Building a Unique CRM Ecosystem to Access Important KPIs

SDRs are tasked with generating high quality meetings and sales pipeline for your Account Execs. They achieve this through the qualification of leads (MQLs) in which they identify needs, pain, decision process, and timeframe. Most companies want this information formatted in a way that is easy for the Sales Rep to review. However, the best CRM ecosystems set up for Sales Reps isn’t the best setup for SDRs.

SDRs must be highly efficient and effective to achieve qualified meeting quotas. SDRs need their own CRM ecosystem, enabling them to move quickly from one prospect to the next while qualifying MQLs. This way, a SDR manager can promptly gauge whether a SQL/Meeting meets the minimum qualification criteria that a Sales Rep will consider viable for them to work.  

SDR CRM Ecosystems are Different from a Sales Layout

This is why the SDR CRM page layout will differ from the Sales page layout. Sales required fields should map to associated fields the Sales team uses, in order to ensure that Sales will get all of the information they need to pursue the SQL opportunity.

When I retool SDR organizations for different companies, I first look at the internal and external structures of the CRM. In every case, I have seen a CRM for Marketing; Sales; Sales Enablement; and/or Sales Reps, but not for SDRs. This is a big problem that impacts the effectiveness of SDR teams.

Most Important KPIs for Quality Appointments

Consider this: SDRs need to generate a lot of activities in order to get a prospect’s attention. The most important of which are KPIs. Thus, it is essential for SDR Managers to know that their vSDRs are consistently hitting the KPI’s to generate quality appointments. The following are my favorite KPIs for SDR teams:

• Dials: 70-100 per day
• Emails Sent: 50+ per day
• Key Conversations (One of my recommended fields. This is a call where the SDR was able to gather viable information from the prospect): 10-15 per week
• Qualified Meetings Set: 10-12 per month (this is the SDR pipeline, which needs to be large enough to ensure that 80% of the meetings set are approved to achieve the meetings set quota).
• Meetings Approved by Sales Reps: 6-8 per month

Sales Reps don’t have the same KPIs as SDRs; their process involves other steps which the SDR doesn’t need to follow. So why should you use the same screen layout, or “view”, for both SDRs and Sales Reps? Well, you shouldn’t. SDRs need their own layout that meets the requirements of their job (download the CRM Field Mapping Resource here).

Contextualizing Prospects for your CRM Ecosystem

Before you build your SDR team, consider the most important fields you will need to enable them to generate highly qualified leads. You will want to know, for example:

• Situation: The situation that the prospect is in now
• Problem: What problem(s) is the prospect trying to solve that is in alignment with your solution
• Impact: What will happen if the problem isn’t solved
• Compelling Event: What are some of the prospects’ strategic initiatives that your solution can support
• Decision Process: What is the decision process the prospect will utilize to make a decision for this type of solution
• SDR Status: A picklist that provides SDR Managers a view into the progress of MQLs as they go through the qualification journey to become SQLs and meetings. This status differs from a “Lead Status”.  
  • New MQLs flow into the CRM with a SDR Status of “Untouched”.  Once they are touched, other statuses will be selected:
    • Pursuing: A call was made, however, the SDR has not received a response
    • Contacted: The SDR spoke to someone at the company, however, the information didn’t move the qualification process forward
    • Key Conversation: The SDR spoke to someone who helped them to either fully or partially qualify the MQL
    • Meeting Set: The SDR found a person who wants to speak to a Sales Rep
    • SDR Manager Approval: The approval by the Manager and Sales is also included in the SDR Status picklist, along with statuses such as “Requalify” or “Nurture”.

CRM Field Mapping Resource for your Ecosystems

SOMAmetrics’ CRM Field Mapping resource (download our free CRM Field Mapping Resource) identifies the fields that we have implemented for SDR teams. Rather than stuff tons of information into a NOTES field, these individual fields enable a layout where SDRs, SDR Managers, and salespeople can quickly assess if the SQL is valid.

Not all notes are equal. Thus, more structure in the CRM will provide everyone with consistent information as leads are qualified.

Another objective of the SDR CRM ecosystem is to ensure that they are presenting approved leads before they get to Sales. As listed above, one of the SDR statuses will alert the Manager of qualified leads awaiting their approval. This allows the Manager to quickly scan the fields to identify that the required ones have viable data. Afterwards, the SDR Manager can approve the qualified SQL, and a workflow will push the SQL to Sales. 

Once Sales has met with the prospect, they will have an opportunity to approve or reject the SQL. If approved, they will add it to their sales pipeline. If they reject it, a workflow will push the SQL to a SDR Status of “Requalify”, and the SDR can then requalify the lead, or disqualify if it isn’t a true prospect.

KPIs Follow a Well-Built CRM Ecosystem

Once you build the SDR ecosystem into your CRM, your KPIs and Metrics can be easily tracked in dashboards. My favorite dashboards track:

• Total:
  • Dials: Day, Week, Month (dial chart)
  • Emails Sent: Day, Week, Month (dial chart)
  • Key Conversations: Week, Month (dial chart)
  • Meetings Set: Week, Month (listing of accounts where meetings have been set)
• Leads by BDR Status (bar chart)

These distinct fields enable SDR Managers to generate a variety of dashboards that the team can use to stay on top of their game. Manager dashboards are roll-ups of team member activities and statuses, providing a clear view on how the team or individuals are performing.

If you can’t see what is happening, you won’t know what is happening. Set up a SDR eco-system in your CRM and track the required fields so that SDRs can adequately do their job.

Download the CRM Field Mapping Resource here.

Read the book The Radical Pipeline Strategy: How to Grow Pipeline and Revenue by Optimizing Sales Development.  This book outlines tested best practices and implementation strategies that I developed while rebooting and building 65 SDR and Inside Sales organizations.

Find out more about SOMAmetrics’ Intelligent Prospecting Platform and get free resources on our website at www.somametrics.com.