Hiring SDRs Was Slowing Us Down—Until We Found School of SDR | Ritish -Co-Founder, Zluri

You have hired not one, but four SDRs from us in the last one year, out of which one has gone to become the number one SDR recently, but promoted to team lead. So one of the questions I want to ask is, before you started hiring last year, what challenges or gaps were you trying to solve when you hired SDRs for the first time?

We started our journey in 2020. Right. I think since then we have tried multiple approaches towards hiring SDRs. So initially we were hiring right out of campus and then we were investing time and effort into upskilling these SDRs. So couple of challenges that we are facing with that approach is the time to ramp up these SDRS was slightly longer. And number two, what we realized was that these SDRs, while we were trying to upskill them, we weren't leveraging the best in class practices when it comes to upskilling them. Right. So there was a standard training module. The module wasn't evolving over a period of time. But if you look at externally, there are so many changes that have come into marketing, especially driven by AI and so many new prospecting tools, so on and so forth. So we were not well positioned to upgrade our training curriculum even when we want to upskill them on our own. Right. So that's when we felt one, we need something more specialized where SDRs are able to get access to best in class training curriculum. And if there was a way for us to access this kind of talent pool on a neat basis without the effort of upskilling these reps on our own using an outdated curriculum, then that was the approach that we are looking for. And that's when I got introduced to School of sdi. I think it was setu. I think he introduced me to you. And then we started having conversation. We brought in the first sdr and the journey has been our experience with that particular hire has been great. And we said probably this is the right approach for us and we can focus our efforts on what we do best, building product and taking the product to market rather than not focusing on training freshers and then ramping up to become best in class sdr, because I don't think we have the expertise to do it. So we would rather prefer to have someone who has been trained by the best, who has access to the best in class armory for them to fight the battle better in the battlefield. So that's what led us to take this path. And I think it has been two and a half years or two years maybe since we started working with the school of sdr and it has been a fantastic journey so far and we had some great talent come in and luckily for us, they've been able to stick around and thrive within the organization. Yeah, thanks.

Yeah, I mean, a lot, lot of kudos goes to you, the company, and of course, Shoshani to not show the talent as well. One of the things I want to tap into is when you hired them for the first time, what stood out to you about the mindset, the work ethic, and their own approach to outbound?

Lot of times when we look out for SDR talent, so a lot of them are slightly lost. They don't know why they are getting into an SDR role and they also don't know what do they want to achieve from this role and the path that they want to take in their career. Right. So one of the stark differences that I've seen, especially with folks coming from School of sdr, are one, they're very clear that this is the career path that they want to take. Right. And they want to thrive in this particular role. And then they are very clear either they want to take up leadership roles within the same function or they want to become an ae. They want to move to customer success. They're very clear in terms of the direction that they want to go. So with that clarity being there, what I've seen is the folks are very hungry in terms of they want to perform in the role, they want to thrive in that role. As again, some of the earlier hires that we have made who are not really been trained before. So they are still, while they've gotten into the SDR role, they are still not clear in terms of the path. So that makes them to always question, hey, am I doing the right thing? I'm in the right role. And the focus waivers from achieving your goals, targets and objectives and not really give you 100%, 200% on the role that you're performing and then scale further within the organization. So that's one of the differentiators that we have seen. If I have to put in one word, it's hunger. So the folks that we saw coming in from School of SDR are far more craving to succeed in the role and delivering and scaling and growing in their careers in the right path compared to others who have never been in an SDR role or never have been trained in an SDR role. So that's one difference that I would say.

Thank you. Now, one of the SDR hired by you from School of SDR became your number one sdr consistently got promoted. Please, please talk Us through, you know, what do you think contributed to that?

Yeah, I think, I think extending on that theme of hunger. Right. So when, when you have that hunger, it percolates it to multiple dimensions. Right. So one obviously, hey, who are the right people to reach out? How, how much reach out do I do? How many people do I call? So a lot of these are very tactical. But real success comes from the fact that you take a strategic route as well, which is go deeper, understand the problem that we are solving, understand the business of the customer and try and understand what are the repercussions of not doing certain things, not leveraging certain best practices, how does it impact the organization and communicating that gap risk that exists within their business to the customer is other dimension in which this hunger percolates. Right. So the more you are able to do that, then the SDR transforms from being just a sales person to being a consultative seller. Right. So with respect to that particular rep that you're referring to, I think that's what we have seen pan out. Right. So it was very hungry. In terms of understanding the business, understanding the problem statement being solved, you always question the status quo of the customer. So I mean in a lot of cases treat him as he is there closest consultant or advisor. I think that's the right place to be when you are a seller. Right. So you are giving them the right advice, you are taking them in the right direction, so they start placing the trust on you and eventually make you successful, make the organization successful and make you scale as well. I think that's what has driven that particular person in this case. And I think, yeah, so that's how I'd like to put it.

I think we have a final question now because it seems like you've covered everything and most of the questions. If a founder comes to you and asks you, should I hire from school of sdr, what would you honestly say? And please justify reason why?

Yeah, my answer would be a definite yes. Right. I don't think there are two ways to think about it. As a founder, depending on what stage you are in, a lot of things to figure out. And there are a lot of channels that are available to you and you just need to make sure all of these channels work. The lesser number of variables that you have in your business, the faster you'll be able to accelerate. Unless and until you have someone who has been a rockstar rep, who has rockstar leadership capabilities, ability to train with the latest trends that are happening in the SDR ecosystem, then it's fine. If you have those capabilities, you can do everything in house. But if not so I would strongly recommend to work with an ecosystem, to work with a partner who brings in those capabilities and just elevates and solves a certain problem statement for you across one of the channel that you are addressing, which I believe is one of the primary channels for majority of the companies or B2B SaaS companies out there. So in that context I would definitely recommend them to work with a partner like school of SDR to solve the challenges, address the needs that exist in the outbound channel that the company is trying to crack.

