How to Hire your First Business Development Rep

So you've hired your first business development rep. Now what? So this is a question that I get asked all the time. It's something that we see constantly with our coaching clients and our elite program. You're an MSP and you know that you have to move yourself out of the constant lead acquisition process. So first off, I'm Lindsay. I'm our marketing coach here at 7 figure MSP. I help MSPs, just like you, grow their sales, grow their marketing team, and ultimately double, triple grow their mrr. So one of the most common problems that I see whenever MSPs bring in a new BDR is that number one, there is no proven process. So it's really easy to bring someone in and expect that they're just going to make things happen and expect that you can hand off these responsibilities. They're going to go out there and book appointments and, and, and just make things happen overnight. Unfortunately, that is not the case. So we have to make sure that we have a proven process for your BDRs to be successful. So this looks like you owning the strategy yourself, so making sure that you have a clear proof of concept of your sales and your lead acquisition process. So this means that, yes, you have to be picking up the phone, making outbound calls. You need to understand the high level strategy of your cold email process, of your networking process, of your nurture process, as well as what moves your leads from cold all the way to closed. Okay? So this is so, so, so important that we don't bring in our BDRs who have high hopes and they want to do well. We bring them in and we don't set them up for success. Okay? So first things first, please make sure you have proof of concept. Now the next thing that I see happen is we bring in this bdr and again, we kind of expect the best, right? And maybe you have a strategy. You have a strategy in place and you give it to them and you say, here you go, this is what works. Here's our campaigns. You know, here's, here's our list. Go make appointments. Okay? You have to ensure that you have constant communication with your sales and your marketing team, with those sales setters, with those folks that are out there in the trenches every single day. Because these are humans, first and foremost. These are humans that we're talking about. And people need to feel seen and recognized and they have to know that, okay, I'm on the right track or I need to make adjustments as I go. So I recommend daily checkpoints with your BDRs. This typically looks like a 15 minute check in in the morning where you're asking what went well yesterday, what worked for you yesterday? What's a win from yesterday? What are we doing today to move the needle? Now I also want us to be checking in on KPIs. So this, the most important KPI is how many first time appointments did we book? So this is how many calls are on the calendar. Then I want your bdr. If they are not the one that's moving that lead through the pipeline, I want them to be getting the numbers from you on how many of those FTA that they booked, how many of those actually went through to the next step such as their discovery call or, or pitching the CSRA to them. So it's so, so, so important that every single day you are looking at those numbers that matter. That's going to make sure that they are clear on what their goal is. Because again these are people, people get distracted, they need recognition and we have to ensure that we're moving them on the right path. Okay, so something that you can do today if you are your salesperson on your team or if you are hiring someone on your team. I right now you can go ahead and put on your calendar a 15 minute check in for tomorrow morning. Go ahead, put it on your calendar, sit down with your bdr, have that checkpoint with them, ask them what's working, what's not working, what are we going to do today to move the needle and then review your numbers and that's it. This also gives you the opportunity to review any common objections that you're seeing in your appointments or in your sales conversations so that you can ensure that your marketing team and that your messaging can go ahead and, and, and work through those objections before they ever even get to that, to that sales call or to that first time appointment with your team. Okay so my biggest advice again whenever you're bringing in your BDR is to have clear, clear KPIs, clear direction and constant accountability check ins and making sure that they're just well incentivized. I think it's so, so, so important that we're making sure that we're incentivizing and that we are, we're doing our employees good and we're helping them to grow their, their career and their personal lives as well. So if you would like help with your sales and marketing how to grow your msp, you can join us on any of our upcoming webinars or trainings that we have coming up. You can actually just check right below in the description, and we would be happy to see you there. Thank you.