(30-second read)
At most B2B SaaS startups sales is still operating like its 2011, with SDR’s firing off hundreds of cold emails to prospects who don’t want to hear from them.
While marketing is trying to pull those same prospects in by mapping to their current buying behaviors, sales is pushing them further away from the brand.
Buyers now have what feels like infinite tech solutions to choose from. And the opposing practices of sales and marketing are making it easy for them to decide which brands they give their attention to.
It’s time for startups to accept that things have changed and stop selling in ways that they’d never want to be sold to themselves.
(My two cents on how to fix this below.)
P.S. Recruiting and employer branding at most startups suffer from this same problem. (More on this tomorrow.)
Here are three ways to fix this problem:
*All options are predicated on no cold outbound.
Get rid of the antiquated SDR model altogether and reinvest those resources into brand marketing that connects interested buyers with savvy AE’s who act more like product specialists than salespeople.
Train, empower, and enable your SDR’s to become product specialists, marketers, content creators, and/or industry influencers.
If you just can’t let go of the SDR model, move this role under marketing so at least their behavior has a shot at aligning with your buyer.
So true! Great solutions, too!