A lot of people look at the sales and business development representative role as an entry-level position; a stepping stone towards more senior roles like the account executive. While this impression is not without merit, this characterization barely scratches the surface. In this episode of the Sales Empowerment Podcast, our hosts Shawn and Mike talk to Emilio Mendoza , Sr. BDR Manager at Sigma Computing. Emilio talks about the world of BDRs, his approach to coaching his team of 11, and the various challenges that come with the role. 

HIGHLIGHTS

• Always know your customer and their problems first
• How to build trust and rapport over cold calls
• Sell the value, not the solution
• Utilize cold-call frameworks and know your personas
• Frameworks vs Scripts 
• People love correcting people 
• Mock sessions are critical to mastering the process
• Sales reps need to be practicing like kids learning a sport 

QUOTES

Emilio’s take on sales empowerment: "When it comes to sales empowerment, my philosophy is don't always talk about what you do at Sigma. Don't always talk about your product to the prospect. You don't do anyone a service of showing up to the call thinking you know their pains and challenges before even asking what they are focused on, what are their priorities, what are their initiatives."

Emilio describes his approach to coaching his SDRs/BDRs: "If someone is very unorthodox, uses their humor, uses their behavior to talk to prospects, talk to personas, you can't always replicate that across a team, right? Everyone has their own nuances. Everyone has their own behaviors on cold calls. It's really understanding what they do great, and then putting my own spin on it and helping them close along the way."

Emilio on the importance of mock sessions: "A lot of leaders say, ‘All right.Go and make a hundred cold calls. Get the kinks out. Get the vibes going. Go and get the juices going.’ That's like telling Shawn, like a BDR, hey Shawn go make a hundred bad calls. You're going to probably get a lot of objections, fall on your face a few times but hey this is all learning."

Connect with Emilio on the link below: 

• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/emilio-mendoza-98b19880/

Connect with Mike and Shawn and learn more about OpTonal by visiting the following links:

• LinkedIn (Mike): https://www.linkedin.com/in/zmmiranda/
• LinkedIn (Shawn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnwinters1/
• Website: https://www.optonal.com/