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Should I Hire an Inhouse SDR?

By Deborah Kurfiss, Umbrella Content Marketing Director on Jun 18, 2021

You may have reached the conclusion that you need a sales development representative (SDR) to get your closers appointments with solid prospects, decision-makers at your dream clients. But does it make sense to outsource? Couldn’t you just hire your own inhouse SDR?

Well, yes you could, and that might work at some companies. There are a number of factors to consider when making this decision.

An SDR needs a lot of support to consistently deliver over 30 appointments with your dream prospects every month. Can you provide your SDR with all the support and tools they need to become an appointment-setting machine? Do you have the resources? Let’s take a look at some of the details you will want to examine before hiring your own inhouse SDR.

Human Resources

 First, let’s talk about human resources issues. If you hire your own inhouse SDR, you will need to deal with recruitment, payroll services, commission management and turnover.

  • Recruitment
  • Payroll services
  • Commission management
  • Turnover

Hiring Costs

Keep in mind that the costs of hiring go beyond just the SDR’s salary. A starting salary with incentives of $75,000 is typical. But on top of that figure $15,000 in hiring costs and $20,000 in training. This does not include the ongoing personnel and technology costs to maintain a peak-performance SDR.

Payroll Services and Commission Management

Salespeople including SDRs are generally motivated by money. If you hire your own inhouse SDR, you will need to develop a commission structure that motivates your SDR without breaking the bank. This is harder than you may think. You will also have to deal with the SDR’s payroll and manager their commissions.

Start Lag

If you decide to hire your own SDR, you won’t have someone on the phone booking appointments for you immediately. You need to post the job, analyze resumes, interview and do background checks. Recruiting, onboarding and training take time.

Turnover

After they have successfully been at it awhile, most SDRs want to move on to a sales position where they are closing. That’s the career track. What that means is that you will be perpetually spending time and money on hiring, onboarding and training new SDRs. If you can’t promote them within your own company, they will move on. Expect an attrition rate of about 39%.

However, if you outsource SDR services, this is just not your problem. Your SDR service should continue seamlessly with no decrease in your booked appointments.

Training

 Once you have your SDR onboard, you need to train them. The SDR role tends to be an entry level position, so you may not only need to train them on the ins and outs of your company, but also on their SDR duties. SDR service companies usually provide you with seasoned SDRs, but if you are hiring on your own, you are more than likely going to be dealing with newbies.

If you hire a green SDR, they may be new to cold-calling. That means they may be hesitant to keep cold calling in the face of the rejection every SDR faces, may not know how to establish rapport with the prospect, may not gather the information you need and may not do very well in getting you quality appointments with top decision-makers. You will need to teach them all of that.

Then there is the matter of the training program itself. Ask yourself if you have the expertise and the time to develop a top-notch training program. Are you prepared to provide your SDR with the best quality training that includes

  • Researching leads
  • Role-playing tried and true, successful sales scripts
  • Practicing getting decision-makers on the phone. No sense wasting time with gate keepers.
  • Gauging level of interest
  • Setting a professional yet friendly tone
  • Gathering critical information that you need to know
  • Deftly answering objections
  • Establishing you or your salesperson as an expert in preparation for the closing call
  • Booking appointments with top decision-makers and getting them excited about it

For more about training an SDR, see our blog post How to Train an SDR Who Takes No Prisoners.

 Support Team

An SDR has a tough job. If you want a top-performing SDR who brings you quality appointments that translate into big sales, you need to provide them with a support team.

Can you hire an entire sales pod?

  • A dedicated SDR
  • An SDR coach for ongoing training
  • A Quality Audit (QA) manager

The Coach

Initial training is just the beginning. An SDR should have a coach who continuously works with them for ever-increasing improvement. Everyone has areas they are stronger in than others, and the coach can help the SDR with any area where they may need some improvement.

The QA Manager

  • Analyzes SDR calls for effectiveness, completeness and accuracy
  • Approves all bookings before they go to you or your salesperson to ensure
    • You speak with the very best prospects
    • You get complete information about the prospect
  • Reports any errors to the SDR’s coach
  • Performs analysis on calls that fail to book
  • Identifies areas of needed improvement so additional coaching, upskill training, workshops or refreshers may be conducted

Call Scripts

SDRs shouldn’t be making up their own call scripts from scratch. Do you have tried and true call scripts that deliver a high number of appointments? Have you included rebuttal scripts for most possible objections? If not, you aren’t ready to hire your own inhouse SDR.

Technology

SDRs today need sophisticated technology for top performance. Without this technology, you’re not going to be able to compete.

This includes technology and software for

  • Dialing campaigns
  • Time tracking and management
  • Client management
  • Team communication
  • Script organization
  • Email Campaigns
  • Reporting
  • More

You need to know what technology your SDR needs and what options are the the most effective. And then you need to buy it and keep it updated.

Time, Money, Expertise

 Effectively bringing an SDR inhouse is a complex process. You need

  • Expertise to train, choose the best technology, develop call scripts and maintain top performance
  • Time to oversee
    • HR recruiting, payroll, commission management and frequent turnover
    • Developing call scripts and training
    • Hiring and overseeing an SDR coach and quality audit manager
    • Lead targeting
    • SDR performance
  • Money to pay for
    • Salaries for the SDR, the coach, the quality audit manager
    • Training
    • Continuing recruitment
    • Technology to support the SDR
    • HR costs

What Are My Options?

 Companies without large sales departments will find it difficult, time-consuming and expensive to hire an in-house SDR. They are just not prepared for the initial onboarding expenses and the continuing support. They also don’t have the expertise to train and keep an SDR at top performance.

The option is to choose outsourced SDR services. When you outsource your SDR services, look for a company that provides you with

  • A well-trained SDR who becomes integrated with your team
  • Payroll and commission management
  • Winning call scripts
  • A sales pod to support the SDR with continuing coaching and quality audit management
  • All the technology your SDR needs to succeed

Call Umbrella for a Free Consultation

 Contact us to schedule a free, no-obligation consultation to discuss how Umbrella’s professional, turn-key SDR service can benefit your company. Immediately start getting a flood of high quality appointments while freeing your time to focus on your clients.

Book a Free, No-Obligation Call

 

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