Amber Smith

Dear SDR Managers, If you're not weighting lead quality in your comp plan, your leaving money on the table. Not all “qualified” leads are created equal. And people, no matter how driven they are, naturally take the path of least resistance. (sometimes subconsciously) So if the payout is the same for the high-quality, high-effort lead vs. the low-quality, low-effort lead, Your SDRs will lean toward volume, not quality. Then we blame the rep when really the incentives are misaligned. Weight high quality leads heavier. Make it CLEAR what “high quality” means. 80% of an SDR’s time should be spent on the leads most likely to convert. 20% on the rest, with automation handling the bottom layer. Your comp plan should reflect that.

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I headhunt top-performing AEs. "Why do great reps leave?" It's never the in office perks or the off-site. After hundreds of conversations with top performers, it comes down to the same four things every time: The quota has to be winnable. Not easy winnable. The second a rep believes the number is a setup, their brain starts doing math on exit options instead of pipeline. The money has to be real. OTE that's actually achievable isn't a perk, it's the baseline. When reps are earning and growing year over year, leaving becomes the risky move. They have to be getting better. Top AEs are competitive by nature. When the job stops challenging them, they don't coast they leave. Their manager has to be worth working for. I've seen reps walk away from great comp and fair quotas because of one bad manager. A leader who coaches beats a manager who monitors every time. Get these four right and your best people stop taking my calls. Get them wrong and I'll probably be hearing from them soon. If you're building out an AE team and want to make sure you're bringing in people who will actually stay.... let's talk.

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I read 3 JDs posted today for SDR Managers/Leaders. EACH WILL FAIL. Each post is excited & optimistic, wants a driven former seller with a passion for coaching, requires 1 year experience/success, offers a minimum OTE of $110k and max in the $130-160k range. Each wants to scale. Here are the main (but not only) problems: 1) Experience 2) Comp 3) Expectations 1) Experience: One year is a weird goal. After 12 months managing, who is crushing it with their team but also looking for work? One year means someone just got promoted from an IC and is just learning how to manage. They have almost zero coaching experience and if they’re looking already, they probably didn’t get mentored well. Why would they have better skills than someone brand new? You’re selecting for early failures instead of people who haven’t had their shot yet. You know why orgs choose 1 year? Because they want to underpay, which brings me to… 2) Comp: A brand new AE makes $140-180k in SaaS. 2 years in, they’re making $200-250k or more. Heck, even great SDRs can make $130k+. But you want a great manager and future leader for $110k to maybe $140k? Good sellers can do math. SDR Directors make $250k+… so this person should believe that if they do well, you’ll give them a $140k bump? Come on, it really means they’ll never get a real promotion and we all know it (no, adding “senior” and $10k doesn’t count). Top SDR Manager roles pay up to $180-$220k on their own… is your HR team so amazing that they’ll find someone just as good for $100k less? Really? In this range, you’ll find either a bored babysitter or a recent SDR in WAY over their head. 3) Expectations - Coaching & Scaling: Consider everything I’ve laid out so far. Now imagine who will apply. Does this person truly know how to coach? Do they know how to manage people not like themselves? Do they know how to support senior leaders or prep data for the board? Do they understand data well enough to make reporting and systems that scale? How about hiring, firing, comp plans, spiffs… I’ll stop before I write 200 pages. You’re hiring a trainee in a super complex role and expecting greatness. Last year’s top SDR is rarely this year’s top coach. Do you know how long it took the great coaches to evolve? How much experience they’ve had, and how many failures? How different that skill is from having done it themselves? If you think knowledge + low pay = great coaching, take a look at our school systems. It equals babysitting at best and major risks/liabilities at worst. Conclusion: I’ve been brought in as a new leader or consultant about 15x, always about 1.5 years after this scenario. Every time, this was tried first and went nowhere. Then, after spending 6-7 figures on nothing, each team decided to invest and plan ahead. So they interviewed me and my peers and paid what was needed to have us undo the damage. My advice? Do it right, or wait to do it at all. When you’re ready, invest what you should and watch your pipelines grow!

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💡The AE ➡️ CSM handoff is not a moment, it’s a process. And it starts before the close. This is the knot in the bowtie. The part of the sales process that has the biggest impact on revenue, retention, and renewal. ❓Sellers and CSMs: What ensures a good Sales to CS handoff? #GTMalignment #salesenablement #salesstrategy #salesleadership #customersuccess #bowtie

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