Awesome. This was super helpful. I do have one final question related to and we are just finished in 10 minutes so I think great job covering the entire span of what we wanted to cover. One of the question which could be outside the testimony which is since you know, I've seen you and setu, you know, grow the company from zero to where you are today. I don't know where you are. So I'm assuming you know, you are at. Let's say what are some of the advices you would give to somebody who's considering Outbound? Because I'll tell you where I'm coming from. Founders come to me, Rahul, I want to hire an sdr. And when I say why do you want to hire? Because you have never sold yourself so you don't know what works. You can only scale with Outbound. Right. But you have to do things and I'm pretty sure the same thing which you did and every other founder did, I'm doing the same thing for my own company. So what advice would you give to them?

Them?

When should they hire the first sdr? How should they go about thinking about it? Assuming they have never hired an sdr, this is the first time they're going to hire one.

Yeah. I think if you look at all the channels that are available to companies. Right. I would say Outbound is one particular channel which mimics the evolution of a company. Right. So what I mean by that is it's like the plant is growing. Right. As it grows, you need that source of energy or light falling and you need the soil basis which it grows. So for a company to evolve needs that customer or a pulse or prospect. Pulse. Right. So Outbound is one particular channel where there is that direct connect between the company, the product and the prospect and potential customer that you are interacting. And that feedback is important from very early on in the journey. Right. So that's how important I believe the channel is or other channels you look at Inbound, you're building something, people are coming to you, but you don't get to interact with the customer in the process of them deciding and evaluating. They come to you inbound once they have probably 60%, 70% made up their mind on what they want to pick and they're clear. Whereas outbound is something which helps you try out different things and understand what works and eventually translates to the evolution of the company. So keeping that in mind, I think the way we think about it is at least the 0 to 1 sort of a journey. I would strongly recommend every founder to be one of the outbound marketer, right? So whether you are a technical person or whether you are not really a sales and marketing Persona, I think you should do an outbound, right? You get to understand what's, what is resonating, what are people resonating with. That also helps you build a product, right? Evolve the product, right? So I would say zero to one journey. Definitely the founder or someone from the founding team should be closely involved in the outbounding process. And as you start seeing certain repeatable motion, I think that's when, when you start thinking about how do I scale this? I think that's when you start, you need to start hiring your first outbound marketer and you scale from there. But definitely, I would say zero to one journey, founder has to be involved. You need to make it work. Personally, I think you can't have someone external come in and make it work for you. That journey is very personal, that you need to understand the method through which you are in a position to attract the first set of customers and then you can get the right people who can scale it up for you, right? So that's how I would think about it.

So would you recommend, let's say, assume that they have reached a 0 to 1 million journey themselves and now they have, let's say 3. Thinking about hiring, would we recommend then that they hire an SDR or they hire a manager first?

It depends again on a few parameters, right? So I would recommend a manager when you know that there is a very clearly scalable path and the clearly scalable path has a very large opportunity, then you have visibility to hiring say 5, 6 people in the next few weeks, next few quarters, so on and so forth. Then I would prioritize a managerial hire, right, so that they can assemble a team of sellers. So but if I don't have that visibility and I bring in a manager, then the problem that companies end up having is the manager wants to manage the team, but he's not too hands on in terms of outbounding because of the tenure that they have spent. So you'll have mismatch in terms of what you want to achieve versus who you have on the team. Right. So when you have that visibility for emotion that is going to scale extremely well for a significantly large tam, then you have visibility to number of sellers or reps that you want. Then you prioritize the manager and then let him assemble that right set of team members. Otherwise I would prefer adding reps to begin with. And once you have two, three reps. Two, three sellers. And given the fact that the founder himself has mastered the initial motion, I would still recommend him to translate this body of knowledge to the initial reps. And then once you have maybe two, three reps, you can start thinking about the manager. So that's the approach I would recommend.

I like that, I like that. I just have one final follow up question on that. I understand you know somebody who is at let's say 1 million journey right now, while they want to scale this and they have, let's just see that there's a path. But as a founder you only have limited time and I'm sure then you are thinking about oh should I, I should rather focus on you know, doing X, Y, Z things and this one SDR or this role kind of gets left behind. How would you, what would you recommend to somebody who's in the journey where they've decided probably they've already hired somebody who can take up the journey. But founder is now in the dilemma. Okay, should I give this time or because you know, I'm already hiring somebody. So they're expecting that this SDR will operate on their own. While I'm sure given the kind of team you have scaled you by now you agree that you know how, how much onboarding is important to the success of this team. So any recommendation, any. Any final thoughts on that?

So the question is more around if the time is limited for the founder and what would you recommend?

What would I. Yeah, the idea is how do you make this successful eventually while juggling between the responsibilities of investors, you know, customers managing everything. Assuming you know there's only one solo.

Founder, there's one function where it all. I would think that it's driven by the math. Right. So what is the number that you want to get work backwards? So do you have the right team to get that numbers or in the current format will you be able to deliver? So that's where you need to make those choices, right. And when you are working on those numbers. If you're not able to prioritize some of the efforts towards this channel, I think definitely hiring that leader early on would definitely help. But very subjective question in terms of what stage, a kind of funded ecosystem or bootstrapped ecosystem, what kind of company? So a lot of choices to make, particularly early stage. So a lot of choices to make.

No, I can understand. And I realized that when I asked you that question, there are so many variables into this. So thank you so much. I.