportunity to connect with one of your target accounts in chat, there are a ton of ways that you can add value and make it a hyper-personalized experience.
One of the first things I’ll leverage in live chat is looking at a site visitor’s contact history and seeing if I’ve ever had a conversation with them or any of their colleagues in the past. I’ll use this information to reference any relevant context or information they’ve told me during our last conversation.
There are many outcomes that a conversation can result in. The most ideal result for any SDR is booking a meeting. If I do book a meeting, I’ll pass the conversation link right over to my AE and send the whole chat transcript.
We’ll usually jump on a call, analyze it together, talk through all the details, and begin to strategize for our meeting that we’ve now scheduled with the prospect.
Signing Off
So there you have it, folks. That was a “day in my life.”
From cold calling to emailing to chatting, I’m always working towards creating a great buying experience. And even though I may not book a meeting every time I speak with a target account, every conversation – regardless of the outcome – is valuable.
Want to learn how to use Conversational Selling in your daily sales routine? Check out this training course in Drift Insider.
