What Do the Most Successful SDRs, BDRs & AEs Have in Common?

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Posted on by Anna Wendt

Regardless of the sales initialism you claim — SDR, BDR, AE, or something entirely different — certain skills help you prosper and grow in sales. There’s of course no definitive list of what makes a good sales rep “good.” It would be practically endless. But identifying useful attributes and strengths to focus on sets you up for a thriving sales career.

Everyone has to start somewhere, so here are three things that successful, growth-minded sales professionals have in common.

Sales leaders want to hire and work with SDRs, BDRs, and AEs who are…

1. Coachable

Your willingness to learn from others, including your manager, teammates, or even people on the internet, makes you an incredible asset to a team.

Coachable sales reps want to work with others to do better at their jobs. They seek out feedback, choose areas to work on, make a plan, try things out, and sometimes fail. Then they evaluate what happened, keep collaborating, and try some more stuff!

Coachability essentially comes down to being self-aware and introspective. You must realize that there are things you should change, even if it’s scary and hard. Then you accept help from others to make it happen. A truly coachable person holds themself accountable and takes responsibility for their actions.

Aspects of sales where it benefits you to be coachable:

  • Speeding up responses times
  • Adopting a consistent brand voice
  • Developing your personal sales voice
  • Practicing active listening
  • Choosing new outreach methods

2. Adaptable

Adaptability potentially applies to the execution of all your job responsibilities. You can know all there is know about the sales funnel, but if you’re not ready to switch up your sales strategy at a moment’s notice, all your technical knowledge is meaningless. Especially on a small team, the inability of one person to adapt may make or break the sales process. The more you practice creativity and ingenuity in selling, the better off you’ll be.

Sales situations where adaptability matters:

  • Emails are being ignored and people aren’t calling you back? Try personally texting them instead.
  • Leads schedule demos but keep no-showing? Reevaluate the qualification process and consider implementing new accountability measures.
  • Not sure you’ll hit your quota? Switch up how you do demos and how you follow up after.
  • Feeling burned out and like you can’t take one more phone call? Rearrange your schedule and work with your manager to focus your efforts elsewhere for a bit.

3. Determined

Simply being determined to make more sales won’t guarantee you’ll do it. Determination can fuel your everyday actions that will lead to that success though. Remember, determination isn’t just persistence. Yes, following up with people is key to sales and requires a certain level of determination. But persistence is one small part of your personal attitude toward selling. You go from persistent to pushy pretty fast. At that point, your “determination” to schedule a meeting or close a sale only hurts you. Determined sales reps are hungry for opportunities and do what they can to maximize their time and resources to be more effective.

Determination in sales looks like:

  • Finding opportunities to sell outside of what’s delivered to you from marketing. You deep dive into prospecting, potential use cases, and new verticals, regardless of whether your focus is outbound or inbound leads.
  • Recognizing that even if something is “not your job” that taking the initiative to do it could result in team success.
  • Taking feedback from your manager or peers to write better messages and try new sales tactics. Coachability and determinedness work well together.

Embracing your natural sales strengths

Coachability, adaptability, and determination aren’t developed or used by every person in the exact same way. And that’s a good thing! Sales teams and companies prosper through diverse problem solving. What’s important is that you invest in your own development and growth. Find ways to upskill and practice using your natural sales strengths to maximize your potential. For more help like this, follow Skipio on LinkedIn for weekly sales resources and tips. Or subscribe to the blog to get sales insights delivered to your inbox.

Coachability, adaptability, and determination aren’t developed or used by every person in the exact same way. And that’s a good thing! Sales teams and companies prosper through diverse problem solving.

What’s important is that you invest in your own development and growth. Find ways to upskill and practice using your natural sales strengths to maximize your potential.