One of the most important tools in a leader’s toolbox is the one-on-one meeting. When you efficiently conduct this 30-60 minute session, you can encourage open communication, cultivate trust, and, above all, increase productivity.
Often, BDR leaders stick to a set agenda for these meetings, which can become repetitive or prioritize the wrong aspects. As a former BDR leader myself, I found myself time and time just quickly checking last week’s meeting notes or going over email and prospecting metrics. Ultimately there were always certain topics I focused on like: bounce rate, email open rate, and click rate - which didn’t lead me to focus on the things that truly mattered.
As a sales leader, you should ask yourself: How will this one-on-one increase my rep’s productivity? Gradient Works Market Map can help provide insight you can use during your regular one-on-ones.
So, what are some key components that can make your one-on-ones more effective? Use Market Map to help your reps:
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Identify similar accounts to existing customers.
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Focus on actionable outreach plans.
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Provide insights for effective conversations.
1. Identify similar accounts to existing customers
Being sure that your reps are focused on the right accounts is vital for generating pipeline. While this may seem obvious, it’s easy to occasionally veer off course and inevitably end up working accounts outside your ideal customer profile (ICP). Market Map facilitates this discussion during one-on-one sessions to ensure both you as the manager and the rep are focused on the most relevant accounts.
Each X represents an existing customer, clustered by similarity, making it easier for reps to quickly identify the most relevant accounts.
Market Map identifies prospect accounts that are similar to existing customers. BDR leaders can use this to guide discussions on how reps can hyper-target these similar accounts with relevant messaging. Rather than just addressing bad habits, BDR leaders can now focus on developing positive action plans for outreach to these accounts.
We’ve got an entire guide dedicated to prioritizing the best accounts for reps to focus on. Read more on that here.
That’s just the start.
2. Focus on actionable outreach plans.
Once the right high-potential accounts are identified, you can spend one-on-one time on other areas of improvement. Now, you and your rep can concentrate on improving outreach strategies. Whether it involves analyzing messaging for existing customers, pinpointing common titles among current customers, or discovering net new accounts that resemble the company’s existing customer base.
Let’s talk about a task that would keep me up at night as a BDR leader: crafting fresh outreach messaging. It’s a challenge to consistently craft something fun, fresh, creative, and entirely new for your reps. Let’s face it, there’s only so much creativity to go around! So why not leverage what’s already proven to be successful, refine it, and rack up some wins?
3. Provide insights for effective conversations.
Once you have surfaced and assigned the right accounts and developed the outreach strategies for your rep, the last step is execution. Market Map also provides BDR leaders with insights into the most actively worked accounts based on a combination of things: outbound emails, outbound calls, LinkedIn tasks and their most recent interaction. During your one-on-one meetings, this information will be key in increasing effective conversations. It allows you to prioritize conversations about the best ICP accounts while also helping your rep recognize areas where they can pivot their focus.
BDR leaders are able to see what accounts are being engaged with by the rep, what their output is to those, and uncover areas for improvement.
Take a look at the image above. On the right-hand side, you'll notice the list filtered by the account’s ICP score – the higher the score, the better the account. Now, if you look to the left, you'll see that the rep has only completed two activities. But wait, hold up! Scroll down, and behold a whopping 19 activities for an account with a lower ICP score.
Here's a suggestion on how to navigate this conversation with a rep:
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First, sit down with your rep and get the lowdown on the activity patterns happening.
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Next, bring the highest ICP score account to their attention, making sure they are aware that it’s there and why it's top-tier.
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Then, it's time to dial down on the activity volume for the lower ICP score accounts and shift some of that energy to the high-potential ones.
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Lastly, brainstorm with your rep on crafting killer outreach strategies for those top-scoring accounts.
With these steps, you and your rep will have a deeper understanding of activity patterns, pinpoint where your rep’s attention is focused, and craft a solid plan for execution.
Being a BDR leader has its own set of challenges but don’t let those challenges get in the way. It's time to kick unproductive one-on-one conversations to the curb and make every one-on-one count with Market Map! So, buckle up, let's let Market Map do the heavy lifting while you channel your energy into what truly matters – unlocking success for your team and your company!
