August 17, 2021
In today’s economy, the sales development representative (SDR) is a job position that many people are interested in and want to pursue to advance their careers. Although the requirements for the SDR position are not always fully defined given the customized nature of the role at companies, the candidate should understand the nature of the industry to best position themselves for the job. Here are the common job qualifications:
Due to the nature of the job, the SDR will regularly meet and interact with customers. As a result, the SDR is often the face of the company and therefore, presents themselves professionally when interacting with customers.
Although recruiters for the SDR position do not place much emphasis on experience, if the candidate has at least 1-2 years of experience in this position (or equivalent position), it will be more advantageous. In particular, employers prefer to choose people who have experience in executing tasks and meeting targets.
To become a good SDR, you need to constantly strive to learn, update new knowledge. Besides appearance and experience, skills are also one of the essential factors to be a good sales representative. According to Brainshark, there are many skills that you need to master, but here are 5 key skills to become a sales representative leading:
This is the most important skill a sales representative should have. To sell, you need to know how to speak persuasively. An important note when promoting products to customers is to try to be as concise as possible. There is a useful rule that you should apply when communicating, which is to usually convey no more than three main points in a conversation.
Many SDRs talk to customers very well, but listening is another important attribute. A good sales rep is an employee who knows how to listen actively, listen to customers with high concentration, and ask relevant questions appropriate to understand the problem. By listening, you will understand the desire of the customer to come up with effective sales solutions.
According to an article from Forbes, for a sales representative, mastering the information about the services and products the company provides is of course, a must. But a good sales rep knows how to sell through stories. This skill will help improve the value of the product, and at the same time, help customers remember more and longer about the product’s information. For example, when a business wants to buy a phone system, they do not simply need a phone, but they believe that the company will achieve higher sales by investing in a modern phone system. Embrace this mentality to build your own compelling sales story.
The best sales reps are the ones with the best time management skills. You have many customers to reach, and it is not possible to spend time with all customers equally. Invest time in your best leads, not on deals you know will go nowhere. To do this, you need to prepare very carefully at the analysis stage and search for the most potential customer group to reach.
A good sales representative will always make constant efforts to acquire new knowledge, especially information about the products and services they are in charge of doing business with. So take the initiative to dig deeper into the provided documents, refer to more relevant documents to understand your products, markets, and customers. This will help you become a lot more confident in convincing customers to choose your company’s products.
One of the sales industry characteristics is to always strive to achieve the sales target set by the company. Of course, this is not easy, and you need a solid mindset to do this. Not to mention hearing many rejections during the sales process can be very frustrating, but an SDR will know how to cope with those failures and keep trying to reach potential customers.
Being an SDR, you don’t always need a degree or go to college to know how to sell, but you still need to learn about the industry and stay on top of the trends. You can learn from an instructor with many years of experience in the sales industry or learn through books, social networks, blogs. You can find the very popular book in sales, The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson. The book covers essential skills and tips that you can apply to become a good salesperson. You can also read books, watch Ted Talks Sales videos to enhance your knowledge about the industry.
If you believe that you have all those skills and qualifications to become a good sales representative and want to expand or switch your career path but do not know where to start, don’t hesitate to reach out to Alariss, a global expansion partner, we can help your wish come true.
