Preparing for your SDR to AE Promotion
In this week’s newsletter I’m going to walk you through how you can prepare for your SDR to AE promotion interviews so that you successfully complete the transition.
When most SDRs arrive for their promotion interview they are focused on looking behind them:
This is what I have achieved,
This is how I did it
When what a hiring manager wants to hear is
This is what I will achieve
This is how I will do it
The Sales Flywheel covers all of the high level internal and internal tasks you’ll be required to perform in your first AE role, and it makes a great place to start planning how you will succeed in the role.
Start six months out
Your company probably has a fairly defined time period after which an SDR moves into their first AE role. That might be anything from 9 months to two years depending on performance.
You don’t want to be the person that is scrambling around in the days and weeks before that event to understand how to nail the interview - so plan in advance.
You should think at least six months in advance to learn the next steps of the process.
Learn your way around the Sales Flywheel
External activities
Prospecting - use your CRM to understand who the top AEs are in the team you are likely to join. Also look at other similar teams - maybe the same segment but in another region or business unit?
Connect with them on LinkedIn and click the notification bell to follow their activity. Arrange a short call with them to ask them to walk you through their weekly activity and how they prioritise. Ask them how they prospect and fill their pipeline. Look at their closed won deals and follow the opportunities back in CRM to find out where they came from.
Qualifying - Does your company have an intranet for the sales team where the qualification guidelines are laid out? Are these different for what you have been using as an SDR?
As an SDR you are focused on qualifying in, so speak with the AEs and understand how they focus on qualifying out to only work on suitable opportunities.
Running Meetings - Does your company use call recording software? Can you listen in to meetings from previous deals won (and lost) by these AEs? How do they differ from your discovery calls? Which other stakeholders are included? How do the AEs lay out the agenda and ensure all voices are heard?
Presenting - Can you find the decks that are used by the top AEs? Do they differ to the standard marketing decks provided? How do the top AEs present their pricing and proposals? How are custom demos and POCs run? Which other team members are included - solution consultants, customer success, project teams?
Negotiating - Speak with your legal team. Can they walk you through the MSA and Order Form? Which terms are the most contentious and often negotiated? Which terms are non-movers and why? How do the legal team like to negotiate - phone, video, email?
Closing - do the top AEs have any templated Launch Plans or Mutual Action Plans? What platform do they use (Smartsheet, Asana?) How do they use this with their customer in the sales cycle? What are the main reasons deals slip? What is the average length of time from a verbal commit to a signed contract? What is the signature process - customer first?
Internal activities
Learning - successful AEs are always learning - learning about sales skills, learning about the company’s products and services, and learning about the customer’s industry.
Spend this time getting an even deeper knowledge of your customer’s industry and how your solution can solve their critical challenges. Find an AE who is a healthcare or finance industry specialist and ask if you can speak with them over lunch. What is unique about this industry that your solution can help with? How do they learn? Where do they go to find more information? Which partners do they work with?
Planning - speak with the top AEs about how they plan - how they plan their territory, how they plan an account, how they plan a negotiation. The top AEs will be very structured in their thinking and will be able to share their process. Their account plans probably look very different to the standard template provided by the company.
Commission - understand how the AE comp plan works. How do accelerators affect the plan? Speak to the top AEs to understand how they are using the commission plan to maximise their earnings. Use a commission canvas to plan out your potential earnings at different levels of performance and the number of deals and opportunities it would take to get you there.
Forecasting - speak to your potential future manager to understand how forecasting happens in the team you will go into. Is it weekly or monthly? Does it happen in a system or a spreadsheet? Do you provide a commit and best case? What percentages does the manager like to use? Does the manager want to know what will actually happen or a more optimistic or pessimistic view?
You are prepared
A hiring manager is looking to reduce the risk that any new hire will fail to make their contribution to their overall team target.
Having learned your way around the Sales Flywheel you will be more prepared for the new role than most SDRs arriving for the interview.
But more than that, what you have learned will no doubt have raised plenty of questions for you to ask your potential new manager.
If you bring these into your interview:
“Why is this contract term so contentious?”
“I’ve updated this template for a launch plan - what would you change?”
Then your manager is immediately going to have confidence in your understanding of the future role and your commitment to being successful.
That’s it for this week. Good luck in prepping for your SDR to AE Promotion.
Whenever you are ready, there are three ways that I can help you:
The SDR to AE Promotion video course. In 90 minutes I’ll help you plan for and execute your AE interview process. My exact process for getting job offers.
Get How To Sell Tech as a paperback, hardback, Kindle or audiobook for a deep dive on how to hit your target in your first sales role.
Become a member of our Research Hub where we publish up to date industry and account analysis to help accelerate your research and personalise your outreach.